Harp – Using a Familiar Technique as a Bridge to a Brand New Technique (Musicians)(Psychology)(Pain)(Strain)(Injuries)(Posture)(Alexander Technique)(Albuquerque)

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Harp 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 harp 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)
CAN A HARPIST CREATE A COMPLETELY NEW HARP TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE WITHOUT HAVING TO STOP PERFORMING AND START OVER? YES!
But it has to be by evolving degrees of change to your technique over time. Let me explain. For the average harpist, technique is not something that continues to evolve over time. So, by the time a talented committed harp player has played for five years or so, the harpist’s technique is not changing.
And the odds are it won’t change unless the harpist either gets into physical trouble or becomes unwilling to accept his or her inability to play the most difficult harp music without pain, injury, or strain.
WHAT IF YOU SAT DOWN WITH THE HARP AND LOOKED AT EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IS GREAT HARP TECHNIQUE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF AN ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER WHO WAS VERY CLEAR ABOUT THE INSEPARABILITY OF POSTURE AND HARP TECHNIQUE?
What would be the result?
You would find yourself creating a gently evolving harp technique that would only allow you to become a better and better harp player.
But this doesn’t answer the problem stated by the title of this article. Simply, the title of this article asks, “Is it possible not to do what you’ve done on the harp without disruption to your performing?”
BY DEFINITION IF YOUR HARP TECHNIQUE IS IN AN EVOLVING GENTLE STATE OF CONSTANT CHANGE, AT SOME POINT YOU WILL HAVE NOTHING OF THE OLD TECHNIQUE LEFT.
A couple of points here: I want to address the issues of an evolving harp technique being an unstable harp technique and of eventually “having nothing of the old technique left”.
We have a saying in the Alexander Technique, “DO LESS!” What does this mean? It means that your posture and harp technique will be in a constant state of evolving into something better, if you use your warm up each day to let go of excess tension. In other words, every time you sit down to play you do a physical inventory of release, so that you use less and less muscle to play better and better.
Is this a radical approach to harp technique? NO, but it is a PRACTICAL approach for two reasons. First, if you don’t do this, it is very likely that your harp posture and technique will devolve into greater and greater slumping and tension. What I just said is the basis for why some days your harp playing is working, and other days why it isn’t.
If every time you sit down with the harp you guide yourself into postural and technique balance, then at the very least you are allowing more and more days to be good practice or performance days. Second, at the best you’re creating a very very subtly evolving harp technique and posture that will not interfere with how well you perform here and now. And in fact, this subtly evolving harp technique based on “doing less and less” will most certainly guarantee better and better performances, which means a growing faith in yourself to play well in front of others.
What does it mean to realize you aren’t doing anything you did the first five or twenty years on the harp?
IT MEANS THAT EVEN WITH IF YOUR EVOLVED HARP TECHNIQUE DOESN’T LOOK ALL THAT DIFFERENT TO THOSE YOU’RE PLAYING FOR, YOU HAVE CHANGED SO MUCH HOW YOU INHABIT AND MOVE YOUR BODY (FINGERS, ETC.) TO PLAY, THAT YOU AREN’T THE SAME HARPIST.
You have brought your harp posture and harp technique into such amazing alignment, by using less and less muscle to allow this, that you don’t feel like yourself. THE BODY ALWAYS TELLS US WHO WE ARE. What do I mean?
All tension, all good or poor posture on the harp, all good or bad harp technique, is your own creation. None of this is done to you. It is all the result of all of what you believe about yourself, what you believe is necessary to play the harp, and what you believe about others, brought to the harp.
Inherent in the above is that you have ALL OF THE POWER to evolve your harp technique, not cling to a potentially stagnant technique, or watch your harp technique and posture devolve over time.
Here is a spiritual example: It is possible you know someone who is an enlightened being, but you don’t know that this is their level of awareness. Because on the outside, he or she looks like and acts like everyone else.
What is the experience of a brand new harp technique?
MOST OF THE TIME YOU EXPERIENCE A SENSE OF PHYSICAL WELLBEING ON THE HARP, AND YOUR TECHNIQUE ALLOWS YOU TO DO WITH EASE ON THE STRINGS WHAT IS IN YOUR HEAD.

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An Alexander Technique Approach to Harp Technique

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Ethan Kind

AUTHOR, TRAINER "When you change old habitual movement patterns with the Alexander Technique, whether in playing a musical instrument, running, weightlifting, walking, or typing at a computer, you create an ease of body use that moves you consistently into the zone." - Ethan Kind Ethan Kind writes and is published extensively on all of the above activities. He teaches musicians, athletes, and computer operators how to stop hurting themselves, by showing them how to use their bodies with ease and coordination. He brings a unique perspective to his work, having been a musician and athlete all of his life. After training for three years at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (New York, NY), Ethan received Professional Certification credentials.