This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Piano Technique, is published 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 piano 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)
This essay is mainly directed at serious performing musical performers and at serious competitive athletes.
Seems to me there isn’t a whole of difference between how ambitious athletes and musical performers approach their craft.
WIN! BE THE BEST AT ALL COSTS.
It’s this at all costs I want to address.
When a performing musician or a competing athlete comes to an Alexander Technique teacher, it is usually for one of two reasons or for both of these following reasons.
THEY ARE SUFFERING FROM INJURY FROM THE HIGHLY REPETITIVE NATURE OF BECOMING GREAT AT THEIR INSTRUMENT OR SPORT. SO, THEY MAY COME TO AN ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE THE BEST AT THEIR SPORT OR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. OR THEY’VE BEEN DRIVING THEMSELVES MERCILESSLY TO BE THE THE BEST AT THEIR SPORT OR INSTRUMENT, AND IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO BE THE BEST, THEY’RE NOT THE THE BEST AND THEY’RE CONSTANTLY INJURING THEMSELVES ALONG THE WAY.
Notice I didn’t say they get injured trying to be a winning athlete or a great performer. I said they are injuring themselves in their intense striving to be the best.
What do I mean?
It is taking total responsibility for your injuries in your sport or on your instrument, that sets you up for finding a way to be the best for an uninjured lifetime.
What do I mean?
There are two reasons an athlete or musician gets injured. You believe injury is inevitable, because you are so driven and work so incredibly hard. You hope you don’t get injured, but when you do, you either back off of practice or push through the pain and hope you get over it. You may get over it the first few injuries if you’re young, but eventually you won’t recover,as the injuries accumulate and you’re aging.
The second reason is your technique and posture is flawed, so your posture isn’t great as you hunker down to do a sport or make music. When your technique is flawed, it means you have been taught how to play an instrument or do a sport with ideas of good form that automatically cause wear and tear to the body.
Also, bad technique is exacerbated by the unconscious technique you create in your sport or on your instrument, that becomes part of how you do your sport or play your instrument that was never consciously chosen.
There has been a lot of writing in this essay that doesn’t seem to have a thing to do with the title of this essay.
What does all of the above have to do with giving up?
WHEN YOU HAVE DRIVEN YOURSELF MERCILESSLY TO WIN AT YOUR SPORT OR ON YOUR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO ACCEPT THAT WHAT YOU’VE BEEN DOING HASN’T WORKED AND THAT WINNING AT ALL COSTS DOESN’T WORK. THE BELIEF YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER GIVE UP DOESN’T WORK. BELIEVING THAT INJURY IS INEVITABLE CAUSES INJURY. THE TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE YOU HAD BEEN TAUGHT OR CREATED UNCONSCIOUSLY HASN’T WORKED.
YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP AND ACCEPT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
When you finally accept you’re in trouble and don’t know how to get out of trouble, this is giving up in a good way, the best way.
An Alexander Technique teacher can teach you how to do your best without sacrificing your body. An Alexander Technique teacher can show you how you do a sport or play an instrument is why you keep getting injured. This means you learn you were harming your body through bad posture and bad technique and beliefs that make injury inevitable.
SO, YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP ON FORCING YOURSELF TO BE THE BEST AND LET YOURSELF BE SHOWN A WAY TO BECOME THE BEST BY TAKING CARE OF YOUR BODY.
Finally, the carry over is when you take what the Alexander Technique teaches you in your sport or on your instrument into your daily life, and your daily use of your body is great, this supports your sport or instrument and helps you be the best without pain and injury.
