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October 2006Oct. 2, 2006 at 11:07 PMGreetings,Just finished a really tough week making presentations on language teaching between concerts. It’s so annoying when I don’t have time to write、sleep. Got back to school yesterday knowing that I really do need to sit down and continue the Alexander Technique writing, but not feeling terribly motivated (about anything , actually). I also recognize that writing about the Alexander Technique is intrinsically misleading. It can only be transmitted by trained hands. Alexander himself was vociferous on the subject of how misleading the word is. Every interpretation is individual. Anyway, I arrived about a minute early for my first class and was standing at the back of the classroom, looking at a group of fifteen 8 year olds looking up at their homeroom teacher from those cute little chairs. What a miserable sight! Every single one of those students had a hunch back and was misusing the body in a most horrible way. The cause of the problem was clear enough. Tiny children on tiny chairs -looking up- to listen to a tall teacher. But what is actually happening here? The Alexander Technique can get really deep if one wishes it to be so. But the bottom line is something called `Primary Control` which is the basic relationship between head, neck and back. Exploring that a little more deeply, first it is important to realize that the spine runs down the center of the body. The usual description one gets from people when asked is that it runs down -the back-. This is incorrect. The mental misconception probably arises from the fact that when we hug someone or stroke a back in post coital languor we run our fingers down the knobbly bits. This is not the spinal column. Nature has designed us like a tree with the trunk right in the middle going from narrow at the top to extremely thick at the base. Doesn’t that make sense? Again, when one asks someone how thick the spine is, especially at the base the answer is generally two or three times too little. The diameter of the base of the spine is massive, especially in men. Okey dokey. This central position means that the top of the spine emerges behind the back of the mouth rather than the back of the neck as our mistaken beliefs often tell us. Again, nature is being logical. If you are going to balance a round object on top of the body then the balance point is going to be in the middle of the body, nest pas? At this balance point the skull rests on two little indentations via a pair of small rockers. The skull can rock backwards and forwards on this balance point. In order to locate this central point one can insert both index finger sin the soft hollows behind the ears. Imagine they are a pencil going through the brain and connecting up. The middle of the pencil is the balance point. This is from where the head must move with absolute freedom and does in animals and toddlers. Unfortunately the incorrect belief that the skull is balanced at the back of the neck results in commands from the mind to turn the head from that location , a problem which is ubiquitous and highly damaging to all and sundry. Try turning the head deliberately using the muscles on the back of the neck. Then try imagining and turning from just below the balance point. The freedom is remarkably different. So, what was happening with the hunchbacked kids I saw? Well, they were dropping their head back to look up. The result was the top of the spine was crushed causing the rest of the spine to essentially collapse instead of springing in an upward direction. It’s what almost everyone does. We are told by our parents, grandmother, teacher sto `sit up straight, look me in the face, keep your head up etc` and we don’t really understand the instruction . We believe that head up, back straight, involves the head dropping backwards slightly which automatically crushes the spine. Indeed, when I teach new students and ask them to play with their heads up , off the chinrest to alleviate the horrible Squeezing pressure they are using the -face- comes up but the back of the head drops down. In the most extreme cases I actually hold on to the students ears to get the point across…. If anyone is interested they might spend a week watching people stand up and sit down, or put the violin up. Watch the back of their heads. Awareness of the drop, even when standing (!) comes very quickly. Cheers, Buri
May the force be with you.Published: Oct. 5, 2006 at 5:31 AMGreetings, So the way we grow up, suddenly forced to sit in chairs and pay attention to stuff we have no interest in is having a very undesirable side effect. In essence it is robbing us of our natural inheritance: an efficiently functioning body. As we become more skewed the data we receive from senses, especially the sixth, passes through the neck where there are a massive number of processors called proprioceptors. However, since the neck itself is skewed and dropping backwards onto the spine the data itself is somewhat skewed. We live in a world of self delusion. All very fancy stuff . But why is it that I know Alexander Technique is such a powerful and important tool? Well, I was the kid who walked funny, didn’t do much sport, had bad knees, the last one to be picked for the team and so on. This is of course, because I had flat feet. And naturally if you have flat feet you go to a doctor who sends you to a specialist who sells you expensive plastic inserts to push your instep back up….. You don’t walk any better and they hurt like hell but who is arguing with the experts. Its part of the same scam that tells you one leg is longer than the other and then sells you an expensive pair of platform shoes. One leg may well be longer than the other in effect, but that is because the pelvis is twisted which is because one is misusing the body. Jump forward twenty years to one of my first AT classes and I remember sitting in a group of trainees with the trainer asking us directly what we would like AT to do or show for us that day. Since I was in my second lesson I was very skeptical about the whole business. I mean, what a bunch of loonies! So I asked if it could help my flat feet. The trainer suggested I walk around the room while he watched. After that he smiled and said `Buri, you haven’t got flat feet.` Then he released all the muscles and tension in my neck so that my head went forward and up, my chest went up and my back expanded. Man , that was weird. Then I walked, no I didn’t walk. I floated. That was a new world I had never occupied. A literal release from prison. It took what, 30 seconds. That’s basically it: the Primary control is reestablished, the muscles let go from the holding they have had to do for years, the skeletal frame becomes as it should be and the bird flies from the cage. Since that first major shock I have seen new people treated for the first time burst into tears of joy and anguish from their release. I didn’t, but it was close. Similarly, during AT one may be exposed to a force that the modern human has lost awareness off. That is, anti-gravity. Because our misuse of the body blocks the effect of energy shooting up we have come to believe our life and destiny involves only being pulled down towards the earth as we get older. Once the spine is released and energy begins shooting upwards we immediately become taller . For me it is about two cms. I know because I walk back into the house and bang my head don the door frame which I normally clear easily. The sudden powerful energy shooting through the body can be very scary and I have actually been to a seminar of an exceptionally powerful teacher where a student suddenly cried out that she was afraid. Fortunately the teacher knew her own effect well and was expert in helping the student pass through the fear easily. When the same teacher worked on me for the first time in a private lesson I was already quite experienced but it was still a shock. She looked at me for a while and then said `Buri, I’m not going to ask what you are carrying around, but you have got to let it go. She then put her hand on my chest and as everything fell away a tree I was watching outside literally jumped sideways a couple of meters like the `déjà vu` scene in the matrix. This kind of perceptual change is common in major energy releases. Does the effect last? No! AT is the =conscious= control of your body through the primary control. That is, you have to learn how to do it yourself . That may take quite a few lessons while you to learn to recognize what the difference is between effective and misuse of the body. This is one of the hard truths we have to accept. We are being given the gift of self responsibility and it is hard work. This is not about someone doing something to you. It is you being given a choice to work on yourself and the road it lead sone down is not always smooth which is why an expert teacher take many years to train. In order to become an AT teacher one has to undergo a profound change of one’s own neurology through daily reception of another trainers hands. As a student one cannot learn it from a book or the spoken word. That is declarative knowledge rather than procedural. Or is it the other way round ;)? Cheers,
Sitting a la AlexanderPublished: Oct. 6, 2006 at 4:53 AMGreetings, In the light of all the discussion on the subject, I can’t help beginning this blog with an interesting prophecy (?) made by FM Alexander many years ago. He said that as a result of future increases in information overload from amazing developments in technology and information overload peoples` ability to memorize and memories were going to get weaker and weaker. Couldn’t help recalling it today as I worked with a class of about 30 eight year olds on what should have been a very simple task: students worked in groups of four and listened to me state three object in a specific sequence. Their task was to choose the three objects from a selection of cards in front of them and place them in order. It was very striking how little capacity they had for holding something in short term memory. Anyway, now I am thinking about what is a traditional Alexander lesson, how radically some teachers depart from this and what does have one have a right to expect? When FM Alexander was giving lessons what one typically got from the lesson was a lot of practicing standing up and sitting down and not much else. Nor was there much in the way of verbal explanation. An anecdote Alexander was always happy to repeat rather tongue in cheek was of a gentleman leaving after half an hour of standing and sitting. He turned round at the door, looked at Alexander commenting `and people really pay money for this,` What then would have been the point of what was being done? Well, since AT is transmitted non-verbally the mind/body has to be given clear new information which it can evaluate. Sitting and standing is one of the most often repeated daily actions, one that most clearly demonstrates our misuse of the body and contains everything one needs to know about AT. How do people stand up these days? Basically, they drop the head back crushing the top of the spine, pull upwards from the waist and thigh muscles and often have to support this ridiculous action by placing the hand son the thighs for an extra bit of shove. Part of the origin of the problem is the believe that we have a waist. Actually no such medical concept exists. It is a sexual/commercial concept derived from movie stars and marketing- the ubiquitous 36/24/26 of Marilyn Monroe et all. But in reality the body divides into two parts. Our upper body goes down to our hip joints where our legs begin and our guts live inside our pelvis which is part of a single entity, the upper body. These guts are of course displaced by a baby during pregnancy. The current mental conception of our guts is that they are held in a kind of carrier bag, the base of which rest in a neat straight line running above the pubic mound. Athletes know the difference. A pro tennis player waiting to receive a serve is crouched and moving on their hip joints where we are supposed to. To stand correctly in an AT lesson one simply leans forward at the hip joints (most people don’t know where they are) until the weight coming forward trigger a shooting up of energy through the spine and the body catapults effortlessly out of the chair like a cork from a champagne bottle. It’s fantastic. A major factor in this beautiful, fluid movement is that the head leads. In fact the eyes lead. The boy must retain primary control during the lift off. Unfortunately the ingrained habit of collapsing the head back will continually kick in until the hands of the teacher help us to inhibit that action. Sitting down is fun too. I have seen the AT teacher and cellist Vivien Mackie ask groups so many times `what do you do in order to sit down?` There is only one correct way. Bend the knees (with the head going forward and up-primary control) That`s all!!! Typically we twist, contort, draw on the stomach muscles , press out hands on our thighs and so on. And the resulting crash is harmful to the spine, especially since we do it dozens of times a day year in year out. To sit down as nature intended is one of the most beautiful experiences on could wish for. Watching someone doing it is calming and pleasurable. That is the beginning of AT. Cheers,
Alexander Technique is a daily exercise routine?Published: Oct. 10, 2006 at 12:54 AMLast modified: Oct. 10, 2006 at 4:51 AM
Greetings,
Burning out?Published: Oct. 15, 2006 at 11:52 PMGreetings, One of my main weaknesses that I have come to terms with over the years is seeing things as negat9ve rather than life as an ongoing series of chances for new and exciting growth. I think what has helped me the most is music. Music is a form of energy which connects us with the universe or God or whatever you choose to call the ultimate power that governs our lives. That’s why musicians of any kind are very lucky, very special and have a central role in the functioning of a healthy society. I regard debates about whether or not musicians have any pragmatic or concrete value in life as a particularly spurious garbage. It is an argument derived purely from the worst aspects of the world we have created for ourselves out of waste, violence and disregard for the environment or spiritual wealth. So musicians are special, but so often it seems to me that I read here and elsewhere, or people tell me, that they are burnt out. Or that young players work harder and harder on a terrible treadmill either not knowing where they are going or heading for an image of the future as big time soloist or whatever that simple does not exist. There is nothing wrong with chasing an impossible dream . but the dream has to have worth, or beauty or morality , otherwise it has an infinite capacity to distort until the dreamer is little more than a caricature of life. Rather like Gollum in that very long movie where lots of people kill each other and ignore women except as things to be snogged. All this comes about I suppose because (young) musicians have to live in the world of Mc Donald’s, competition, violence blah blah and inevitably the sensitive ones get sucked in and get tired or depressed. They may for example write in to lists like this which fortunately, attracts good people, and ask for advice. More often than mot they are told to `take a day off,` `kick back` read a book, watch a movie etc etc. The advice is well meant and contains a lot of sense but it really has little to do with the overall picture. And for many of the gifted young people struggling in the maelstrom, a day off may just mean feeling vaguely dissatisfied with oneself and wishing they were doing something else like picking up the fiddle and getting that damn piece ready because otherwise one might `fall behind` and then who knows what might happen. As Stephen King points out, the Library Policeman ` might get you…. In reality what is really missing is the whole person. Imagine if you break your hand or whatever. Your whole life was invested in this thing and now you have lost your savings. But as people we have to relate to the whole world with the same commitment and energy that we give to the violin. This necessarily should be a list of around 8 or 9 things. This will vary from person to person but might mean something like this: 1) Love and family 2) Social service/helping others. 3) spiritual life/development 4) Study and intellectual growth. 5) Exercises. 6). Cleaning the house 7) Down time, preferably in nature. 8) Violin Practice. 9) Friends. Each of these things should be attended to virtually everyday however short the time expended on them. The only necessity is that when you are spending that time you are 150% committed to only that thing. So calling an old friend may take only two minutes but if you give it everything then it is a wonderful thing. If you give it half an ear while thinking about that knotty passage in the Tchaikovsky then you might as well not bother. Then if the unthinkable happens and you lose your playing you have a hole in your life but it is pretty damn small and all the interesting people you have leanrt from and grown with everyday provide an unending source of comfort and new possibilities for a worthwhile life. But the main point besides this unthinkable is that if you want violin playing central to your life without burning out on the treadmill then this is approach is healthy. One has the relentless stress of practicing and performing but it is a good stress because it is a joy. It is a joy because your performance is informed by your intellect, appreciation of art and nature, your audience is attended by family and friends because they want to be there, and afterwards you can take some down time going for a walk or reading Sidney Sheldon (which one would actually be unable to read) without a nagging conscience of any kind. The ups and downs of self flagellation practicing when your body and mind is saying this is not right, but your ego is not listening, followed by unhappy days of chewing on a McDonalds, while watching reruns of Pretty Woman can hopefully be left to the nine to five workers who are throwing away their lives in order to stay above water long enough to make more money to stay above water in order to…. Cheers, Buri
On Becoming Gloomy, or not....Published: Oct. 30, 2006 at 11:05 PMGreetings, been a while between blogs. mostly this month I find myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the works of Shostakovich. I’ve suffered through enough performances of no 5 in Japan which seems to be a staple here at the expense of everything else he ever wrote for orchestra. Finally got around to listening to no4 which just blew me away. One of the most viscerally scary pieces of music ever written. Had to play no 10 a few times recently and it is that I think which triggered my spiraling into the murky depths. It took some time to find my way into that work. I think one of the first problems is that , without mentioning any names (especially beginning with K) there are just too many big name, best selling conductors out there who put their ideas before the music itself. Sometimes it is necessary but on the whole Shostakovich knew exactly what he wanted and it is there, in black and white on the page. Yet the majority of performances I have now listened to exaggerate tempos and dynamics ignore them or whatever expletives I can’t write here. For me there I a strong sense of continuity and connection between Beethoven and Shostakovich. One link is the way there life evolves through paradigm shifts rather than incremental change or even stagnation that typifies lesser composers. The other oddly enough is the quartet of one kind or another. Beethoven, in his quartets sometimes seems to be grappling with whether he was writing for orchestra or four individual lines. In the Shosty symphony the composer plays with this problem by switching back and forth between chamber music , be it four ww parts or only strings, and although I haven’t done a count, the percentage of time in which the orchestra is actually broken into such mini sub cultures is pretty close to the amount of time one spends blasting out fanfares of abrasive chords in punchy rhythms which is the stereotype Shostakovich seems to have been awarded to some extent in peoples` minds in my experience. It’s a fantastic wrenching experience to be sitting in an orchestra and suddenly be playing a clarinet quintet. Have had to play the e minor trio twice this month too. Another perspective on the great man although the Oistrakh Trio is a hard act to follow. The discussion about composers writing things for the `wrong` instruments reminded me of the opening cello passage. Couldn’t help wondering if it would have been easier all round if done on the violin? Oh well, variety is the spic of life and its nice to see a cellist sweat every now and again. Cheers, Buri
The contradictions of playing the violinPublished: Oct. 31, 2006 at 11:26 PMIt’s a funny Business. I think what makes the violin such a pain in the botty to learn is the sheer vastness of non complementary actions that one has to integrate. This raises many interesting questions about how it should best be taught/learnt and just a many answers, most of which have a great deal to offer but none cannot be seen a the ultimate panacea. An example of an interesting contrast might be the Suzuki system versus (?) a kind of teaching I have seen done by the cellist and Alexander teacher trainer Vivien Mackie. In the former case, the nitty gritty of building a technique is logically systematically presented through fun playing and has proven highly effective, within reason. Mackie on the other hand has an advanced Alexander practitioner`s ability to bypass all the thinking and over intellectualizing beginner bring to the learning process and just say `do this` while demonstrating to a first time player a beautiful bowed stroke. The novice is tricked into just doing it without thought. It’s holistic natural and very powerful. Mackie write in her book `Just Play naturally` of how she conned someone who just picked dup the cello for the -first time- to play the first part of a Bach cello suite! It’s the same as the anecdote in `The Inner Game of Tennis` in which Galway has a complete beginner serving perfectly by first repeadly watching a demonstration. The only subsequent error was in the footwork which was what the subject of the experiment confessed is what he tried to `analyze` as he watched Galway’s demonstrations. Would one want to teach the violin like this? I can’t, but it doe give pause for thought. How does this kind of contradiction manifest itself in practice? The reason I am thinking about it is because I have been doing so much playing and rehearsing these days and just want to `get back to Basics.` So this week I am practicing son file, colle, and my favorite Capet exercise on basically open strings for several hours a day. The Capet is a pressure exercise. One sets the mm at 60 and plays a whole note. Half of which is f and the other half piano and vice versa. The bow arm moves the bow the hand supplies the extra pressure needed in the forte. Bow speed is fairly constant although more is used for the forte than the piano (a little) Increase the number of subitos (not cresc dim) and increase the mm speed. Love this exercise and I also strongly believe it is what Auer was referring to in his rather vague comments in his book about violin tone coming from the wrist. After doing this kind of practice for a time my playing seems to leap forward. So why not do it continuously if it is so good? The truth is it is just too hard on mind and body. If one didn’t stop within a sensible time then all one could end up with is the ability to do those exercises well. The music would disappear. The reverse side of the coin , as it relates to the beginning point is that doing something almost the opposite is going to be equally beneficial. As Huberman points out in one of his interviews, the way to acquire genuine stamina and technique on the violin is to play extremely difficult passages over and over again as fast as possible. Again, Auer recommends this kind of study in his book. And of course, it is a lot more fun…. Cheers, Buri
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