This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Banjo 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 an extraordinarily accurate and kind banjo performance.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
If I was to give a traditional definition of FOCUS when playing the banjo, I’d say that focus is ALL of your attention on playing the piece exactly like you want it to sound from beginning to end, with no mistakes and no memory slips.
What I just described is what the Alexander Technique would call end-gaining. End-gaining is performing on the banjo with all of your attention placed on getting to the end of a piece as flawlessly and musically as possible, no matter the physical or emotional price.
So, when I see a banjo player performing this way, there are some very consistent things I see being done physically. The banjo player’s head/torso is usually hunkered down to the banjo, as the banjo player tries to guarantee accuracy and no memory slips by focusing like a laser. There is tension in the whole body, as the banjo player holds it together. The banjo player’s brow is usually furrowed, concentrating on playing well.
What if we flip this over, and have the banjo player perform with the means-whereby. When the banjo player performs with the means-whereby, then the banjo player is playing with his or her focus on a fully open and upright posture and ease throughout the whole body, as the performer trusts the body to realize the banjo player’s intentions.
This is performing in the means and not focusing on the ends. The result is a banjo performance without excess physical tension and poor posture – in other words, not sacrificing his or her body for the result.
The question is, does the banjo player who plays this way create just as wonderful of a performance as a banjo player who sits or stands with the determination to play great no matter what? Yes!, and even better, once the banjo player is willing to let go of a lifetime of playing for the best results, no matter the cost.
This is a very powerful and at times emotional thing for a banjo player to go through. After years of placing all of your focus, energy, practice time, and performances on trying to guarantee the best possible playing, and then to place your focus on how easy you can make the banjo, by taking 100% care of your body, this can be a very big jolt to your psyche. But, you’re worth it!
Back to my question: Will you play better from the means instead of the ends? Yes!, because you will actually end up with an evolving technique and evolving performances that keep getting better and better and better. How?
Because, if every time you sit or stand to warm up, you focus on how upright and balanced your posture on the banjo can be, and how much less muscular work you can do to sit or stand fully at ease on the banjo, then you’re really in the moment without straining your body.
If, as you warm up, you let go of tension in your arms, hands, fingers, torso, and your brow, as you watch your body do less and less work to create a more effortless and more accurate performance, this is an amazing gift to yourself.
IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOUR FOCUS IS ON HOW LITTLE YOU CAN DO TO CREATE THE MOST POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE, THEN YOU TRULY FLIP THE BANJO PLAYER’S TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF FOCUS ON ITS HEAD. FOCUS BECOMES AN ACT OF RELEASE, NOT AN ACT OF HOLDING IT TOGETHER.
