This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Focal Dystonia, is published in a PDF format. It is written to address the problems of focal dystonia and poor technique in musical performance. What would have to happen for a performing musician with focal dystonia to be free of focal dystonia?
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
I WOULD HAVE CREATED AN ALEXANDRIAN POSTURE, WHICH MEANS FULLY EASEFULLY UPRIGHT, ALEXANDERIZED THE RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE, AND MAYBE ALEXANDERIZE THE LEFT HAND TECHNIQUE, AND ALEXANDERIZE MY WHOLE BODY – THE LIMBS, HEAD, NECK, AND TORSO.
How?
To INHIBIT what’s going on in the whole body and completely change my right hand guitar technique, means that I’m extending the Alexandrian principles of great posture and body use to the specifics of guitar technique.
Many Alexander Technique teachers don’t do this, because they generalize beautifully whole body use in playing an instrument or doing a sport, but they are unable to decipher if the taught basics of a specialized activity are the best basics.
An example is what your right hand fingers do when playing the guitar. I Alexanderize the guitarist’s whole body including the FINGERS for the best possible guitar playing technique.
But what if the Alexander Teacher doesn’t know that the specific right hand guitar technique that the student brings to the lesson is poor technique?
This usually means the Alexander Technique teacher accepts what the guitarist brings to him that has been defined as great technique, and the Alexander teacher proceeds to make it all work to create ease in the guitarist’s body.
But what if the guitarist tells the Alexander teacher that hooking the strings is great technique, and the Alexander teacher accepts this.
THEN THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER IS MAKING POOR RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE WORK AS WELL AS IT CAN. THE GUITARIST STOPS HURTING, PLAYS WITH GREAT EASE AND GREAT POSTURE AND GREAT EFFICIENCY, BUT VOLUME IS REALLY COMPROMISED AND THE TONE IS HARSH.
Seems to me that this can be a problem for every specialized activity brought to the Alexander Technique teacher to be improved upon. You can get a musician or an athlete out of physical trouble, but if the Alexander Technique teacher doesn’t question all of the sport’s or instrument’s fundamental rules of performance and test them, the Alexander teacher can be unwittingly helping the athlete or musician stop doing bodily damage, but keep a poor refined technique that holds the musician or athlete back.
The thought of this doesn’t make me happy.
Back to me and the guitar and what could have been.
Since I had twelve weeks to get my new guitar technique learned, I had to do this with extraordinary focus, and without the knowledge and focus of the Alexander Technique, so I hunkered down and worked like a dog.
I mastered the new right hand technique in time for the new semester, but in the process really locked up my body exacerbating carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand. This is what sent me to an Alexander Technique teacher, and years later sent me into the training to become an Alexander Technique teacher. And even after becoming an Alexander Technique teacher, the experience of battering myself into great guitar technique has still left me guitar shy, not playing the guitar much.
I just wandered off.
Here is what would have been nice, as I reset my right hand technique.
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE IS THAT I LEARNED THE NEW TECHNIQUE WITH THE AID OF AN ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER!
What would she have had me do differently? EVERYTHING!
What I was being asked to do by the guitar teacher was to learn an extraordinary great hand guitar technique in a very short period of time.
So, with the aid of an Alexander Technique teacher, I would have set up mirrors around me, and kept an awareness of a beautifully balanced upright posture as I sat to play.
THIS MEANS THAT EVEN THOUGH I WAS UNDER PRESSURE TO MASTER THE NEW RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE IN TWELVE WEEKS, I WOULD HAVE STORED THAT GOAL IN THE BACK OF MY MIND WITH THE FAITH I WOULD MAKE THE DEADLINE. I WOULD HAVE PUT ALL OF MY ATTENTION IN THE MOMENT TO MASTERING THE NEW RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE WITHOUT UNNECESSARY WHOLE BODY AND HAND TENSION. I WOULD HAVE STAYED EXTRAORDINARILY FOCUSED ON A WHOLE BODY AND HAND TECHNIQUE DONE WITH GREAT EASE AND POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.
A minute at a time, an hour at a time, and A DAY AT A TIME!
I would have arrived at my goal years ago of a wonderful right hand technique, possibly wonderful left hand technique, and a wonderful posture with the help of an Alexander Technique teacher, ONE AT A TIME AND ALL TOGETHER.
