This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Clarinet 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 the accurate clarinet technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
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My experience is that many clarinetists believe it is easier to make mistakes, than believe it is easier to play the right notes. What if these clarinetists are wrong, even if the evidence says that they’re all correct?
What I mean by the evidence proving them right, is that most clarinetists find making mistakes consistently easy, because they make mistakes easily.
As an Alexander Technique teacher, when I look at the way most people use their bodies on the clarinet, many clarinet players move poorly and wear out their bodies over time. Does this mean poor posture and poor use is easier than good posture and good use on the clarinet?
IT IS INCREDIBLY HARD ON YOU EMOTIONALLY TO PLAY THE CLARINET BELIEVING IT IS DIFFICULT TO PLAY ACCURATELY, THAN TO BELIEVE IT IS EASY TO PLAY THE RIGHT NOTES. This means every time you play, at least at the deepest emotional level, you will approach the clarinet with fear, if you believe the clarinet is a difficult instrument.
So, it seems to me, it is actually incredibly hard to approach the clarinet hedging your bets. Hedging your bets means that when you begin to play, you DON’T assume you will play the notes easily and accurately.
I really like challenging clarinet players on what they believe. When you go with what the majority believes, you’re going to find the clarinet a struggle to play with ease and accuracy. But what about the clarinet prodigies that find the clarinet easy to play?
In a very perverse way many clarinetists find it easier NOT to trust themselves to play with extraordinary ease, so is this going with the flow? What do I mean?
IF IT IS EFFORTLESS TO BELIEVE THE CLARINET IS DIFFICULT, AND THAT ITS BEST MUSIC IS HARD TO PLAY, THEN YOU ARE EFFORTLESSLY BELIEVING THE CLARINET IS HARD.
Beliefs and habits based on what the majority of clarinetists believe about the clarinet are pretty unforgiving, when these beliefs and habits make the instrument something to be feared.
Again, what about the clarinet prodigies? They have found a way to make the clarinet easy, and accuracy and interpretation something they do with ease and facility.
So, what is the hardest part of making the clarinet a joy to play? Is the clarinet hard to play, or does it seem incredibly difficult to give up your belief that the instrument is hard to play, given that probably the majority of clarinet players frighten each other to death when talking about the finest clarinet repertoire?
Look, I understand. As a former concert guitarist, I believed the guitar was an incredibly difficult instrument to play with ease and accuracy. At a certain point in my twenties I realized I was wrong.
IT FINALLY BECAME EASIER FOR ME TO ACCEPT THAT THE CLASSICAL GUITAR COULD BE EASY, THAN TO GO WITH THE MAJORITY OF GUITARISTS I HAD KNOWN, WHO BELIEVED THE GUITAR WAS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO PLAY WONDERFULLY, ACCURATELY, AND MUSICALLY.
