This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Viola 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 viola 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)
IF YOU HAVE NOT ALLOWED YOURSELF TO PERSONALIZE YOUR POSTURE, TECHNIQUE, AND INTERPRETATION ON THE VIOLA, THEN YOU ARE STILL THE STUDENT, WHETHER YOU’RE FIFTEEN OR FIFTY.
You have a choice here. I believe that some viola teachers and some Alexander Technique teachers do not fully consciously teach violists to be their own arbiter of what they do technically, posturally, and musically. THIS DOESN’T MATTER, IF YOU RECOGNIZE IT.
What do I mean? If you are working with a wonderful viola teacher and/or a wonderful Alexander Technique teacher, it is up to you to take what they teach you and be able to be your own teacher and solve your own postural, technique, and musical problems. In other words, be your own teacher away from these mentors and even with these mentors.
This means that as you work with these teachers, you want to start making your own decisions as to what works, once you’re able to generalize the wisdom of your viola and Alexander Technique teachers onto the viola. This will allow you to leave them and not feel lost, continuing to only mimic your teachers.
It isn’t that you shouldn’t use these teachers as resources once you’re on your own. But once you’re on your own, if you can’t troubleshoot solutions to technique, posture, and interpretation, then you are still the student of the master, even if you aren’t working regularly with your masters anymore.
I had a pianist as an Alexander Technique student, who said that whenever she ran into a problem on the piano, she would ask herself what would I say, if she was in an Alexander Technique session with me. I asked her what she meant.
She said that the solution she was seeking was a combination of using the Alexander Technique principles of good technique and body use I taught her, moving me out of the way, and then finding her personal solution that was 100% loyal to what she wanted from the instrument.
This is how you become the master. YOU GO TO THE VIOLA TEACHER AND/OR ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER TRUSTING YOURSELF. So many music students go to viola teachers or Alexander Technique teachers feeling that they don’t have the ability to discern what is best for themselves.
What I mean is that the viola student has always had a viola teacher tell them what to do, so he or she may have never considered what they would rather do in technique or interpretation radically different than the teacher.
There is a fine line between trust and rebellion. SIMPLY, IF YOU CHOOSE A TECHNIQUE, POSTURE, AND INTERPRETATION ON THE VIOLA THAT PHYSICALLY MAKES THE VIOLA EASY TO PLAY AND OPENS YOUR HEART AND OTHERS’ HEARTS IN PERFORMANCE, THEN YOU ARE MAKING LOVING DECISIONS, AND YOU ARE YOUR OWN MASTER.
If what you choose is either constant dismissing of what you were taught, and/or gets you in trouble in your technique, posture, and lowers your life energy, then you are in rebellion. Rebellion is NOT being your own master. It is you still being only the student, because all you are doing on the viola is in reaction to teachers who aren’t even in your life anymore.