This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to English Horn Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the accurate horn technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
I, as an Alexander Technique teacher, have no problem with English hornists using neck straps. My main concern is that many English hornists may be solving one physical problem with the strap and causing an even bigger one.
If you are using a strap around your neck to support the weight of the English horn, are you causing your neck to collapse under the weight of the English horn, as you free your arms or right hand and thumb using a thumb rest up from supporting the weight of the instrument? The intention of this section of this ebook is to show you how to use a neck strap to support the English horn without you causing problems to your neck.
I want to start with the neck strap itself. The wider the strap is where it rests against the back of the neck, the more comfortable the strap is, and the more evenly the weight of the English horn is distributed across the back of the neck. Simply, a thin strap digs into the neck, and as the strap digs against the neck, you are likely to curve your neck forward in collapse to get away from the discomfort of the strap. As this happens, you may end up shortening the strap as the neck collapses forward.
The strap can actually cause an English hornist to play with worse and worse posture to keep the strap from hurting his neck, in an attempt to protect the right hand and arm.
What is the solution? Play with a wide strap and don’t collapse your neck. Having said this, let me describe in detail how to do this. The basis of the Alexander Technique is that the head should lead a lengthening aligned spine upward when you play the English horn. If you place your awareness and thoughts on a neck dynamically releasing upward, as the weight of the English horn is “wanting” to take the neck forward, you won’t sacrifice your neck to play the instrument.
When you use a strap to play the English horn, you are asking your neck to do the job that your right arm and hand did. In having your neck do what the right arm did, you want to turn up the muscular volume in the neck, which isn’t much, so that you don’t get back into physical trouble. The instrument just isn’t that heavy, so the neck can easily support the English horn.
With the strap around your neck and attached to the English horn, bring the instrument into playing position. Now, lower the instrument, and this time as you bring the English horn up, feel the weight of your arms pulling the instrument forward, which means the neck is taking the full weight of both arms below the elbows. Lower the English horn again and raise the English horn, letting the right arm and hand take the weight of the instrument, as if you don’t have a neck strap.
The function of the neck strap is to only take the weight of the English horn, and to free up the right hand and arm, so that it isn’t working any more that the left arm, which means you could actually remove the thumb rest, if you wanted to.
