This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Mandolin 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 mandolin 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)
IS THE OBVIOUS STATED EVER TOO OBVIOUS? What do I mean? If I point out to a mandolin player something they are doing technically and/or posturally, am I ever telling the mandolin player something that is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be stated? No! Never! Nyet! Why?
Because what is so incredibly obvious to me as an Alexander Technique teacher and possibly other mandolin players – that what the player is doing technically and posturally is blocking the mandolin player’s ability to play his or her effortless best, and this is NOT usually obvious to the performer.
There is a psychological equivalent to this. We can usually see what the other person is doing that is not good. But the person rarely can see how he or she is harming themselves with their habitual behaviors and words.
So, over time as a mandolin player works with me to make technique and postural changes that have been compromising the mandolin player’s ability to play his or her best, I point out EVERYTHING I observe in the mandolin player as he or she plays, whether I suggest they change it or not. Why do I do this?
THE MORE CONSCIOUS A MANDOLIN PLAYER IS ABOUT HIS OR HER POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE ON THE MANDOLIN, THE MORE LIKELY OVER TIME THE MANDOLIN PLAYER WILL NOT CREATE POOR PLAYING HABITS.
The perfect analogy is general human posture. The main reason most people look old as they age, is because all of their unconscious poor postural habits become more pronounced over time. So, many, if not most people, end up slumped over and shuffling as they age.
To me the best and most famous example of not being conscious enough was Fred Astaire. When he was young, he had what was considered by Alexander Technique teachers to be the most amazing postural use when he danced or acted in his movies. When he got old he lost this incredible postural good use. Why? I don’t believe he was conscious of exactly what it was he did posturally that made him such an exceptional dancer.
I don’t mean he didn’t know how good he was. I believe he didn’t consciously know how he organized his whole body to move better than any other dancer in the world, so he lost what he had as he aged.
What are the effects on a mandolin player’s technique and posture when an Alexander Technique teacher brings everything the mandolin player is doing to consciousness? IT MEANS THE MANDOLIN PLAYER IS GIVEN THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE EVERYTHING THE MANDOLIN PLAYER DOES ON THE MANDOLIN TECHNICALLY AND POSTURALLY; TO CHOOSE THE MOST EFFORTLESS POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE, AND TO BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN OVER A LIFETIME THE MOST EFFORTLESS TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE EFFORTLESSLY.
I know this is a mouth full, but you cannot underestimate what knowing what you do on the mandolin consciously can mean to a lifetime of mandolin playing. It means you have the tools and the awareness to do the least amount of work to sustain the technique and posture you have fully consciously chosen to use on the mandolin.
It also means that because you are so completely aware of what you do from head to toe on the mandolin and how you do what you do, that you have a complete set of tools to troubleshoot what you’re doing wrong, if you ever get in trouble on the mandolin. THE LIKELIHOOD OF YOU GETTING INTO TROUBLE GOES DOWN DRAMATICALLY WHEN YOU ARE AWARE OF THE OBVIOUS.