Tag Archives: Repetitive Strain Injuries for Musicians

Refresh Your Thinking To Greatly Improve The Efficiency Of Your Practice

The quality of your practice is directly proportionate to the quality of your thinking. Contrary to what many musicians believe, you’re not “training muscles” as you practice, so much as you are directing your thinking so that your brain can readily coordinate the muscular activity necessary to play well.

Mindless, repetitive practice usually yields limited, often disappointing results. Deep practice, where you are cognizant of your specific, in-the-moment goals, as well as what you hear, and sense in yourself as you play, is what leads to consistent improvement.

If you practice when you are distracted (maybe you didn’t get enough sleep, are in an angry mood, worried, about something, really hungry, etc.), you know that you won’t do very well. In fact, you might even finish your practice session with the feeling that you wasted your time.

But what about when you’re fully present and focused for your practice session? Are there ever times when you need to check your thinking? My answer is a resounding yes!

The more efficient I become in my practice routine, the more I realize how important it is to refresh my thinking frequently. This calls upon my willingness to stop what I’m doing. To take the saxophone out of my mouth and regroup, so to speak. Not always an easy thing to to when I’m in practice mode. If I play a particular passage less than ideally, I want to jump right back in and get it “right”, without any thought about what I need to do to “get it right”.

But I’ve learned that stopping to check in with, and redirect my thinking is always a better choice than plunging forward again with another mindless, misdirected effort. It always makes the next attempt so much more efficient and constructive. So I’ve gotten pretty good at stopping.

After I’ve stopped, I usually refresh my thinking by asking myself a few simple questions:

Am I tightening my neck, shoulders and back?
Am I allowing the weight of my body to balance through my feet (when I stand as I practice)?
Am I mostly expanding or contracting (releasing or tensing)?
How is my breathing (effortless and quiet, or tense and noisy)?
Am I really listening to what I’m playing (as opposed to just hearing sounds)?
Am I clear about what my immediate goal is with this particular exercise, passage, etc?

I pause to ask myself these questions dozens and dozens of time as I practice. Then I return to my full stature (my full length and width), finding all the space in my body again, and recharging my senses. I return to the physical and mental conditions that I need to play my best.

I’ve gotten so good at it that I can make these assessments rather quickly, then get right back to playing my instrument. For me it’s almost like I’m pushing a “reset” button for my brain, or refreshing the screen of my computer. Everything seems to flow and fall back into place when I do this.

If you wanted to simplify it all, you could ask yourself, “Am I tending more toward contraction or expansion as I play?” Included in this question (besides noticing your body) is your ability to listen to and hear yourself. Are your senses going inward (contracting), excluding the full experience of your sound, or expanding outward into the room where your sound actually is?

If you ever feel yourself becoming frustrated and/or fatigued as you dig deep into your practice, consider this idea of stopping and refreshing your thinking. Taking time to pause and redirect your thoughts is never a waste of time when you practice. Never. You’ll find (as I and my students have) that by stopping briefly to refresh, you’ll return to the task of practice with greater focus and clarity. You’ll make fewer mistakes (which means you’ll spend less time making unsuccessful “takes” of whatever you’re working on). In short, you’ll get more done in less time. Really.

Plus, you’ll develop a good standard for awareness that you’ll bring into your performances. All good news.

And if you’d like to stop and take a slightly longer moment to refresh your thinking, you might want to think to yourself the Alexander Technique directions:

I allow my neck to be free, so that my head releases upwards on top of my spine, (I don’t tense my neck and jaw, jamming my head downwards into my torso)

so that entire torso can lengthen and widen, (I don’t tense my shoulders, back and ribcage)

so that my knees can release forward and away, (I don’t tighten my pelvis to draw my legs up tightly into my hip joints; I don’t lock my knees.)

so that my heels can release into the ground. (I don’t tense my feet and ankles, so that I allow the weight of my body to go through my feet)

These directions are a good description of what happens as you release tension and expand back to your full stature. If you practice using them consistently, you’ll get consistently good results (both I and my students have).

But whether you use these directions, or ask yourself the kinds of questions that I’ve listed above, or simply remind yourself to pause for a moment to regain your stature and your clarity, make a point of stopping to refresh your thinking.

Make it an aim as you practice, and acknowledge and reward yourself with encouragement when you’ve succeeded in doing so. Ask yourself, “How many times was I able to stop and redirect my efforts in the 15 minutes I’ve spent working on this particular exercise?” Notice that when you do this, you play with much less tension, and greater clarity and consistency. Make this a part of your practice habits, and you’ll be pleased with the results.

Advice For Improving The Speed And Accuracy Of Your Fingers

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In my experience teaching the Alexander Technique to pianists, string and woodwinds players, I often encounter a similar kind of counterproductive thinking concerning the hands and fingers. Specifically, too much attention is placed upon what the hands and fingers are doing.

Not only does this divide the musician’s attention, often cutting off the awareness of what’s going on in his/her body as the music is being played, but also, it interferes with hearing pitch, timbre, and perceiving time clearly.

And sadly, all this attention on the fingers doesn’t even make them work better. Quite the contrary.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of problems with hyper-awareness of the fingers that I’ve come across with my students:

A saxophonist who is consciously trying to keep his fingers very close to the keys (in an effort to not “waste” movement and play more “efficiently”). In doing so, he makes his entire body stiff and his fingers sometimes can’t move in response to the demands of the music. He’s stuck.
A pianist who stares constantly down at her hands as she plays, making sure her fingering is “correct” as she plays an unusually high percentage of wrong notes on a piece that she knows quite well.
A violinist who can’t keep his eyes off his fingers for fear of playing out of tune. (Ironically, as soon as he takes his eyes off his hands, his pitch improves dramatically.)

The simple truth is that if you want to improve how your hands work as you play, you have to leave them alone, so they can do the right thing without interference. To do this you have change your thinking. You have to replace the thought of your fingers “doing the right thing” with a broader kind of thinking.

First, start with the aim of being free in your body as you play. In particular, ask yourself for freedom in your neck, shoulders and back. This alone will not only change the quality and quantity of muscular tension as you play, but also, will calm and center your mind and improve your breathing.

Make this a top priority as you practice. The freer you are in your head, neck and back, the freer your fingers are to move and create the stability necessary to play your instrument. This is something you’ll need to practice as you practice (yes, I meant to say that). Here’s a previous article I’ve written about practicing paying attention to help you with this.

Next, rather than trying to feel how (or what) you think your fingers need to feel, think instead of where your fingers need to go as you play from one note the next.

By taking your attention from what you feel to where you are going, you increase your spatial awareness (and improve your sense of time, as well). Your brain organizes the music making task in a fundamentally different way, allowing your fingers to move freely, easily and quickly. In the simplest sense, you get out of the way of your brain’s ability to organize and control complex movement, so it can do what it needs to do unimpeded.

This is something that can be practiced gradually, using simple visualization:

For example, if you’re a saxophonist, practice a very easy, familiar pattern (arpeggio, scale, intervals, etc.) at a slow tempo as you think, not of what your fingers are doing, but what keys need to be pressed and/or released as you go from note to note. Think ever so slightly ahead to the next note to be played as you land on each note. If you practice this regularly, you’ll learn that you can play rapid passages that you couldn’t play before with stunning ease and clarity. (Same general idea if you play piano, strings, etc. Think where on your instrument you want your fingers to land, not what your fingers have to do.)

Finally, replace the thought of fingers with tonal imagination. Practice singing passages or patterns that you find difficult on your instrument. First, sing the passage slowly and very precisely, making sure the sequence of pitches and the rhythms are crystal clear in your mind. Once you’ve accomplished that, play the passage by following your ear. Really hear the passage clearly in your mind, and don’t worry about what your fingers have to do.

Most of the chronic technical difficulties musicians struggle with are a result of tense anticipation. Hyper-awareness of the fingers is akin to driving a car on the highway at top speed with your eyes planted downward on the road in front of you. Scary and stiff. Same thing on your instrument.

So change how you think about your fingers. Practice consistently shifting your attention from your fingers to your broader senses, and you’ll be surprised how limber and accurate your technique becomes.

Clarify A Few Misconceptions About Your Body To Make Better Music

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In my experience as an Alexander Technique teacher, I find that a significant contributing factor to many musician’s problems is a misunderstanding of how their bodies work with respect to playing their instrument.

I’ll see, for example, flutists who strain as they try to bend fingers where there are no joints. I’ll see pianists trying to use their necks to lift their arms. I’ll see brass players trying t0 “push the air from the diaphragm” even though this is physically impossible (the diaphragm, which is a muscle, releases on the exhalation).

These are examples of what F.M. Alexander (founder of the Alexander Technique) would call erroneous preconceived ideas about the use and the functioning of the body.

Your brain actually creates a representation of the size, structure and functioning of the muscles, bones and joints in your body. One thing that many postural scientists assert is that this representation always trumps reality.

In essence, this means that you will try to move in accordance to how you believe your structure works, whether that belief is based upon truth or fallacy. (Again, you’ll strain trying to bend at joints that don’t exist, for example)

Of course, much of this “belief” (or misunderstanding) is on an unconscious level, and has been cultivated by a lifetime of habit. Equally unfortunate, some of this belief is conscious, due to misinformation. Too many times I see musicians creating excess strain as they try to carry out some bad (anatomically counterproductive, if not impossible) advice given to them by their music teachers.

But whether below the level of consciousness or not, the unfortunate truth for musicians is that this misconceived sense of self, multiplied by thousands of repetitive movements everyday (practice), leads to strain, injury, poor coordination and inconsistent technique.

The good news is that you can change your misconceptions about how your body works. You can learn to move more in accordance to the design of your structure as it relates to gravity.

How? Start by gaining some knowledge. Get a basic understanding of the structure and functioning of your musculo-skelatal system. Look at pictures from anatomy books and study the structures. Experiment with your own body to find where your joints are and how they work.

I’ve come across a tool that is highly useful for helping you to gain a clear and accurate understanding of how your body functions as you move and maintain posture. It is a marvelous DVD produced by Barbara Conable (edited and narrated by Amy Likar) entitled Move Well, Avoid Injury: What Everyone Needs To Know About The Body.

Barbara and Bill Conable are both Alexander Technique teachers, and have developed a method they call Body Mapping to help musicians (and non-musicians alike) to gain a practical understanding of how their bodies work in movement and stillness. Amy Likar is an Alexander Technique teacher and a professional flutist.

This clearly narrated, logically organized presentation has 2 hours of absolutely essential information. Each chapter has lively animations and images that give you an easy way to understand, visualize and clarify your own body map.

It is organized in chapters covering such important topics as:

Balance-the physiological components that help us maintain our upright stature
Arms-thorough explanation and demonstration of how your arms (including your wrists, hands and fingers) work in relation to the rest of your body
Legs-besides examining the structures of the legs (pelvis, too), this chapter helps you to understand your legs in relation to your arms in moving and maintaining balance
Breathing-really demystifies so much of the conflicting information about this too often misunderstood function
Inclusive attention-how your other senses are integrated and impact how you move and maintain posture

The other chapters are equally interesting and helpful, addressing specifically the issue of how our body maps become flawed, and how we can correct them.

Here is a sample video demonstrating the rotation of the lower arm:

If you’re a musician, you will be nothing but helped by viewing and studying this video. If you teach music, you owe it to your students to have a reasonably clear understanding of the type of functional anatomy and physiology presented in this program. Not only will you give them accurate information, but also, you’ll be able to help them to prevent many of the harmful habits that come from these misconceptions.

I own the DVD, have spent many hours with this material, and highly recommend it.

Clarifying your body map won’t guaranty that you’ll solve all your movement and coordination problems as you practice and play music. Because your habits often feel “right” to you, it can be difficult to sense the misdirected energy and tension that comes with a poor body map (this is where a skilled Alexander Technique teacher and/or Andover Educator can help).

But just gaining the right information, studying it and applying it to what you do can make a huge difference. As I said, it’s a great place to start. I’ve seen some of my students improve instantly and significantly just be rectifying a particular misconception about their bodies as they play their instrument.

And that reminds me of this “oh, so true” aphorism by F.M. Alexander:

“We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.”

No doubt.

Want To Improve Your Playing? Stop Trying

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“Trying is only emphasizing the thing we already know.”

F.M. Alexander

Musicians often struggle with their technique because they misdirect their energy. Put simply, they don’t always organize their efforts in the most constructive possible way as they play. Too much tension here, not enough there. Over using one part of their bodies, while not engaging another adequately. This ultimately manifests itself as a roadblock in their technical development, limiting improvement.

The reasons for this can be many, but mostly come down to these three things:

Erroneous misconceptions-Misunderstanding (or ignorance) of your anatomical structure and functioning can lead you blindly into doing the wrong thing. The same for not understanding the acoustic principles that govern your instrument (voice, too!) and how your anatomical structure and functioning impact (or interact with) these principles.
Faulty sensory awareness-In the simplest sense, you’re often not doing what you think you’re doing. For example, you might be stiffening your head, neck and shoulders as you play (significantly interfering with the use of your hands), even though it doesn’t feel at all like you are. (In fact, it might feel to you that you’re “relaxed”.)
Force of habit-When your habit is influenced by numbers 1 and 2 above, you develop very prominent (yet ultimately counterproductive, even harmful) habits. All your efforts in playing become guided by these habits.

If these above obstacles are not dealt with, frustration eventually sets in. And when that happens, you might do what many musicians do in order to break through the barrier: try harder. Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

But does trying harder help? Well, if trying harder means (as quoted by Alexander, above) that you are “only emphasizing” the thing you already know, then, I can tell you from personal experience (both as teacher and performer) that it doesn’t.

As a very wise person once said, “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”

Instead of trying harder, you need to simply proceed differently. A shift in your thinking about the problem has to occur. You have to go from the “known to the unknown”, as Alexander would say. You have to start becoming what I call “constructively curious”.

Instead of trying, you have to start asking questions. Then you can implement a strategy for change. Here are some guidelines to help you:

Start by stopping-If you’ve tried some technically difficult passage 53 times in a row with no success or improvement, don’t try it a 54th time. It’s only going to make things worse. Instead, stop what your doing so that something different can happen. Then, use the procedures below.
Identify the problemI-Once you’ve stopped, you can take some time to analyze what the problem is. Try to understand clearly what has to happen (both acoustically/mechanically, and with your physical structure) to become successful in your attempts. The more you understand about how your body functions best (an Alexander Technique teacher can really help here) and the acoustic principles of your instrument, the more constructively you can think. Take time to educate yourself. You’ll never look at that as time wasted. Never.
Observe yourself to find the cause of the problem-Once you become clearer about what has to happen in yourself to get the best results musically, notice your habits. Especially notice the tension in your head, neck, shoulders and back. Notice your breathing. See if you can make the connection between what has to happen to get the best results, and the habits you might have that interfere with these results. (Again, you can be significantly helped with this by a skilled Alexander Technique teacher).
Consciously prevent yourself from going into your habit-Once you’re clear about your habits, you can make a conscious decision to prevent those that interfere with your ability to play your best.
Shift your emphasis-To change, it is most important that you do something differently. (Actually, it’s most important that you stop doing your habit.) Therefore, you should shift your emphasis from “playing the passage up to tempo”, for example, to “playing the passage without my habit”. Every time you play without your habit, you weaken the habit, and free yourself. When this happens, you’re on the road to improvement.

So what do you notice about yourself regarding your practice? Where do you get stuck? If you shift your aim from trying, to asking (with a healthy dose of stopping to help it all along), you’ll find something excitingly different. And perhaps you’ll discover for yourself the most constructive method to address your own technical challenges with your instrument. Consistent improvement will follow.

F. M Alexander was in good company as far as this is concerned. I’ll leave you with this quote by Albert Einstein:

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Let me know what you think.

Why It’s A Good Idea To Look For Trouble

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“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 be the essential value of studying the Alexander Technique. I came to study this work because, as a saxophonist, I was not able to meet a stimulus that was putting me “in the wrong”. As a result, I had significant dysfunction in my hand s that had stopped me from making music.

Today, thanks to using what I’ve learned from the Technique, I’m playing better than ever (enjoying it more than ever, too!) I’ve also had a complete shift in how I approach the problems of playing music. This is something that has significantly aided me in helping the musicians who come to me for lessons.

Before I came to discover the Alexander Technique, I always struggled with consistency in playing the saxophone. If everything was “just right”, then I played very well…freely, expressively, openly, skillfully, joyfully…

But the problem was that often everything wasn’t just right: Not the ideal reed. Not the best acoustic environment. Not hearing my sound the way I’d like to. Not being completely okay with what the drummer was playing. Not liking the dynamics and intonation choices of the trumpet player. Not feeling the thing I think I needed to feel. Not loving every single note I played when I improvised. Not….well, you get the idea. I could find all kinds of things that put me in the wrong.

And when things were less than ideal, I would react differently to playing than when things were better. I’d pull myself into all kinds of distorted positions, amplifying effort, becoming rigid and self-conscoius, thoughts running rapidly through my head like a constant commentary on how I was doing. Lot’s of misdirected energy as I tried “even harder” to play well. Of course, none of this reactive effort did anything but make me play worse.

So to make a long story short, I had to learn to react differently to the thought of playing the saxophone in general, but particularly when conditions seemed less than perfect. And so I have learned to react differently (and am continuing to do so!)

It’s very easy to look outside of yourself and say why you couldn’t perform your best. Unfortunately, you can’t always control what’s outside of yourself. But you can, to a very large degree, learn to control how you respond to what’s outside of yourself.

One of the things I’m often looking for as I teach is how I can “lead my student into temptation.” I want to find the things that put this particular musician in the wrong, then teach her or him how to react differently. How to “deal with it” as Alexander would say.

When my students are doing particularly well during their lessons I jokingly tell them “Okay, that’s going great. Now let’s go look for some trouble.” We always manage to find something. Then my student has a chance to apply the principles that best address whatever the problem is.

Not only does this bring continuous improvement, but equally important, it cultivates confidence in their ability to help themselves. Thats huge. I proceed in the same way in my own musical practice.

So what puts you in the wrong as you play? Here are a few of the things in general that put many musicians in the wrong:

Tempo-whether very fast or challengingly slow.
The acoustic environment-dead, to live, noisy.
Tactile and kinesthetic sensations-things don’t “feel” like your use to them feeling.
Reaction to less than ideal conditions of your equipment.
Challenging registers of the instrument.
Challenging passages in the music.

Make a list of things that put you in the wrong. You can be as specific as you like. Once you’ve made your list, see if you can notice how you react when you encounter these challenging stimuli. Do you:

Stiffen up, particularly in your neck and shoulders? Your jaw? Perhaps your legs and feet as well?
Hold your breath or otherwise interfere with your breathing?
Feel hurried? Are your thoughts unclear and racing? Do you become hyper-critical? Where does your attention go?
Feel like you can’t hear yourself?
Feel angry? Frustrated? If so, how does that impact your breathing and body tension? (See above)

Once you become aware of your reactions, see if you can notice how these reactions negatively impact your ability to play your best. Then modify your thinking a bit to change things, to lesson the tension. If you shift your thought from “how am I doing?” to “what am I doing?” (from judgement to discernment), it can really begin to open some important doors to your self-improvement. This is where a skilled teacher can really be of help, showing you how to become better aware, and able to prevent these habitual reactions.

Playing music can be a joyful experience virtually all the time. Really. So don’t be afraid of trouble. Go looking for it, learn how to deal with it, and rediscover this joy.