Tag Archives: Alexander Technique

My Main Objective When Practicing Something Difficult

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Is there an ideal, universal, one-size-fits-all objective that musicians have when practicing something they perceive as being “difficult”?

Well, certainly the most obvious objective is to become functionally proficient with the very thing that’s being practiced.

But there are typically several other aims nested inside that main objective when practicing difficult music.

How about you? What is it that you want when practicing something significantly outside of your comfort zone?

It’s usually a lot more than just getting the notes “under your fingers”, so to speak. Don’t you think?

You probably want to be able to play whatever it is you’re working on with beautiful tone, good intonation, time, feel, expressive nuance, accurate details (like articulation and dynamics), and conviction.

You might also have a specific goal in mind regarding the tempo, or the key, or with the range.

All of these are reasonable and worthy goals, integrated into the overall goal of becoming proficient with the music that challenges you.

I share these goals, as well, and keep them in my consciousness when practicing anything difficult.

But I have one main objective that I give even higher priority to than the music itself when practicing anything outside of my own comfort zone:

Optimizing the quality of how I react  moment to moment as I play.

More specifically, optimizing the quality of what I do with my entire self  as I play:

“Am I free and mobile?”

“Am I in reasonable balance?”

“Is my breathing easy, expansive and reflexive?”

“Are my eyes lively and engaged, but soft?”

“Am I organizing myself to go lightly upward?”

“Am I connected to (and supported by) the ground?”

“Is my attention flexible and responsive?”

These questions I’ve mentioned above reflect many of the aims and benefits of studying the Alexander Technique. In the simplest sense, the Alexander Technique helps me to react more favorably to my musical (and technical) aims and desires when practicing.

This is especially important when working on anything that I find challenging to me as a saxophonist and/or improviser. By paying attention to (and gaining domain over) my reactions (i.e.,how I move, maintain balance and perceive myself and the music) I cultivate two very important skills:

1. Being able to use my entire self in such a way as to give me the greatest chance of success in actually playing the music (because I’m working in harmony with my human design).

2. Building a constructive attitude and consciousness that becomes the norm in musical performance.

You are not here to do exercises, nor to learn to do something right, but to get 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

Alexander went on to say that one of the main aims of his work was to help us to more effectively and confidently go from “the known, to the unknown.”

And for a musician, practicing or playing anything perceived as being “difficult”, is, by definition, a step into the unknown.

Alexander describes prioritizing this “quality of process” as the means-whereby.  When I pay attention to quality of the the means-whereby, I simply play better and learn more efficiently.

So, for example, I increase the tempo of a particular exercise only if I can do so and still maintain a reasonably good use of myself. I won’t move the metronome up a few beats-per-minute at the expense of taking myself out of optimal coordination. It makes no sense to do so. There is nothing positive to be gained from doing so.

It is this very principle that most informs how I work with a musician when teaching the Alexander Technique. So many musicians that come to me for help are literally “un-coordinating” themselves when playing music that challenges them. As they learn to stop doing this, the doorway to their potential becomes open and clear.

So notice how you’re reacting moment to moment the next time you’re working on something outside of your comfort zone. What do you do as you prepare to play each phrase?

Do you compress yourself? Do you tighten your neck and jaw? Do you lock your joints? Do you knit your brow?

See if you can react in a freer, more elastic, and expansive way. Let your neck be free and let yourself be supported by the ground. Organize yourself upwards in a light and lively manner, allowing yourself to release so that you can approach the music with ease, confidence, curiosity and joy.

Skill and Coordination (They’re Not Necessarily the Same Thing)

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One of the aims of the Alexander Technique is to improve coordination.

And I would say more specifically for musicians, the aim of the Technique is to improve the quality of  overall  coordination that you use to implement your music making skills.

A misapprehension that many musicians have is that skill and coordination are one and the same thing.

Though they are certainly closely related, they’re not exactly  one and the same.

How so?

Allow me to clarify by offering my  working definitions of the two terms.

Your skill is your ability to carry out your desired task (for our purposes, playing music). It is manifested in tangible, sonic results: pitch, time, articulation, tone color, technical control, expression, etc.

Your coordination is what you do with your entire self  to carry out your skill. It is manifested in muscular effort, or more specifically, the quality of movement you apply to the task. (This includes balance, posture, breathing….everything you do!)

So it is possible to be a highly skilled musician (and yes, this does mean having highly cultivated  fine  motor coordination skills), yet have less than optimal overall, gross  motor coordination.

You can witness this in many instances, if you take time to notice.

Some musicians make it look easy, don’t they?

Truth be told, for most of these musicians, it is  easy. They typically appear effortless because their efforts are so singularly integrated into the skill of their performance. Virtually nothing they do interferes with their artistic intentions, with their desire of self-expression, nor with the acoustic and physiologic components involved in playing.

(I look upon classical pianist Artur Rubinstein as a glowing example: free neck, strong and flexible back and arms, moving easily, fluidly and naturally with the music. It is this beautiful, efficient coordination that is at the service of his skills.)

And I think we’ve all seen/heard virtuosic musicians who look like they’re fighting an imaginary foe as they play music: head compressed into the neck, raised (stiff) shoulders, rigid ribs and back, hard narrowed gaze, noisy breathing.

Yet they still deliver the goods. They still play devastatingly beautiful music. (No, I won’t point my finger at any one musician here, as a gesture of respect. But I so easily could!)

So should these musicians even bother with improving their overall coordination? Should you?

Yes. And for three main reasons:

1. Your overall coordination impacts your skill. When you are working in a less than optimally coordinated way, you are interfering with your brain/body’s ability to carry out your skill in the most efficient manner. In essence, you’re working against your human design, and not in accordance with it.  You might be able to do so. But you do so despite of, not because  of, your coordination. Improving your overall coordination invites greater skill. Or, as F.M. Alexander (the founder of the Alexander Technque) said, your improved coordination creates “the ideal conditions” for your skill to manifest itself through your bodily mechanism.

2. By improving your overall coordination, you reduce your risk of injury (and fatigue). This is why many musicians seek my help as an Alexander teacher in the first place. I have volumes of stories of very highly skilled musicians I’ve encountered who have career-threatening health issues that are related to the poor coordination they apply to their skill. As their coordination improves, so does their health, comfort, endurance and satisfaction.

3. By improving your overall coordination, you open yourself up to other expressive possibilities. This is the hidden gem of all this. As you improve your overall coordination, you also discover different ways to experience the music you play. You become less stereotyped (less “stuck”) in your interpretive choices, which, believe it or not, are highly conditioned by your bodily reactions. (This is especially true for improvising musicians!)

Our tendency as musicians is to sometimes become overly concerned with the parts that seem most pertinent to playing our instruments at the expense of neglecting the rest of ourselves. (For example, a flutist thinking perhaps too  much about the formation of the embouchure at the expense of not noticing neck and shoulder strain.)

If this sounds even remotely familiar to you, consider including  the quality of how you “use” your entire self (your overall coordination) into the consciousness of  playing your instrument.

Let your head be poised freely atop your spine (and of course, let your jaw be free). Let your shoulders release and widen. Soften your gaze. Let you knees unlock. If you’re standing, let your ankles be free and mobile (feet, too!) as you permit the ground to support you. Let your breathing be elastic, easy, reflexive and expansive.

Think balance, mobility and expansion, instead of position or  posture. A nice, lively, upward organization of your whole organism is the wish. Notice how these things impact your skill.

And of course, if you need any help in this area, consider finding a skilled Alexander Technique teacher. Allow your coordination to support your skill, and your expression.

10 Recurring Principles Of Effective Practice (And Performance)

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This past year I’ve had the privilege and honor to serve as practice coach and Alexander Technique teacher to some especially outstanding musicians, from elite orchestral members, to studio session pros, to outstanding jazz artists.

I’m always so thankful for what I learn from my clients, and use what I learn not only to help other musicians, but to also better help myself as a musician.

As I reflect upon the year, both as teacher and as student, I become aware of certain recurring principles that seem be most essential in the process of improving as a musician. These are the concepts that arose most frequently for both my clients and for me (sort of  a “Top 10”, as it were), and are topics I’ve written about in greater detail on this blog.

I’d like to share them with you in the form of some gentle advice.

Here they are:

1. Be clear about what you want.

How do you want to play? Strive for a detailed conception of the kind of musician you aspire to be. Understand that this conception will most likely change along the way, but being clear about what you want will help you work most specifically and effectively.

2. Be clear about how things work.

Understand at least the basic science behind how your instrument works (acoustics), and your human design (anatomy and physiology). You can avoid lots of misdirected effort by being clear on these things. Take responsibility to learn and understand the physical principles involved in playing, and pick and choose the pedagogy that best suits these principles.

3. Use yourself well.

This is the foundation of the Alexander Technique. How you “use yourself” includes your movement, posture (including how you hold your instrument) and your quality of attention (basically, how you “react” as you play your instrument). By using your entire self  in a balanced, more conscious way (i.e., in cooperation with your human design) you create the best conditions for successful musical results (not to mention you also avoid strain and injury).

4. Let your ear lead.

Aim for an expressive  rather than a mechanical  quality in your attention as you play. This is a matter of letting your aural imagination (your ear!) be the initiator of musical activity (e.g., your desire/conception for your best, most expressive sound; not your desire/conception for the “correct embouchure”). When your aural conception is clear, your brain is free to organize the movement to manifest your musical expression in a naturally efficient way.

5. Balance the internal and external.

More specifically, don’t become too internally focused  as you practice and/or play (micro-managing tongue, fingers, embouchure, etc.) Be available to notice what you’re doing with your entire self (an internal awareness), and integrate that with hearing and feeling your sound and expression outside  of yourself (in your instrument, in the room, in conjunction with the other musicians, etc.) Many coordination problems musicians develop (including focal dystonia) are partly a result of a too narrowly focused internal attention.

6. Understand (and strengthen) the relationship between your perception of time and your coordination.

All problems musicians have with coordination and technique are some form of problem with perceiving time. As you improve your time, you improve your coordination and technique.  The clearer and more precise your time perception becomes, the cleaner and faster your technique becomes. So rather than wishing for “fast fingers”, wish instead for clear, solid time. (Even things like pitch and attack are conditioned by your perception of time.)

7. Bring things within reach.

I too often see musicians reaching too far beyond what they are capable of doing in that particular practice session. Besides being a less than optimum learning experience, this also leads to frustration and self-doubt, as well as poor movement and postural habits (i.e., “misuse”). Aim at regressing (simplifying) a too-difficult exercise so that is only slightly  out of your reach. Then work gently and mindfully to bring it back within your reach. Repeat this process many times as you’re practicing something and you’ll be pleasently surprised at your progress. “Lots of little bites finish the entire meal with the greatest satisfaction”, my mother used to say to us kids.

8. Get good at stopping.

There is no point in rushing on to the next attempt to correct what you just did until you are clear about what needs to change, or more specifically, what you need to do differently to make that change. Get good at stopping and redirecting attention and effort. The better I get at practicing music, the better I get at stopping. It is never  a waste of time.

9. Find satisfaction.

Sure, you want to get better. You want to be able to do more than you can do right now. But it’s important that you reaffirm what you already can  do. You need to do this everyday  (no matter how “poorly” your practice session has gone). Always try to end your practice session with something that makes you feel satisfied with what you can already  do as a musician. This will keep you inspired, motivated, and in love (which leads me to the next principle!)

10. Play from a place of love.

I leave the most important principle for last. I still witness far too many musicians that are making music predominantly from a place of fear. This often creates problems for them, some of these problems quite serious. Playing music with a motivational energy of love not only is more satisfying, but it also helps your brain organize the movements necessary to play in the most optimum manner. Love brings with it curiosity, faithfulness and persistence, and with these come continued improvement.

So I hope you consider some of these principles, as I also wish you a wonderful, growth-filled, musically challenging and satisfying life!

Strength, Coordination And Endurance: Avoiding Confusion

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“Each faculty acquires fitness for its function by performing its function.”

-Herbert Spencer

A good number of musicians who seek my help as an Alexander Technique teacher do so because of a problem with endurance. In the simplest sense, they can’t seem to play for prolonged periods without fatigue and/or pain.

In many of these cases, these musicians have tried to improve their endurance by working directly  on increasing strength (with or without their instrument). This often proves to be ineffective. Here’s why:

For musicians who practice and play on a regular basis (regardless of instrument), most endurance problems are actually problems of coordination.

Playing cello and chopping wood

Yes, it does  take strong shoulder girdle muscles and back muscles to play an instrument like the cello. But it doesn’t take nearly the strength to play the cello as it does to chop a pile of wood.

Yet you might find a cellist who can chop wood all afternoon and not get nearly as exhausted in his neck, back and shoulders as he would practicing cello for an hour. (I actually had one such Alexander Technique student as this.)

If you take into consideration the quote above by Herbert Spencer, the best thing a cellist can do to develop the necessary endurance to play the cello would be to, well… play the cello.

According to Spencer’s principle, it is the activity of playing the cello  that builds the kind of muscular endurance specific for the task. (In exercise science, this is the training principle of specificity.)

So why does this cellist, who can chop wood all day, get fatigued so easily playing his instrument?

The answer is simple: He is coordinating himself in a way that is counterproductive to playing cello.

It is a matter of what he is doing with his entire body  as he carries out his skill.

In the case of this particular musician, he was over-straightening his spine, while at the same time stiffening his neck, as he held on rigidly to his elevated shoulders.

Because of all this holding on, his arms were not free to move out of his back. His shoulders were doing way too much work, and his upper back muscles (which are very well-designed for such a task) were doing far too little. His shoulders would get painfully exhausted after just 20 or 30 minutes of playing.

You could hear it in his sound, which tended to be small and sometimes brittle.

To make a long story short, as he began to improve his coordination (through his work with the Alexander Technique), he began to improve his endurance. Just that simple.

If you find yourself constantly struggling with endurance as you play or sing, it is likely a problem of coordination. You can take any very fit and strong person, have them carry out a task in a mechanically disadvantageous  enough way (poorly coordinated), and they’ll get exhausted in no time at all.

Strength and endurance

Now to be clear, strength most certainly has an impact upon endurance. But let’s also be clear about what strength and endurance are.

From a functional point of view, strength can be defined as the ability to exert force against an external resistance. Whereas, endurance is the ability to maintain low levels of force for extended periods of time.

In a well-coordinated organism, increasing muscular strength can have a marked improvement upon endurance. But for others, if these stronger muscles are not coordinated in an optimum way, there might be little to no improvement in endurance.

I’ve not yet had a musician come to me for help who has needed to “strengthen” anything, directly. They just need to rethink and re-experience kinesthetically, a more efficient coordination. This coordination comes about primarily by subtracting  unnecessary, habitual tension, and the lasting changes typically develop gradually, but surely.

What you can do

So again, if you struggle with endurance, or have students who do, here are a few things to keep in mind that might help:

  • The test of time-If you’ve been working for more than a couple of months on a particular exercise in an attempt to address an endurance issue, and you are noticing little or no improvement, you need to change course. Adaptations in strength and endurance come relatively quickly. If you’re going on for prolonged periods without improvement, either change the exercise, or (more important!) consider that your problem is one of coordination. (This is where a good Alexander teacher can help.)
  • Think of the whole instead of the parts-As I mentioned above, you are using your entire self,  your whole body, to play. Begin to notice where you might be unnecessarily tensing yourself or taking yourself out of balance as you play. See if you can begin to lessen the effort.
  • Specifity is best-If you think that you actually do need more strength to deal with certain demands of playing your instrument, aim at doing things that are as specific  as possible to the task at hand. For example, daily long tone exercises on a wind instrument to strengthen the facial/embouchure muscles are much more effective than a series of “tension” exercises without the instrument (like vigorously pressing and releasing your lips and corners in multiple repetitions). Specific activity leads to optimum functional strength.
  • Equipment-Sometimes what is making you exhausted is simply poor equipment choices. I recently gave a Skype consultation to a very good tenor saxophonist who was struggling mightily with fatigue. It turned out that one of the biggest factors was his mouthpiece. The lay and tip opening were just not right for his anatomy and his conception of sound. When he changed to a better mouthpiece, his problem was effectively solved. Stay open-minded about your equipment. As  your coordination improves, sometimes your equipment needs change (this is always a good thing!)
  • Health considerations-It is also possible that your issue with muscular fatigue might be of a medical nature. If you’ve tried just about everything (including my suggestions here), believe it’s not an issue of coordination, yet you still have problems and/or, your condition seems to worsen, by all means seek medical consultation. It could be a variety of issues, from neurological, to autoimmune, to orthopedic, or more. Get yourself the help you need.

So it’s fine if you want to do exercises every day to increase/maintain your endurance to play. The reason many accomplished musicians do so is because they get good results from their efforts.

But I can’t help but think about what Eddy Merckx (arguably the best racing bicyclist in the history of the sport) said when asked what the best thing a serious competitive cyclist should do to improve:

“Ride lots.”

And so it should be for us. Play lots. Improve your coordination. Enjoy the results.

Something You Do When You Practice That Is Always A Good Use Of Your Time

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If you practice patience in one moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow.

-Chinese Proverb

Serious, daily musical practice is something that is loaded with speculation and second-guessing. Lots of “should’ve, would’ve and could’ve”, as my father would say.

Whenever I’m giving a practice coaching session to a musician, the topic of practice efficiency is always punctuated with concerns of “wasted time”:

“Maybe I should’ve spent more time on this, instead of that.”

“If I would’ve done this, instead of that, I could’ve achieved my goal sooner.”

And so on…

And this is a fair concern to have, for obvious reasons. Aimless, misdirected practice neither satisfies nor improves a dedicated musician.

But practice efficiency is, in of itself, a lifetime quest. It’s not something you master. It’s something you just get better and better at (if you’re dedicated to improving your process).

I would say that I practice with a high degree of efficiency these days: clearly defined goals, with an effective prescription and implementation of work to attain these goals. I can accomplish a good deal in a relatively short time during my practice session.

Yet I still occasionally find myself, if not “wasting my time” on certain things, at the very least, not working as efficiently as I could and would like to.

Having said that, there is one thing I do in every  practice session that is always a good use of my time. I do this many, many times during any given practice session, yet I still don’t do it often enough.

What is it I do?

I stop.

Yes, I simply stop. I pause.

I practice (as the Chinese Proverb above states) being patient.

Now, to be clear, I don’t hesitate. I pause. There’s a difference.

Hesitation is not a choice. Pausing is. Hesitation is usually accompanied by doubt, tension and restriction. Pausing is accompanied by clarity, release and freedom.

What do I do when I pause? Mostly, I redirect my thinking. This redirection can take shape in a variety of ways.

Sometimes, I just need to take the saxophone out of my mouth, and to put my entire self back into neutral for a moment.

I do this when either:

I sense myself accumulating more tension than I’d like to have as I practice a particular thing. Or, when I’ve lost the clarity of purpose, the clarity of thinking, that I know is necessary for me to gain something useful from whatever I’m practicing.

Just letting go of the instrument, letting my arms fall lightly to my sides and asking for my shoulders and neck to release back into length. Very simple.

It’s absolutely amazing how easily I can get back on track, and get right back to constructive, mindful effort during my practice segment by taking time to  do this.

So how long to I stop for? However long it takes. Usually it’s a matter of just a few seconds.

But whenever I choose  to stop, I always keep the promise I made to give myself time. To not jump right back in without redirecting myself. To bring myself back to choice, instead of reaction.

I’m not talking about taking breaks here in your practice routine. You know, 20 or 30 minutes of practice, punctuated by 5 or 10 minutes of rest. That’s all good, too. And that is a big part of my practice strategy/process.

What I’m talking about is the ability to pause many, many times during, let’s say, a 20-minute practice segment.

As an Alexander Technique teacher, learning to stop and choose is a fundamental skill that I encourage and teach to all my students. It’s essential for change.

I too often observe musicians making a mistake (or another unwanted response) as they are practicing something, and then jump right into again without any change in thinking. When this happens, they tend to just do the same thing they did before that led to the unwanted result.

Einstein’s definition of insanity comes to mind here:

Doing the same thing over and over again, the same way, but expecting a different result.

As you can discern, that’s not exactly the most efficient use of time and effort.

Whenever you pause to release unnecessary tension, to refresh your thinking, to reaffirm your intention, you are cultivating the conditions in yourself that are most ideal to learn and to play music. You are moving back into the heart of practice efficiency.

I’ve never gotten to the end of a practice session and said to myself, “I shouldn’t have stopped so much.”

But I do sometimes get to the end of a practice session and say to myself, “I probably should’ve stopped more.”

Often when I stop, I realize, too, that I’ve done enough work for the day on the particular thing I’m practicing, and that it’s time to move on. It’s safe to say that as I get better at stopping, I make fewer and fewer repetitions of any particular exercise. I wouldn’t be able to realize this without giving myself the choice to pause and check in with myself.

And it’s not unusual for me to observe a new client practice for the first time and see all the unnecessary, mindless repetitions that are being made.

Rather than 20 or 30 unclear tries at an exercise in order to develop the elusive (and often misleading) idea of  “muscle memory”, replace 30 inefficient, mindless tries with 5 clear and well-directed tries.  Not only will you save time, but also, you’ll optimize your efforts.

But a big bonus for me is that all the work I’ve done in getting better at stopping has significantly impacted how I improvise.

Just knowing somewhere in the background of my consciousness that I can  stop at any moment if I wish, fundamentally changes my phrasing, as well as my note choices. I discover  the music as it flows through me, instead of trying to force it to go somewhere. This always allows me to find surprise and delight as I improvise. A beautiful thing, indeed.

So give yourself a chance to pause more. Work on it consciously. Make it a skill that you dedicate yourself to developing. It’s always time well spent. Let me know what you think!