relax...

Musicians want to be relaxed, comfortable, free. Free to move, free to play, free to make the music dance!

This is the idea that folks have, and they want/need/seek help with it. Sometimes they find their way to my Alexander Technique class.

We find tension in the neck or shoulders or back in response to the idea of singing or playing. Sometimes there's a tension that pulls one's body up off the chair. Some have a fearful response to the idea of playing in front of someone else.

As an Alexander teacher, I place my relaxed and open hand on the back of my students' neck or shoulders or back in a way that demonstrates how they can relax, too.

And we couple that relaxation with ideas: spatial ideas. The space between head and torso, the space between the shoulders. And grounding: relaxing feet on the ground, bottom on the chair.

Your homework: take just one idea, a little glance of a thought, that you can think in place of the usual worries, that lets you move more freely.

David's Musicians' classes-"Play Well, Hurt Less"

What to Expect From My Alexander Technique Class

*Hands-on work: I use light hand contact to guide each individual student to easier ways of doing things.

*Get ideas that students can take that home and work on by themselves (AT "directions").

*Classes are improvised to meet the needs and interests of each person in the room.

*Students learn also by watching me work with others.

Longtime student Patrick Smith: "By the end of class, a habit in me has lessened. And I've tasted a new freedom in my playing. There's also something about the energy of a group of people working together on a common goal" [See Patrick's blog:A Journeyman's Way Home]

Class info:
DJjernigan.com

I enjoyed my Alexander Technique class Tuesday evening: a light-hearted gathering of folks looking at our human selves in activity.  If you choose to read this synopsis, please realize you're coming in in the middle of a conversation...

"Player 1" made an experiment between playing hand drum with and without eyeglasses.  We noticed that you were not taking your chin up and pushing your head forward and you weren't wrinkling your brow as much.

I wonder, when you chose to do something different, whether the improvement has more to do with with just being conscious of what you were doing than it did with the presence or absence of glasses. When you put your glasses back on you didn't go back to doing the things you've been doing before.  However, there might be a place for just trying little different things; the different thing doesn't by itself change the way you do things in such a way that makes you wonderfully free, yet it still will make you conscious of what you are doing in a way that will bring in whatever it is that you love about doing this work.

"Player 2" reports on a few things tried since last class:

-Thinking not only about shoulders away from each other, but also about thinking beyond to the space around the shoulders.  You figured this one out without my input!  I got a lot of this idea from Peter Nobes (http://www.alexandertech.co.uk/)  We talked about also the space above and the space behind.

-Lifting a garage door, conscious of how the action is done most effectively. In Alexander terms this is using a "position of mechanical advantage" also sometimes referred to as a "monkey".

Then we moved from the monkey at the garage door into being on the spot when performing and staying present when you're on the spot, which can be very challenging (especially if you know how to hide!)

Looking forward to next Tuesday! Info on the class at djernigan.com.

ongoing introductory course:
Mondays, 12-1:30 pm, or Tuesdays, 7-8:30 pm.
Course fee: 5 weeks of your choice for $150, or drop in for one class for $30; 
in a private home in Silver Spring, MD (contact for directions) There is room for 6 people; please contact David to register:
240-393-1916 or
david.jernigan@gmail.com