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)
Troubleshooting is the bridge between posture and technique I’ve created in my work with oboists. I’m an Alexander Technique teacher and a former concert guitarist. One of my former Alexander Technique teachers gave me the tools to apply all of the principles of Alexander Technique great posture to my guitar playing, and she also gave me the tools to expand the Alexander Technique principles of good postural use to guitar technique.
This is what I’ve done in my ebook on oboe playing. I go into extreme detail in this ebook on how to use your whole body on the oboe for the most posturally mechanically advantageous body use. I also go into detailed specifics of oboe technique.
You can teach an oboist to have beautiful posture on the oboe, but what if the oboist’s technique isn’t serving the oboist? There are two major reasons for this.
The first is the oboist’s technique is flawed, completely or partially. In other words, the oboist is asking his diaphragm and embouchure to do things that really can’t be done.
The second major problem is with how the oboist is approaching his technique – the technique is perfectly ok, but the oboist’s approach to it is very inefficient.
This latter is closer to traditional Alexander Technique thinking. It simply means you are doing the right thing the wrong way. The most obvious example of this is using too much muscle to get the job done. So, the oboist sits with pretty good upright posture, but uses too much muscle to sit upright and causes pain, strain, tension, and compression in the whole body. He looks good and feels bad, and this limits how well he plays.
When this happens in the specific oboe technique of how the oboist uses his diaphragm and embouchure, then if the oboist is always poised with excess tension in his diaphragm and embouchure to play, then no matter how externally good his technique looks to everyone else, he is compromising his torso and lips.
Now, the first problem – the oboist’s technique isn’t the best choice. This can only be solved if the oboist is ready to become his own teacher, his own master. What do I mean?
THE MOMENT THE OBOIST PUTS EVERYTHING, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, THAT HE OR SHE HAS EVER LEARNED ABOUT PLAYING THE INSTRUMENT UP FOR SCRUTINY, THE OBOIST IS TRULY READY TO BE HIS OR HER OWN MASTER. AT THIS POINT THE OBOIST ISN’T AN OBOE STUDENT ANYMORE AND IS NOW CONTRIBUTING TO THE OBOE WORLD.
When I started questioning everything I had ever learned about guitar technique, it was the most freeing thing I had ever experienced as a classical guitarist. It was an amazing feeling to take total control of my guitar technique. I revamped nearly my whole technique.
WHEN YOU REPLACE WHAT DOESN’T WORK, AND WILL NEVER ALLOW YOU TO BE THE OBOIST YOU COULD BE, WITH WHAT WORKS, THEN YOU ARE FREE TO HAVE FUN ON THE OBOE.
One final point – when you replace what hasn’t been working for you on the oboe with what works, the internalizing of the new technique can be very fast. When you experience how effortless the new way can be, then you can very quickly let go of the old way. The old way only takes a long time to change, if you resist the new way by holding onto to the false security of what never completely worked.
