Singing (Singers) – The Hands and Fingers in Performance (Musicians)(Psychology)(Pain)(Strain)(Injuries)(Posture)(Alexander Technique)(Albuquerque)

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Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
This is an unusual article on the hands and fingers in a musical performance. I want to look at the hands of a performer, whether the performer uses the hands and fingers to perform or not. So, this article pertains to singers, as well as conductors, pianists, and drummers.
I’m going to look at hands in musical performance physically and psychologically. What do I mean? There is the pure Alexander Technique principle of good body use and how to use the hands to play an instrument without causing wear and tear, by using the hands with mechanical advantage.
And there is the psychological implication of what hands and fingers demonstrate in performance when you are a singer, conductor, drum set player, or guitar player.
Here is a definition of the Alexander Technique principle of “good use” applied to the hands. WHEN YOU MOVE THE HANDS AND ARMS TO EXPRESS YOURSELF AS YOU SING, YOU WANT TO DO SO WITHOUT CREATING ANY COMPRESSION IN THE JOINTS OF THE FINGERS AND THE WRISTS AND ELBOWS, WHETHER YOU ARE SINGING LOUDLY OR SOFTLY, OR EXTREMELY SLOWLY OR EXTREMELY FAST. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TENSE AND COMPRESS YOUR FINGERS AND WRISTS WHEN YOU SING FASTER AND LOUDER!
This means that you DO NOT tense your hands or use more muscle in anticipation of communicating through your hand’s and arm’s gestures what the music is about. This totally unnecessary tensing of your hands to express yourself at a high tempo is usually very unconscious to the singer. What I mean is that tense hands are usually one of those UNCONSCIOUS things that a singer does to sing, not fully seeing what the whole body does in a performance as singing technique.
DO NOT TENSE YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU SING AT ANY TEMPO. WITHDRAW ANY TENSING OF THE HANDS TO SING SLOWLY OR QUICKLY, FORTE OR PIANISSIMO, AND USE LESS MUSCLE BACKING UP SOFT HANDS AND FINGERS, AND MOVE THE HANDS AND ARMS WITH EASE.
MOVING THE HANDS AND ARMS WITH EASE MEANS USING GESTURES QUICKLY AND EFFORTLESSLY. MOVING ARMS AND SOFT HANDS WITHOUT TENSION GIVES YOU EXTRAORDINARY CONTROL OF WHAT YOUR WANT THEM TO SAY TO THE LISTENERS, WITHOUT USING TENSION AS YOU SING TO COMMUNICATE YOUR INTENTIONS.
When you use tension to slow the hands and arms down to sing at a slow tempo or use tense hands and fingers to sing at a fast tempo, you are doing two negative things. Musically you are creating a gesture that isn’t clean and pure. A gesture produced with slowed and/or tensed fingers, hands, and arms is not as expressive as a gesture produced with ease.
Physically you are forcing the bones of the fingers and of the wrist closer together, and years of this compression damages the cartilage in the joints. TRULY, YOU CAN SING AS SLOWLY OR AS FAST, AS LOUDLY OR AS SOFTLY, AS YOU WANT WITHOUT TENSING YOUR HANDS AND FINGERS AND ARMS BEFORE YOU SING, AND STILL HAVE ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER YOUR SINGING.
Here is the psychological component of hands. Hands don’t tense themselves independently of the singer. They tense for two reasons that reinforce each other. Two truths: Almost all singers experience the fear of wanting to sing well. Almost all singers could make changes to their singing technique that would make their singing more mechanically advantageous.
When a singer sings with fear, then the tension of fear in the hands and moving arms can compromise a singer’s technique that could be more user friendly. This means the singer tenses the hands and fingers and arms more and more to gain more control.
The singer’s musical intentions then usually goes downhill, and the singer tenses the hands and arms and body even more to try to regain control.
WHAT IF THE SINGER CHOSE TO WITHDRAW THE TENSION BUILDING IN THE HANDS AND FINGERS AND ARMS CAUSED BY FEAR, AND LEARNED TO TRUST THE HANDS AND ARMS TO EXPRESS BEAUTIFULLY AND EFFORTLESSLY. This would end the cycle of tension and fear and tension and fear etc. the singer gets him or herself into.
It would bring to consciousness the unconscious technique habit of raising the tension level in the hands and arms the more difficult the piece, and give the singer back “CONSCIOUS CONTROL” of his or her hands and fingers and arms.
NOW, the hands and fingers of the conductor, drum set player, and trombone player: The conductor, trombone player, and the drum set player moves fingers minimally.
But in all of the above cases a clear sense of what is going on the hands and fingers has an effect on the performance.
Let me combine the Alexander Technique here with psychology. IF THE SINGER, CONDUCTOR, TROMBONE PLAYER, OR DRUM SET PLAYER EXPRESS THEMSELVES WITH EASY SOFT HANDS, THEN THE HANDS AND FINGERS ARE NOT REINFORCING FEAR BY EXPRESSING FEAR WITH TENSION. THIS ENABLES THE PERFORMER OR CONDUCTOR TO PERFORM OR CONDUCT MUCH MORE FEARLESSLY.
WHEN THE LEVEL OF FEAR OF THE PERFORMER OR CONDUCTOR DROPS LOWER AND LOWER, THEN THE PERFORMER OR CONDUCTOR IS ABLE TO OFFER A PERFORMANCE OF GREATER AND GREATER LOVE.
LOVE IS LETTING GO OF FEAR.

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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.