This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Jazz and Rock Guitar 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 guitar 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)
It has been a long time since I practiced the classical guitar or the piano on a daily basis. I recently made a commitment with a pianist friend who also used to practice daily for hours.
We have a lot in common. I had a guitar father and she had a piano mother, and our parents exerted intense psychological pressure on us to practice hours and hours. In my case, I and my father were pursuing a concert career on the guitar. (Notice how I expressed that.)
The commitment the pianist and I made is to practice every day for a half an hour. In my case, I want to do this effortlessly, without resistance, on the guitar and piano, a half an hour each a day.
This should be a piece of cake, but I’m finding it isn’t. This isn’t the first time I made this commitment to myself, and I have never been able to keep this commitment in the past.
I want to make a point here. I really really LOVE playing/hearing both instruments and much of the classical literature on both. So, my inability to return to daily practice on both instruments is NOT about the here and now, and I know this. But so far I haven’t been able to have my great love of the music of both instruments heal my inability to return to consistently giving myself the gift of lovingly playing for myself on a regular basis
So, I have a problem and want to solve it. The problem, in a nutshell is, “HOW DO I FEEL LIKE RUNNING TO THE PLAY THE GUITAR AND PIANO DAILY AND DO SO. I WANT TO HEAL MY RESISTANCE TO MAKING MUSIC ON THE GUITAR AND PIANO.”
One other point here, I have created a technique on both instruments that makes playing the most difficult literature easy, or at least I can play without straining or sacrificing my body. What this means, given I’m an Alexander Technique teacher, is I’m NOT creating any physical pain or strain or injury when I play. In fact, I have the ability to troubleshoot and solve any technique problem I run into on the piano or the guitar, no matter how difficult the music.
I was talking to my pianist friend the other day, and I realized that the pressure exerted on me to play hours and hours daily was so intense, that practicing the guitar was the ultimate example in my life of having no control over my life as I grew up.
Why is this an important revelation? Because when I was practicing to be a concert guitarist, I turned my endless practicing into a strength. This meant that I told myself I was strong enough to practice endless hours, rather than realizing in truth that I was being coerced to practice, because of the constant threat of being shunned by my father, if I didn’t practice enough.
My talent wasn’t apparent at first. The classical guitar did not come easy to me when I started at 8-years-old. I wanted to quit, but my father said he wasn’t going to have any quitters in the house. So, I was forced to hang in there, and ultimately my talent emerged as a performer.
It is very clear from the above where my resistance to playing regularly, here and now, comes from. Let me state my problem with even more clarity. “IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO PLAY THE PIANO AND THE GUITAR HERE AND NOW WITH THE GREAT JOY THAT I HAVE FOR BOTH INSTRUMENTS, BY LETTING GO OF MY PAST, WHEN MY LEARNING TO MAKE MUSIC HAD BEEN PSYCHOLOGICALLY BRUTAL?”
The answer is ALWAYS YES to this question, but am I willing and/or capable of doing what is necessary is the better question. Since I’m writing this essay here and now, the answer is YES.
What is the transformative, healing, and permanent solution?
I CANNOT MAKE MUSIC ANYMORE WITH MY FATHER IN THE ROOM, IN MY MIND, IF I’M TO PLAY THE PIANO AND THE GUITAR AS A LOVING CHOICE ON A REGULAR BASIS.
You probably thought I was going to say forgive my father, and this may be a piece of the process. But as long as I play the guitar and the piano with my father, then I’m NOT making music with love. I’m pleasing my father with fear, rather than being in the here and now creating the beauty of wondrous sounds. (My father is not alive, but this will not block my healing.)
What I’m attempting here, to want to make music joyously daily or almost daily, without resistance, I haven’t been able to do yet. My mind is doubting whether the TRUTH WILL MAKE ME FREE. Let’s see if it does. At the very least, it may free one or more of my readers, so let’s continue.
It isn’t like I wasn’t aware of this problem, but maybe I haven’t asked the right question. Here is the right question.
WHY HAVE I BEEN INCAPABLE OR UNWILLING UNTIL NOW OF PLAYING THE GUITAR OR THE PIANO WITHOUT THE ENERGETIC/PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESENCE OF MY FATHER IN THE ROOM?
When I was growing up, he was the only adult source of love and support in my life, for good and bad. So, for me not to have my father in my life here and now, is it safe for me? WHAT IS MY GREATEST FEAR, if I don’t continue to have my father as an active part of my psychological/emotional life here and now?
I know he is dead and what we’re talking about is a psychological issue, but he is still running my life. This has kept me in a nonstop state of rebellion, from the moment I stopped practicing the guitar at 23-years-old to get him back, as an act of attempting to finally be in control of my life.
Let me tell you, being in a permanent state of rebellion is a horrible way to lead your life. It means all of your decisions are polluted by saying no to something and yes to something else, as an attack on someone alive or not.
What is my greatest fear of playing the guitar or the piano without my father? IT MEANS WHAT WAS SHARED BY US AS A FATHER AND SON, OUR LOVE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC, BECOMES ONLY MINE. IT ALSO MEANS THAT I MAKE MUSIC AND LIVE MY LIFE AS ME, NOT AS AN EXTENSION OF MY FATHER. I HAVE TO LET HIM GO, AND NOT TO CONTINUE TO HONOR HIS MEMORY BY SACRIFICING MYSELF.
This is the only truly healing way out of my dilemma. More than anything my life has been a struggle to be my own man, but it has been more than this. My life has been a journey to return to being the eternal unique holy spirit I am.
I have always recognized that in this era of “psychological man”, that I had to truly become my own man, if I was to complete my journey back to being a SPIRIT OF GOD.
