This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Viola da Gamba (Viol) 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 viol 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)
WHEN YOUR POSTURE IS NOT AS GOOD AS YOUR VIOLA DA GAMBA TECHNIQUE, THEN YOU CANNOT PLAY AS WELL AS YOU COULD WITH A POSTURE AS GOOD AS YOUR VIOL TECHNIQUE.
Here is a very simple explanation for this. By definition, poor posture takes a whole lot more muscle to maintain than balanced posture. Balanced posture in the Alexander Technique means that you have such a gentle balanced posture going on in your body as you play the viola da gamba, that sitting fully upright is very close to effortless.
When a viola da gamba player with poor posture goes to an Alexander Technique teacher who makes gentle radical changes to how the viol player sits with the viola da gamba, why does it feel like a whole lot more work to sit at ease with the viol?
A viola da gamba player’s posture with the viol is usually a long term devolution of the body getting in shape to handle poor posture. What does this mean? It means that over time, if your posture with the viola da gamba becomes poorer and poorer, then your musculature handles these usually gradual changes, as you become more and more off balance, by using too much muscle and you become more and more immobile.
Think about it. If, as you age and/or try to play the viola da gamba better and better, you hunker down and collapse your torso and tense your legs more and more, you are actually doing more and more muscular work to play the viol. So, as you get older and usually weaker, you are working harder to play the viola da gamba, when you should be evolving a technique and posture over the years, that makes playing the viol more and more effortless to sit with and play.
If your posture is degrading over the years on the viola da gamba, and you are tensing more and more as you go further and further off balance, then your technique is going to suffer. You cannot keep the tension of your whole body’s poor posture out of your shoulders, arms, and hands.
There is another side to this issue of posture compromising your viola da gamba technique. YOU CAN BE IN GOOD POSTURAL ALIGNMENT, BUT IF YOU ARE USING MORE MUSCLE THAN IS NECESSARY TO HAVE GOOD POSTURE ON THE VIOL, YOU WILL STILL COMPROMISE YOUR VIOLA DA GAMBA TECHNIQUE. This is core to how the Alexander Technique works with viol players.
Simply, if you are doing UNNECESSARY work in any part of your body as you play the viola da gamba, you will have a negative effect on your viol technique. This means the tension level will rise in your shoulders, arms, and hands.
What if you created a balanced posture that evolved using less and less muscle on the viola da gamba over the years? What if there was constant flow in your body on the viol? What if your whole body embodied effortless viola da gamba technique? What if you played the viol as if you were getting younger and younger every year?
