This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Soprano Saxophone 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 saxophone 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)
CORE TO WHAT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHES IS:
IF YOU MAKE TECHNIQUE CHANGES TO SOLVE INJURY PROBLEMS, YOU MAY NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Why?
I have probably had at least five first rate guitar teachers who revamped my technique the moment I started lessons with them.
They talked in terms of rigid hand positions or in esoteric terms, and I spent hours trying to figure out what the guitar teacher wanted me to do.
IT MADE ME INSANE!
In retrospect they each probably had a piece of the truth to help me become a concert guitarist.
Also, in retrospect after I had introduced the Alexander Technique into my playing, I realized they taught me a whole lot of really things that made no physical or technique sense.
Here’s the point I’m trying to make.
IF YOU’RE IN PHYSICAL TROUBLE ON YOUR INSTRUMENT OF IN YOUR SPORT, EVEN IF YOU MAKE CHANGES TO A SUPERIOR TECHNIQUE, IT WILL PROBABLY FOR A WHILE MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TERMS OF HOW WELL YOU RUN OR PLAY YOUR INSTRUMENT. BUT EVENTUALLY YOU’LL BE BACK IN PHYSICAL TROUBLE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE OR SOMETHING TO SAVE YOU.
Why does this happen?
Because you bring your same physical bad habits to the new technique, which sabotaged your earlier versions
Changing gears here, how do you know if your sports or instrumental technique is the best possible?
You go to a certified Alexander Technique teacher with experience in sports or musical instrument and take his or her advice. The Alexander Technique teacher will teach you to become fully aware of all of the rules you need for great posture and great technique.
It is easy to lock in STACTIC good posture or STATIC technique in a sport or on an instrument, but the moment you test your posture and technique playing the violin or swinging a golf club, you may very quickly find out the theory doesn’t hold up.
The problem still may not be you’re doing anything inherently wrong posturally or in your technique!
IT MAY BE THAT YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO TAKE WHAT IS GOOD ADVICE ABOUT THE POSITION OF THE INSTRUMENT IN RELATION TO YOUR BODY, OR HOW TO KICK A SOCCER BALL INTO MOVEMENT.
The answer is, when you have defined what are the best WHOLE BODY positions to play the harp with or kick the ball with, you will learn from an Alexander Technique teacher the time before you move to perform or play to be in whole body release and with a high energy dynamic in the whole body.
What does this mean?
IT MEANS BEFORE YOU VISUALLY MOVE, YOU ARE IN MOTION INTERNALLY, WHICH MEANS EVEN WHEN TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE ARE DEFINED IN WHAT WE CALL STATIC TERMS, THERE IS NO SUCH THING!
So, even before you visually move, your body is in an internal release and in motion, and you’re not going from zero to 60 instantly.
You’re probably going from 40 to 60. 🙂
