This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Clarinet 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 clarinet 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)
Because the Alexander Technique is mostly known for how we work with clarinetists on the clarinet to solve their physical problems, it isn’t common knowledge that we also use release work on the massage table to help the clarinet player get out of physical trouble.
What is the purpose of tablework in an Alexander Technique session?
IT IS TO SHOW THE CLARINETIST HOW TO FULLY REGAIN CONTROL OF HIS OR HER BODY, FROM HEAD TO TOE, SO THAT THE CLARINET PLAYER RECLAIMS THE ABILITY TO STOP CAUSING HIS OR HERSELF PAIN IN PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE.
What do I mean?
There is an AMAZING principle that is central to the Alexander Technique, and it is not part of any other movement work that I know of. Here is the principle: IF YOU CAN RELEASE TENSION ANYWHERE YOUR BODY, THEN YOU HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR BODY. It is truly a display of true CONSCIOUS CONTROL of your body, when you can release holding and tension anywhere in your body.
ANY CLARINETIST CAN PLAY WITH EXCESS TENSION, AND MOST DO. BUT HARDLY ANY CLARINET PLAYER CAN RELEASE EXCESS TENSION AS HE OR SHE PLAYS THE CLARINET, UNLESS THEY’VE DONE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE WORK.
Tablework plays a huge role in assisting the Alexander Technique teacher show the clarinetist which parts of the body that the clarinet player has no control over, and then how to regain conscious control over these disconnected areas.
I have the clarinetist lie on the table on his or her back clothes on. I ask the clarinet player to let me lift an arm, and to not lift the arm for me or hold it up once I’ve lifted the arm.
You would be surprised how many clarinetists are incapable of releasing their arm, of making their arm available for me to move without the clarinet player helping. The moment the clarinet player realizes I’m going to lift the arm, they lift the arm for me, AND CAN’T LET ME DO THE LIFTING WITHOUT HIS OR HER HELP.
This is a powerful expression of how the clarinetist has lost the ability to be “at rest” in the arm. In other words, the clarinet player is tensed 24/7 to do something with the arm and is never at ease or rest in the arm.
What I just wrote simply translates into the clarinetist always having unnecessary excess tension in the arms, which is carried to the clarinet, and eventually causes pain and strain, no matter how beautiful the clarinet player’s technique looks to others.
As I work with the clarinet player on the table, I also ask the clarinetist to consciously surrender the movement of each leg to me, or to let me support and move the clarinet player’s head with a released neck.
So, in tablework I teach the clarinetist how to consciously regain control over the clarinet player’s whole body by ASKING THE CLARINETIST NOT TO HELP ME.
Let me talk about this psychologically for a moment. WHEN WE ARE NEWBORNS WE DO NOT HELP OUR MOTHERS TAKE CARE OF US. We let our mothers do everything for us initially, and as we mature we learn to do more and more for ourselves, and this is normal and healthy. If you look at the logical progression of doing more and more for ourselves over time, many of us get the message that we must do everything for ourselves all of the time.
This means that if you feel you must do everything for yourself and do it well as a clarinetist, you will go overboard. Going overboard means you will do too much work to play the clarinet. Too much work is too much tension, and this leads to wear and tear and pain.
How this shows up is as an inability of the clarinetist to stop doing too much unnecessary work on the clarinet. IF YOU’VE SPENT A LIFETIME BELIEVING THAT THINGS ONLY GET DONE IF YOU DO THEM, THEN YOU WILL PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY DO TOO MUCH TO GUARANTEE THEY GET DONE RIGHT!
The Alexander Technique teacher’s job is to help the clarinetist regain or acquire for the first time conscious control of his or her technique, by finding that balance between doing what is necessary to play the clarinet, and by learning to let go of the physical tension and habits that are unnecessary to playing the clarinet beautifully, effortlessly, and expressively.
IN SO MANY WAYS AN ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER CAN TEACH THE CLARINETIST THAT IT IS OK TO ACCEPT HELP AND REDISCOVER THE JOY OF NOT HELPING AND NOT DOING UNNECESSARY WORK WITH TABLEWORK.
