Posts Tagged ‘Inspired Musical Performance’

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Inspired Musical Performance, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is written to give all performing musicians deep insights into the beliefs and bad habits and technique that performers have that can end careers with pain, strain, tension, and injuries.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

Is there such a thing as an aha! experience in a sport, or on a musical instrument, or in singing, or painting, meaning there’s a truly instantaneous change in how well you do?

I had one on the guitar years ago.

I read in the piano technique book “New Pathways to Piano Technique” by Luigi Bonpensiere, that if you trusted my hands, you could play the piano with supreme accuracy.

I applied this to classical guitar technique, and I experienced unbelievable precision in the left hand leaping across the neck of the guitar and hitting the right note effortlessly. I never looked back!

What do I mean I never looked back?

From that moment on I never played the guitar again “trying not to make a mistake”, and I never got mad at myself again when I did. I assumed from that moment on, that if I made a mistake, I wouldn’t miss the note the next time I played the passage. I DIDN’T!

My relationship changed instantly with the guitar in that moment, and I never ever reverted to trying not to miss notes again.

WAS THAT TRULY AN INSTANTANEOUS TRANSFORMATION?

What I’m asking here, did I truly go from being a fear-ridden, endlessly repeating passages, trying not to mistakes guitarist, to being a 23-year-old prodigy in an UNPREPARED flash?

NO!!!!

So, what did happen, that seemed to happen without preparation?

For years of endless hours of endless preparation, I practiced hoping without hope that I could play without making a mistake. I hoped to be beyond self-hatred, endlessly practicing struggling for perfection, and never ever be criticized by anyone else again.

So, I did experience in a flash effortless precision. I experienced with regular practice an even greater and greater trust in my hands to hit the mark (right note).

Again, was this truly a miraculous occurrence?

YES AND NO. What do I mean?

It was miraculous for me in the sense that I instantaneously went from playing the guitar with fear and immense pressure and self-hatred, trying to force myself to never makes, to playing the guitar with effortless trust and constantly demonstrating to my myself the accuracy of a child prodigy.

I NEVER DOUBTED MYSELF AGAIN ON THE INSTRUMENT!

But it was not a miracle in the sense that all of the years of mercilessly driving myself on the instrument had nothing to do with my having a transformative experience of my guitar technique and playing and accuracy.

IT WAS A VALIDATION THAT IF YOU STRIVE FOR SOMETHING THAT IS TRULY OF GREAT VALUE, YOU WILL ACHIEVE IT, IF YOU DON’T GIVE UP AND ARE OPEN TO SOMETHING NEW.

The NEW is that I had to have been open at the time to the truth that endless practice without faith was NEVER going to get it, and that I was ready to accept the effortless accuracy of a prodigy.

Daily Lesson 131 in the remarkable spiritual work “A Course in Miracles” says, “No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth.”

If you’re willing to seek the truth to become an amazing performing musician or athlete, and never lose faith, you will achieve your goal.

ACHIEVING THE WORTHWHILE GOAL IS GUARANTEED, IF YOU’RE WILLING TO SURRENDER AND ACCEPT A BREAKTHROUGH IS GUARANTEED.

One final thought: If you find an extraordinary certified Alexander Technique teacher to help you in a sport or on a musical instrument or in singing or painting as a beginner, then you can leap to doing a sport or playing a musical instrument or singing or painting transformationally with a short period of preparation.