Posts Tagged ‘Viola da Gamba Technique’

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Viola da Gamba (Viol) 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 viol 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)
All performing and beginning viola da gamba players gather evidence to prove what they believe about how good they are and how good they can become.
What do I mean? If you believe you don’t have the talent to be an extraordinary viola da gamba player, to perform the greatest literature written for your instrument, then you will demonstrate it in your viol playing. Every time you play a difficult piece, you will struggle to make it through the hard passages.
You will prove you are right about your limited abilities by struggling through your wonderful literature. Which comes first, the beliefs in your limited performing talent or the demonstration of your limited talent?
I believe the beliefs come first, and then you go about proving what you can’t do on the viola da gamba, whether you’re 5-years-old or 60-years-old. The viol is simply the perfect vehicle to prove what your potential is or isn’t in the things you want to learn.
When you choose a viola da gamba teacher who uses negative reinforcement to teach you the instrument and teaches you a viola technique that does not allow you to play this instrument with ease, then if you believe you have limited talent on the viola da gamba, it will be effortless to prove it to yourself and the teacher.
When you believe you have limited talent, you have two choices, if you continue to play. The first choice is you don’t put in much practice time or effort, because you’ve given up on yourself before you start. The second choice is you prove to yourself and the world that you are going to do whatever it takes to become a fine viola da gamba player DESPITE your lack of exceptional talent.
The world definitely loves number two. I’m not sure which the world admires most, the Mozarts or the overcomers. I think the world admires the overcomers, because there are a whole lot more strugglers out there than Mozarts. But is this true? Are most viola da gamba players overcomers, lacking the potential to be extraordinarily facile players?
If you choose a viola da gamba teacher who uses a love of music and positive reinforcement to teach you viol, tied to a viola da gamba technique that uses Alexander Technique principles of good body use, then you are confronted with two choices. Either you accept and watch yourself become a wonderful viola da gamba player making great music easily, effortlessly, and joyously, or you prove to yourself and the teacher you lack talent.
Why would a new viola da gamba student, or a struggling viol player who had found a viola da gamba teacher and/or Alexander Technique teacher who could make the viol easy, choose to prove there is no way they could play with great ease? Because, if you are the hero in your life by being an overcomer, then it is infinitely more important that you live always struggling, so that you can admire yourself for hanging in there, even though you believe you were dealt a poor hand of cards.
So, when you come to the viola da gamba teacher and/or Alexander Technique teacher who can assist you in revamping your viol technique to teach you how easy the instrument can be or will be, and you’ve been an overcomer, then you will continue to take lessons, if you’re ready to give up having to struggle and overcome to feel good about yourself.