Alexander Technique

You and your instrument

You and your musical instrument have a relationship. We all know about it. It summons you. You respond. It challenges you. You rise to meet it. You change it, set it in motion. It’ changes you, sets you in motion. You have an intimate relationship, more intimate than an outsider may know. You play it. …

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Breath is enlightenment

Breath is enlightenment, a light you can shine into any part of your body.  When I walk, I tend to ruminate, think upon things past or future. When I do so, I find myself grinding my teeth. Now this may come as no surprise, since “ruminate” literally means to chew. Creatures who chew their cud are …

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Minded body Embodied mind

Alexander Technique for musicians, exercises to improve your play.

How often can you prove today, that you, all we humans, are not ungovernable minds in disobedient bodies, but a harmonious, conversing whole, minded body and embodied mind. That is the thinking to which the world is coming even I write and you read these words. If, for instance, we think our torsos contain and …

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Tips for musicians: Overcome stiffness, open and expand.

Overcome stiffness : Tips for musicians

We are born to open and expand. At the perimeters of our universe waves rush outwardly, echoing the first great stroke of creation, the big bang. Opening and outward expansion are the nature of creation, of music, of calligraphy, of art, and of our gifted bodies. To think of ourselves as a vital part of …

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Alexander Technique for musicians, exercises to improve your play.

You are a musician, but maybe you have reached a plateau, you want to discover more ease and economy in your performance, you may experience pain or tension when playing. In using Alexander Technique for musicians I have developed many innovative exercises that focus on the specific needs of musicians. In this post I share …

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Skilled hands

You have skilled hands, keys to the advancement of humanity and to your technical development as a musician. Your hands are marvelously endowed in ways you may unwittingly witness every day. You witness these endowments when you flick a speck from your computer screen, when you toss a ball, when you brush away some small …

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Attention must be paid

Marvels Our bodies are marvels. They demand little of us yet floursh in our attention. Attention must be paid. Our bodes are vehicles of conveyance, intelligence gatherers, mills of foodstuffs, efficient little sewer systems, fuel cells, storing and distributing vital energies, all directed by an on-board computer system whose sophistication is still, in the approaching …

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It’s all in your wrists

It’s all in your wrists? Perhaps. A nodding wrist in midair was the particular expression of my grandfather’s caring. It was his call to attention. Our wrists add finesse to movement and expression. Do you want to explore that? If so, we begin, looking for truth in the expression: It’s all in your wrists. Partnering …

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Living Alexander Technique

Living Alexander Technique implies several truths: 1. That Alexander Technique is very much alive. I see that. I hear it and feel it in classes I’ve recently taught in colleges and universities. Students are hungry for Alexander Technique and thrilled by its practice and presentation. 2. That Alexander Technique is a way of life. It …

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Living Alexander Technique

“Attention is the world’s most precious commodity.
Pay it forward.“