This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Banjo Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create an extraordinarily accurate and kind banjo performance.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
YOU CANNOT CONTINUE TO DO WHAT YOU’VE DONE ON THE BANJO, IF YOU’RE AWARE YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL OF A VERY EFFECTIVE WONDERFUL TECHNIQUE.
I’m making an assumption here that you can give yourself the gift of a month or more off from performing obligations, so you can make the leap to a new technique, or modify your existing banjo technique, so you’re finally in loving control of the banjo.
What does loving “control” of your banjo technique look like?
It means you take the steps to do what you need to do on the banjo here and now, so that you can play the finest banjo music with ease.
I’m also making an assumption that you know what needs to be done, by yourself, with the help of a banjo teacher, and/or the help of an Alexander Technique teacher.
As obvious as the above sounds, it just isn’t so obvious for many banjo players. Why? BECAUSE YOU CAN GET TRAPPED CONFUSING WHAT YOU KNOW NEEDS TO BE DONE PHYSICALLY ON THE BANJO WITH DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE, BUT NOT DOING IT.
I know this may be a bizarre sounding statement. Let me use the example of a person who calls him or herself a perfectionist. It is a very different thing to call yourself a perfectionist, when you’re practicing hours each day, and are not satisfied with your banjo playing, and calling yourself a perfectionist, when you’re avoiding practicing, because you aren’t happy with your playing. The former is not happy with what he or she is doing on the banjo, but the latter isn’t even making it to the banjo.
YOU CANNOT MAKE A CLEAN TECHNIQUE BREAK AND GET ON WITH REALIZING YOUR POTENTIAL HERE AND NOW OR EVER ON THE BANJO, IF YOU KEEP CONFUSING PLANNING FOR A FUTURE OF BEING AMAZING ON THE BANJO, AND NOT TAKE THE STEPS HERE AND NOW ON THE INSTRUMENT.
There is clearly that moment on the banjo, after years of doing what you’ve done, believed what you believe, where you simply must do what needs to be done, YOU MUST DO WHAT WORKS!
At this point there is a real shift in your consciousness, because this is such a conscious decision. You’re making the decision as an adult. You’re not the child doing what the banjo teacher told you to do without question, right or wrong. You have finally gotten to this place in your banjo playing, where you’ve gathered enough of the truth, to trust yourself to create a banjo technique that will not let you down.
Again, the final piece in this puzzle is not mistaking KNOWING what needs to be done with actually DOING what needs to be done.
What is it about knowing that still keep you from taking the necessary steps? It is what we do often in the Western culture. We confuse understanding for experience. The most obvious example for me is confusing knowing who God is, for the experience of experiencing God. Intellectually knowing who you think God is NOT the same as experiencing God.
So, if a banjo player knows what needs to be done to clean up his or her technique, this can become a trap. Why? If every time the banjo player sits or stands to play, and can’t do what is needed to play with ease and facility, he or she is confronted with the truth the banjo player hasn’t brought TRUTH TO REALIZATION.
If this continues, possibly the banjo player will practice/perform less and less, because it is extraordinarily painful to know what needs to be done and not do it! So, you’re confusing knowing the truth for taking the steps in thought and action, and are not allowing and doing what is necessary to demonstrate your potential on the banjo.
I said ALLOWING and DOING. Why? Allowing means you fuse the joy of knowing what is necessary to create a wonderful banjo technique with pure physical technique changes, so that you don’t reduce your banjo technique to only athletic changes to your playing.
IT IS THE JOY OF THE TRUTH OF A TECHNIQUE THAT WORKS ON THE BANJO COMBINED WITH TAKING THE STEPS NECESSARY NOW FOR AN AMAZING BANJO TECHNIQUE, THAT ELEVATES YOUR PLAYING TO SOMETHING POTENTIALLY SPIRITUAL IN EXPERIENCE.
DO IT, ALLOW IT, AND LOVE IT!
