This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to French Horn 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 horn 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)
Why would a French horn player not choose the best technique to get the job done? Here are two reasons. One is you aren’t willing at this point to be a beginner again. The second is you aren’t willing to deal with the feelings of guilt that come up, if you go against everything you’ve been taught or almost everything you were taught that is supposedly great French horn technique.
Why is being a beginner again such an overwhelming thing to do? BECAUSE, IF YOU NEED TO REVAMP YOUR TECHNIQUE TO REACH YOUR POTENTIAL ON THE FRENCH HORN, THEN YOU HAVE NEVER COMPLETED YOUR JOURNEY TO CREATING AN EFFORTLESS HORN TECHNIQUE YOU CAN COUNT ON. In other words, working on your technique has always been an open ended endless process of struggle and hard work, trying to do what you can’t do on the French horn.
Consciously or unconsciously you believe it will always be this way, so why do anything different? BECAUSE IT IS TIME TO FIND A TECHNIQUE THAT WORKS AND COMPLETE IT, AND ACCEPT THE TRUTH THAT COMPLETION IS POSSIBLE!
Now to the second part of the problem: It is possible to see what you need to do, but if it goes against everyone and everything you did to get to where you are, and it is the loving solution, then you may be conflicted.
WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE REVAMPING YOUR FRENCH HORN TECHNIQUE AS A BETRAYAL OF ALL OF THOSE WHO HELPED YOU TO GET TO THE LEVEL OF PLAYING YOU ARE AT, RATHER THAN AS AN ACT OF SELF LOYALTY, THEN WHEN YOU ATTEMPT TO DO THE NEW LOVING THING, YOUR ENERGY MAY DROP DRAMATICALLY. In other words, you may go into a depression, the moment you commit to doing what is 100% loyal to yourself.
Why? It is an difficult thing to realize that being loyal to parents and French horn teachers, even when these loyalties are blocking you from being the joyous and technically proficient horn player you could be, may cause such powerful feelings of guilt, that you collapse rather than do the loving thing.
Simply, if you have been taught by French horn teachers that there is only one way to play the horn, and if unconsciously or consciously these French horn teachers have taught you they are the way and the light, then following your own path can bring up tremendous guilt, and you won’t be able to follow through in making the technique changes that could make you an amazing horn player.
You can’t do both. What do I mean? Once you see what needs to be done for you to create a complete French horn technique that works for you, you have to let go of what doesn’t work. WHAT DOESN’T WORK WILL NOT LET WHAT WORKS WORK, IF YOU CONTINUE TO DO WHAT DOESN’T WORK ALONG SIDE WHAT DOESN’T WORK ON THE FRENCH HORN.
Now, as to the guilt of betraying your French horn teachers and parents: I went to a psychotherapist that I told I felt overwhelmed with guilt, when I thought of doing what was loving for me, but went against everything my parents and guitar teachers had taught me was true. You know what his answer was? BETRAY THE HELL OUT THEM. KEEP BETRAYING THE HELL OUT OF THEM, BECAUSE TO DO SO IS AN ACT OF SELF LOVE. Try it, you may like it, and it may just free you up to pursue an amazing horn technique with great joy.