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)
THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE I’VE EVER WRITTEN FOR THE BANJO PLAYER, AND QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE I WILL EVER WRITE FOR THE BANJO PLAYER.
I want to look at why the banjo player, when offered a chance to be free of all technique and posture problems on the banjo, doesn’t jump at the chance. Here’s the answer.
IF YOU COULD PLAY EVERYTHING YOU WANTED ON THE BANJO WITH EXTRAORDINARY EASE, THEN WHAT WOULD THERE BE TO LIVE FOR, GIVEN THAT PLAYING THE BANJO IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE?
Let me say it a different way. If you had no more problems to solve on the banjo, could you handle such a unique situation psychologically and emotionally and continue to play the banjo?
In my mid-twenties I discovered the book NEW PATHWAYS TO PIANO TECHNIQUE by Luigi Bonpensiere. It said if you trusted your hands and played with absolute abandon, you couldn’t miss. I experienced this on the guitar.
I finally had what I always wanted on the guitar. I had already created a really complete guitar technique, and now I had extraordinary accuracy through faith, so I didn’t have to get angry at myself anymore when I played the guitar.
What did I do? I quit playing the guitar. Why? Because I couldn’t handle what had been the most important goal in my life – striving for effortless “perfection” on the guitar. Simply, I found it and couldn’t handle it.
As I’m writing this, I realize all of the above has come together just in the last couple of weeks in my awareness. It finally explains why performing banjo players who come to me in physical trouble don’t always continue with their Alexander Technique sessions.
I show them their potential on the banjo; that they can truly solve all of their problems on the instrument, and many don’t come back. This really puzzled me, until I had the epiphany that most, if not all, humans give meaning to their lives by living in a steady state of problems that are TOO IMPORTANT TO BE SOLVED.
(At this point I want to give credit to my brother, Alan, for helping me in a discussion we were having. He helped me see this.)
IF WHAT I’VE JUST WRITTEN IS TRUE ABOUT YOUR BANJO PLAYING, THEN WHAT DO YOU DO? DO YOU SEE THE TRUTH OF WHAT I’VE JUST WRITTEN, AND CONSCIOUSLY DECIDE TO NOT SOLVE ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS ON THE BANJO, THUS GIVING YOURSELF SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR?
I really don’t like the idea that you’d have to live your life with artificial limitations on what you could do on the banjo to give meaning and purpose to your life. In fact, I’m not sure you could consciously do such a thing without feeling more and more conflicted over not solving all of your problems on the banjo, knowing you could.
Here’s the obvious question. COULD YOU LIVE A LIFE WITH MEANING, IF THE BANJO WAS SOMETHING YOU DID EVERY DAY, AND IT TRULY WAS EFFORTLESS?
There are 5 solutions to being able to psychologically and emotionally be at peace on the banjo after solving all of your problems on the banjo. YOU CAN FOCUS ON NON-BANJO OLD PROBLEMS THAT SEEM UNSOLVABLE, CREATE NEW PROBLEMS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT EVER GET SOLVED, WORK ON BOTH OLD AND NEW PROBLEMS, SOLVE PROBLEMS AND KEEP CREATING NEW ONES, OR YOU CAN BECOME ENLIGHTENED.
By definition a banjo player who truly realizes that life has meaning and purpose and joy without problems is enlightened. Why not let the banjo be the place in your life where you solve most if not all your problems playing the banjo?
In other words, why not let the banjo be the place that you come to as an enlightened being with no problems, and let the rest of your life be where you create and solve or not solve your problems?
This allows the banjo to be the most important thing in your life artistically, creatively, and spiritually; a place where you truly get to play in pure joy, peace, bliss, and ease.
