Posts Tagged ‘Banjo Technique’

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Banjo 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 an extraordinarily accurate and kind banjo performance.
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 DO SO MANY BANJO PLAYERS STRIVE TO PLAY BETTER AND BETTER AND DON’T IMPROVE?
I see this same phenomenon in the gym all of the time. Most people who work out regularly don’t look like they’re working out, even though they work out hard. So it is with banjo players, who practice but never get any better. Why is it that most banjo players DON’T improve as players after years and years of practice, when it is what they want most?
Let me talk about a change that can be made to a banjo player’s practicing that will probably create an improvement in playing, but the price is usually too high, leading to injury. It is what people who go berserk in exercise do. They change their workouts to a manic, non-stop, don’t tolerate backing off workout, ignoring the pain.
You see this all of time in commercials advertising brutal short workouts. These commercials show people becoming more lean and muscular, if you buy and do their workout video. What they fail to mention is that these kinds of workouts make you look good for a while, then you get injured, and then you have to stop. But this not a problem for the seller, since he or she has your money, whether the workout injures you or not. Also, most exercise gurus see injury as inevitable, not as a result of them selling a very flawed product. Buyer beware!
A banjo player who commits to improvement this way will also end up injured, if he or she practices longer and harder with greater and greater tension and pressure to become a better performer.
So, what is the solution? Let me restate the question. The question is, “WHY DON’T MOST COMMITTED, BANJO PLAYERS BECOME MEASURABLY BETTER BANJO PLAYERS OVER THEIR WHOLE LIFETIME?”
STOPPING SHORT OF COMPLETION is the answer! What do I mean?
Let’s assume that the banjo player has clarified what his or her weaknesses are on the banjo, and has defined what steps need to be taken to become an extraordinary banjo player, and after years of being a pretty good banjo player doesn’t improve, then FAILURE TO COMPLETE is the answer.
You can spend a lifetime striving to become an amazing banjo player, but if the intensity of your commitment to attaining the goal, and doing so without poor posture, without poor technique, without tension, and without self-attack, is not carried through to completion, then you can spend a lifetime as a banjo player on the edge of greatness.
What is it that is happening that keeps you poised for greatness but never arriving, given you truly know what needs to be done? YOU AREN’T COMPLETING THE STEPS TO SOLVING YOUR TECHNIQUE INADEQUACIES.
You may put in lots of practice time to solve a specific technique weakness, but never quite put in enough time with FAITH IN SUCCESS to eliminate the weakness. Ex: You practice scales to learn to play with all of the fingers at ease always close to the strings whether playing or not, but you never do quite enough to make this an internalized way of always playing the banjo. In other words, you strive for the above, but you never make it an effortlessly habitual part of your technique.
If you are truly truly honest with yourself, you may discover a whole bunch of these weaknesses in your banjo playing that you “practice at” fixing, but never quite fix. Why?
“Practicing at” has become a self-sustaining habit in and of itself. In other words, you “practice at” solving your technique weaknesses on the banjo, telling yourself you’re making progress when you aren’t. YOU’RE STUCK!
To admit to yourself what you’re doing on the banjo isn’t working and hasn’t for years can be pretty difficult, but it is the only way out. There are three reasons you may not do this, and they can be pretty confrontive psychologically. But doesn’t the alternative to muddling through unconsciously, striving for a transformation of your banjo playing, and never arriving really suck?
The first “reason for resistance to what works” is after years of realizing you haven’t done what works, is the pain of confronting yourself with years wasted. The answer to this is, “Why waste more years, if you’re NOT going to give up your goal of being a great banjo player?”
The second reason to not change a thing about your banjo practicing is the unconscious fear that if you reach your goal, you won’t have a purpose. This is a fancy way of saying, “If you don’t have any more insurmountable technique problems on the banjo, then why play.”
This is truly crazy, but crazy is incredibly self-sustaining when it is unconscious. “Unconscious crazy” means you’re not even aware of a belief that is making your goal impossible as you strive for the goal.
The third reason is practicing hard has become its own goal. What do I mean?
PRACTICING IS THE MEANS THAT HAS BECOME THE ENDS. SO. THERE IS NO REAL GOAL OF BEING A GREAT PLAYER. THERE IS ONLY PRACTICING AS ITS OWN REWARD, BUT YOU’RE STILL BEING DRIVEN TO BE A BETTER BANJO PLAYER HIDDEN FROM YOURSELF UNDERNEATH ALL OF THIS.
As an act of self-love take a look at whether what you’re doing on the banjo is working. If it isn’t, do something different and finally complete your goal of becoming an amazing banjo player. DON’T SPEND ANOTHER MINUTE STRIVING TO BE AN AMAZING BANJO PLAYER!
IF YOU’RE NOT THE BANJO PLAYER YOU WANT TO BE, YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. SO, PRACTICE SMART, AND COMPLETE YOUR JOURNEY AS AN ACT OF SUPREME SELF-LOVE!”