Bill Plake Music
The other day as I was giving an Alexander Technique lesson to a saxophonist, I noticed something in my student that I often see in other musicians who stand as they play. Specifically, my student wasn’t allowing the weight of his body to pass through his feet into the [...]
“You are not here to do exercises, nor to learn to do something right, but to be able to meet a stimulus that always puts you in the wrong and to learn to deal with it.”
F.M. Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique
The quote from above represents what I think [...]
To improve as a musician, you need discipline, drive, passion, commitment, persistence, a sense of humor, organizational skills, patience and more. But the thing that really fuels (really nourishes!) improvement is curiosity.
And Einstein was speaking from his own experience. His talent was his deep curiosity, and it was directed toward better understanding [...]
Ah, Lester Young…one of the greatest improvisers in all of jazz. He helped open the door to what we call the “modern jazz” period by virtue of his more linear, spatially melodic approach to improvisation. Jazz saxophonists from Charlie Parker, to Stan Getz, to Lee Konitz, to Jimmy Giuffre, to Joe Henderson, to Mark Turner [...]
Musicians come to see me for Alexander Technique lessons for at least one the following two reasons: They are experiencing pain and excess tension and strain as they play. They simply aren’t improving in their playing , no matter how much they practice. (Many musicians come to me because [...]
When you’re playing music (or engaging in any activity, for that matter), all your habits of unnecessary tension have one thing in common: they tend to diminish your stature rather than expand it.
Essentially, you become smaller. You compress yourself. You lessen the space within.
It is sometimes difficult to discern unnecessary tension because you [...]
It’s an oversimplification to say that we hear with our ears. Sure, the ears are a big part of it. They receive the incoming vibrations from the world and send them to the brain for processing. But it’s really the brain that hears. It’s the brain that interprets those vibrations as sound.
