This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Oboe 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 oboe 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’m the oboist’s last resort for so many oboe players who have come to me as Alexander Technique clients. If I can’t help the oboist, he or she feels they must either play with pain and struggle for the rest their performing lives or quit playing.
I can’t count the number of oboists who have come to me after seeing doctors, physical therapists, and/or other bodyworkers. The oboe player in the first Alexander Technique session may spend fifteen to thirty minutes giving me the complete list of all of the diagnoses of his or her physical problems on the oboe.
What is usually said and implied is, “This is what has happened to my body, and this is why I’ll never be able to do what I want to do on the oboe, but I hope you can do something magical that will heal me.”
So, by the time the injured oboist has made it to me, usually he or she has tried medication for swelling or inflammation, has been told to stop playing to heal, has been given exercises to strengthen “weak” muscles, has had surgery suggested, or has been told to look for some other career.
Obviously, if the oboe player has found his or her way to me, then the oboist has a least a glimmer of hope that there is a healing solution out there that works.
SO, THE DIAGNOSES ARE PRESENTED TO ME AS THE PIECES OF A PUZZLE, AND THE OBOIST HOPES THAT I AM “THE ONE” WITH THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM. THAT I AM “THE ONE” WHO CAN LOOK AT ALL OF THE DISPARATE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE, AND HELP THE OBOE PLAYER REASSEMBLE HIM OR HERSELF IN WAY THAT MAKES OBOE PLAYING WORK.
In a way I can, but only once the oboist lets go of the belief that the DIAGNOSES ARE THE SOLUTION. What do I mean?
The diagnoses of physical problems on the oboe can cut two very different ways for the oboe player. By the time many oboists come to me and give me his or her list of physical problems, they are saying to me please confirm that I am unhealable, so that I can get on with doing something else.
On the other hand many oboe players who come to me, give me a list of physical problems and want me to do something magical to make things right. This is understandable, because almost all of the things offered out there for healing an oboist’s physical problems are passive/magical. What do I mean?
Surgery is the most obvious. Someone cuts you and repairs your body, and when you recover, you should be able to do what you want on the oboe. But what if you never could do what you wanted on the oboe?
This reminds me of the old joke where the patient asks the doctor at the end of the appointment if he’ll ever be able to play the oboe again. The doctor says yes, and the patient replies, “But I never played the oboe before.”
The closest thing out there in allopathic medicine to the Alexander Technique that has the oboist actually do something is physical therapy. Here’s why physical therapy rarely gets the performing oboe player out of physical trouble.
The physical therapist has the oboist do general strengthening exercises to help the oboe player. But these strengthening exercises don’t work, because they only increase strength and stamina in the most general sense, and don’t address the poor posture and elements of the oboist’s technique that cause the wear and tear and pain.
I want to return back to the title of this article. In its purest form the title restated says, “THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.” The problem is, “Are you stating the truth when you diagnose physical problems on the oboe?”
A better question is, “Does a diagnosis, in and of itself, lead you to take the steps necessary to solve your postural and technique problems on the oboe that are damaging your body?” NO!
Here’s why. In many ways the diagnoses of your physical problems on the oboe are only labeling, they may not be a call to action. It’s like being diagnosed with agoraphobia, fear of going outdoors, but never taking the steps literally to GO OUTDOORS.
If an oboist’s jaw is diagnosed as hurting because of TMJ Disorder, how is this diagnosis going to make a difference, if the oboe player doesn’t change a technique that causes his or her jaw to hurt?
Let me state this much more clearly at the end of this article.
WE HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED IN TODAY’S WORLD TO FEEL AND BELIEVE THAT IF WE DIAGNOSE A PROBLEM, THEN THERE IS A SOLUTION THAT CAN BE DONE TO US TO HEAL US. THIS MEANS THAT WHEN AN OBOIST COMES TO ME TO STOP HURTING, HE OR SHE WANTS ME TO MAKE THEM MAGICALLY WELL OR TELL THEM IT IS TOO LATE.
In either case the diagnoses has been changed from a stating of the problem to being the actual solution itself. The diagnoses are ONLY a list of physical problems that is usually presented to the oboe player as permanently debilitating or as a list of temporary physical problems.
IF YOU DON’T PURSUE A COURSE OF ACTION, and take a chance on a series of healing steps, then the diagnoses offer you nothing that tell you whether you can continue to play the oboe or should move on!
