This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Viola 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 viola 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)
If a violist can’t sense what is interfering with the violist’s ability to do what he or she wants on the viola, then instead of the violist assuming there is something wrong with the player’s posture and/or technique, the violist may come to one of two conclusions. THE VIOLIST DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHY HE OR SHE CAN’T DO WHAT HE OR SHE WANTS, OR THE VIOLA PLAYER’S BODY IS FLAWED AND DOESN’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES.
When you can’t sense whether you are causing a problem in your body on the viola, do you assume you aren’t? If you assume you’re a victim of circumstances, then you’re tossing out cause and effect. THERE IS ALWAYS CAUSE AND EFFECT, EVEN IF WE CAN’T SENSE THE CAUSE.
Here’s a perfect example. If you have always played the viola with a specific level of tension in your hands, arms, and body, and that tension is causing wear and tear and limiting your ability to play what you want to play, and you can’t sense you’re doing this, because you’ve done it all of your life, what do you do?
This is a very crucial point in time here. What I mean is this is a point between sensing you are causing your postural and technique problems on the viola, since you aren’t sure you’re causing your problems, and finally accepting you are, and finding a way to feel what you’ve been doing to your body on the viola for years.
It is such a weird experience to bring to consciousness what is your norm. I’m doing this right now in my emotional life. I am struggling to realize and ACCEPT that I have been defending myself from the world for so long, that this is me doing something that doesn’t serve me. What I mean, is I believe I create 100% of everything in my life, and since there are still unloving occurrences in my life, then I have to be doing something to cause them.
That something is me constantly protecting myself. There is Lesson 135 in the book ‘A Course in Miracles’, “If I defend myself I am attacked”. I believe this, but until now, I kept blinding myself to the fact that I was defending myself 24/7.
When you finally realize that your norm on the viola is damaging your body, or at the very least compromising your ability to play what you want to play, then you have the ability to choose whether to continue to do what you’ve done or choose to do what works.
It is a violist’s inability to sense what he or she has been doing to his or herself on the viola that allows the violist to separate cause and effect. I believe it is our inability to sense what we do to ourselves in so many areas, from sports to psychological and emotional habits, that keep us from realizing that we have the power to stop causing ourselves grief and be in loving control of our whole existence.
