My ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Organ 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 organ 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)
INTERVIEW:
JOAN: My name is Joan and I am currently learning the organ in Ireland. I hope to graduate from high school this year and begin college next year to study the organ also. I love playing and I have won quite a few scholarships and competitions for my organ playing however I have a slight problem. At the age of 7, I had pins put in my hips and they are still there ten years later.
Sometimes I find that when I’m playing some fast, tough pedal passages, I may get pain in the hip/thigh area. This bothers me as I really don’t want my hip pain to affect my playing! For years I have thought that it may have been the pins causing this pain when playing, however after reading your article on the Alexander technique I believe it may be my technique. What do you think? Do you think this could be a possibility? Are there any signs you could tell me to look for to see if it is my technique causing the pain?
ETHAN: Please buy a copy of my ebook on the organ and Alexander Technique, and then we can discuss what is causing you pain on the organ. You will have a greater appreciation of how the Alexander Technique can help organists in physical trouble after reading the ebook.
Let me address the problem with your hips. Almost all organists create too much tension in their hips as they support, move their legs across, and play the pedals. This excess tension in the hips causes you to jam the head of the femurs, the upper leg bones, into the pelvis sockets. This becomes intolerably painful over time.
The solution is to practice moving and supporting your legs, as if your legs were being lifted and supported for you from above by bungee cords. This helps you experience moving and supporting your legs without jamming the thighs into the hip joints, by using the least amount of muscle.
So, if your hip pain reduces as you move your legs with less tension, then most certainly your technique is playing a part in your pain. Let me know how this different way of approaching supporting and moving your legs works.
JOAN: Thank you for your email and I apologise for the extremely late reply! I’m in my final year of school this year so I’ve been busy with exams over the past month.
I downloaded your ebook, and have only had time to read bits of it. Regarding an Alexander teacher, I haven’t contacted one yet. I think I may leave it until I have a break from school at some point as unfortunately, school is taking up a lot of my time at the moment.
I like the fact that your book covers the keyboard technique as well, as sometimes I feel I am tensing my wrists so I think so far your book has helped me relax a little bit.
My hips seem to be better actually! When playing the pedals, I have been more conscious about how I am using my hips and trying as you recommended, to refrain from pulling my hip towards my body, something which I now realise I was doing a lot.
I do think I have a long road ahead of me though in order to be completely pain/tension free when playing the organ, as the pain – even though it is better at times – is still there.
Thank you, once again, for your help.
I will certainly keep you updated on my progress as I continue practising the Alexander Technique.
ETHAN: So, I have to ask, how are things going? I did want to mention that my organ ebook gets into a specific technique at the keyboard, but there is a great deal in it about Alexander use and posture. Have you worked with an Alexander teacher yet? How’s your hip doing?
JOAN: Thank you for replying once again! I am certainly going to try this technique, one thing I have found is that my hip only tends to feel pain when I am learning a tough pedal passage when I can feel the tension myself which I am putting on my hip and thigh, so I think the Alexander technique may help solve this problem – fingers crossed anyway!
Thank you again for helping me. Up until yesterday I was feeling a little bit down over the pain in my hips when playing – now I feel a lot more positive especially since I realise that there are others who feel pain when playing too!
I’ll let you know if it helps and thank you!
ETHAN: YES! The thing that the Alexander Technique is so good at is helping you NOT compensate for not having a perfect body, sometimes to the point where you stop hurting all together. It is very possible that you hurt not because of the pins in your leg, but because once you started tensing against the pain they caused, the tensing and compensating in your daily movements became the main cause of your hip hurting.
No, you don’t need an organ playing Alexander teacher, but I would shop around and trust your instincts as to how well the teacher relates to what you do. I wrote all of my ebooks on most of the West’s instruments from the perspective of having been a concert guitarist, my Alexander Technique training, and from working with all of these different clients on different instruments.
Who knows? Your experience with the Alexander technique may lead you to a double career as an organist and Alexander Technique teacher. That would be a cooool combination, don’t you think?
JOAN: Thank you for replying, Ethan. I really appreciate it. I certainly will try what you have suggested and I will let you know how it works out. Have you ever heard of the Alexander technique helping someone who has had previous injury in the area? I.e. the pins in my hips. Or is the technique mainly used to help people who are just tense in the area?
As regards finding a teacher in my area, does the teacher have to be able to play the organ? Or does it matter?
ETHAN: It would be great for you to find a certified Alexander Technique teacher who is really good with musicians. Certified means they have gone through a 3 year 1600 hour formal training program. There are a lot of certAlexander teachers in your part of the world.
It doesn’t have to be an organist/Alexander Technique teacher, but a pianist/Alexander Technique teacher would be great and much easier to find.
One of the things that the Alexander Technique teacher is great at is helping the organist who has had surgery find a way to play the organ with greater ease, and not cause any more wear and tear to a reconstructed part of the body.
By the time an organist has surgery for a damaged area of the body, the organist has been compensating, compromising his or her organ technique trying to get out of and stay out of pain.
The Alexander Technique teacher shows you how to find ease, poise, and balance in your whole body, so that you don’t compromise your organ technique. This means you stop hurting, which really takes the joy out of playing. You get to create a personalized organ technique and posture, that ends the pain that keeps you from playing as well as you’d like.
