This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Conducting (Conductors’) 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 conducting technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
How do you incorporate the subtle changes and not so subtle changes you’ve made to your conducting technique into a conducting performance? How do you do in performance what you’ve been doing when you practice?
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS AS MUCH ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE LETTING GO OF IN YOUR OLD TECHNIQUE THAT WAS NOT WORKING, AS IT IS ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE INCORPORATING INTO YOUR CONDUCTING TO MAKE IT WORK.
So, how do you simultaneously let go of what isn’t working as you conduct and do what is new? YOU DO THIS WITH SOMEONE OR A GROUP WATCHING. So, instead of asking someone or a group to watch how well you conduct the whole piece, you ask someone or a group to watch you as you conduct fragments or larger sections, as you focus SOLELY on the changes you’re making or have made to your conducting technique.
You ask the person or persons watching to give you feedback on what they’re seeing, letting intended interpretation be secondary. THIS MEANS THE WATCHER(S) IS FOCUSING ON HOW WELL YOU’RE CONDUCTING, NOT ON WHAT YOUR MUSICAL INTENTION/INTERPRETATION IS. This is the pure Alexander Technique approach of teaching the conductor to take care of themselves before taking care of the music – THE MEANS OVER THE ENDS.
When I demonstrate the basic principles of good posture of the Alexander Technique to a group of conductors, it is amazing how quickly they begin to see as I see, after I work with a couple of conductors in front of the group. Truth is they could always see the poor posture etc. of their colleagues! When I demonstrate how much more comfortable it is to stand fully upright, and how much better the quality of the gestures are with Alexander Technique posture, they begin to see the value of whole body good posture on conducting.
There is another crucial element to this, and this is at the core of asking other conductors or non-conductors to observe you as you’re conducting: YOU ARE ASKING THE OBSERVERS TO SEE WHAT THEY SEE WITHOUT JUDGEMENT.
This is very new for most of the observers, especially the conductors, because conductors clearly get the message over time that you only improve if you are critical of your conducting. This gets projected onto all other conductors, who you usually are consciously or unconsciously in competition with. By definition “to be in competition with” means if the other conductor is better than you, YOU LOSE! I find this pretty sad and unnecessary and a detriment to wonderful music interpretation.
IT IS A GREAT GIFT TO YOURSELF TO GATHER A GROUP OF OBSERVERS TOGETHER TO LOVINGLY HELP YOU BECOME THE AMAZING CONDUCTOR YOU ARE BY LETTING GO OF WHAT DOESN’T WORK.
When you ask someone to observe you, and you place all of your awareness on the refinements you are making to your conducting, and the observer(s) understand this, then you have done an extraordinarily loving thing.
YOU HAVE BROUGHT TOGETHER A GROUP OF MUSIC LOVERS, YOU BEING PART OF THE GROUP, WHOSE ONLY PURPOSE IS TO ASSIST IN CREATING A KIND AND LOVING WAY FOR YOU TO CONDUCT!
This has be a brand new experience for you the conductor because possibly for the first time you are in control of the intention of the performance. Rather than standing to prove to the watcher(s) how well you can conduct, and hoping (worrying) you do well, you are lovingly asking the watcher(s) for HELP.
When you ask an observer to help you test whether the changes you’ve made to your conducting technique works without harming your body or not, it is a remarkably kind thing you do for yourself. It is a threefer (three for one).
YOU TRANSFORM THE OBSERVER INTO A SUPPORTER, YOU FIND OUT WHAT IS LEFT OF THE OLD TECHNIQUE THAT WASN’T WORKING THAT STILL NEEDS TO BE RELEASED, AND YOU SEE IF THE NEW TECHNIQUE HAS COMPLETELY REPLACED POOR LIMITING TECHNIQUE.
