Without a doubt the most remarkable drummer I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing perform live was the late Art Blakey. I saw him when he was in his 60’s. His band was made up of players mostly in their 20’s (“young lions”, as the jazz media were calling them), but Art was the prime force…the energy, the color, the power, the mood. Continue reading
What does it mean to warm up before a performance or practice session? What does it entail? What is your primary objective when you warm up? How crucial is your warmup to the success of your performance or practice session? What happens when you don’t warm up sufficiently? Continue reading
One of the first things I ask a musician who comes to me to study the Alexander Technique is, “What are you thinking about as you’re playing music?” I get a variety of answers, bust most of the answers have one thing in common: Continue reading
One of the most frustrating, dissatisfying feelings you can have as a musician is when your performance falls far short from your potential. After you’ve prepared adequately, played well in the practice room, and in rehearsal, you come to your performance with positive expectations. Continue reading
This morning I was looking at some videos I’d found on YouTube after searching “good posture.” What I found was a mix of ideas and demonstrations, some helpful, many not so helpful. One of the things that many of the “not so helpful” videos had in common was in presenting posture as static. Something to be held.
Here were some of the most frequently given directions about holding this good posture:
As an experiment, I took out my saxophone and followed these directions. Besides not being able to produce my sound in any reasonably pleasing way, I also noticed I couldn’t move. I couldn’t express myself. I couldn’t really breathe very well. I was not free. I was planted. I would get tired very quickly if I had to maintain such holding in my body.
As an Alexander Technique teacher, I wasn’t too surprised by this experiment. I see time and again musicians who get some kind of a notion about good posture, then make a mess of themselves (and the music!) as they try to maintain it.
Now in all fairness, if you were to look at snapshot of somebody maintaining this kind of holding, it would probably look like good posture. You’d likely be able to see the symmetrical alignment in the body. But if you were to put your hands on this same person’s body, you’d fell nothing but tension and rigidity.
According to the Alexander principles, good posture is a result of a good use of yourself. And this good use involves releasing yourself into balance.
Contrast the above directions above with the Alexander Technique primary directions:
Notice the word release is used in each direction. This is a matter of un-doing as opposed to doing, and involves much less effort. In truth, we are designed to release upwards into good balance, posture and alignment. It’s what we naturally default to (as long as we don’t interfere with it!) Just look at a small child sit, stand, and otherwise move and you’ll see this to be evident.
If you were to see somebody carrying out the above Alexander directions, they too would look like they were maintaining good posture (nicely aligned, etc.) But the difference is that they would be able to move easily, breathe easily and express themselves easily through these directions. Just like a small child. Balance instead of bracing.
So if you find yourself struggling to maintain the correct posture, think of balance and fluidity instead. This is where a good Alexander Technique teacher can help tremendously. In an Alexander lesson you’ll learn how you are creating habitual patterns of tension that are interfering with your natural, easy, upright balance and coordination.
Take a look at this video of the great pianist Artur Rubinstein performing Chopin. Notice how beautifully upright he is as he plays. If you were to take a snapshot of him in mid-flight, you would see what appears to be good posture. But as you can also see, he is free and flowing, expressing himself effortlessly and gracefully. Releasing into balance.