An Alexander Technique Approachto Double Bass Technique

Ethan Kind, M.M., certifiedA.C.A.T., Am.S.A.T.

Table of Contents

What the Alexander Technique OffersPerformersPosture: Sitting and StandingHead, Neck, and Double BassLeft ArmRight ArmTorso, Shoulders, and BreathingInhibition and Playing (letting go ofbad habits)Accuracy (playing with faith)Slow and Fast Playing, Fragmentsand Focal DystoniaWhole Body Guided Release beforePracticing or PerformingWhen You’re Not Doing Something,

Don’t Continue to Do ItThe Reasons Why Performers ResistReleasing Poor Physical HabitsAs a Gift (for everyone listening)Collected Short Essays in the OrderWritten

What the Alexander TechniqueOffers Musical Performers

The Alexander Technique makes itpossible for musicians to performwithout pain and wear and tear to theirbodies. An Alexander Techniqueteacher shows the performer how toplay his or her instrument with a senseof power, poise, and ease. What is itexactly that an Alexander Techniqueteacher does for the performingmusician that makes it unique? Weteach the performer to find the mosteffortless way to play her instrument.We teach the performer that her wholebody plays the instrument. If the

whole body is balanced, and thetechnique makes personal sense, theplayer will play without sacrificing herbody. In the Alexander Techniquethe performer’s well-being isparamount, and if she takes care ofherself, the performer will create anextraordinary performance.

Alexander Technique teachers believethe means will take care of the ends.This means if the performer puts hisawareness on his posture andtechnique and chooses to find theeasiest way to play his instrument withthe least amount of work and withhigh energy, he will not wear his body

out. He will not create compression inhis joints trying to maintain poorposture and simultaneously use toomuch muscle to play his instrument.This combination of using too muchmuscle to hold up a body off balanceand using too much muscle tomaintain the inefficient parts of histechnique, makes it nearly impossibleto trust his body to give him what hewants from his instrument daily. Thismuscling of his body and theinstrument will eventually cause hisbody to hurt and potentially end hiscareer.

A performer needs a set of tools to

be able to play in the zone every day.What are these tools? They areconscious control, inhibition, orders,direction, renewing the thought,opposition, balance vs. position,grounding, and troubleshooting.

Conscious control is what F. M.Alexander called regaining controlover the voluntary musculature of thebody. If a client comes to me and sayshis neck and trapezius are hurting, andI tell him to just release these muscles,he’ll look at me like I’m crazy. Thetruth is he has lost conscious controlover these muscles, and it seems tohim there is no way to get them to

release. It is the ability to tell yourbody what you want, so that ithappens, that F. M. Alexander helpedhis students regain in everyday andspecialized activities.

Alexander called these instructions tothe body orders. So, the student withthe sore shoulder and neck says tohimself, “My neck is free and myspine is lengthening, and my shouldersare widening, releasing, and floatingon the ribcage”. This is an order givento the shoulder girdle and neck thatinvites the spine to lengthen anddecompress. If you are patient andrepeat these orders, your body will

respond at a deeper and deeper level tothese repeated thoughts of release, andyou will have conscious control overyour shoulder and neck.

Repeating thoughts to release the neckand shoulder are called renewing thethought. When you renew a thought,you are repeating an order to an areaof the body asking for release andexpansion. All repeated thoughtsdirected towards an area of the bodyhave an effect, and the more yourepeat the thought, the more profoundthe release. As the release begins to beexperienced consciously, your faith inyour control over your body grows,

and your thoughts are felt as havingdirect powerful experienced effects onyour body. This is conscious control.

Direction is the Alexander Techniqueprinciple that the head wants to leadthe spine into lengthening in anactivity, and this head leading thelengthening spine creates organized,elegant, graceful, powerful andathletic movement. So, core to thistechnique is that when you play aninstrument, you do so with a releasedlengthening spine. This will organizeand coordinate the whole body, so thatyou don’t damage the discs and impairthe nervous system.

Inhibition is the Alexander Techniquetool that allows a performer to makechanges to the way she plays herinstrument, and not to replace one setof bad habits with another set of badhabits. Example: The moment adouble bassist is about to play, heanticipates playing by locking his neckand then moves the bow. This is hislifetime habit, so he has always lockedhis neck before she plays. If sheinhibits this habit which has beencompressing the discs in her spine,then right before he plays he haschosen to consciously unlock his neckand then move the bow. To stop rightbefore doing what you’ve always

done, and choose to do somethingdifferent is inhibition. It is anincredible tool for letting go of whatdoesn’t work, when you play yourinstrument. You get to choose to dosomething different, to simply stopdoing what isn’t working and playwithout pain.

Opposition is changing yourrelationship to the instrument,changing the relationships between theparts of your body, or changing yourbody’s relationship to the audience. Ifyou allow yourself to be aware of thespace between you and yourinstrument, or allow yourself to be in

contact with the instrument withoutpulling towards it or pulling it towardsyou, then you really lower the tensionlevel in the body. This means you flowupwards with a lengthening spine, andyou’re not compressing downwards orarching your body forwards into theinstrument.

Opposition between the parts of yourbody is allowing space between thejoints. If we talk about the armsreleasing out of the back, then we say,“Allow the hands to release away fromthe spine as you play”. This is handsin opposition to the spine, whichallows you to have released arms as

you play, and released/lengtheningarms means you consciously createspace in the wrists, elbows, andshoulder joints.

The performer in opposition to theaudience is the performer sending theperformance to the audience, as heallows his head to lead upwards. Thisis directing tied to opposition, and thisallows the whole body to be balancedupwards as he performs, rather thanleaning forwards off balance toconnect to the audience. Choose toconnect to the audience with yourloving intention to give the music as agift, not by sacrificing your body.

A basic principle of the AlexanderTechnique is to choose posturalbalance over attempting to “hold”good posture. We recognize that thebody is always in motion, and thatwhen a performer tries to hold aposition, whether posture or technique,she will cause pain and strain as sheplays. Simply, you can’t hold aposition as you play your instrument,without using too much muscle. Thismeans you are simultaneously inmotion and static at the same time, andthis creates compression in the joints,which causes wear and tear to thebody.

I’ve talked about how the AlexanderTechnique wants you to have anupward flow in your body, but sincewe also want there to be opposition inthe body, then there needs to be adownwards flow also. Thisdownwards flow is grounding. Allowthe head to be in opposition to the feetand legs and/or sit bones, and thisgives the torso the platform it needs tobe supported fully on the feet and/orsit bones. This full support on the feetand/or sit bones with the legmusculature released downwards,means that the torso follows the headup off of free hip joints. So, from thehip joints down there is grounding,

and from the hip joints up there isdirecting or up, as we say in theAlexander Technique

Troubleshooting is one of my favoritethings to do in this technique. If youcan’t play a passage in a major pieceof the literature for your instrument,then you are doing something wrong.Let’s assume you have the potential toplay all of the great literature for yourinstrument, and if you can’t, you needto stop playing and figure out whatyou are doing technically and/orposturally wrong. This istroubleshooting. I love to do this withstudents. Every fine performer I have

ever worked with who couldn’t play aparticular passage was operating fromlies about their ability and/ormisconceptions about what was goingon physically in the passage. Once wediscovered the problem, then therewas always a solution that worked, ifthe performer gave him or herself thegift of letting go of limiting beliefs thatcompromised his or her technique.

Posture: Sitting and Standing

Let’s take a look at your whole bodyas you play. We’ll look at sitting andstanding. Choose a stool that is levelor slightly tilted downward, has no lipon the front of the chair, and has aperfectly flat seat and is padded. Sit tothe front of the chair with the sit boneson the chair and most of thehamstrings, the back of the thighs, offof the chair. The chair needs to be highenough, so that the double bass playercan be in the optimal position to theinstrument.

In the Alexander Technique we

approach the playing of an instrumentfrom the perspective that the wholebody plays the instrument, so what thewhole body does from the top of thehead to the tip of the toes is critical towhat comes out of the instrument. Thegeneral relationship of the whole bodyto the instrument is one ofcompromise. In finding a posture thatdoesn’t sacrifice any part of your bodyor technique, you will discover thereare very few ways you can sit or standwith the instrument that are trulycomfortable and allow effortlessaccess to the double bass andmechanically advantageous posture.

The double bass is placed in front ofthe legs and torso and played. Here iswhat has to happen in terms of thedouble bass’s relationship to yourbody, so that you don’t have tosacrifice your body to play the bass.Whether sitting or standing, you wantthe instrument to be placed, so thatyour torso can be fully upright most ofthe time. You want to be able to bowall of the strings with a minimum oftorso movement. You want to be ableto bow near the bridge without havingto compromise your posture. Youwant to be able to play in the 1stposition and the highest positions with

the left hand, so that you feel powerfulat either extreme of the neck.

If you are to sit or stand fully upright,then the instrument will need to behigh enough (length of the endpin),and it will need to lean towards youenough, so that the bass doesn’t forceyou out over it to play most of thetime. The front of the double bassneeds to be turned to the right, so thatyou can get to the first string and alsocomfortably to the fourth string. Thismeans the instrument may have to beon a diagonal to the body or the side ofthe bass fully facing the torso. Theamount of turn to the right will also be

determined by the style of bowing youuse. The German bow hand positionmeans it is easier to get to the firststring without having to turn the bassas much to the right, but if you don’tturn the instrument enough, it willmake it difficult to play the fourthstring. If you use the cello and violinstyle bow hand position, then just thereverse is true. The more you turn thebass to the right, the easier it is for theright arm, but this can make it moredifficult to play on the fourth string.When the bass is facing forwardstotally, then you will need to spiral thetorso also, again making sure youdon’t collapse the torso. The bass

facing fully to the front may be adecision about what your left handneeds to play comfortably. (In thesection Torso, Shoulders, andBreathing I talk about spiraling thetorso to get to all of the strings withoutsacrificing the posture of the torso andthe right arm.)

The double bass needs to be in arelationship to the left arm, so that theinstrument isn’t too tall and causes theleft hand and arm to strain playing inthe first position, but the bass alsoneeds to be tall enough, so that whenyou play in the highest registers of theneck, you are able to get to the these

notes without having to come forwardsover the body of the bass any morethan you have to. It is nearlyimpossible to sustain a position ofmechanical advantage of the torsowhen you play in the highest register,but you can do what needs to be donewith a free neck and lengthening backand free shoulders and grounding andnot harm your body.

There are essentially three posturalpositions for the bassist at theinstrument: fully upright, pivoted overthe bass, and curled over the bass toplay the highest notes. In all three ofthese postures you want to have the

head lead a lengthening spine and tobe aware that your sit bones are thebottom of your torso, and to be awarethat your legs are what grounds you onbalance, even when you’re sitting on astool. On the stool, it is both your sitbones and legs that ground the head,neck, and torso.

I want to back up now and talk aboutthe torso in relationship to the chair orstanding and your legs and theinstrument. I want to bring in theprinciples of the Alexander Technique,so you will not end up with animmobilized body at the instrument.Sit down on the perfect chair to play

the double bass, but without the bass.Sit fully upright on your sit bones witha free neck and a lengthening spineand a wide stance with your legs, as ifyou are at the bass. Bring up yourarms to play without the bow, andallow for a fully vertical lengtheningspine and shoulders floating on theribcage. Choose not to tense your legsin anticipation of playing the bass.This is a very direct way of looking atwhat you typically do in anticipationof playing the instrument, but withoutthe instrument. I‘m asking you toinhibit what you usually do inpreparation for playing. If you don’tprepare to play with tension, then you

won’t have to play with tension

One final point on your legs in sittingand playing: If you sit on a stool andplace your left leg on the railing of thestool, then you are making a decisionto play the double bass in what may bea more comfortable position, but youwant to be aware that you arechanging from a four point groundingstance to a three point stance. Thismeans that you need to have anespecially clear sense of your sit boneson the chair and your right foot and legon the floor, supporting you in full,balanced, upright posture. This meansyou don’t lean or collapse to your side

as you play. If you were to mount apiece of wood that was the length andwidth of your foot to the railing andchair, then you would return to a fourpoint grounding stance as you sit.

Now stand fully upright and let yourskeleton support your musculaturerather than the other way around,which means you don’t lock a singlemuscle to be upright. (You also do thiswhen sitting.) Bring up your arms toplay and notice what happens to yourposture. You will probably hunkerdown in your upper body and go intothe posture you usually play in. Inhibitthis and feel what it feels like to raise

your arms (let them float up) to playwith a fully balanced body not goingto where you have always goneposturally to play. You want to do thiswhether you’re standing or sittingwithout telling yourself how mucheffort will be needed to play thedouble bass. Because of the size ofthis instrument and the amount ofstrength it takes to press the string,many double bass players approachthe instrument as if they are liftingheavy weights. What if you didn’thunker down physically andemotionally when you approachedyour instrument? Then you won’t setyourself up to sacrifice your body

when you play.

If you don’t have the instrument asyou anticipate playing and you’redirecting, then when the instrument isplaced in front of you in its optimalposition, you can feel what it feels liketo experience your body’s newrelationship to the instrument withoutholding onto it. You get to experiencea new physical relationship to theinstrument, where you’re at dynamicease in the chair or standing and notpoised to play the way you’ve alwaysplayed. I’m asking you to be with thedouble bass for possibly the firsttime, where all of your attention is

on you, and you are in control of thebass. This is having the instrumentaccommodate you 100%, rather thanyou accommodating the instrument,which is a fancy way of saying notsacrificing your body for theinstrument.

What does this playing the instrumentlook like where you aren’t paying aphysical price to play your instrument?As the left arm is on the neck and theright arm has the bow, you are playingthe instrument as if you are playing theair bass. This means you aren’thanging onto the double bass. The leftarm floats up to the neck and the right

arm supports the bow with mobileshoulders. I will look at each arm atthe bass individually, but right now I’dlike you to just experience your armsand your body at the instrument, as ifyou were a dancer with arms floatingto the bass and your body on balanceand in opposition to the instrument.

In the introduction to this ebook Idescribe opposition as allowing thespace between you and yourinstrument. So, what does this meanfor you and the double bass, since thebass is in contact with your legs andtorso? This means you sit fully uprightwith your head directing a lengthening

spine upwards from the sit bones, withthe legs releasing out of the hip joints,as the instrument rests lightly againstyour torso. You then don’t pull theinstrument to you with your arms, andyou don’t slump into the instrument orarch your back or press the front ofyour torso into the bass. Since the bassis leaning towards you, let it come toyou, and really feel how good it feelsto not hold onto the instrument. Allowyourself to be in contact with theinstrument, without pulling or pushingthe double bass into you or away fromyou. Let yourself wrap around thebass with balance, ease, and up.

A very basic Alexander Techniqueprinciple is, when sitting, to allow thelegs to release out of the pelvis. Thismeans as you sit and balance on yoursit bones, you let your upper legmusculature release, so that the legsfall forward out of the hip joints. Trythis as you are sitting. Tighten yourthighs, and you will experience andactually see your upper legs jammedinto the pelvis. This is where so manysitting performing musicians get intotrouble over the years. If you sit forhours with static, locked, jammed hipjoints, you will eventually end up withhip pain, potentially leading to arthritisand/or a hip replacement.

When playing standing, you want asense of your head leading the torsoup off of the legs, from the pelvis up.When you sit on a horse, the saddleclearly tells you where the bottom ofyour pelvis is, and this is the feelingyou want in standing, the torsobalanced up and over the legs. It isfrom the hip joints that you pivot overyour legs and the double bass to playin that range of the instrument whereyou can get to the strings, where theneck meets the body of the bass. It isthis mid-section of the bass neckwhere you can play the bass with thebody in a mechanically advantageous

posture. This means as you pivotforwards, your knees are bent and thehead, neck, and torso are able to bediagonally over your legs in the samealignment as if you were fully upright.So many bassists, it seem to me to bedoing whatever they can do to playthis large instrument withoutconsidering if balanced, aligned,powerful, and mechanicallyadvantageous posture is possible mostof the time. It is!

Head, Neck, and Double Bass

The central principle in theAlexander Technique is if you allowthe neck to release and the head toLEAD a lengthening spine in anyactivity, then the freed-updecompressed central nervous systemwill allow you to move with elegance,ease, and coordination, and this iscalled directing. This is an extremelyimportant concept and action thatneeds to be especially clarified fordouble bass players, because there arethree major things that bassists do intheir technique that usuallycompromises this inherent way of

organizing the body. They are: thedouble bassist collapses down to seethe neck of the bass and the bow,playing in the higher registers usuallycollapses the whole head neck andtorso, and playing on the first stringusually collapses the right side of thetorso, resulting in the head and neckleaning and going down as theshoulder is pulled around to reach thefirst string.

Before I talk about these three thingsthat double bass players do tocompromise their technique, I’d like totalk about what almost all musiciansdo to compromise their technique. It is

the opposite of the opening sentenceof this section. Almost all musiciansshorten their neck and spine whenthey play or sing. Psychologicallyspeaking, this happens because theintention to play or sing well usuallymakes most performers afraid ofmaking mistakes. I don’t want to gointo analyzing that here, but what I dowant to do is what the puristAlexander Technique teacher woulddo. You teach the student to ordertheir body to stop doing what isn’tworking and/or order the body to dowhat does work. Orders is the wordthat F. M. Alexander called thethoughts you direct towards your

body, where you ask it what you wantit to do or not to do. One of the mostbasic orders is, “My neck is free, andmy head is leading a lengthening spineand a widening back”. This order is acombination of telling the neck torelease and then telling the spine tolengthen. Even though the word ordertypically now has a negativeconnotation, in this Alexandrian sense,these “orders of allowance” are a kindcontrol of your body.

Ideally you want to reestablish thisinherent body organization that mostthree and four-year-olds have, and thatis children play and run, etc. with a

free neck and lengthening spine. So,even if you’re performing a concertand you’re afraid, you choose toorder/allow your neck to be free andyour spine to lengthen, so that youdon’t hunker down and compromisethe performance and escalate yourfear. In other words, if your body isin beautiful balanced posturalalignment in a performance, it won’tcompromise the performance fromthe get go. A hunkered-downposture is poor technique.

For the double bassist to be fullyupright, establish fully uprightbalanced posture, and then have the

instrument fit you, rather than youtrying to fit the instrument. Mostbeginners on an instrument let theinstrument tell them what their bodiesare supposed to do, rather than let theirbodies tell the instrument what it issupposed to do. As you’re sitting orstanding, have someone place thedouble bass in front of you and keepadjusting the instrument until you canbe on balance and the instrument iseasily playable for both arms.Discover how much the instrumentneeds to tilt, so you can sit or standfully upright. Figure out how long theendpin needs to be. Figure out howmuch the bass needs to lean towards

you, in other words how much of adiagonal backwards tilt of theinstrument is needed to fit your body.Understand that in all of this youwant to be sitting fully balancedupwards on your sit bones with freehips or standing with free legs, andthe instrument is coming to you, notyou to it.

From this fully upright posture, letyour head pivot downwards, withoutthe head, neck, and shouldersrounding downwards to the bass. Thismeans you are still directing up withthe crown of the head, even as thehead is tilting to see the double bass.

You can do this by allowing the spacebetween the skull and first vertebrae(atlas) without the head and neckcollapsing forwards. Also, allow theeyes to move downwards in theirsockets, so that they can easily see theinstrument, so that you don’t have tocollapse the head and neck downwardsto see.

When you play in the highest registerof the instrument, you have to pressthe strings with the musculature of thetorso (latissimus dorsi), because thethumb is now in front of the strings.You want to be very clear that thefingers are pressed into the strings by

the torso’s back and arm muscles andthat the hand can’t press itself. Thequestion is: how upright can you beplaying in this register? This is anotherconsideration, when deciding wherethe instrument needs to be to fit you,not you it.

If you lengthen the endpin more, youmay find that the instrument leaningeven more towards you would be whatis needed for you to play in the upperregister. When the shoulder/arm takesthe fingers to the strings, then youdon’t collapse your torso forwards toget to the strings. But in the highestregisters, you will need to curve your

torso over the bass. This is the thirdposture on the bass, the other twobeing fully upright and the secondpivoted with an aligned back (notcurved over).Double bassists do this toget leverage over their arm/hand as itpresses the strings. Let the latissimusdorsi send the arm/hand into thestrings, as you curve over the body ofthe bass and continue to release yourneck, and have the head lead alengthening powerful back. Themusculature of a curving backassisting the left arm will not causephysical problems, even though it isn’ta mechanically advantageous posture,as long as the neck and torso are

powerfully engaged withoutcompressing the discs.

Letting yourself be fully upright andtrusting yourself to be on pitch,means you trust your head to be faraway from your fingers, and that youare still able to play absolutely intune. This is the other reason doublebassists hunker down over theirinstrument; they are unconsciouslygetting their heads as close as they canto the bass, so they can play in tune. Itis an amazing feeling to realize youcan be fully upright, the head “far”away from the notes, and be in totalcontrol of pitch. Many performers

pull their heads towards theirinstrument, because it is how so manyof us learned to read and write. We gotour heads as close as we could to thebook or paper, so we could get thewords or the letters right.

When you play on the first string,there is absolutely no reason your fullyvertical posture has to becompromised at all, if you will allowyour torso to spiral and support theright arm and shoulders as you play onthis string. When the torso spiralswithout leaving the plane it is in,which means the spine doesn’t leanout of the plane it’s in as the torso

spirals, then you have the wholepowerful torso fully upright andsupporting the arms and shoulders toback up bowing. In the section of thisebook titled Torso, Shoulders, andBreathing, I go into detail explaininghow to spiral the torso to play on thefirst string and the other strings.

Left Arm

I’m a former concert guitarist, and I’veworked with a lot of double bassplayers as an Alexander Techniqueteacher. I’m going to look at the lefthand and arm of the bassist from theperspective of the AlexanderTechnique, and also from myperspective of having been a concertguitarist. I went to my first AlexanderTechnique teacher with carpal tunnelsyndrome in my left wrist caused bypracticing six hours a day, and withina few months I stopped hurting andnever had a problem with my wristagain. It was this experience that led

me to become an AlexanderTechnique teacher.

As a guitarist I discovered that if Icreated a vise on the guitar neck,between the thumb and fingers, anddid not use arm weight, that I stoppedcreating carpal tunnel in my left wrist.Essentially, I played the guitar withthe left hand, as if I was playing the airguitar. This meant that if the guitarsuddenly disappeared, my hand andarm wouldn’t drop. My arm floated upto the neck of the instrument, and Ipressed the string(s) with my thumband finger(s), thumb vertical (alwaysperpendicular to the neck), thumb

almost always placed between the firstand second finger.

As I’ve worked with double bassplayers, I’ve discovered all of themhave been taught to use arm weight.As I see this, it means hanging off theneck of the bass with the idea that theweight of the arm and shoulder willpress the fingers into the strings, soyou don’t have to work as hard topress the strings with your fingers. Itdoesn’t work. Here’s why it doesn’twork. When you use the weight of thearm to press the string, you are notfully and gently supporting a lightarm, and position shifts mean you

have to keep re-supporting a heavyarm to move it. When you are usingthe weight of the arm to press thestring, you have to find this trickybalance between using the arm weightto press the finger into the string andsimultaneously not pulling the armdownwards off the notes. So, usuallywhat happens is the double bass playerpulls the arm backwards, and thismeans pressing the string with a lot ofextra muscle, which is mainly the backmuscle (latissimus dorsi). I think thisis why bassists have created thisslapping the strings technique to pressthe strings to the neck.

Here is my alternative to using armweight. Let the thumb be on the backof the bass neck with a gentleforwards bending of the tip of thethumb and the thumb perpendicular tothe neck, placed approximatelybetween the first and second finger.Let a light floating arm support thehand fully the whole time. In otherwords, never hang on the neck of thebass. This means that the fingers andthumb act as pincers on the neck topress the strings, and you press withthe minimum amount of musculareffort to get a clean precise note. Ittakes less muscle to press the stringof the double bass, when the arm

and shoulder are supporting thehand fully and with ease, than whenyou use a tense and simultaneouslynon-supportive shoulder, makingyou press fingers even more, tryingnot to slide down the neck. (There isa whole section in this ebook where Iwill look at the shoulders and how touse them with very little effort tosupport the arms, so I won’t addressthat here.) It is incredible howprecise the fingers can be, whenthere is a fully energized arm andshoulder supporting the hand andallowing the mind to place the fingeraccurately, with a minimum of

muscular work.

Because the bass is on a diagonalleaning back to you, you do not haveto play the instrument holding yourleft elbow out, any more than pianistshave to hold their elbows out to playtheir instrument. Let the left hand leadthe arm up to the strings with theelbow being allowed to point down tothe ground and see what this feels like.If you observe what many bassists do,when they shift position with the leftarm, they will move the elbow firstand then place the hand and fingers.Let your hand lead the arm to the notewithout winging out the elbow first.

You will find that you’ll have acomfortable relationship of the fingersand thumb to the neck and stringswithout having to overwork theshoulder muscle (deltoid). Notice howI said to let the hand lead the arm andshoulder to get to the instrument. Thisa way of thinking and moving thehand with the shoulder, withoutmaking the shoulder muscle overwork,in other words a “trick” to use the leastamount of shoulder muscle to get thejob done. Also, you don’t want theinstrument to be so tall, that you strainyour wrist hand and arm playing in the1st position.

In the last sentence of the fourthparagraph of this section I talked aboutbassists slapping the strings. I see a lotof double bass players use a left handtechnique of what seems to me to slapthe finger into the string. Does it haveto be done this way? In all of myebooks on using the AlexanderTechnique to inform the playing ofmusical instruments, I ask myself asimple question. How would I playthis instrument after the basics hadbeen demonstrated for me? What Icame up with I apply to all of mystudents who come to me for theAlexander Technique. I show and/orexplain to them what I would do to

personalize my technique on theirinstrument, using everything I’velearned about body mechanics to makethe instrument easier to play. I presentthese as possibilities and leave it up tothe student to decide, if he or shewants to use them or not.

What if you gently curled all of yourfingers to the bass neck and kept themall within a quarter of an inch from thestrings, and, when it was time to use afinger, you reflexively popped thegently curved finger into the string?Reflexively means twitching into thestring as quickly as your reflexes canpossibly move the finger. This would

be the equivalent a slapping the stringsbut instead with a gentle curl to thefingers. You’d shoot into the stringreflexively onto your fingertips. Youwould not need to add the extramovement of drawing the finger backto play the note cleanly. You do notneed to get a running start to play anote with precision and clarity.

Speed on a double bass is adetermined by the left hand and bywhat the instrument can handle. Thereare two things that have to be realized,if the bassist is going to be limitedonly by the instrument and not by theleft hand fingers. You cannot move

your fingers any faster than yourreflexes will allow you. Simply, youcan’t force your fingers to play fasterthan they can move, so you have twoways to be able to move to play notesat amazing tempos. First is what Imentioned earlier. Direct all of yourfingers to be within a quarter of aninch from the strings at all times;released and poised to moveinstantaneously. Second, since youcan’t force the next finger to playfaster than your reflexes, the nextfinger to play needs to be already onthe way down to the next note, if it isto get there at a tempo your reflexescan’t handle. You’ll experience this

as the fingers moving as a wavethrough the left hand. And they are,because there is a constant flow ofmovement between the fingers at fasttempos, and this an incredible feelingto play super-fast effortlessly, and tobe conscious of how you’re doing it.

Right Arm

Do you know which muscles move theright arm on the up-bow or down-bow? On the up-bow, the biceps andthe chest (pectoral) muscle with thefront of the shoulder (deltoid) musclepush the bow across the string. Thetriceps and the back (latissimus dorsi)muscle with the back of the shoulder(deltoid) muscle pull the bow on thedown-bow. It is very important for youto understand that these large torsomuscles do most of the work to movethe bow. It also means that you needto accept that these muscles are veryprecise in what you ask of them, or

you are conflicted. What the arm andtorso do is similar, whether you areusing an overhand bow or a Germanstyle bow. I want to generalize theprinciples we’ll be looking at to bothof these techniques.

You may now view your hands asprecise and the larger upper bodymusculature as imprecise, whichmeans you “live” in their hands. If so,then you may experience your handsas moving your arms, not your armsand torso as moving your hands. Themusculature of the torso and theshoulders moves the arms and hands,which means the torso places the

hands where they need to be to beaccurate. There are two things weteach as Alexander Techniqueteachers, when it comes to activitieslike playing a musical instrument thatrequire refined movement. We make itvery clear to the double bass playerwhich muscles are doing what, and weteach the performer how to get out ofthe way of these muscles, so thatplaying the bass is as effortless anddynamic as possible.

So, I want to make you aware thatyour chest, back, arm, and shouldermuscles move the bow, but experienceit as the hand leading an energized

arm in bowing. (An AlexanderTechnique “trick” is to experiencebowing as if the hand moves the arm,even though you know in reality thatthe arm and torso muscles move thehand. When you experience the handleading a very alive and availablearm, you get this very dynamic armthat is doing the minimum muscularlyto move the bow.)

When you, the double bassist, aremaking sounds, the bow is in motion .When the bow is in motion, the wholeright arm and right shoulder are inmotion. As obvious as this is, it iscritical to bring it to consciousness.

Why? Because playing the doublebass cannot be described in terms ofstatic positions. (One can describeplaying the piano and guitar in staticpositions, because on both of theseinstruments the performer can play anote and not be in motion, and thesound continues.)

When I ask you to fully experiencewhat happens in the right arm as youplay, it may be the first time in yourperforming life that you areexperiencing/sensing the arm, hand,and shoulder instead of telling themwhat to do. So, as you move the bowback and forth across the string, I ask

you to feel what the whole arm isdoing. I ask you to realize for the firsttime that all of your joints arecontinuously changing shape whenthe bow is in motion making musicand to feel this. The first time I didthis with a bassist, it was a revelationfor the player, because for the firsttime he got to watch his body ratherthan boss his body. What happenedwas wonderful. Instantly the tonebecame warmer, fuller, and louder.Then it became obvious to both of usthat there was a major change in thequality of his whole arm’s movements.All of the joints, from the wrist to theelbow to the shoulder to where the

collar bone meets the sternum, becamemore fluid. They folded and unfoldedwith ease. (When I look at how aperson walks, and I make her awarethat her knee always precedes the footin walking, instantly she releases herknees more when she walks, withouteven intending to.)

So the moment I make the doublebass player aware that all of her rightarm’s joints are continuously foldingand unfolding and changing shapewhen she plays, she lets this happeneven more, and feels how good it feelsin her body as it happens.

There are two places in the right armwhere the double bassist typically getsherself in trouble: the shoulder and thehand. The deltoid muscle of theshoulder supports the arm forwardsand up, and it also assists in movingthe bow. When you are playing yourinstrument the whole arm, shoulder,and musculature are all in motion, thenthere has to be a way to support thearm without immobilizing the deltoid.

If you can support the head uprightwith a free neck, then you cansupport a right arm forwards andup with a free shoulder. Imaginethere is a string tied to your wrist and

elbow and someone is lifting your armin front of your body for you, and thatthis has nothing to do with playing thebass (letting go of any intention inyour body to play), and “let your armbe raised for you”. For the first timeyou will probably feel how littlemuscle it takes to raise an arm. If Isaid to you that your life depended onyou supporting your arm in the doublebass position and not move it for fivehours, then the only way you could dothis without causing trauma in themusculature of the arm and shoulderwould be to experience the arm asfloating. If you are experiencing thearm as floating, then the arm is being

supported with the minimum musclenecessary and is 100% available formovement (bowing). This is how youas a bassist can play for as long as youwant and never have any problemswith your right shoulder.

Double bass players do not like todrop the bow when they play, andespecially when they perform forothers. So, many bassists hold onto thebow - in fact I believe most doublebass players hold onto the bow - withtoo much muscle. As an AlexanderTechnique teacher, I would instruct abassist and other bow instrumentplayers on how help to use less and

less hand and forearm musculature tohold onto the bow, and this wouldestablish a new habit over time. Thenone lesson I asked a double bassplayer to imagine her fingers super-glued to the bow, and that she couldn’tdrop the bow even if she wanted to.The moment she started playing a lookof surprise and joy that came into hereyes. She stopped after a moment, andsaid it really felt like the bow wasglued to her fingers, and she didn’thave to grip the bow at all to not dropit.

In an instant we had solved what couldhave been along drawn out process of

discovering how little work it took tohold the bow. Instantly she went to theminimum muscle necessary to get thejob done, and because she fullyexperienced the bow as being glued toher thumb and fingers, she instantly letgo of being afraid of dropping thebow. This is the most important partfor me, because anything I can do as ateacher to help a musician let go offear, means that what comes out of theinstrument will be loving, if fear isn’tblocking the loving performance.“Love is letting go of fear”, which isfrom A Course in Miracles.

Finally, for this new way of “holding”

the bow to become an effortless habit,she had to renew the thought, “Myfingers and thumb are super-glued tothe bow”, whenever she forgot, as shewas playing and had started squeezingthe bow. Every time she renewed thisthought, it moved closer and closer tobeing an effortless habit/experience,and very quickly and permanentlyredefined her relationship to the bow,ultimately making the bow a gentle,loving extension of her arm.

Torso, Shoulders, and Breathing

The shoulder girdle floats on top of aribcage, and the shoulder girdle andribcage are in constant flow andmovement, as a result of breathingand all that is needed to play thedouble bass. If you don’t want tostrain your shoulders and arms, youwant to allow this freedom in the armsand torso and shoulders to be aconstant in your playing.

When you play a non-windinstrument you never ever need tohold your breath. In other words,never holding your breath in practice

and performance should be part ofyour technique. So, take a piece ofmusic that you know backwards andforwards, or a scale, and as you play,place all of your awareness onobserving your breathing. Let whatcomes out of the instrument be totallysecondary, and place all of yourattention on observing your breathingpattern, but not controlling it. Thelonger you only observe yourbreathing, the more natural yourbreathing will become. My intention isto make continuous breathing part ofyour technique, so that no matter howdifficult a passage is, you never holdyour breath. Another way to say this is

that you play every piece with afearless breathing pattern.

A fearless breathing pattern is whenthe diaphragm contracts downwardand expands the whole torsobackwards, sideways, downwards andslightly upwards. The descendingdiaphragm pushes the ribcage out andup and the intestines downwards andback and forwards. So, the whole torsoexpands in all directions on the inhale.The inhale is a muscular contractionof the diaphragm that moves theribcage forwards, up, sideways, andbackwards. For this to happeneffortlessly, the external musculature

surrounding the ribcage needs torelease to allow expansion, rather thanactively expanding itself. On theexhale the diaphragm releases andrises upwards into a dome, and theribcage lowers and moves inwards,and the abdominal musculaturemoves towards the back. On theinhale the spine gathers, and on theexhale the spine lengthens. (Thisawareness of the lengthening iscritical, so you don’t collapse the torsowhen you exhale.) Breathingeffortlessly and fearlessly is about thewhole torso being released, so that thediaphragm can contract and expandwith ease.

The shoulders sit on top of thisconstantly expanding and contractingand rising and lowering structure, andwhen you are fully upright, this doesnot interfere with the accuracy of thearms and fingers, if you trust yourbody and your mind. Accuracy is afunction of trust, not of immobilizingthe body. There is never any reason toimmobilize the shoulders whenplaying the double bass. When thearms are brought up to play, allow thehead to lead a lengthening neck andspine, and the shoulder girdle to floaton this structure that consists of ribsattached to the spine and sternum.

The shoulder girdle, which is thecollar bones and shoulder blades andtheir musculature, should be allowedto float on top of the torso like aninner tube in a pool. You never everneed to interfere with the freedom ofthe shoulder blades to stabilize theshoulder girdle. The shoulder bladesfollow the arms into movement, andthe freer the shoulder blades, the morecoordinated and elegant the arms’movements are. When the arms areraised to play the bass, you are notincreasing the actual weight on theshoulder girdle, but you are activatingshoulder and back muscles to supportthe arms in a different, more active

place. This can be done withouttensing and immobilizing theshoulders and hunkering down into thetorso to play. In other words, you donot have to hunker down or lock theshoulder blades to support the arms.What we see as Alexander Techniqueteachers is that just about everyonebraces their shoulders, when they raisetheir arms, and this is totallyunnecessary. Raise an arm over yourhead and tense up completely, so thatit is immobile. Now release all of theexcess work you’re doing to hold itup, and imagine it is being held up foryou, and that the arm and shoulder are

available to be moved for you. Simply,muscles can support parts of the bodywithout any of the musculature beingheld rigid.

When playing the double bass, thetorso should be allowed to spiral toassist the right arm in playing,whether you’re sitting on a stool orstanding. Most of the bassists who’vecome to me drop their right shoulderand pull their right shoulder girdlearound and off of the torso to play thefirst string. What do I mean when I saythey pull the right shoulder girdle offof the torso? The shoulder girdle sitson top of the torso, and the collar

bones rest on the front ribs, and theshoulder blades share the same curveas the back ribs. When a bassist dropsher right side, which means curves thespine down and to the right andstretches her right arm to reach thefirst string, she is stressing her back,right arm and shoulder. This means theshoulder girdle is not floating on andbeing supported by the ribcage andtorso.

What if, as the double bass playerplayed the instrument sitting orstanding, he allowed his back to spiralas he moved from string to string?This would mean that the torso is

spiraling under a head looking at theinstrument, and that the torso ismoving the bow from string to stringassisting the right arm. What I justdescribed is what the body does whenwe walk or run, if you don’timmobilize the torso. The spine/torsospirals under the head from the pelvisup. The pelvis actually counter-spiralsto the spine when we walk, but at thebass in sitting we’re only concernedwith the spiral of the upper torso. Ifyou begin to play a scale very slowly,and if every time you moved to theadjacent string you allow the torso tospiral just enough to move theshoulder and arm to the next string

without dropping the shoulder at all,you will experience playing the doublebass in a whole new light. This makesthe whole body available to play theinstrument, and it means that playingon the first string can be experiencedas comfortably as playing the otherthree strings.

Sit on the end of the chair that you useto play your bass, but without theinstrument. Look straight ahead withyour arms across your chest. Nowrelease your neck, directing your headto lead a lengthening spine upwardsand then spiral the whole torso, withyour head turning with the torso, as

the shoulder girdle goes for the ride.Let the whole torso spiral, but only tothe point that you’re not taking the sitbones off the chair. Do this in bothdirections until you get a real feel forthe shoulder girdle being moved bythe torso. Now, release the neck, andhave the torso spiral with the neck sofree, that the head continues to faceforwards. This is torso spiraling underthe head. Now pivot your headdownwards from the base of the skull,looking downwards at the floorwithout pushing the head forwards.Spiral your torso as the head/eyes lookat the same place without turning. Thisis what you want to do at the double

bass.

The amount that the torso spiralswhile moving from adjacent string toadjacent string is not a big movement.In fact it will be almost invisible to anobserver. When you have the torsoavailable to help move the arm fromfirst string to fourth string, it is anincredible feeling to realize how muchyou’ve been straining and collapsingto play your instrument, and now it istotally unnecessary.

Inhibition and Playing

I defined inhibition in the introductionto this ebook, but I feel it is such apowerful tool for the AlexanderTechnique teacher to give to thestudent, that I want to look atinhibition or inhibiting the habit indetail.

A double bassist comes to me becausehe’s hurting, struggling, because hecan’t do what he wants on hisinstrument. He plays for me. It doesn’tgo well, and he instantly starts overand starts over and starts over etc. Hefinally gets into the piece and gets in

trouble, and he instantly repeats whathe messed up and tries it again andagain, etc. This is what so manyperformers do, and it is such a habitualdead end, because it never leads tosolving the problem. You cannot fix amistake, if you constantly are tryingto fix the same mistake, by doing thesame thing over and over and over.

What should the bassist have doneafter he messed up the beginning ofthe piece? He should have stoppedand done something different. Thisis inhibition. Inhibition or inhibitinga habit is a choice to stop trying toget it right and to let go of or inhibit

what isn’t working. How is thisdone? You stop doing what you’redoing, make a change, and continue onthe release of that change. How doesthe hurting bassist who has come tome do this?

First, we find a way to play theinstrument so he can sit or stand with afully aligned back, whether he’s fullyupright or pivoting over theinstrument. It will take more than onesession to integrate what I’mdescribing, but let’s go with makinglots of changes all at once for themoment. I ask him to inhibit (stop)slumping and then play. I ask him to

release his neck and then play. I askhim to allow himself to breathe andthen play. I ask him to let his left wristunlock and then play. I ask him torelease the tension in his legs and thenplay. I ask him to feel his right handfingers glued to the bow and then play.I ask him to release any holding in hisfeet and then play. I ask him to releaseany holding in his jaw and then play. Iask him to allow his shoulders to floaton the ribcage and then play. I ask himto allow his head to release up andaway from his sit bones and then play.I ask him to direct his head to lead hisspine into lengthening and then spiralthe whole body to play the first string,

if he is standing.

This is what F. M. Alexander createdto change habits. He helped hisstudent change what was going oninternally and externally in the body,rather than by overriding the old habitwith a different one with the sameamount of tension. Let me state this ina different way. If you do somethingdifferent with the same amount oftension and compression that got youinto trouble in the first place, nomatter how much better your doublebass technique is, you will eventuallyget back into trouble. You can dowhat visually passes for good

technique on the bass, but if you aren’texpansive and balanced, then you aremissing the piece that AlexanderTechnique teachers offer to theirstudents. That missing piece is atechnique created where you let go ofwhat isn’t working and replace it withwhat does work.

If, as A Course in Miracles says,“Love is letting go of fear”, then as anAlexander Technique teacher I say,“Love is letting go of what doesn’twork on the double bass”. There is aline in A Course in Miracles that saysif you believe in two contradictorybelief systems at the same time, the

one that isn’t true will run your life. Sitdown with a pencil and paper and takea look at everything that you havealways believed is necessary for agreat double bass technique and writeit all down. Also write downeverything that is a weakness in yourplaying. Be very honest and admitwhat you can’t do consistently andeasily, that you should be doing. It isalways time to let go of the parts ofyour bass technique that don’twork. Also, from the AlexanderTechnique teacher’s perspective, youare going to be adding a whole lot ofnew parts that you never would haveconsidered as part of the bass’s

technique. Example: Many doublebass players wouldn’t exactly considerwhat the legs are doing as part of thebassist’s technique. Probably you justplanted your feet, and that was it forthe legs.

From this ebook you now know thatthe whole body plays the double bass.I’ll never forget when I went to myfirst Alexander Technique teacher as aguitarist with carpal tunnel syndrome,and she began to change everything inmy whole body from head to toe. Iwasn’t a happy camper, but in a veryshort time I realized it was fun to seehow it all fit together. Every time I

inhibited some habit, big or small, Ikept feeling better and better in mybody, and I sounded better and better.When your body doesn’t feel good,there is always a profound negativeeffect on what comes out of theinstrument.

I have always found it nearlyimpossible to connect to the music Iwas playing, when I was hurtingphysically unnecessarily. I believe weinherently know when we play aninstrument, if there is a better way toplay it. What I mean by this statementis that deep down we know that if theinstrument is hurting us, and if it’s a

struggle to play what’s worth playing,then we’re doing something wrong,and there is always a better way. Justbefore you play the double bass, if youstop and choose to let go of what isn’texpansive for the whole body, andthen you play, you have made anincredibly self-loving decision that iscalled inhibition in the AlexanderTechnique.

Accuracy

Accuracy, hitting the right noteeffortlessly, is a function of knowingwhich note you want to play, andabsolutely allowing it to happen, andtrusting it to happen and expecting itto happen. When I found the bookNew Pathways to Piano Technique byLuigi Bonpensiere, I had found what Ineeded to play like a musical prodigyat age twenty-five. The book revealedto me that if I knew where I was goingon the guitar, trusted my finger to hitthe mark, and moved instantaneously Icouldn’t miss, and I didn’t! It is anincredible feeling to leap across the

neck of the guitar with total abandon,as quickly as my reflexes will take meand nail the note. I’m not talking aboutclose, but truly landing with a preciselanding, so that the sound is clean.

Now, the guitar does have frets, andwe pluck the strings rather than use abow, and this can make for somepretty imprecise playing on the guitar.What I mean is that once the guitaristplucks the note it begins to decay, andif he does a large position changetrying to make sure he doesn’t missthe note, he will cause a break insound between the two notes, becausehe isn’t moving reflexively, but he

won’t play other notes in between as adouble bass player would. Reflexivelyis my term for moving as quicklybetween shifts as my arm can movethe hand. This speed is limited by thespeed of our reflexes, so I call it areflexive movement. It is simplymoving as quickly as you can in ashift, and you can’t move any fasterthan you can move. A whole lot ofmusicians don’t understand this andkeep trying to force the arm and /or thefingers to move faster and faster. Allthis does is cause tension that makesyou move even slower and exhauststhe arms and hands.

As a bassist you have to move yourleft arm/hand reflexively betweennotes in a position change, or you willbe bowing either nothing or aglissando. Reflexively is how youshould shift, but I have seen doublebassists who fudge position shifts.When they shift positions with the lefthand as the string is being played,there may be a break in sound or aslight glissando, so they can get theguided left hand into position for thenext note. What is a guided hand? It isa hand you are moving slowed downslightly with tension, so you don’tmiss when you land.

If you are going to play the doublebass with total faith and allow yourhand and soul to hit the mark withabsolute precision like a prodigydoes, you are going to have toACCEPT that if you know the pitchof the note you want to hear, YOUCAN’T MISS! I see absolutely nodifference between what a singer doesto sing at pitch, and what the bassistdoes to place a fingertip on the exactplace on the string on the exact rightnote. There is absolutely no room forerror for the singer or the bassist:either you perform the note, becauseyou instantly “go to” and perform thenote, or you miss the mark.

So, now it is time for you the doublebass player to do what I did, so thatyou can do what I do (paraphrasingthe founder of the AlexanderTechnique, F. M. Alexander). Go tothe bass and make a decision whichtwo notes you are going to leapbetween on the same string, making itat least a fifth. Now begin bowing thelower note, and then somewhere in themiddle of the bowing instantaneouslyshift the left hand to the next notewithout thought or hesitation. Did youhit the right pitch? If you didn’t, thenyou aren’t trusting the note in yourhead to place the finger. Withdraw

even more effort to get it right, andthen move instantaneously again,trusting the hand and soul to hit themark. There is another way to describethis instantaneous position shift, andthat is to “teleport” to the next note.One moment you’re bowing one noteand the next a different note, as yourhand magically appears on the secondnote. This is absolutely movingwithout guiding the hand/arm.

So, imagine how extraordinary yourplaying would be, if you never guideyour hand/arm again. What if younever played a note again withoutfaith? This means you always place

the bow on the strings and your lefthand on the neck without hesitation,without guiding either hand or arm.You assume that you will always playwhat you hear in your head by totallytrusting your body and soul, and neverever being careful means you playwith amazing accuracy.

There is no way to guarantee you willhit the mark, unless you move withcomplete trust and abandon. You cannever guarantee accuracy by tryingto avoid making mistakes. Hitting themark can’t be worked outintellectually or mastered by endlessrepetition. It is an act of faith. You

simply move instantaneously,knowing, feeling, and experiencingthat you can’t miss. When Iexperienced this on the guitar, therewas such a flip flop in how I playedthe guitar, that I could never go backto being careful on the instrument,never again play trying not to make amistake. My mantra became, “I haveno choice, I have to trust my hands”.So, at the guitar or away from it, I’drepeat this statement affirming what Ihad experienced on the instrument,and I began to feel like a prodigy 24/7.

Can you handle playing the doublebass without any weaknesses?

Because once you experience thefeeling that you can’t miss, you willhave to accept that everything youbelieved you couldn’t do on theinstrument wasn’t true. If you aretrusting your hands to hit the mark,and you are consistently missing themark, you are doing somethingwrong. There isn’t something wrongwith you! I call dealing with what isn’tworking troubleshooting. In otherwords, if you can’t play what isplayable, there is something wrongwith your technique. Example: If youcan’t play a very fast passage attempo, then probably your left handfingers are not super-close to the

strings, you aren’t trusting the fingersto hit the mark, you aren’t allowing thefingers to be on the way to the notesthey’re going to play while thepreceding note is being played, and/oryou may be hanging off of the neckwith the left shoulder wrist and elbowimmobilized. Make the necessarycorrection to your technique and trustit will work.

If you are going to continue to playafter you realize you can playanything and everything on yourinstrument, then you may have tomake peace with an ego that isbased on you not having what it

takes to be an incredible player. Ididn’t, and I had to stop playing theguitar after I discovered I could doanything effortlessly on theinstrument. I had to quit when I hadfound the “Holy Grail”, because myego was based 100% on overcomingand struggle. This meant nothingcould ever be easy and feel good, if itwas going to be worth anything to me.So, once the guitar became easy, Ididn’t stop playing because I wasbored with this easy instrument. I hadto stop playing, because I wasspending hours practicing withoutfear. I couldn’t handle all of thesehours without fear, because I wasn’t

ready to feel good all of my playingtime. Choose to allow your playing tobecome easy, because this is theloving thing to do for yourself.

Slow and Fast Playing, Fragmentsand Focal Dystonia

Slow and Fast

This is an essay on the virtues of slowpractice versus a tempo practice. It isalso about the actual physicaldifference between playing slow orfast, which will lead to a look atwhether playing slow is a truepreparation for an a tempoperformance or a form of making one“huge mistake”. From what I haveseen of both sides of this argument, itisn't about whether slow playing isgood or bad, since most performers

and teachers use slow playing to workout what needs to be done in a piece.The disagreement is whether slowplaying should be kept to an absoluteminimum. You should get to tempo assoon as possible, so you areexperiencing the piece as it is meant tobe played physically mentally andemotionally, in other words treatingslow playing as a “necessary evil”.

What is the physical differencebetween playing slowly and quickly? Iask a double bassist to play a twooctave scale and to do so very slowly,and to pay close attention to what thehand is doing. I ask her to really

experience her fingers and theirrelationship to each other, as she playsthe scale at a very slow tempo,ascending and descending nonstop. Asshe continues to play the scale, I askher to gradually pick up the tempo,continuing to pay close attention to herhand and fingers. I ask her to get fasterand faster until she is going as fast asshe can. I then stop her, and ask her ifshe was able to feel the place where“slow” playing became “fast” playing,and what the difference is. When shesays no, then we do this a few moretimes, seeing if she can figure out thedifference between the two. So far, nodouble bass player has come up with

the answer on his or her own.

Here is the answer. At a certain tempo,for the player to continue to get fasterand faster, the finger that plays nextmust already be on its way down tothe string. We cannot move faster thanour reflexes allow us to move. If youtouch a hot plate accidently, you willpull your hand away reflexively, butyou cannot get off the hot plate anyfaster than your reflexes will allowyou. Even if you touch it consciouslyand attempt to get off it more quickly,you still can't make the muscles twitchany faster than they can. If you areplaying a scale, and keeping your

fingers as close to the strings aspossible (touching them) andarticulating each finger 100%independently, in other words you donot move the next finger until theprevious finger has pressed the string,you will not be able to play at yourpotential tempo. You simply cannotwill your fingers to move faster thanyour reflexes can move them.

If you continue to make each fingerwait its turn, you will end upconstantly struggling with fast musicon your instrument, and end upbelieving the lie that you don't havewhat the great players have. If you let

the next performing finger begin itsdescent before it is needed, you willalways get there in time to play thenext note, and for the first time youwill experience what feels like thepotential for infinite speed on yourinstrument. This is such an incrediblefeeling. Of course infinite speed isn'tpossible, but what you will experiencefor the first time is your instrumentlimiting the tempo by what it iscapable of, not by what you areincapable of playing.

Now that I have the double bassistplaying effortlessly very fast scales, Iask her to play slow again and really

feel that place where fingers mustalready be on their way to get there intime, and tell me how this feels. Shewill probably tell me it feels like awave movement flowing through herfingers, because now she is feeling thecontinuous movement of fingers, andnot each finger waiting its turn to play.Each note will sound clearlyarticulated, even though she hasn'tmade each finger wait its turn.Effortless speed requires you to trustyour ears, rather than incorrecttechnique beliefs, so that you canperform anything fast and playablewith ease.

Let's discuss slow playing versus fastplaying. Both I believe are necessary,so it becomes a decision for the playerhow quickly to pick up tempo, and doyou work on sections of a piece orshort fragments. I believe playinglarger sections or fragments is apersonal decision. Working outfragments will get you to tempoprobably quicker, but I don't believe itis a problem to take a bit longer to getto tempo or beyond by working onlarger sections. I do believe oneshould take a piece to faster than atempo, so that a tempo will feel aseffortless as possible. This is like abaseball player swinging a weighted

bat before coming to the plate, so thatthe bat feels effortless to swing.

Is playing slowly a form of makingmistakes? This is what many playersbelieve, and most players believemistakes should be avoided at allcosts. I've found that almost allclassical musicians believe that amistake made is a mistake learned.This is the central belief of classicalmusicians that makes for fear basedplaying. “Thou shalt avoid mistakes atall costs!” I do not believe a mistakemade, and recognized as such as it isbeing played, is a missed note learned,unless this is believed. What we

believe, true or not, is self-fulfilling.In other words, if you believe everymistake made is learned, you willmake that same mistake over and overagain to prove you are right. Humanslove to be right! So, if you accept thata missed note recognized is not amistake learned, then slow practice isnot playing a whole piece wrong.

Slow practice is where effortlesstechnique can be preserved, as youwork out where your hands are goingand how they're going to get there. Iam all for getting to tempo and beyondas soon as possible, as long as thismeans your technique is never

compromised. As you begin to pick upthe tempo, with the awareness of thepoint where you switch fromindividual articulation to continuousmovement, then you are paying lovingattention to not letting your intentionto get to tempo cause your techniqueto break down. If your technique doesbreak down, then what are you doingwrong? You may discover yourtechnique has flaws in it that evenflowing fingers can't solve, so youneed to troubleshoot your techniqueby yourself, with a music teacher, withan Alexander Technique teacher or allthree. So, perform with love and anaccurate sense of what it really takes

to physically play your instrument,and who knows how good you'llbecome.

Fragments Slow and Fast

Recently I was working with a banjoplayer with focal dystonia, and Idiscovered that if I did two things, wewere able to give her back control overher right hand fingers, that wereseizing up and twitching involuntarily,making it impossible for her to play.The first thing I did was find the mostmechanically advantageous posture Icould find for her whole body. Thesecond was to choose a fragment of a

piece and have her play it at her mosteffortless reflexive top speed.

I don’t want to go into detail here foroverall posture. I do that in each ebookI’ve written for all of the instruments.But in general we found a way for herto sit and stand in full upright with theinstrument in its most comfortablerelationship to her body, so that theinstrument came to her, and she didn’thunker down to it.

Then we took a look at playing thesame 10 note fragment. I asked her toplay it a few times only with her righthand, just to make sure that she didn’t

have to think about the pattern at all.(We left the left hand out of thisexercise, because she was having noproblems with the left hand.) I thenasked her to let the fragment, herfingers, find their most effortlessspeed and just observe it. Sometimes itworked and sometimes it didn’t. ThenI asked her to place all of herawareness on the whole hand stayingreleased. Wherever she felt tension inher hand and fingers, to inhibit tensingup, and I asked her to keep gentlyrepeating the pattern over and over.

It worked pretty well, and there weremoments of playing the fragment

beautifully and without tension ortwitching, but she wasn’t consistent. Idiscovered the reason for theinconsistency. As she played thefragments over and over, she keptreducing the time between eachrepetition, and I realized she waslooking, feeling, and sounding rushedin her playing. So, she started seizingup and twitching involuntarily again.

I said, “I want you not to play untilyou’re ready. I want you take fiveminutes between each playing of thefragment, if you need that much timeto feel ready and not feel rushed. Itwas amazing! As long as she took

enough time between each playing ofthe fragment, she played easier andeasier and faster and faster, and shewasn’t stressed and didn’t soundstressed. The moment she started toinvoluntarily reduce the time betweenthe fragments, you could really feelthe pressure building up in her to get itright. I believe she was unconsciouslytrying to get back to continuous fastplaying.

Involuntarily is the right word here,because you could feel the internalcompulsive pressure in her to get backto doing what she used to be able to doas quickly as possible on the banjo. It

had been over a year since she couldplay without the focal dystonia kickingin. When she came to me, it wasobvious how incredibly sad she wasthat she may never be able to playagain. This sadness really was pushingher to heal, so she wouldn’t have tofeel so hopeless anymore. Her notwanting to feel so incredibly sadanymore was making it nearlyimpossible for her to find a gentleloving way out of trouble.

Now, for the first time, she had realhope that this was not a permanentlydebilitating condition, and that maybeher focal dystonia was about the

pressure she had put herself under tofix it right away, the moment she felther fingers begin to twitchinvoluntarily. At the onset of thetwitching, she should have stoppedand found the most effortless way toplay the banjo with her whole body inbalance. Then she should have begunpracticing in fragments inhibitingtension throughout her whole bodyand fingers, with the self-loving timeshe needed to play a fragment withoutpushing her hand. She would havesaved herself a year of so much fearand sadness, if she been ready andwilling to do what she had never done- do something different and gentle

with help.

Guided Whole Body Release beforePracticing or Performing

To prevent injury and strain inplaying, lead yourself through thisguided release of your body beforeyou practice or perform. First, find acomfortable, firm surface to lie on,which might be a yoga pad or carpetedfloor. If you have to do these releaseson a hard surface, you may still beable to let go of enough tension to feelcomfortable. Lie down on your backwith your knees up. Your feet shouldbe placed close enough to your hips,and far enough away from each other,to allow your legs to balance

themselves, with knees pointingstraight up. Place a book under yourhead so that the forehead and a freejaw are level with each other. Restyour hands on your lower ribs orabdomen – whichever feels morecomfortable to you. Let your elbowsbe fully away from your sides andresting on the floor, your hands notresting on top of each other. This is the'constructive rest position. It is themost neutral body position for thebones and muscles; it is essentiallyperfect sitting, lying on your back. Inthe Alexander Technique, thisawareness exercise is usually donewith the eyes open, but I also find it

helpful to do it with the eyes closed,so that you can be in the world but notof it, as you release deep tensions thatyou do not want to take to theinstrument.

Let your neck release and your headbe fully supported by the book. Letyour shoulder blades fall to the floor;do not immobilize them against theback. Let your hips be fully supportedby the floor. Let your feet besupported by the floor, with yourankles totally released. Let your feetbe totally released; be aware thatthey're not supporting any significantweight. Think of your knees releasing

to the ceiling, as if strings were gentlysupporting each leg. Let your calvesrelease to your heels. Let your thighmuscles flow to your knees. Let yourhamstrings release to the back of yourknees. Let your whole back besupported by the floor but do not try toflatten your back – just let the curvessoften as it releases deeper and deeperinto the floor. Let the floor supportyour elbows; this allows the floor tosupport your arms. Let your hands besoft and rest on your torso and let yourwrists be unlocked. Let the chestmuscles release and the shoulders fallfully open into the floor. Let themuscles around your eyes and mouth

release, allowing your face to soften.Let your jaw release, your teeth nottouching, your lips touching gently.Let your upper arms flow to yourelbows. Let your lower arms flow intoyour hands.

Let your neck release and your headmove away from your sit bones. Letyour shoulders flow away from eachother. Now let your upper arms flowtowards your shoulders. Let yourforearms flow through open wrists intosoft hands, with the fingers leading thearms into lengthening. Let your upperlegs release out of the pelvis. Let yourlower legs release away from the

knees. Feel how far the head is fromthe shoulders. Feel how far the head isfrom the hips. Feel how far the head isfrom the knees. Feel how far the headis from the feet. Feel how effortless itis to sense your body, as you let yourhead be far away from all of theseplaces.

Notice the rise and fall of the chest onthe breath. Do not control yourbreathing; let the body breathe itself.Let the exhale be a letting go, not apushing out of the breath. Let the bodydecide when it needs to inhale, andwhen it needs to exhale. Feel the riseand fall of the chest on the inhale and

exhale. Feel the rise and fall of theabdomen on the breath. Feel theexpansion and release of the sides ofthe chest on the breath. Feel theexpansion and release of the lower ribson the breath. Feel the expansion andrelease of the sides of the abdomen onthe breath. Feel the upper back gobackwards into the floor on the breath.Feel the mid-back go backwards intothe floor on the breath. Feel the lowerback go backwards into the floor onthe breath. Feel the rise and fall of theshoulders on the breath. Be aware thatthe pelvic floor goes downward on thebreath. Feel the hands and forearmsrise on the inhale and lower on the

exhale as the upper arms rotate gentlyin the shoulder sockets. Feel the wholetorso expanding in all directions on theinhale, like a balloon being blown up.As you observe your breath, noticethat it settles into a peaceful, rhythmicbreathing pattern.

Open your eyes if they are closed, andlet yourself come into the room. Feelyourself fully present in the roomwithout interfering with the ease inyour body or the ease in yourbreathing. When you are ready, gentlyrole over onto your side and slowlypush yourself up with an easy arm.You can now take all of this ease into

warming up on your instrument. Asyou warm up, stay with what ishappening in your body – what youare asking it to do or not to do – and asyou play your instrument, remaintotally in the present. Gradually allowyour energy to rise. Experience the joyof coming to your instrument withouthabits, tensions or fears that wouldturn doing what you love into a chore.

When I have led a guided release likethis with a group of musicians, Ialways ask them what they discoveredabout themselves. I get answers like: Ididn't know how tired I was. I didn'tknow how much tension I had in my

arms/legs/torso. I've never felt sorested in my life. All of theseresponses go to show howdisconnected musicians can be fromtheir bodies, very much like athleteswho usually use their bodies to get thejob done, and who are not in the leastconcerned with how hard or easy theyare on their bodies. I find itextraordinary how much excesstension, work and struggle a musicianwill bring to a performance just to geta subtle rendering of the music. Thinkabout this: Isn't it insane to imaginethat refined playing would require youto strain yourself?

I would like instead to connect refinedand subtle playing to doing less workon the instrument. This is onlypossible if you can realize how muchtension you are using to stay in controlof your body. In the process ofmodifying an inefficient technique,you will generally become aware ofhow tense you are when you practiceor perform, but to play with true easeand comfort, you will ultimately haveto become aware of levels of tensionthat you live with all the time.

Athletes usually do too much to getthe job done, but they generally lookathletic and coordinated because they

use their whole bodies in constantmovement. In other words, they'll lookgood until they wear out a joint. Manymusicians’ bodies may look tight anduncoordinated with or without theirinstruments, but we may not noticethis if they are great players. Thehands and arms of a performer can bewonderfully coordinated to create abeautiful performance, despite the restof the body being rigid and movingawkwardly. This blinds the performerto how much static tension she isholding in her body, so that she doesnot do anything about her techniqueuntil it has hurt her. As an AlexanderTechnique teacher, when I put hands

on a musician who is playing veryeloquently, I am often amazed to finda very immobile body!

Much of a performer's excess tensionshows up in the face, and it is usuallyinterpreted by the audience as 'feelingthe music', even though more oftenthan not it is simply an expression ofthe strain the body is going through.Once aware of the tension being held,it can be released from theperformance at the deepest levels.Then the performer can play withflowing muscles in the whole shoulderand neck, even playing for hours.Then the performer can sit or stand

elegantly upright with unlocked armsand legs, and the audience can witnessa truly athletic performance – one thatinvolves the whole body's effortlessparticipation. Then the musician canfinally be comfortable in his or herbody, whether playing his or herinstrument or not.

When You’re Not Doing Something,Don’t Continue to Do It

We have a saying in the AlexanderTechnique, “When you’re throughdoing something, put it down. Whatdoes this mean? It means you allowyour body to return to the level of easeappropriate to the moment after anintense activity. So, when you’rethrough running, don’t continue to run.When you’re through playing amusical instrument, don’t continue toplay the instrument. There are threemajor things we do that contribute tothe wear and tear to the body. First, allhumans hold some fear in their bodies

always. Second we do things withpoor technique, which is by definitiondoing things off balance posturally,which is poor posture to begin with.Third we try rather than do.

Let’s start with fear. Unless you’re atotally enlightened being, your pastand your future are running you, soyou are not in the moment 24/7. Thismeans your thoughts are racingbackwards or forwards, which isessentially the same thing. When youlook back to predict the future, you arepotentially flooding your body withfear, and the body absolutely followsthe mind 100%. But if you know what

fearless posture and body use feelsalike and looks like, then you canorder the body to behave fearlessly,and you don’t have do posturally whatdoesn’t work. This is what theAlexander Technique teaches.

Second, after a lifetime of doingeveryday and specialized activitieswithout any sense of the easiest way tomove through this world, thenwhenever you do something you willdo what you’ve always done. Also, thebeliefs that you have internalizedabout what good posture and good useare that are not true will override thetruth as long as you live by these

misconceptions. As I stated from ACourse in Miracles, if you believe intwo belief systems, the one that isn’ttrue will run you. So, if you stillbelieved good posture is defined bystanding up straight, then this lie willcontinue to create tension and injury inyour body.

Third, many of us try rather than do.This means that our posture and ourhabitual way of doing things is basedon striving off balance. So, in anactivity, you try to do your best bydoing too much work to do a good job,rather than find a way to create a greatperformance without straining

yourself. One of the most basic ofhuman values is that if you aren’ttrying as hard as you can, you aren’tdoing your best. This is the basistraining for a sport or practicing amusical instrument without finding thesmartest and easiest way to win, asyou put in the long hours, so that youget the biggest bang for your buck.The most obvious example to mewould be running for hours and hourswith such bad and tense form, that younever win, when you could have won.

So, you have just gone out and runfive miles, and you have done so withreally good postural use, and at the

same time pushed yourself to run thedistance faster than you’ve ever doneit (doing rather than trying), then whatdoes it mean to stop running whenyou’ve stopped running? It means thatyou slowly wind down the intensity ofthe run by walking it off with reallygood use. Let all of the internalchanges and external changes calmdown, and that you direct up in yourbody as all of the musculature calmsdown. You walk it off walk with asense of high energy, rather than justsimply collapsing posturally after therun. Also, after you’ve walked it off,what if you go sit on the edge a reallyergonomically good chair. Sit with full

upright on your sit bones, letting yourlegs release out of your hip joints, asyour legs aren’t supporting yourweight anymore, as your head leadsyour spine fully upright and yourbreathing returns to the breathing of aperson sitting quietly. You may alsochoose to do release moves(stretches), after you sit for a fewminutes, as you calmly return yourmusculature and your mind to justquietly being in expansion. You canalso lie down and do the AlexanderTechnique guided release described inthis ebook after the run, even thoughyou might have done this before the

run.

You’ve just gotten through practicinga very difficult piece of music on yourinstrument, and you’re throughpracticing, what do you do? Like therunner, you can go for a walk, but foryou, you are turning up the volume ina body that had been sitting orstanding fairly static for hours. Walkwith direction and balance in thisactivity that requires considerably lessconcentration and intensity, thanplaying and instrument or singingdoes. You can also lie down and dothe Alexander Technique guidedrelease after you practice or perform.

What do you do when you just getthrough playing tennis or doing someother activity whose movements aren’tpredictable? You walk it off, and thenyou sit for a few minutes and you mayalso do release movements (stretches)in a very gentle expansive way. It isthe constant starting and stopping andanticipating of your opponent’s movesthat you want to release out of yourbody. Again, as you wind down, youdo not unwind into collapse, you wantto unwind into a directing with totalease in the body, with a sense ofbalance and expansion in the body thatis appropriate to taking it easy after anintense match. You can also lie down

and do the Alexander Techniqueguided release.

I believe a lot of musicians andathletes are taught that they need to bethinking about what they’re attemptingto excel at all of the time. This is theworst possible thing you can do,because if you are always thinkingabout running, playing yourinstrument, or whatever 24/7, then youare running when you aren’t running,you’re singing when you aren’tsinging. I’m not talking aboutrehearsing an activity in your head,I’m talking about stressing your bodyall day. The body follows the mind

100%, and when your mind is trainingor practicing nonstop, so is your body,and you are wearing your body out.You are taking what you love, andpotentially setting yourself up quittingeventually, because you never get torest.

When you lose your passion for whatyou do because of endless concern,then the resistance to doing what youloved to do begins to build. If youcombine resistance to doing whatyou’re about to actually do, and ifyou’ve been doing what you’re aboutto do 24/7 in your mind, then you arenever physically or emotionally at

peace in the down time. If you run,play an instrument, play tennis, or dowhatever with a stressed out body,compressed joints, and a posture thatyou have forced to meet what theactivity requires, and you will getinjured and/or quit eventually.

Unless a human is fully enlightened,he or she will nearly always bring hisor her past to the present activity,unless he or she is able to be in thezone. But just because you can be inthe zone as you do what you do, don’tforget to but the double bass downwhen you aren’t playing it. So, whenyou aren’t running, playing your

instrument, or playing tennis in thezone, what do you do with your past?When you chase off a squirrel, in acouple of minutes he comes back ascalm and balanced in his body as hewas before you yelled at him. This isthe opposite in the human. Weremember everything, and it is how weprocess those memories that may keepus playing tennis when we’re notplaying tennis, or afraid for our safety,when our surroundings are peaceful.

I propose you make a consciouschoice as to how you do the activityyou are practicing, training at, orcompeting in. When you apply

Alexander Technique principles ofgood posture, good use, and greattechnique to an activity, you are notbringing your past to the activity,except to save the technique thatworks. This is such an Alexandrianway to do things, because AlexanderTechnique teachers define and helpyou save what works, learn orreacquire certain basic principles ofgood body use, eliminate whatdoesn’t work, creatively personalizeyour own technique, and thenintegrate it all into a way of movingthat doesn’t damage your body.

This is moving in the fearless now

with very specific physical principlesof good body use. Tie this to puttingdown the tennis racket when youaren’t playing, and you let your bodydo what is appropriate in the moment.The squirrel does what is appropriatein the moment most of the time,because he isn’t digging up yourplants in a steady state of fear, evenafter you’ve chased him off. As Istated earlier in this section, humansare almost always experiencing somefear, conscious or unconscious,because they not only remember howto do the activity they’re doing, butthey also bring their fears and beliefsaround success to the instrument or the

race. The Alexander Techniqueteaches them how they canconsciously choose to use their bodieswith good use and choose to performor run fearlessly.

So, you run the race, play tennis, makemusic, swim the race, and you only doso with a body that you’ve emptied outall of the misconceptions of how itshould be done. You get to moveconsciously connected to your body.When you’re through, it is time to dothe same, so that after doingsomething very intense, you return tobalance, poise, and ease. You get torevel in how good it feels to go from

an intense activity that you didn’tsacrifice your body in, to at rest in abody that is effortlessly balanced andexpansive. This means your body isn’ttensed or collapsed or compressed oralready ready for the nextperformance, race, training, orcompetition.

The Reasons Why Performers ResistReleasing Poor Physical Habits

When a musician does what he or shehas always done, and it hasn’t gottenthem to where they want to be, why isit so hard for some performers to justsimply change course and find themost effortless way to play or sing?There are a whole kaleidoscope ofreasons for this, and I want to look at,understand, and disempower each one.There will definitely be places ofoverlap between the psychologicalreasons for resisting change.

The reason poor posture, poor body

use, and poor technique is the hardestthing in the world to do, is because bydefinition, continuing to play or singwith poor technique makes no logicalsense if you’re aware you’re doingthis. If you can’t do what you want todo and don’t do anything to change thecircumstances, you are being disloyalto yourself, but you may not have achoice. I want you to recognize thatthis choice not to do things the easiestway is not on purpose, but it is basedon compulsions that are for themoment beyond your control.

I want to make a blanket statementthat covers all of the reasons for not

making loving changes to yourtechnique. If you know the reason orreasons for why you’re not making achange to the parts of your techniquethat aren’t working, then you are notaccepting the solution or solutions tothe reason or reasons. In A Course inMiracles, it says that when you knowthe truth, and it hasn’t made adifference, the truth hasn’t failed you.You’re resisting accepting the truth,and it is this resistance to acceptingthe truth that can seem to take forever,which means you may never choosethe easiest way to play or sing.

Here’s the list of reasons you may not

choose to make your musicaltechnique effortless: 1) You FightChange, 2) You Get Worse at WhatYou Change, 3) It Is Too Hard toChange, 4) The Way You Play or SingIs You, 5) You Are Addicted toStruggle, 6) You Have a “Not GoodEnough” Button, 7) If You BecomeToo Good, You’ll Lose Control ofYour Life, 8) You Are Holding ontoTechnique that Doesn’t Work 9) YouAre Being Loyal to Those Who SetYour Limits, 10) If You Tell YourselfYou’re Limited, then You Get to beEasy on Yourself, 11) You Want toGet Your Parents Back, 12)Discovering Your Instrument Is Easy

Can be a Huge Threat to What YouBelieve, 13) You’d Rather be Rightthan Happy, 14) You Never Want toGo Through What You Went ThroughEver Again, 15) You Shouldn’t Haveto Still be Dealing with TechniqueHere and Now, 16) It Should be Easy,It Isn’t, and You’re Angry, 17) It Isn’tWhat You Wanted to Do, 18) YouAren’t Taking Responsibility for HowWell You Play or Sing, 19) BeingComplete is Too Scary, 20) Are YouWilling to Not be the Hero in YourDream, 21) If You Become Too Good,You Won’t Know Who You Are, 22)If Your Performing Changes Too

Much, You Won’t know How to Dealwith It, 23) You Don’t Want to Admitthat What You’ve Been Teaching Isn’tTrue, 24) You Tell Yourself It’s TooLate and You’re Too Old, 25) YouMinimize the Truth, 26) The MusicTeacher that Had the Most PowerOver You Lied to You, 27) Too ManyPeople Need You to Succeed, 28)You’re Afraid to Commit, 29) YouAre Not Experiencing Love WhenYou Play or Sing Most of the Time,and 30) You’re Stuck Getting Ready.

1) You Fight Change

This is the simple pure resistance of

throwing a tantrum. You have simplygotten to a place in your life whereyou don’t want to do anything otherthan what you’re doing, so you don’tcare if you’re hurting. You just don’twant to deal with technique everagain. You’ve decided that you’llsimply muddle through and do theminimum it takes to get the job done.

This is a tough place to be, because itis a giving up and still playing orsinging not willing to do somethingdifferent. This is ennui. You lack thewill to do anything other than whatyou’re doing. You want to be leftalone. The question is, is it easier not

to make a loving change to how youperform, or is it easier to be motivatedto change what you’re doing? As yougo through this list, you will see somany of the reasons that make notchanging easier than changing.

2) You Get Worse at What YouChange

Simply, when you change the way youplay your instrument or sing, you willlose control. You will sing or playworse when you change the wayyou’ve always done things. It is yourability to lovingly, for possibly thefirst time, go back in time on your

instrument and start over and clean upyour technique.

It seems to me the hardest part when itcomes to revamping your posture andtechnique, is that a performer may notbe willing to take a few weeks or fewmonths of not having to perform, sothat he or she can have one heck of agood time playing badly. It is anamazing gift to yourself to enjoy beinga beginner and learn to play or singlovingly for maybe the first time.

3) It Is Too Hard to Change

This in my opinion is the ultimate ego

tactic to keep you from making anychanges at this point in your life tohow you perform. Inherent in thisthought and feeling is that you can’tmake a change in how you play orsing without struggling through thewhole process, and that it is not worthit. By the traditional definition ofchange, then you have to dosomething different to make a change.In a musician’s technique, So, you feelit is too hard to make positionalchanges and technique changes thatare probably very different from whatyou’ve been doing.

Certainly there are some of these

larger visible changes necessary inrevamping your posture and yourtechnique, but what if you skip thispart and sneak up on yourself. What Imean, is that you approach makingloving changes to your technique bychanging what isn’t working and isinvisible first. So, you release thetension in your neck, and you learn todo what you have always done with afree neck. You pay attention to thelevel of tension in your fingers andhands and do what you’ve alwaysdone with soft hands. You play or singwith dramatically less tension in yourlegs without changing anythingexternally. You play or sing with free

shoulder blades with no concern forvisible posture.

Does it sound too hard to makechanges to the tension level firstthroughout your body? If it doesn’t,then before you know it, you’re nothurting and you’re gaining true controlover your body, and it just isn’t thathard.

4) The Way You Play or Sing is You

One of my favorite AlexanderTechnique stories is about a client whogoes to an Alexander Techniqueteacher. The client is very very tense,

so the teacher places her on the tablefor table release work. At the end ofthe session, the client much less tensesays, “I can’t feel my body”. She paysfor the session and never comes back.

If you knew that you would notexperience your body the way you’vebeen experiencing your body after youmade changes to the way you sang orplayed, could you handle it? It is trulyworth trying out to see if you can.When you find ways to perform thatare approaching effortless posture,body use, and technique, then you aretaking the lid off of who you reallyare. I just don’t believe anyone

naturally is a grinder at what they loveto do. When you push yourself to tryharder and harder and eventually getyourself in trouble, is it your nature todo things the hard way? When youtake a good look at this statement, yourealize how crazy it is. It is a statementof how you treat yourself, not of whoyou are. I believe it is inherent in allof us to do things the easy way, whenthe easy way is demonstrated andoffered.

5) You Are Addicted to the Struggle

This means that you believe that if youdo not do what you’ve always done,

you’re afraid the wheels will fall off ofthe wagon. This is the psychologicalside of “you are what you experienceand how you do what you do”. So, it issimilar to preceding section The WayYou Play or Sing is You. You feelpride in fighting the good fight andgetting it done the hard way.

I’d like you now at this point in yourlife to know you have choices younever knew you had. Inacknowledging that you always hadchoices in how you approached yourinstrument, then you have toacknowledge all of those choices arestill available, that it is not too late.

All of these reasons for not choosingto find the most loving and effortlessway to play or sing were put in placeunconsciously. I can’t believe thatanyone says to themselves as a child,“You know what I think would be acool way to live my life is to do thingsthe hard way”. As children most of usmodel and copy what those around usdo, and we usually model and copy theparent or whomever we identify withand/or want to please. So, you maybecome a struggler, because you’redoing it the way a parent did things.You may also become a struggler toplease your parent, because the parentyou identify with admires strugglers

and wishes he or she was morecommitted to completing things.

To be addicted to struggle means thereis a need inside to do things the hardway, and when you get them done thehard way, you feel better. Bydefinition, an addiction is a mixed bagof pain and pleasure. When playing orsinging hurts and is a struggle, this ispain, but when you get good at whatyou do through the struggle, thegetting good at and the positiveattention is the pleasure part. I believeit is possible for the process to bepleasurable for everybody. It’s justthat a whole lot of people can’t handle

consistent pleasure as a way to learnand perform.

6) You Have a “Not Good Enough”Button

When you have a “not good enough”button, then you have to live by itsvalues. What does this mean? It meansthat if 100 people tell you you playedor sang a concert wonderfully, your“not good enough” button overrides allof them, and you believe the button.What is your greatest fear if you let goof having this button? It would be as ifyou went back in time, deleted thebutton, and your fear is you wouldn’t

be as good as you are now. So, if youperform with a “not good enough”button, you simultaneously never playor sing good enough for yourself,AND you perform good enough forsomeone, since you’re performing forothers.

This really does sound crazy, but as Iwrite on these twenty-five plusreasons for resisting doing things theeasiest way, hopefully they will allsound crazy to you. Because if theydo, then the hold they have on you isdiminished and hopefully they are allup for elimination.

If you were to choose to let go of your“not good enough” button at this pointat time, would your standard ofplaying drop? I don’t believe so, andneither do you believe this. Whyshould it? So, if you do decide to leavethis button behind, what if you madechanges to the way you played or sangthat made you good enough. I’msuggesting you have the ability towalk away from a “not good enough”button and to replace it with an “I’mgood enough” affirmation. This is anaffirmation that returns you to a senseof self-love and gentleness.

7) If you Become Too Good, You’ll

Lose Control Over Your Life

If you’ve spent years as an averageplayer or singer, then you are used towhat others expect of you. In fact you“tell” others what to expect from you24/7 as musician. What is yourgreatest fear if you were to transforminstantly into an amazing performer,when you’ve been a mediocreperformer all of your life? I askedmyself at one point if most peoplewould accept being the same as Jesus,if God came to them and offered thisto everyone. I decided there wouldn’tbe many takers, because of theresponsibility that would come with

being a Son of God.

I think unconsciously players andsingers who have been striving forgreatness all of their lives and haven’treally come close, haven’t reallywanted to be extraordinary performers,especially if they have created acomfortable niche in the musicalworld. So, is it true that if you took thesteps to realize your original goal ofbeing an extraordinary performer, thatyou would lose control of your life?

This is one of those very sneakyhidden beliefs about becoming toogood on your instrument. It means that

unconsciously you believe that if youwere to become too good a player orsinger and too successful, you wouldbe overwhelmed by theresponsibilities that come with being awonderful performer.

Why would you be overwhelmed, andwhat would those onerousresponsibilities be? If you are feelingyou would be overwhelmed byresponsibility, then you are saying thatyou have control of your life now,even though you can’t play or sing theway you want. Kind of sounds crazydoesn’t it. If you can get to the placethat you can sing or play the way you

want to, then there is no inherentresponsibility that comes with this.The only responsibility that comeswith being a wonderful performer iswhy you play or sing for others. Bydefinition to turn a performance ofyour playing or singing into aresponsibility is not loving. Only playor sing as your choice to give it as agift, so only give it when you want toas a gift to yourself and others.Performing or teaching as aresponsibility makes making musiconly about being an obligation and notabout your being loving to yourself.

8) You Are Holding onto Technique

that Doesn’t Work

This is about not being open to thepossibility that a very importantteacher to you taught you things thataren’t working anymore on yourinstrument. I’ve had performers I wasworking with as an AlexanderTechnique teacher, and I asked themto try a different way of doingsomething on their instrument. If theclient felt what I was asking was toomuch of a challenge or contradictionto how she was taught to play or sing,then she may ignore what I’msuggesting and/or not come back.

When I see this look in a client’s face,I quickly say she should try what I’msuggesting, but that she always makesthe choice, as to whether to use what Ihave to offer or not. If what I’m askingher to do really produces a much betterresult, and she isn’t willing to make achange, then this is a place where Imay ask her to consider creating herown personal technique and notholding onto everything she wastaught by that teacher.

It really is a wonderful gift to giveyourself as a performer to reexamineyour total technique and posture, andbe willing to make changes, without

exception, that make your instrumenteasier and easier.

9) You Are Being Loyal to ThoseWho Set Your Limits

When you “decided” to believesomeone who told you what the limitswere on your potential as a performer,you defined yourself through them andyou betrayed yourself. I don’t believethere are any limits on a person’sability to be a wonderful constantlyevolving performer. Once you“decide” what your potential is as aperformer, then you have to live bythese other-imposed and self-imposed

limitations, as long as you believethey’re true. The limits on yourpotential as a performer were probably“decided” by you when you were achild. The reason I’m putting decide isparenthesis, is because I’m not usingdecide in the traditional sense. Decidein the traditional sense means youhave a choice. But when a child“decides” whether he’s going to be anaverage player or singer or anexceptional player or singer, heusually is presented with only onechoice coming from the signals beingsent by the typically unconsciousadults around him.

So, here you are having lived a life asan average performer, is it too late? Itis if you want to remain loyal to thosearound you who unconsciously shapedyour life, or you can stop being loyalto them and be loyal to yourself. Ibelieve that the at the core of everyone of us is unlimited potential ineverything, but that by the time wehave finished self-authoring ourselves,as A Course in Miracles says we alldo, then that potential is really buriedunder beliefs that define, limit, andshape who we believe we are. Ourunlimited potential is alwaysavailable and can never be destroyed.

10) If You Tell Yourself You’reLimited, then You Get to be Easy onYourself

This is having the choice made foryou, rather than you making the choicefor your goals on your instrument.This is a decision made where youmay not feel you have the freedom tochoose how much work you want toput into your instrument. If you can’tfind a way to decide for yourself howmuch work you want to put into yourinstrument, then this is a possible wayout. By believing you have limitedtalent on your instrument then you cansay no matter how much I practice, I

can only get so good, so why bother.

It is possible to set a limit on yourpractice and to practice so smart andlovingly, that you get better and betterand revamp your technique while stillbeing easy on yourself. If a performeris willing to let everything about howthey play or sing be up for grabs, thenhe or she gets evolve a personaltechnique that never fails thempermanently. This means wheneversomething about your technique isn’tserving you, then you get to makechanges without being traumatized.You do not have to do what you’vealways done to be the best you can be

on your instrument. When yourecognize a change you are about tomake to a part of your 30 year oldtechnique is a huge improvement, thenthe change disappears the old wayvery fast, and you will not feelinsecure about the new way.

11) You Want to Get Your ParentsBack

When your parent(s) has been veryinvolved in your music and there areunresolved psychological issuesbetween you and them, thensabotaging your playing or yoursinging is how this can be acted out.

This me say this clearer. If youwere/are incredibly angry at yourparent(s) and you are/were very afraidof your parent(s), then the way to getback “music parents” is tounconsciously create problems in whatyou love doing. This is the equivalentof throwing an adult tantrum. When achild throws a tantrum by kicking orscreaming or holding her breath, thenshe is turning her anger against herparents on herself.

Whether it is dangerous or not for achild to direct her anger against herparents for whatever reason, the childusually believes it is dangerous, and

the child will act out on herself. If theparents have gratuitously livedthrough a child’s musical talent, andthe child hasn’t forgiven the parent(s)for whatever, then at some point theperformer will get into physicaltrouble on her instrument and willresist making changes to a techniquethat are limiting or hurting her,especially if the changes mean theperformer will get recognition for hertalent. In other words, the angry innerchild of the performer simply cannotlet the parents take pride in thetalented child they produced, so theperformer fails or gets injured.

The only way out is for the adultperformer to heal is to accept whathappened, forgive her parents, forgiveher own anger towards her parents,return to wanting to make her parentshappy, come into the present, and giveherself the gift of an effortlesstechnique out of self-love.

12) Discovering Your Instrument IsEasy Can be a Huge Threat to WhatYou Believe

What do you do when you haveworked for years to get good on yourinstrument but are still struggling, andyou’re presented with an end to your

struggle on your instrument? If you’vealways had to struggle with thedifficult literature, and then you seethe potential that after revamping yourtechnique and posture with theprinciples of the Alexander Technique,that your instrument can be easy andall of the great literature accessible (ifnot easy), can you handle this? Whenthis happens you may have to workthrough a lot of anger and grief. Theanger is about having spent endlesshours doing it the hard way and notthe easiest smart way. The grief isabout mourning all of the time loststruggling to become good, when youcould have been making music the

way you wanted to make it a long timeago.

So many musicians get caught up inan endless pursuit of being goodenough to do what they want on theirinstrument. This means that thejourney to be good enough to do whatyou want to do on your instrumentbecomes what you do on yourinstrument, instead of you just playingthe music you love as lovingly as youwant.

There is a very simple question thatyou need to answer for yourself, if youare shown how to complete your

journey to playing your instrumentwith ease in the zone. Are you ready tobe complete on your instrument? Ifyou are, then completion is a given.

13) You’d Rather Be Right thanHappy

As I write this section of this ebook, Iam enumerating all of reasons thatpeople have for not healing theirbodies and their instrumentaltechniques. All of these reasons arevalid and not valid. Any reason forwhy you can’t or won’t make a changeto your posture or technique isexperienced as a permanent limit on

you. But none of these reasons willhold up as a real limit on your playingor singing, once you expose them tothe light of logic, love, truth, andgrace. So, none of them are valid.

As long as you believe that forwhatever reason you can’t do whatyou want to do on your instrument,given you have all of your fingers andyour toes and they all work reasonablywell, then you are choosing to be rightrather than happy. “I’d rather be rightthan happy”, is usually an unconsciousbelief that you are permanentlydamaged goods, because of what youdid and/or was done to you, so you’re

off the hook with self-righteousness,and you lose. Let me say this again,“If you’d rather be right than happy,you lose”.

No matter how right you want to beabout the limits on your ability to be awonderful performer now, you arewrong in most of the cases. Allpsychological limits on your ability onyour instrument are temporary, and soare most physical limits. If you chooseto be happy rather than right aboutyour musical abilities, then you havechosen to be powerful and tell yourselfthe truth, rather than be right.

14) You Never Want to Go ThroughWhat You Went Through Ever Again

If you were incredibly hard onyourself (a perfectionist) to turnyourself into a fine player or singer,then you probably are incapable ofdoing what you did a second time.When a performer is offered a chanceto change his technique to finish hisjourney to become a wonderful player,he may run away. He may run away,because he can’t conceive of returningplaying or singing differently withoutbeating himself up to make thechanges. This is what I had to workthrough, after I went to an Alexander

Technique teacher. The AlexanderTechnique teacher didn’t dopsychological work with me, sincethat is not part of the AlexanderTechnique teacher’s formal training. Isought out a psychologist eventually.

When you work with an AlexanderTechnique teacher you are beingshown how to perform with the leastamount of physical work, the mostamount of balance, and the greatesttrust in your body, as you revamp yourtechnique and posture on yourinstrument. The greatest danger in thissituation is that a perfectionist’s mindwill appropriate the process and beat

you up for not using the AlexanderTechnique principles well enough. Ifthis happens, then you are in realdouble bind, because you aresimultaneously attempting to learnlovingly, as your ego is saying youaren’t learning lovingly enough to getthe job done.

This is when it is time for you to standup to a horrible way of treatingyourself and choose to learn lovingly.As I explore these potential reasonsfor not letting your instrument becomepotentially easy, I’m not suggestingyou just “snap out of it”. I’m not beingreductive here. What I am doing is

bringing to light most of the reasonsfor not letting yourself win lovingly onyour instrument, so that there may besome aha experiences for you, and youcan let yourself make transformationalchanges quickly. This is what I callgrace. But there is also the possibilitythat when you accept that you’re notpermanently damaged goods, youshould also recognize when you needhelp healing, and you should findsomeone to help you heal.

15) You Shouldn’t Have to Still beDealing with Technique Here andNow

I have worked with a whole lot ofmusicians as an Alexander Techniqueteacher, and there is one veryconsistent thing I have seen when aperformer in trouble comes to me andis twenty-years-old or older. Almostall of them didn’t think they’d have toever make changes to their techniqueagain, even if their technique neverreally served them a 100%. They hadunconsciously resigned themselves tobeing as good as they were orprogressing as well as they wereprogressing, and they never wanted tohear about technique again.

I had a psychotherapist one time, who,

when I said to her with great chagrinthat I didn’t think I’d still be dealingwith the same problem still at 50-years-old said, “You aren’t throughuntil you’re through”.

When you are shown by an AlexanderTechnique teacher how to performwith ease, it is not an accident that youfound your way to someone who canhelp you finish your journey on yourinstrument. So, is it better that younever find the Holy Grail or is it betterthat you wander around not knowingyou’re looking for the Holy Grail?

16) It Should be Easy, It Isn’t, and

You’re Angry

Some performers realize they havegreat potential, and that they are beingrealistic, even though everyone elsesays they don’t have what it takes. Ifyou’re in this place, you have leapedahead of your ego and your ego’scapacity to accept that everything ispossible. This can also be triggeredwhen a performer experiences playingin the zone and realizes how effortlessthe instrument can be. I had theequivalent spiritual experience a fewtimes drinking alcohol. I realized howjoyous and effortless my life could be,when I shut down my super-ego with

the whiskey. So, I was using alcoholto be in the spiritual zone. Luckily Icouldn’t tolerate drinking regularly, soI had to actually pursue my healingwithout medicating myself.

A better way to state the title of thissection is It Should Have Been Easy.This means you intuitively know itshould have been easy, but it wasn’t.Are you going to let it be easy now orare you going to stay stuck in “itshould have been easy”? Because ifyou stay stuck in “it should have beeneasy”, you will be stuck in anger andyou will not heal. You will remain avictim for the rest of your life for no

real reason.

17) It Isn’t What You Wanted to Do

When a performer realizes that hepursued a music career because it waswhat his parent(s) wanted, what doeshe do? First, he needs to ask himself ifhe wanted it also. If he did, and hesabotaging his career to get them back,then I’ve looked at that issue in 10).What do you do if you realize thiswasn’t your dream at all? You have todecide if you are going to keephurting yourself for what isirretrievable but is always healable.You did what you didn’t want to do

for your parents, and this is a doublewhammy. It not only means you don’twant to please them by healing yourbody and performing better than ever,you don’t want to forgive yourself fornot standing up for yourself and doingwhat you wanted to do?

The hardest part may be forgivingyourself for not standing up to yourparents and doing what you wanted todo. This is going to require you toforgive the child you were, be theparent to the child you were, and nowshow compassion for the child youwere and who you are now. I don’tknow if you will continue to make

music. If you are truly to heal, then toforgive everyone involved in youbecoming an unwilling performer, sothat you can treat yourself withcompassion, is the loving way out tonot live in regret and anger. It isn’twhat you did with a huge chunk ofyour life and why you did it, it is whoyou are now. So, what if you end up ahealed performer and/or a healedperson simultaneously? Then does itreally matter what you didprofessionally all of those years, if youare at peace on the inside now?

18) You Aren’t Taking Responsibilityfor How Well You Play or Sing

This is my way of saying you aren’there and now willing to do what itlovingly takes to be as good as youwant to be and can be. “Not takingresponsibility” to me means you aren’twilling to accept that here and nowyou have control of where you want togo with your music and how good youwant to be. Control is a veryinteresting word. Nowadays is hasalmost all negative connotations. Wecall someone a “control freak”, whenthey want to control everyone andeverything in every situation. Is amusician being a “control freak” whenshe attempts to be in control of herinstrument? She is if she doesn’t

believe she can be in effortless controlof her instrument.

If being in extraordinary control ofyour instrument isn’t a possibility,then how do explain the performers inthe world who perform so effortlessly?In most of these cases of performerswho play flawlessly and fearlessly,I’m willing to bet they grew up insurroundings that rewarded consistentpractice tied to having faith inthemselves. If you are going to haveloving control over your instrument,which means you take total lovingresponsibility for what comes out of it,then you will need to have faith in

your ability to play or singwonderfully, and you will need toattract those to you who can help youmake this possible. Implicit in what Ijust said, is I’m giving children thepower to have as much control overtheir lives as adults theoreticallyshould have.

I’m willing to bet that if you were tointerview adults who are in lovingcontrol of their lives, you will findthat they also felt they were in lovingcontrol of their lives as children. It isNEVER ever too late to be an adult inloving control of your instrument,even if you weren’t in control of your

instrument as a child.

19) Being Complete Is Too Scary

If I said to you that I could make youinstantly the best pianist in the world,even though you’ve been a struggler atthe piano all of your life, would youaccept the gift, and could you handlethe gift? If you’ve been a struggler onthe piano all of your life, you may beable to accept the gift of being the bestpianist in the world, but I doubt if youcould handle it. If you could offereverybody in the world what theywanted and nobody ever had to work aday in their lives, what do think the

result would be? I’m guessing chaos,greater drug addiction, and a whole lotof suicides in a short period of time.

So, why should you be different, if Ioffered you extraordinary andeffortless piano skills with the wave ofa wand? Because you can handle it,and you were designed to handle theeffortless joy of effortless practice andperforming. I believe we were alldesigned for Heaven, but that many ofus reside in a communal hell. Thismeans we have made ourselvestemporarily incapable of allowingourselves to follow our bliss 24/7 andbe comfortable in bliss 24/7.

If I ask you to take a slice of your life,your music making, and allow it to bea place where you are always inHeaven emotionally, how did youreact to this request? The humancondition makes inconsistencyeffortless, but if you were to take amoment when you’re feelingparticularly good and ask yourself whyit can’t be this way all of the time, Ibelieve you can’t come up with alogical answer. The answer is wefrighten ourselves out of our happinessand that is considered the way it is, butis it?

It is possible to perform nearly every

day and nearly every moment with aflawless technique tied to faith in yourability to hit the mark with yourdesired interpretation, and to be atpeace with how easy it is to play orsing 24/7, if you’re willing to stopfollowing the crowd.

20) Are You Willing to Not be theHero in Your Dream

Are you willing to let go of being thehero in your dream? There is a sectionin chapter 27 of A Course in Miraclescalled “The ‘Hero’ of the Dream”.This section says that all of us are theheroes in our lives. This means

whether we’re famous concert artistsor homeless, we somehow find a wayto feel like heroes in our lives. Theconcert artist may be the hero in hisdream, because everyone told him hedidn’t have what it takes, but heshowed them. The homeless personmay be the hero in his dream, becausehe is suffering heroically in silence ina world that has tried to break him. Ifyou look closely at this statement thateveryone is the hero in his or her life,you will find it is 100% true ineverybody’s life.

What would it mean to not be the heroin your dream? It wouldn’t mean that

you become the one person in theworld who doesn’t feel like a hero inyour life, it means you get to be one ofthe people who realizes that being ahero is a very very poor substitute foreffortlessly expressing your unlimitedpotential. I believe as A Course inMiracles says, that we are all part ofGod forever. If you accept this, thenwould God have designed us asinherently flawed and lacking? What ifeach of us is unlimited in our abilitiesand each one of us is eternal, thensetting up situations in our lives thatwe have to constantly overcome doesmake us a hero in the traditional sense.If all of the limits and dangers we live

believing in aren’t real, then being ahero is meaningless concept. Youcan’t be a hero if you’re not really indanger and are not incomplete in someway. Maybe it’s time for you to get onwith making music with an inherentlyeffortless loving technique and get outof the way of your inherent ability tointerpret or compose music witheffortless depth.

21) If You Become Too Good, YouWon’t Know Who You Are

The ego, who we believe we are, is notprimarily concerned with what is inour best interest. It primary concern is

that we continue on as who we are. So,if you’ve been an average performerall of your life and music is the mostimportant thing in your life, then yourego is not going to go along easilywith you going from being mediocreto amazing. If you find your way to anAlexander Technique teacher who cangive you the tools to be an amazingtechnician on your instrument, youmay not come back for a secondsession.

Earlier in this section of this ebook Italked about the woman who went toan Alexander Technique teacher andcouldn’t handle being at ease in her

body, because she was her tension.Are you a mediocre player or singer,or do you perform at a mediocre level?This is a very important distinction tomake, if you are going to be willingand able to take the lid off of yourtalent. If you’ve been a mediocremusician all of your life, then you arepotentially by identification amediocre musician/personunconsciously in your beliefs aboutyourself.

I’d like you to look at this, step backand see yourself as an extraordinarybeing, who didn’t realize that youwere unconsciously accepting a limit

on your talent, and that that limitbecame who you were. This is not aloving thing to do. This is not who youare. It is time you tell your instrumentwho you are, rather than letting theinstrument tell you who you are.

22) If Your Performing Changes TooMuch, You Won’t Know How to Dealwith It

This is the basis of a personality thatalways assumes change is not good. Itis a fear that if you become awonderful player or singer, you’ll quit.It doesn’t matter why you’ll quit, but ifyou’ve performed all of these years at

a mediocre level, then there issomething about that level of playingor singing that you should preserve.So, if you change what you do, thenyou may quit. Actually you may quitanyway, if you continue to choose toplay or sing poorly. It is more likelythat after years of unnecessarystruggle, that you may choose to quit.

This is actually a result, not a cause.The better question is, will you have tolook at why you held yourself back, ifyou stop holding yourself back as aperformer. I didn’t do this, and withina few months of me taking the lid offof my talent, I quit playing the guitar.

Whatever is most important to youcontributes to your consciousnesslevel. So, if your ego isn’t open tochange, then this is what yourperforming will reflect, because of thealliance between your ego and yourinstrument.

If you leap over the ego with theAlexander Technique and transformyour physical playing of yourinstrument into one of ease, you willprobably have to make peace with anego that doesn’t want your instrumentto wake you up.

23) You Don’t Want to Admit that

What You’ve Been Teaching Isn’tTrue

If a performer who also teaches comesto me in physical trouble, and I beginto show her how many misconceptionsshe had about how your instrumentworks and what the easiest way to getthe job done with high energy on theinstrument is, she may not continue.She may not continue, because she isbeing confronted with having tochange the way she teaches theinstrument, if she accepts what I’mteaching her as valid.

If she is able to change how she plays

or sings to a way that is easier andeasier, then there is no reason toassume she can’t offer these same newways of performing to her students,and that they won’t embrace thesechanges. I‘ve always noticed that thereis usually a direct correlation betweena teacher’s level of consciousness andopenness and her students’ level ofawareness. I believe that like attractslike, so if the teacher is ready to makeloving changes, probably so are herstudents.

24) You Tell Yourself It’s Too Lateand You’re Too Old

This is one of the ego’s best weaponsfor stopping change. If you make achange to your playing that transformsit, and you’re 90-years-old, aren’t youworth it? If you embrace thesechanges, you have a choice with howto deal with it. You can turn it into anegative by saying I wished I had haddone this 40 years ago and go intoanger or depression, or you can saythat every time you do somethingloving for yourself, there is no downside to making these technique andpostural changes that feel soincredibly good. If it is all about themeans, how you do what you do as anact of self-love, then it doesn’t matter

how old you are when transform yourtechnique. If it is about the ends, whatcomes out of the instrument and nothow it affects you, then you may stillbe sacrificing yourself on theinstrument at 90-years-old. It is nevertoo late to make yourself infinitelymore important than how you sing orplay.

Let’s back up the age a bit. Let’s sayat 50-years-old you are consideringmaking some pretty big changes toyour playing or singing, and you are inthe middle of your career performingvery well but getting into physicaltrouble. Should you make the changes

that will make your performingconsiderably easier, because it willtake too long to integrate the changesinto your performing? First, let mereturn to the idea that if you lower thetension levels in your body, you maystill heal and prevent more injury. So,if you feel this is the best course, thentake this middle road as I described in3).

Here is the argument for doing thewhole thing. If you make one posturalor technique change at a time and fullyintegrate these changes one at a timevery slowly, then you should be ableto perform and have your technique

and posture serve you and not causeproblems.

Also, if you want to get out of the wayof making changes quickly to how youperform, then realize that you cannotmake a poor habit any deeper overtime. In other words, 30 years ofdoing something the same way is notgoing to make it any harder tochange than 5 years of doing it,unless you believe the longer you dosomething the deeper it is ingrained. Ibelieve this is a pretty universal beliefthat the longer you do something theharder it is to change, and that you’llnever be as good as you would have

been, if you hadn’t done the firstinefficient way for years. When Idiscovered I could play with amazingaccuracy if I trusted my hands on theguitar, I instantly was demonstratingthis faith. Of course the more I playedthis way, the more effortless andaccurate my playing became, but theshift to the truth was instantaneous,and I dropped off 20 years of tryingnot to make a mistake completely andinstantly.

The reason habits of 30 years canseem harder to release than habits of 5years, is because of the emotionallayers on top of the physical

technique. It isn’t true that you’vedeepened the rut. What is true is thatthe thoughts, feelings, and beliefsbetween you and your techniqueaccumulated over the years have setup emotional blocks to change beingeasy, not physical blocks to adopting amore loving posture and technique.

25) You Minimize the Truth

Our minds have the capacity todisempower the truth, and to prove tous that the truth will not make us free.This has been my ego’s most powerfulweapon for keeping me from makingtruly transformational changes to my

adopted personality. I was able to doan end run around my ego on theguitar, but my ego eventually won. Myego just couldn’t let me have the truththat I learned on the guitar - since theguitar could be easy, my life could beeasy. I’m just about there, but it hastaken years of dismantling an ego thatwasn’t loyal to me.

If you say to yourself it DOES NOTMATTER if I know why I can’t dowhat I want to do on my instrument,this thought will disempower the truth.So, when you are shown a way totransform your technique, posture,beliefs, and approach to your

instrument that works, you will find away to sabotage the truth. When I wastold I could play the guitar withextreme accuracy after years ofgrinding repetition and negativereinforcement, at least I was ready forthe truth that I couldn’t miss if trustedmy hands. But, like I said, I wasn’tready for this to transform my life.

The truth always matters and it isalways transformational, unless youminimize the power of the truth. Like Iwrote at the beginning of this sectionquoting from A Course in Miracles, itis the acceptance of the truth that canseem to take forever. When you

minimize the power of how much painyou’re in or the power of a revelation,then you are cutting yourself off fromhealing, cutting yourself off from thepower of thoughts that are true. Youthen reduce yourself to only doingthings and not creating things. So,you’re ok as long as you can take thesteps to transforming your techniquein a loving way, but what happenswhen you can’t take the stepsanymore? The quickest way to heal isto make your loving thoughtsinfinitely powerful, able to transformyour performing, and recognize yourfearful thoughts are powerless.

26) The Music Teacher that Had theMost Power Over You Lied to You

This is the most unconscious blockand possibly the most painful thing tobe admitted of all, because the sourceof this artificial limit on your abilitycame from the person who wassupposed to help you reach yourpotential. You go to a conservatory tostudy with a world renowned teacher,and before you know it you’re burnedout, you doubt your ability, and/oryou’re injured. Is this an accident, orhas a very ambitious music teacherwho did not realize his or her dream asa world famous performer, and sees

this potential in you, 100%unconsciously sets you up for failureand/or injury?

If a wonderful instrumental or voiceteacher pushes a talented student, andthe teacher wants the student tosucceed, then the student will probablysucceed. But if a bitter great teacherworks with talented students, I’mwilling to bet most of that teacher’sstudents will not be in music after fiveyears of leaving the conservatory.

I would suggest that if you are goingto study with a world famous teacher,that you look at the success rate for

that teacher’s students. If it isextremely low, look elsewhere. Iwould also suggest that if you arestudying with a great teacher, that youtrust your own judgment. If you arebeing set up to fail, find a differentteacher as quickly as possible.

27) Too Many people Need You toSucceed

I once knew a very very talentedguitarist and composer who couldeasily have been one of the bestconcert guitarists in the world. Itdidn’t happen. Why? There were toomany people who needed desperately

to share in his potential glory. Therewas the guitar professor, there werehis parents, there was theconservatory, there was a formerguitar professor at the conservatorythat had his hand in the process, and ifI’m being perfectly honest, I wanted apiece of the glory vicariously that Ihadn’t achieved as a concert guitarist.

This talented guitarist couldn’t handleit and dissipated his talents by joininga religious cult and messing around inpop music. This section is a variationon wanting to get your parents backsection, but it is still worth looking at.All of us took what this guitarist had

to offer away from him. Looking backon watching him perform, it seemed asif everyone felt they owned a piece ofthis “horse”. It many ways it was verysimilar to an owner of a great racehorse, and the owner acts and feels asif he just ran and won the race. Ofcourse the horse doesn’t care (I think),but this talented young guitarist didcare and he didn’t know it. Because hedidn’t know what was going onaround him and inside of him, hedidn’t have the consciousness to takeback his power and make his owndecisions, so he rebelled.

This actually happened to me, also. I

didn’t display the same talent thisother guitarist had, but I could havebeen a concert artist. In retrospect Ihad a whole family, a music teacherand a whole culture needing me towin, so I rebelled to save myself.When you rebel to save yourself, youaren’t choosing the loving path foryourself, you’re actually throwing atantrum and screwing yourself in anattempt to have some control overyour life. Walking away and doingwhat you want is always option, evenif you aren’t yet aware that you canwalk away.

28) You’re Afraid to Commit

If you don’t have faith in your future,then how can you adopt an effortlesstechnique to succeed? Hard work isthe sneaky substitute for smart work.Working hard and not making thechanges that make your techniqueeffortless is a sneaky way to calm thefears inside that you don’t have faithin your future as a successfulmusician.

You cannot commit to taking all of thesteps that would make yourperforming an effortless joy, if deepdown there is a little voice saying itisn’t going to matter. If you can shiftto having faith in your future as a

happy successful musician, then youcan take the steps to make it. If youaccept that your future as asuccessful musician is based on yourfaith that your future as a successfulmusician is guaranteed, and you dothe smart practice with faith to makeit so, then your smart practice willcombine with your faith, and you willsucceed!

If you don’t believe you will have asuccessful career in music, and if youchoose to never take the smart steps tobe good enough on your instrument,then how can you take the steps tosucceed? If you have practiced

without faith in your future as asuccessful musician, then you have toadmit to yourself that you were nevercommitted to your instrument nomatter how much you practiced. Onceyou admit the truth, then you are freeto commit to and to having fun onyour instrument.

29) You Are not Experiencing LoveWhen You Play or Sing Most of theTime

What is the emotion you experiencethe most when you play or sing orthink about practicing or performing?If the thought of your instrument

doesn’t consistently evoke love in you,then what is it evoking, and why areyou practicing and performing? I wasjust thinking that many musicians dowhat they do and maybe even do sopretty darn well. But it seems to methey sometimes just stumble intobeing good musicians, make a livingat it and never know emotionally whatit does for them.

If that is where you are, then when youget into physical trouble, then you’remuch more likely to look for anallopathic quick medical fix to you’rehurting, rather than find a way to playor sing with greater facility and pain

free. In A Course in Miracles it saysthere are two basic emotions, love andfear, and that when you’re afraid youcan’t experience love. So, if yourinstrument doesn’t evoke love in you,does it evoke fear and you simplysuppress the fear? If you are making aliving in music and you don’t loveyour instrument, then this is a veryscary situation that you probably can’tadmit to yourself.

What if you did admit this to yourself,also admitting deep down you maylove your instrument? Then isn’t ittime to always make music as a gift,find the easiest way to play or sing,

and let yourself fall in love with yourinstrument?

30) You’re Stuck Getting Ready

Getting ready to do what you need todo, to become the performer you wantto be has become a way of life. You’remaking a living doing what you do,but if you were to make a list of whatneeds to be done for you to performthe way you could perform, you justaren’t doing it.

There are two aspects to doing whatyou need to do, so that you do whatyou want to do on your instrument.

Externally, you take the physical stepsto revamp your technique into themost loving, efficient, and effort lesstechnique you can create. This is thesecond phase.

The first phase is that you havealready done it in your mind. Thismeans you see it done, so that youbring faith to the doing, and the stepsare effortless. If it is done before youdo it, and then when you physically doit, so there is no resistance to doing it.I think of this as the “Harry Potterprinciple”. In Harry Potter and thePrisoner of Azkaban he was able tocreate a patronus to save his life

because he experienced doing sobefore he did it by going forwards intime. When you have “seen” yourselftake the steps to transform yourplaying or singing, then you will takethe steps to transform yourperforming.

As a Gift

Why do you make music? Is itbecause you love it? Is it just a living,a job? Is there a way for you to havealmost every moment of practicingand performing be a joy? Could youhandle this? When music is given as agift, it fulfills its purpose, its onlypurpose.

Over the last hundred years, with theadvent of recording, classical musichas become an ever-increasingexercise in playing to be perfect. Thepressure for note-perfect performanceshas grown so powerful that many

musicians, who do not want to buyinto this, may feel as if something iswrong with them. They may feel as ifthey are lacking something, becausethey do not feel they can win againstthis pressure for perfection. Is there away to play the double bass withbeauty and ease without pushingyourself?

There are three books published bypsychiatrist Dr. John Diamond calledThe Life Energy in Music, Volumes I,II and III. After I read these books, Icombined what they were saying withthe Bonpensiere book on faith inperformance. I began playing with

love and faith. Diamond’s three bookstalk of making music as a gift toyourself, to the audience, to someoneyou love, and to God. He says that ifwe want our playing always to be highenergy, then we should always playgiving the music as a gift.

When I went to an AlexanderTechnique teacher to stop the pain inmy wrist, I learned to problem-solveon the guitar and to speak to myself inkind ways that eased and transformedthe poor posture and tension in mybody into ease and balance. When Iread the Bonpensiere book, I learnedto play with faith in my hands. When I

read the Diamond books, I beganmaking music as a gift. After I wentthrough the Alexander Techniquetraining, I learned to stop sacrificingmyself physically. My evolution hasbeen one of integrating the physicaland mental aspects of playing andeventually adding in the ultimateemotional feeling - love. All of thisbecame part of my playing.

Many times in our culture, we confuseunderstanding for feeling, forexperience. However, the feeling iswhat gives meaning to whatever youare doing. It does not matter whetheryou are writing an ebook, making

music, or running around a track; whatgives the activities meaning is howyou feel about them, not yourcompetence.

Music given as a gift is a reaching outwith love to yourself or someone else.This offering of love gives truemeaning to the music. If you play apiece that is about sadness, then youare offering sadness as a gift. It is notabout making the listener sad; it isabout transmuting the listener’s ownunresolved sadness into love. We donot play to make ourselves sad, afraiddepressed, or angry; we play to healour unresolved fear. We usually do not

realize this, and therefore, manyperformances, literally, do not lift thespirits of the audience.

When a practice session or aperformance is given as a gift, it iscantillatory. Dr. Diamond describes ascantillatory a performance or a workof art that raises our life energy. Whena listener connects to the performerwho is giving her playing as a gift,then the listener’s life energy rises.

When you practice, what are yousaying to yourself? Are you criticizingyourself for what is not working?Many of us learned that the best way

to improve our playing is withcriticism, that the way to do our best isto attack ourselves for what we playwrong. Our life energy, our well-being, our capacity to feel lovediminishes when we criticizeourselves. Perfectionists criticizethemselves, and probably mostclassical musicians are perfectionistsor suppressed perfectionists. The morea person ties his self-worth to hisability to play well, the greater hisresistance to practicing andperforming. If you withdraw your loveof yourself when you play badly, thenyou are bullying yourself to play.However, if your main reason for

making music is as a gift, then yourself-worth will not depend on howwell you play.Playing as a gift is its own reward.How could you refuse a gift of love? Ifyour threeyear-old child gave you agift, would you tell her it isn’t goodenough? If you accept the gift givenwith love by your child, then you, atleast for the moment, are twoconsciously connected spirits. Whenyou play for a beloved or an audienceor God as a gift, you connect with loveto the listeners; you all feel this love.

A gift given and received surroundsyou with love and a feeling of

wellbeing, but what effect does it haveon your playing? I remember playing aconcert and beginning not to play well.I kept trying harder and harder to feelgood about how I was playing, andthen I realized how desperately Iwanted the audience to admire myplaying. At that moment, I had twochoices. I could keep pushing andtrying to entertain the audience, or Icould realize that the only real reason Iwanted to be there was to honor thelisteners with a gift. I chose the gift.What happened was beautiful. Iinstantly felt the tension level drop inmy body. I stopped trying to drive thestrings through the guitar. My sound

became fuller and warmer. My temposlowed, and I stopped missing notes.Even more profound was that Istopped wanting the piece to be over. Ibegan enjoying the sounds, the beautyof the music, the audience and I didnot want it to end.

If a musician always judges hisplaying, at what point does he get toenjoy his playing, reaping the rewardsof all his work? If you are neverpleased with how well you play, thenat ninety years old, you will still betelling yourself, “It will be goodenough tomorrow.” When will you getto hear what you are doing? How can

you truly hear the music if there is aconstant critical voice going oninside? Turn this voice off for amoment and listen to the beauty ofyour instrument, the notes, themelody, and let this beauty be enough.When was the last time you played apiece for the sheer beauty of it? Whenwas the last time you played and avoice inside did not say this could bebetter or that could be better? Imaginealways returning to give the music as agift, after you are throughtroubleshooting and deciding oninterpretation. J.S. Bach said that hismusic was always a gift to God; that iswhy his music is so cantillatory.

Classical music has complexity anddepth rare in other forms of music. Toconvey this depth and beauty, manyplayers sacrifice themselves physicallyand emotionally for the performance,playing less and less for themselvesand others. By limiting your optionsfor playing, you may burn out. Thisdoes not have to be. There is not a no-win situation if you want to makemusic. Practicing with excellence canactually raise your energy level, sothat by the end of a practice session orperformance, you have even moreenergy.

If one-by-one you remove theobstacles to an inspired performance,at some point all that is left is ease,joy, love, and passion. Then if you letyour playing be a gift to yourself andto everyone else, when you play, youare only offering love to all of thelisteners.

Collected Short Essays in the OrderWritten

Pizzicato on the Jazz Double Bass

Recently I heard from a jazz bassistwho said he was having aches andpains in his right wrist and fingers ashe played pizzicato on the bass.

As an Alexander Technique teacherand classical guitarist, my first thoughtwent to what is he doing in his rightshoulder as he plays. Is he using toomuch tension is his shoulder and upperarm to create stability in his forearmand hand and fingers as he plays?

This is almost one of those guaranteedright first assumptions. Almost allperforming musicians use too muchmuscle to stabilize an arm to getcontrol over their instrument. It is in abassist’s best interest to experimentwith how little shoulder muscle ittakes to move and/or stabilize the arm,so that when to plucks the string, itdoesn’t move the hand instead of thestring.

My second thought was, is he playingthe strings by pushing too muchtoward the neck of the bass, ratherthan plucking the strings more parallelto the neck. If he is pushing the strings

too much toward the neck, then he iscreating tremendous resistance (backpressure) of the strings into thefingers, hand, and arm. The strings onthe bass are pretty powerful.

When he plays a string, how muchless tension can he have in his wristand finger joints? If he anticipatesplaying pizzicato by tensing hisfingers, then he is forcing the bones ofthe wrist and fingers together, and ashe plays, he will be bending fingersjoints with compression (the bonesforced too close together). We have asaying in the Alexander Technique,“Do less”.

When you play pizzicato on the bass,you are turning a string instrument intoa percussion instrument, which onlyrequires a quick strike of a string toplay. THERE IS NEVER ANYREASON TO PRESS THE STRINGOR HOLD TENSION IN THEARMS, HANDS, OR FINGERSBEFORE YOU PLAY OREXCESSIVE TENSION AS YOUPLAY. Playing pizzicato on the bassshould be like using a hammer.Ideally, the carpenter uses thequickness and momentum of histriceps and forearms to drive the nail,and he never pushes the nail before orafter he hits and drives it into the

wood.

As a bassist, use the reflexivequickness of a finger twitchingthrough the string to create aneffortless pizzicato technique.

I would also suggest you move thefingers from the main finger joint, thelarge knuckle, rather than bending thefingers at the first two joints to play.When you move a finger from themain knuckle, there are twoadvantages to playing this way.The first is you are moving the wholegently curved and stable finger fromthe flexors of the under side of the

forearm. This way you don’t stress thejoints of the fingers playing aninstrument with such powerful strings.

The second advantage is you create amuch nicer tone. As a classicalguitarist, I learned that if you pluckstrings with gently curled fingers fromthe flexors, you can play the guitar asloudly as the instrument will allowyou to, without sacrificing the qualityof the sound.

So, the main idea I want to get acrosshere: How effortless can you makepizzicato on the double bass?

Playing the Double Bass – The IdealWay to Begin or Retrain

If you have never played the doublebass, what would be the ideal way tobegin? If you’re a beginner, you wantto start from the beginning learning awonderful technique and great posturefrom a kind teacher who doesn’t letyou slide. What do I mean by ateacher who doesn’t let you slide?

As you’re learning from the doublebass teacher how to create a balancedfully upright posture and how to useyour whole body to create a techniquethat is mechanically advantageous,

your teacher lovingly does not ever letyou get away with compromising yourposture and technique.

Does this sound harsh? It isn’t. It isextraordinarily loving, because if theteacher is absolutely clear aboutteaching you how to sit or stand andplay the double bass with the greatestbalance and the most effortlesstechnique, then whether you practice ahalf hour a day or six hours a day, youwill become a wonderful player andwant to practice and/or perform forothers, and it will be easy.

Is it possible to get this from one

teacher? It is possible if your doublebass teacher is an excellent AlexanderTechnique teacher also, or has doneenough work with an AlexanderTechnique teacher to convey greatoverall posture and good use to thestudent.

What if you can’t find such a bassteacher, then I believe the idealsituation would be to find the best bassteacher you can and the bestAlexander Technique teacher you canand alternate between them. A word ofcaution, make sure the double bassteacher is ok with an AlexanderTechnique teacher tweaking the bass

teacher’s instrumental technique, orthis won’t work.

Ex: I’m now teaching the Kind PianoTechnique with the assistance of avery fine pianist who has spent the lasttwo years learning this technique fromme. For the first time in herperforming and accompanying career,she is not hurting and is realizing thereis no piano work worth learning, thatshe can’t find an effortless or neareffortless way to perform the wholepiece without pain, strain and struggle.This pianist and I are teaching theKind Piano Technique to students,beginners to advanced, alternating

lessons between us each week. Whatwould truly be ideal, is if the studentstook lessons from both of us eachweek, but this is generally notpractical for most students.

I have created, mastered, and canteach this technique, and I candemonstrate it at the most refinedAlexandrian level in exercises at thepiano, but I have not pursuedbecoming a pianist. As an AlexanderTechnique teacher, I am very verygood at seeing the things that musicalperformers (double bass players) do onall instruments that compromise theirtechnique. With my Alexander

Technique skills and the principles ofgreat double bass technique, I troubleshoot and solve any techniqueproblem a bass player or otherperforming musician has.

What this means, is that I can instantlysee what the double bass player isdoing that compromises his or hertechnique, and I help the bassist findthe most effortless way to play. I canalso see and change old techniqueproblems that sneak back into thebassist’s playing. Ex: Many doublebass players have never learned torelease fingers that aren’t playing, andthis can creep back into a bass player’s

new technique, as the difficulty of thepieces increases.

So, find a wonderful double bassteacher and a wonderful AlexanderTechnique teacher and go for it,beginner or advanced.

Double Bass – Believed Lies thatLimit Your Potential

All performing and beginning doublebass players gather evidence to provewhat they believe about how goodthey are and how good they canbecome.

What do I mean? If you believe youdon’t have the talent to be anextraordinary double bass player, toperform the greatest literature writtenfor your instrument, then you willdemonstrate it in your double bassplaying. Every time you play adifficult piece, you will struggle to

make it through the hard passages.

You will prove you are right aboutyour limited abilities by strugglingthrough your wonderful literature.Which comes first, the beliefs in yourlimited performing talent or thedemonstration of your limited talent?

I believe the beliefs come first, andthen you go about proving what youcan’t do on the double bass, whetheryou’re 5-years-old or 60-years-old.The bass is simply the perfect vehicleto prove what your potential is or isn’tin the things you want to learn.

When you choose a double bassteacher who uses negativereinforcement to teach you theinstrument and teaches you a basstechnique that does not allow you toplay this instrument with ease, then ifyou believe you have limited talent onthe bass, it will be effortless to prove itto yourself and the teacher.When you believe you have limitedtalent, you have two choices, if youcontinue to play. The first choice isyou don’t put in much practice time oreffort, because you’ve given up onyourself before you start. The secondchoice is you prove to yourself and theworld that you are going to do

whatever it takes to become a finedouble bass player DESPITE yourlack of exceptional talent.

The world definitely loves numbertwo. I’m not sure which the worldadmires most, the Mozarts or theovercomers. I think the world admiresthe overcomers, because there are awhole lot more strugglers out therethan Mozarts. But is this true? Aremost double bass players overcomers,lacking the potential to beextraordinarily facile players?

If you choose a double bass teacherwho uses a love of music and positive

reinforcement to teach you bass, tiedto a double bass technique that usesAlexander Technique principles ofgood body use, then you areconfronted with two choices. Eitheryou accept and watch yourself becomea wonderful double bass playermaking great music easily,effortlessly, and joyously, or youprove to yourself and the teacher youlack talent.

Why would a new double bassstudent, or a struggling bass playerwho had found a double bass teacherand/or Alexander Technique teacherwho could make the bass easy, choose

to prove there is no way they couldplay with great ease? Because, if youare the hero in your life by being anovercomer, then it is infinitely moreimportant that you live alwaysstruggling, so that you can admireyourself for hanging in there, eventhough you believe you were dealt apoor hand of cards.

So, when you come to the double bassteacher and/or Alexander Techniqueteacher who can assist you inrevamping your bass technique toteach you how easy the instrument canbe or will be, and you’ve been anovercomer, then you will continue to

take lessons, if you’re ready to give uphaving to struggle and overcome tofeel good about yourself.

Double Bass – Breathing and BreathHolding

It is almost universal that performingdouble bass players hold their breath,especially in the difficult sections of apiece. Is this inevitable? What effectdoes it have on a performance? Whatdoes it say about the double bassplayer? Can it be changed, if thebassist wants to do so?

Breath holding in double bassperformance and while practicing isnot inevitable, but like I said it isnearly universal. Since there is noobvious direct link between breathing

and playing the double bass, you canplay holding your breath and breathewhen absolutely necessary. I haveheard wonderful recordings ofwonderful double bass players, andyou can hear the players gasping forbreath at times.

When a performing double bass playerholds his or her breath, it usuallymeans the performer is afraid he or shewill not make it through a passage. Ifyou stop breathing in the difficultpassages, then I believe this alwayshas an effect on what is coming out ofthe double bass. You may still playbeautifully, but it has always been my

experience, that when a bassist playsfor me and doesn’t hold his or herbreath in a passage, the passagedramatically changes.

It may not be a dramatic technicalchange, but the passage almost alwayshas a better tone quality, and I noticethere is a lowering in me of feelingstressed when I listen. The double bassplayer usually feels less stressed fortwo reasons. The first is he or she isn’timmobilizing the body. The secondreason is that for possibly the firsttime, the bassist is watching him orherself breathe and choosing tobreathe through the passage, rather

than focusing on their fear of themusic.

So, yes, a double bass player can makegentle non-held breathing part of theirtechnique. A performing bassist’stechnique is everything he or she doesin their body when they perform. Asan Alexander Technique teacher,when I help double bass playersconnect to their whole body as theyplay, then I truly make their techniqueconscious and whole body.

How does a double bass playerinternalize a new truly fearlessbreathing pattern as they play? Ex: I

ask a bassist to play a three octavescale with no particular focus. Then Iask him to play it again, but this timeONLY observe his breathing as heplays. I ask him what he notices. Hemay say he’s noticing himself hold hisbreath, or he may notice he’s trying to“force” himself to continue to breathe.

I ask him to play again, but this timegently watch himself breathe as heplays the scale at a very easy tempo,and to let his body breathe when itwants to, and to continue to repeat thescale non-stop for five minutes. If hecan truly trust this process, he willbegin to realize he doesn’t have to

make himself breathe, and he won’thold his breath.

For possibly the first time in his life,he has expanded her double basstechnique beyond his hands and arms,and he is beginning to play the basswith his whole mobile body.

Double Bass – Does Poor TechniqueWork?

Poor technique on the double bassDOES itself. What do I mean? Everyday you practice and/or perform, ifyou are using a poor technique, that isthe technique you use to playconsistently.

What is a poor technique? It is atechnique that makes you struggle inthe difficult literature on the doublebass, makes you incapable of gettingthe best tone out of your instrument,makes it difficult to realize theinterpretation you want, and is doing

damage to your body.

Does it work? It must if you’re a finedouble bass player. If you’re not verygood, then you’re using poortechnique and/or you’re not practicing.If it does work, why change poortechnique? Does really poor doublebass technique really work, even ifyou sound good? No! Why?

Because, if you’re technique makesyou struggle to play what you want,and if it is doing damage to your body,then poor technique lowers yourability to enjoy the music you arecreating in the moment. In other

words, poor technique can take the joyout of playing the double bass, andmake you solely dependent on thepositive feedback of listeners to feelgood about your playing.

This is probably not a uniqueoccurrence among double bassplayers, since many are probablyperfectionists. What do I mean? Idefine a perfectionist double bassplayer as someone who will never everbe satisfied with their playing, eventhough the promise they will besatisfied is held out front of eachpractice session and performance, likea carrot at the end of a stick.

What I just wrote is very black andwhite, but is it possible for someonewho has moderately poor double basstechnique to enjoy some of his or herperformance in the moment. Yes. Butwhat about the bass player who has towork like a dog to create a pleasingperformance? These are the doublebass players who really need constantexternal validation. They will probablyget into physical trouble and at somepoint and have to stop playing,because of injury and/or the fact thatplaying the double bass is just toohard.

When you tie poor double bass

technique to perfectionism, there is noway you’re going to be able to trulyenjoy your playing as you play. Youwill only be able to enjoy makingmusic AFTER THE FACT, if you areable to find things you liked aboutyour playing and/or you got praisefrom listeners.

Does poor double bass technique everwork? Is it working if you soundgood? It only truly can be said towork, if at the end of a practicesession or a performance you like yourinterpretation, you aren’t damagingyour body, and you feel moreENERGIZED than when you began

playing.

Does this mean there is such a thing asa poor technique that isn’t debilitatingin the long run? Let me rephrase this.By definition, a poor double basstechnique is an inefficient basstechnique. So, is there an inefficientdouble bass technique that is harmlessto the body and mind and lets youmake beautiful music?

Yes. But you probably will have topractice and perform for short periods,if you don’t want to expose thedestructive flaws in your double basstechnique.

Double Bass – Going for It withoutDamaging Your Body

When I observe double bass playersgoing all out 100% in a performance,they are almost always paying aphysical price – harming their bodies.The more performances a double bassplayer does, where he or she goes allout, the more cumulative the wear andtear.

Does it have to be this way? Is itpossible for an extraordinary doublebass player to go all out all of the timeevery time he or she performs and notcause damage to the body? Yes, but a

couple of things have to happen. First,the double bass player needs to use atechnique where the body is almostalways on balance, so that the bassplayer doesn’t have to use excessmuscle to perform the most difficultliterature written for the double bass.

The other major factor is that thedouble bass player may use too muchmuscle constantly throughout theperformance. This usually manifestsas two negative things happening atthe same time. The bass player tensesbefore he or she presses the strings oruses the bow, and he or she uses toomuch muscle to get the job done.

What do I mean they use too muchmuscle to get the job done? Inanticipation of pressing the strings andbowing, the double bass player createstoo much musculature tension in thearms, back, shoulders, etc., to makesure he or she can play and interpretthe music exactly as they want. Thishas two negative effects on what he orshe doing.

The first is that excess musculartension interferes with the speed of thefingers and bow arm. It slows thedouble bass player’s fingers and armsdown, so they aren’t movingreflexively.

Second, if the bass player plays withheld musculature in anticipation ofwhat they’re about to do, then theyhave forced joints together throughoutthe whole body unnecessarily, andhours of practice or performance withjoints in compression wears out thejoints. In other words, it isn’t about thehours of practice and performancewith a lot of repetitive movements, itis about the excessive tensionthroughout the whole body beingconfused for playing expressively.

You can play the double bass withoutdamaging your body, when youperform with a technique that creates

balance throughout the whole body,and by not tensing up, and thenpressing the strings and bowing withtotal all out ease.

It is a powerful realization for me tosee how double bass players who goall out in performances, assume theyhave to pay a physical price toexperience the joy of an all outcommitment to playing their best forthe audience. This is the norm. It is anorm based on the assumption thatyou can’t do your best in a concertunless you are willing to do damage toyour body over time.

If this is true, then performing withoutholding back is not a win winsituation, it is a win lose situation,where the bass player believes themomentary glory is worth a lifetime ofpain, or at worst a crippled body.

Playing a concert without holdingback can be a win win situation, if thedouble bass player learns to movereflexively on balance using releasedmuscles. Going all out is the way itshould be, because it is doing whatyou love without holding back, whichis an act of self-love, commitment, andself-loyalty.

Double Bass – Carpal TunnelSyndrome

When I was practicing six hours a day,seven days a week, to become aconcert guitarist at the Royal Collegeof Music in London in the earlyseventies, I developed carpal tunnelsyndrome in my left wrist. I went to anAlexander Technique teacher, andwithin few months I was able topractice as much as I wanted withoutpain, and I’ve never suffered fromcarpal tunnel syndrome since.

What was it that the AlexanderTechnique teacher taught me that got

me out of physical troublepermanently? I was taught how topress the strings with the minimumstrength necessary, to find the mostmechanically advantageous handposition in relationship to the stringand guitar neck, and to press thestrings without immobilizing my wrist,elbow, and shoulder.

I’ve applied the above principles inmy ebook on the double bass. If thehands are in a mechanicallyadvantageous relationship to thedouble bass, when you press thestrings and move the bow withreleased, not relaxed (collapsed)

wrists, then you will be on your way tohealing your carpal tunnel syndrome.

As a double bass player, you want tosupport your hands with releasedforearms, upper arms, and shoulders,but not immobilizing the wrists,elbows, or shoulders. Then you canplay the double bass with arms, hands,and shoulders that are not heldunnecessarily still. When the stringsare pressed and bow moved withreleased supported wrists, then youwon’t cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

Let me explain. If you were to learnhow to play the double bass with a

static held body and arm positions,then as you continuously change therelationship of the hands to theforearms with held immobilizedtension, you’d be forcing the bones ofthe wrists to grind against each other.

Simply, tense muscles force bonestogether and cause 100% unnecessarywear and tear throughout the wholebody.

Why do musicians use too muchmuscle to play the double bass? It is toprevent mistakes. It is using physicalnegative reinforcement to press theright note and bow the right string. So,

when you practice a lot, you maybecome fairly accurate by usingtension to minimize the number ofmistakes you make, but you aredamaging your body.

Then you seek out an AlexanderTechnique teacher who shows you thatyou can be extraordinarily accurate, ifyou release all of your excess tension,use balanced posture, and trust yourbow and fingers to hit the mark.

I want to say something here aboutinjuries being inevitable in repetitiveactivities that require precision. Theyare not, but by the time someone

comes to an Alexander Techniqueteacher with carpal tunnel syndromefrom playing the double bass, thedouble bass player has lived with apowerful belief system that saysinjuries are inevitable on the doublebass. I show double bass players howto get out of physical trouble, and Ialso ask them to simultaneouslyquestion all of the beliefs they haveabout doing activities that requireprecision. I then ask them to considergiving up all of the beliefs thatguarantee they will eventually getinjured over and over in any activitythat requires precise movements.

Double Bass – Doing the Minimumwith High Dynamic

How does a performing double bassplayer do the minimum with highdynamic? DOING THE MINIMUMWITH HIGH DYNAMIC is a conceptthat I coined in my ebooks and otherwritings. It means that you create avery powerful musical performanceand simultaneously do the leastamount of work muscularly. What do Imean?

When you practice or perform on thedouble bass, and you expressivelywith inspiration play without any more

muscular effort than is necessary, thisis doing the minimum with highdynamic. What are the elements thatneed to come together for this tohappen?

Let’s start with the expressivelyinspired piece first. When you practiceor perform on the double bass as aGIFT to yourself, to others listening,to someone you love and/or God, theneven if you have poor technique youwill touch the hearts of those listening,For me, this is the primary reason toplay the bass – to give performedmusic as a gift. All else, technique andinterpretation, is in support of playing

the double bass, making music, as agift.

There are only two things that can getin the way of giving the gift of yourdouble bass playing effortlessly. Theyare, you withhold performing the basswith an open heart, because you areafraid your gift won’t be acceptedunconditionally. The second is a poordouble bass technique doesn’t letcome out of your fingers and wholebody what’s in your heart.

When you perform on the double bassas an unconditional gift to yourself,then there is no problem. What I mean,

is that as long as you accept your owngift, then you can feel safe to offer it toan audience, someone you love, andGod. I assume performing forsomeone you love is also someonewho loves you, and they will acceptyour gift. I put God in this category.

Now, technique. Double basstechnique is whole body. Everythingevery part of your body is doing asyou play the bass is either contributingto the performance or interfering withyou creating what you want from thedouble bass. This means, the closeryour double bass playing is to theideal performance in your mind,

consistently, the closer your wholebody technique is to a beautifulbalanced posture and your specificbass technique is to playingconsistently effortlessly, even as youplay incredibly expressively.

A double bass technique that makesabsolute control of the instrument asnear as you can get to effortlesslyrealizing what you want, is bydefinition DOING THE MINIMUMWITH HIGH DYNAMIC.What does this feel like and look like?As you sit on the chair or stand, youfeel and appear and are effortlesslyupright, mobile from the top of a head

lengthening away from your sit boneswith free hip joints.

This means that there is rarely, if ever,a place in a double bass work that youcan’t create your ideal, so you ideallynever need to tense and hope yourbody will give you what you want.The ideal absolutely effortless practiceor performance may be rare, but closecounts as long as it is created with youbeing gentle to yourself.

When Is Your Double BassTechnique Good Enough?

Your double bass technique is goodenough when you can play whateveryou want effortlessly with trust.Which comes first – a good enoughtechnique or trust? Ideally they shouldoccur at the same time, but usuallythey don’t in the typical twocircumstances of a musician. Thesetwo circumstances are – you haveplayed for years without trust or youare an outright beginner learning toplay very carefully. By definitionplaying the double bass carefully istrying not to make a mistake.

If your technique is not good enoughfor you, then what is necessary for youto get to this point? From theAlexander Technique perspective, youdecide what works on the double bass,and you let go of or avoid doing whatdoesn’t work. The most obvious andnot so obvious thing that bass playersdo that doesn’t work, is they play withtoo much tension.

This is nearly universal in performers,because you could possibly do a reallyfine job of performing with too muchtension if your technique is goodenough. The problem is, that over theyears of practicing and performing

hours and hours with too muchtension, you will probably cause wearand tear to joints and muscles and getinto physical trouble. This is usuallyaccepted as the norm. It is the norm,but that doesn’t make it unavoidable.

As an Alexander Technique teacher, itis my job to teach double bass playersto let go the aspects of their techniquethat don’t work and to trust what doeswork. If I don’t teach a student ofmine to trust their technique, thenthere is truly no way I can get them toperform with anything approachingeffortless technique consistently.

What does this mean? It means thedouble bass player will not be able toperform in the zone whenever theychoose. You can tweak posture andyour instrument’s techniqueconstantly, but if you never wed awonderful technique with trust, thenevery time you play the bass you willbe subtly, and maybe not so subtly,trying to improve your techniquenonstop.

If every time you practice or performthere is a conscious or unconsciousstream of thought goading you on toimprove, then you can never performin the moment with the joy of loving

what your instrument is producing.This is the norm among classicaldouble bass players. It is what somany bass players have always done,so they really really don’t know theyare doing this, so they never questionif it is the best way to maintain theirskills.It isn’t the best way. In my AlexanderTechnique publications for thedifferent instruments, I make it clear,extremely clear, what great techniqueis on each individual instrument, howto acquire it, and then how to trust andhave faith in it. Getting out of yourown way so you can make music, andaccepting that nonstop striving every

time you play the double bass is notthe best way to learn to performeffortlessly, and makes it possible foryou to perform in the zone effortlessly.

Knowing when to accept that yourdouble bass technique is good enoughand having faith in it, is the mostloving thing a bass player can do forhim or herself.

Double Bass – Using NegativeReinforcement: The Ultimate Doingand Self-Attack

When you use negative reinforcementto improve your double bass playing,you are doing the ultimate DOING.Doing in the Alexander Technique ishow we describe doing too much workto get the job done. Ex: If a doublebass player tenses his fingers beforehe plays and uses too much pressureafter he presses the strings, then he isdoing. NON-DOING is doing theminimum necessary with high energy.

It is nearly impossible to non-do if you

are attacking yourself with negativereinforcement. It can almost be done,but it requires a split between whatyou are saying to your body and whatyou are saying to yourself. Let meexplain. You can be very harsh onyour double bass playing with yourself-talk, expecting perfection andpunishing yourself in your thoughts.At the same time you can use theprinciples of the Alexander Techniqueto order your body to release and beon balance. But this is anextraordinary balancing act ofcompartmentalizing.

Compartmentalizing is by definition

an extraordinary act of will – wallingoff two contradictory activities beingperformed at the same time. So, if youare using negative reinforcement toplay the double bass extraordinarilywell, you are motivating yourself withpunishment, or at the threat ofpunishment. If you want to keep thefear of punishing yourself fromcompromising the most effortless andbalanced posture and techniquepossible, then it is a pure act of will totell your body what you want of it, sothat you don’t hunker down physicallyin fear of yourself as you play thebass.

The tool that we have in the AlexanderTechnique for getting the body to dowhat is mechanically advantageousare orders. ORDERS OFALLOWANCE, as I call them, aretelling your body what you want it todo with kindness. So, you say toyourself, “My neck is free and myhead is moving up, as I press thestring”. Think about this. This meansif there is an undercurrent of thoughttelling you that your double bassplaying is never good enough, whileyou are inviting your neck to releaseand lead a lengthening spine upward,then you are playing suppressing theeffects of attack on your body.

Does this work? Yes, for manywonderful double bass players. It isnot the intention of this article to getyou to stop using negativereinforcement. It is my intention tobring to light what you are doing, sothat you can make a conscious choiceas to whether to keep doing it or not.Look, if negative reinforcement hasmade you a wonderful bass player,then you may not want to change whatyou have done to become a wonderfulperformer. If that is your decision,then this article is about asking you totake your negative perfectionism andfind a way to create positive results by

not sacrificing your body.

In other words, ally negativereinforcement with the AlexanderTechnique principles of good body useand great double bass technique. Then,at some point you may decide it isworth it to be loving to yourself inhow you motivate yourself to play thebass.

Double Bass – Accepting PoorTechnique So You Can Move On

The kindest way to replace a doublebass technique that doesn’t work foryou anymore, is to accept that you didthe best you could. You chose the bestdouble bass teacher and technique thatyou could handle at the time youbegan. You may have even movedthrough more than one majortechnique change and bass teacher.But now you’re ready, if you’re able toreplace or enhance the technique youhave with one that takes the artificiallimits off of your potential as a finedouble bass player.

I did this so many times as a classicalguitarist. Finally, I found anextraordinary guitar teacher and anextraordinary Alexander Techniqueteacher at the same time. Between thetwo of them I gained the ability totrouble shoot on the guitar. This meantI could objectively see what workedand didn’t work for me on the guitarand choose what did work. But Ihadn’t forgiven myself my pastchoices and ultimately stoppedplaying.

What has to happen for you to replacea double bass technique that doesn’tserve you anymore with one that does?

The better question is, how do you letgo of completely what doesn’t workanymore, so that it doesn’tcompromise what you want to donow?

It has to do with how you talk toyourself about the years doing adouble bass technique that doesn’tserve you anymore. If you get caughtup in anger and regret and aren’t ableto move on without anger and regret,then you are punishing yourself forwhat you did and can’t change.

It doesn’t matter that you can’t changewhat you did, but what does matter is

that you can heal a flawed double basstechnique. If you are willing to forgiveyourself your choices, and accept thatwhat doesn’t work can only overridewhat does work, then you can let go ofbelieving you’ve spent too muchunforgivable time doing what doesn’twork.

What do I mean? I believe there is adifference between years spent doingwhat doesn’t work and what doeswork. I believe, at least unconsciously,you knew that you’re technique wasn’tthe best way to play the double bass,because you were struggling andstraining much of the time to realize

the interpretation you want. Becauseyou knew what you did wasn’t thebest solution to bass technique, itnever became a part of you. ONLYWHAT IS BEST IS PERMANENT.

You can only handle an effortlessdouble bass technique when you’reready. This means, when you’re ready,even if you don’t know you’re ready,you’ll find the right teacher andtechnique, because you can handle abass technique that is effortless. Youare ready, if you are able to forgiveyourself for having chosen a techniqueand interpretation path of resistance.

This is what I mean by the title of thisarticle on accepting what you did onthe double bass, so that you can moveon. I know many, if not most bassplayers, believe who they began thedouble bass with was by chance, but Idon’t believe in chance. I believe youfind the teacher you could accept andhandle at the moment you started thebass.

So, right here right now, if you canaccept and embrace a double basstechnique that makes all of theworthwhile literature easily playable,then you have accepted your musicalchoices of the past and forgiven

yourself, your past bass teacher(s),your past technique, and your pastinterpretation choices.

Double Bass – Visualizing theExtraordinary Performance

I’ve worked with a whole lot ofperforming double bass players, andI’ve asked them all to perform a piecein their heads, to see themselvesperforming on their instrument a piecethey knew. I’d ask them how they didafterwards, and they usually saidpretty good.

But I discovered there was oneconsistently unusual thing that most ofthem said they did in their visualizing.WHENEVER THEY CAME TO APASSAGE THAT GAVE THEM

TROUBLE, THEY SLOWED ITDOWN IN THEIRVISUALIZATION, ACTUALLYSTRUGGLED IN THEIRVISUALIZING.

This was really a revelation for me,because it meant that instead of whatthe double bass player wanted out of aperformance setting the possibilities, itwas actually what they HAD BEENDOING in a real performance that wassetting the limits. Think about it, whyshouldn’t a bass player play theultimate perfect effortless performancein their thoughts? But they didn’t.Why?

There were two reasons. The first is itwould be intolerable for the doublebass player to do in their head whatthey couldn’t do on the bass, whichmeans you shouldn’t think about whatyou can’t do, because it is just toopainful. The second powerful belief isyou don’t visualize what you don’tbelieve is true. In other words, howcan you possibly conceive of thepossibility of the impossible, so don’teven try!

So, the double bass player will not andpsychologically cannot conceive ofwhat they’re not capable of doing.This is a feedback loop of insanity.

What do I mean? You do not letyourself conceive of what you’vealready proved is the impossible. Butis your ability to play the bass at thehighest level impossible, or are youtrapping yourself with lies based ongathered evidence, so you shouldn’teven find out if you’re really amediocre double bass player or not.

The problem with reality determiningwhat you visualize is totally assbackwards, as they say inChattanooga, where I was born andraised. YOUR HEAD SHOULDTELL YOUR HANDS WHAT THEYCAN DO, NOT YOUR HANDS

TELL YOUR HEAD WHAT IT ISALLOWED TO THINK ISPOSSIBLE.

By the time a double bass playercomes to me for an AlexanderTechnique session, they are usually inphysical trouble, and have played theway they play for years, neverquestioning their bass technique. So, ifa mediocre double bass player doesnot get into physical trouble, they maynever face the possibility that theirbeliefs about their ability on the basshas been determined by a limiting basstechnique. (Getting into physicaltrouble on the double bass could be a

blessing.)

So, sit down and close your eyes andvisualize yourself playing a doublebass piece you know better than Karror Hauta-Aho. Were you able to? Asan Alexander Technique teacher, Ihave to ask the question, did you seeyourself playing the bass amazinglybeautifully upright or hunkered down?Does it matter?

Yes it does. BECAUSE IF YOU AREGOING TO LET THE POSSIBILITYTHAT THERE IS AN INCREDIBLEPERFORMER HIDDEN IN YOUEMERGE, THEN WHEN YOU

VISUALIZE, YOU WILL WANT TOBRING ALL OF THE ELEMENTSTOGETHER THAT WILL MAKETHIS A REALITY.

This means you will have to beabsolutely clear about what you wantto hear, and absolutely clear aboutwhat is a double bass technique goodenough that will let your body becapable of doing what your mind canconceive of.

Double Bass – Does the Ends EverJustify the Means?

Is it ever worth it to play the doublebass doing WHATEVER IT TAKESto get a piece to where you want ittechnically, musically, andinterpretively? This is what manywonderful bass players do, so is it avalid thing to do? It may not be aloving thing, but is it a valid or goodthing? The better question may be, isdoing the unloving thing ever a lovingthing?

There are three reasons that I believethat it isn’t worth it for the ends to

override the means. The means issimply how conscious you are in thepresent as you play the double bass.From the Alexander Techniqueperspective, it is simply how goodyour posture is and how good yourtechnique is, determined by anexpansive balanced posture on thebass and a technique of minimalmovement and decompressed joints.And all of this comes together in away you can play all of the greatdouble bass literature without pain,strain, and injury, and with great ease.

Here are the three reasons that endsplaying isn’t worth it. First: If you are

physically doing damage with yourtechnique and posture, then you willpotentially end your ability to play thedouble bass your whole life. If yourposture and technique on the bass areextraordinarily Alexandrian, and youcarry this over into the rest of yourlife’s activities, you will play yourwhole life without physical damageand limitation and still play the doublebass wonderfully.

Second: If you focus 100% on whatyou want to come out of the doublebass, then you will leave no room for asound or interpretation that surprisesyou. This means that if you totally

focus on controlling what you play,rather than finding a way to make yourtechnique easier and easier by doingless and less work, then you arepotentially getting in the way of yourtechnique evolving into a more andmore effortless technique, that letsyour interpretation evolve in anextraordinary way you may not havethought possible.

All truly extraordinary performers arecontinuously evolving their conceptsof how to interpret their pieces. In fact,if you were to listen to differentrecordings of the same performer ofthe same piece 20 years apart, and

there were minimal differences in theperformances, you would say thedouble bass player has gotten stuck.

Third: I experienced the third effecttoday in my writing these posts on myblog. I was determined to get a certainamount of new posts done today, and Idid not allow myself to take a restbetween getting them all done (exceptthis one). The effect on me was veryunloving. I was so focused on gettingthe posts done, that I totally ignoredthe ache in my back, needing to go tothe bathroom, and my mood wasgetting more and more irritable(angry!).

This is how I use to practice theclassical guitar. I played a certainamount of hours no matter how sad orangry I got. I believe this third reasonis the most important of the threereasons that the ends never justifiesthe means. It is the one that pollutesthe other two reasons, and makesbeing an ends playing double bassplayer not worth it.

Let me explain. You can use theprinciples of the Alexander Techniqueto create a double bass technique thatdoesn’t sacrifice your body. You cancreate an interpretation a piece thatopens your heart. But if you don’t pay

attention to a mind that is screamingfor a break or wanting to go outsideand play, then you are sacrificingyourself for mastery (and your heartwon’t be able to stay open). Mastery isa very poor substitute for self-lovingbehavior, since mastery and listeningto your heart and head aren’t mutuallyexclusive.

Why Double Bass Players Continueto Use a Technique that Doesn’tWork

As an Alexander Technique teacher,there have been times when a doublebass player comes to me, and I showthem how to play better than ever andthey don’t continue. I’ve neveractually contacted a bass player whodidn’t come back after only onesession and asked him or her why theydidn’t come back, after they’ve had ataste of effortless performing.But I have taken a look at myself andmy beliefs and habits in general thatdon’t work, and I asked myself why

I’m still doing them. It seems to mefor every habit and belief we live bythere is more than one reason we holdonto them, even if they aren’t servingus anymore. I believe there is onemain reason why we continue to dowhat doesn’t work.

We continue to do what doesn’t work,because when we did what we did, webelieved in what we did and lived bywith such unconscious unquestioningconviction and commitment.

What does this mean? If a double bassplayer learns to play with a specifictechnique, no matter how poorly it has

served him or her, he or she hasprobably never ever questioned thistechnique. By time this inefficienttechnique fails him or her, it becomesa matter of loyalty.

What do I mean a matter of loyalty?There was a particular family belief Ihad lived by, and one day I realized itdid not serve me. In fact, this beliefwas a total betrayal of everything Inow believed, so shouldn’t it havebeen easy or obvious that I should letthis belief go? You would think so, butwhat I felt is that I SHOULD stillcontinue to live by it, because I havelived by it. In some weird way this

belief, that was a total betrayal of all Iknew was true now, still felt bizarrelyright or true.

This is what I think happens to doublebass players who are confronted by atechnique they have lived by that ishurting their bodies. They know thetechnique isn’t working, but it stillfeels right, because WHEN THEYLEARNED THE TECHNIQUETHEY BELIEVED IT WAS RIGHT,or why else would they havecommitted to this specific way ofperformance.

So, when a double bass player comes

to me for an Alexander Techniquesession, is there a way for me to makeit possible for him or her to makeradical technique changes that won’tscare him or her off? In the AlexanderTechnique we usually spend most of asession helping a student let go ofwhat doesn’t work technically ratherthan taking on the role of being amusic teacher. I now realize that Ihave to make it safe for this to happen.

This means I have to gently and kindlyand slowly enough guide a doublebass player into letting go of whatdoesn’t work, at a pace that it doesn’tfreak out his or her ego. I was so

driven as a concert guitarist, that Iwould do whatever it took to getbetter. But in retrospect, this was notdone lovingly. I wasn’t concerned forthe effect major radical techniquechanges had on me on the thing thatwas most important to me, soultimately I stopped playing.

I should never forget that the doublebass player in front of me in anAlexander Technique session is moreimportant than his or her instrument.

Double Bass – Artificial Limitationson Your Talent Is Not Humility

When you play the double bass foryourself and/or others as a gift, this ishumility. When you tell yourself whatyou can’t do on the bass, you aresetting up artificial limitations on yourpotential, and this isn’t loving or beinghumble.By the time a double bass player hasdecided what he or she can or can’t doon their instrument, it is a cumulativedecision made over the years. It’sreinforced by years of struggle on thebass – not being able to do what youwant or doing what you want with a

huge effort.

These artificial limits on your talentcan also be reinforced by double bassteachers who can only see what youdo, and may not see what you arecapable of.

I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU ALL OFYOUR POWER BACK BYTELLING YOU THAT YOUCREATED THIS. What do I mean?Unconsciously you told yourself whatyou couldn’t do on the double bass,and unconsciously you told your bassteachers what you couldn’t do. This isyour own power turned against

yourself, but it is perceived by you asyou being a victim of limited talent orbeing humble.

What if you flipped it over? What ifyou made a list of what you can’t doon the double bass, and you wentabout eliminating all of yourweaknesses, by focusing on what youcan’t do, one problem at a time. Thisis a loving way of letting go of yourbeliefs that have limited your potentialon the bass.

This is a fancy way of saying stay withthe means over the ends. What do Imean? Instead of placing your

awareness on what is or is not comingout of the double bass, you beginplacing all of your attention on lettinggo of what is in your way technicallyon the bass.

This is what the Alexander Techniqueteacher does. But I have carried this astep further in all of my ebooks. I lookat the basic overall posturalcomponents in playing an instrument,and then I carry this intotroubleshooting. This means I help theclient look at very specific thingsthey’re doing in their technique thatare not working, and make thechanges that get the artificial limits of

a flawed technique out of the way.

Ex: When you use excessive pressureto press the double bass strings down,then you are doing something thatcreates unnecessary strain. You shouldonly do the minimum necessary tohold the bass strings down, dependingon how loudly you are playing. Whenyou play the double bass always doingthe minimum to create a great sound,then you will realize you may beletting go of a half or more of the workyou’ve been doing to play the bass.

Make a list of all of your limitationson the double bass, and if you truly

look at the technique you acquiredaccidentally or were taught that hasn’tworked, you will find that there is aphysical solution to your artificiallimitations.

Then you can be truly humble bygiving the gift of a loving performancewith a loving double bass techniquethat lets you do everything you want ina beautiful composition.

Playing the Double Bass WhenYou’re Truly Ready – The UltimateAct of Love

I have rarely had double bass playerscome to me for an AlexanderTechnique session who performed forme, who waited until they were trulyready. They began to play instantly, orthey took a moment to bracethemselves and went for it. It isfascinating how unconsciously somany double bass players jump intoperforming.

This comes from years and years andhours and hours of practicing. So,

when an injured double bass playercomes to me they do what they’vealways done. As an AlexanderTechnique teacher it is my job to showthe bass player how to do what theymay have never done, which is to onlyplay when they’re ready with a lovingtechnique.

What does being ready mean? Itmeans that the double bass player onlyplays after they have waited longenough to let go of everything theydon’t want to do, so that they are ableto do what they want to do. Physically,it means they do a whole bodyinventory of releasing the postural and

technical habits they don’t want tobring to the performance.

Simply you don’t play the double bassuntil you are ready, even if it takesfive minutes of waiting before the firstnote is played. Psychologically, itmeans that you play when you’re notafraid. This can be a very very subtlething, because so many bass playersperform without being aware of theirstate of mind.

When you have the loving luxury ofnot playing the double bass until youare truly ready, then you are truly opento making the changes to your posture,

technique, and mind that force you tosacrifice or frighten yourself when youplay.

At this point you may say, “I’ll neverbe ready, if I wait until I’m ready”.How do you know, if no one has everwaited on you to be ready to play thedouble bass? The training so manymusicians go through is aboutdeferring to the teacher – playing rightaway for many teachers, rather thanwhen you’re ready.

This gets passed on from double bassteacher to student to teacher to studentetc. What I mean, is that since the

teacher was once the student, and if heor she was pressurized as they learnedthe bass, then the teacher may also beimpatient with him or herself, as wellas the student.

I believe the basis for so many doublebass players playing when they’re notready is the counting of the music –when the notes live in time at tempo.This is just a fancy way of saying thatthe bass player feels the pressure toplay at tempo, as strongly as he or shefeels she has to play the right notes atall costs.

So, the moment the double bass player

has committed to playing, it is as if aclock has started ticking, and theperformer better get to it.I want to say something at this point.I’m talking about changing therelationship of the double bass playerto the instrument, and I’m talkingabout doing it in a loving practicesituation. I’m not talking about beingon the stage after working out all ofthe bugs in the music.

So, as you learn a piece of music,whether only for yourself and/orperformance, give yourself theextraordinarily loving gift of learningwhere and when every note lives on

the double bass, withoutcompromising your technique or yourheart.

Double Bass – Conscious Control inthe Alexander Technique

CONSCIOUS CONTROL is what F.M. Alexander called regaining controlover the voluntary musculature of thebody. The voluntary musculature isdefined as the external musculaturethat you tell what to do with yourthoughts and intentions. What happensover time is that many double bassplayers’ ability to let go of pain andtension in specific areas of their bodiesis lost, and so they consistently hurt.

If a double bass player comes to meand says her neck and shoulders are

hurting, and I tell her to just releasethese muscles, she’ll look at me likeI’m crazy. The truth is she has lostconscious control over these muscles,and it seems to her there is no way toget them to release.

It is your ability to tell your body whatyou want, and your body respondswith exactly what you want, thatAlexander Technique teachers helpdouble bass players regain on the bass.The ideal body response from a lovingintention is a pain-free, elegant,athletic, and coordinated movement,that gives you the note you wanteffortlessly with the volume, rhythm,

and tone quality you choose.

What has to happen for all of theabove to happen? You have to beintimately connected to your body,and to accept that THE BODYALWAYS GIVES US WHAT WEBELIEVE ABOUT IT, not what wewant. Let me explain?

If you believe the volunteermusculature of the body does anythingindependently of your beliefs andthoughts, then you do not haveconscious control over it. Your beliefthat the body can do what it wants,will block you from being able to

release the habits that have gotten youin constant pain on the double bass.You will be unable to tell your handsand arms what you want to hear on thebass without forcing the body to listento you.

What I just said is critical! If youbelieve you regularly have to force thebody to listen to you when you playthe double bass, then you have giventhe body a mind of its own. But, theonly mind your body has is your mind.Let me explain.

I believe many double bass playersbelieve the body does things

independently of the bass player’sintentions, and that’s why they can’tdo everything they want on theinstrument. This isn’t true, but boy is itself-fulfilling. Again, the bodyresponds to what you believe about it,true or not true.When you believe something that isn’ttrue about the body, then what else canthe body do but fail you at times,maybe a lot of times. So, when yourbeliefs are conflicted, then you don’tget consistently amazing pain-freedouble bass performances. Having justsaid what I said, let me back track abit.

You can create consistently amazingbass performances if your technique isgood enough, and you will NOTtolerate your body not giving you whatyou want. This is not what I call aloving approach to double bassplaying.

What is loving? If you accept/believeyou have 100% control over yourvoluntary musculature, you have adouble bass technique that doesn’tharm your body, you have a fullyupright balanced posture, you trustyour body to give you exactly whatyou want, then you will haveconscious control over your bass

playing.

Double Bass – Very Slow to VeryFast Playing to Refine Technique

Is playing a double bass piece veryslowly, below tempo, a form ofmaking mistakes? This is what manybass players believe, and most doublebass players believe mistakes shouldbe avoided at all costs. I’ve found thatalmost all bass players believe that amistake made is a mistake learned.This is the central belief of doublebass players that makes for fear basedplaying. “Thou shalt avoid mistakes atall costs!”

I do not believe a mistake made, and

recognized as such as it is beingplayed is a wrong note learned, unlessthis is believed. What we believe, trueor not, is self-fulfilling. In other words,if you believe every mistake made islearned, you will make that samemistake over and over again to proveyou are right. Humans love to be right!

So, if you accept that a missed note onthe double bass recognized is not amistake learned, then slow practice isnot playing a whole piece wrong.

What is the physical differencebetween playing slowly and quickly? Iask a double bass player to play a two

octave scale and to do so very slowly,and to pay close attention to what theleft hand is doing. I ask her to reallyexperience her fingers and theirrelationship to each other, as she playsthe scale at a very slow tempo,ascending and descending nonstop. Asshe continues to play the scale, I askher to gradually pick up the tempo,continuing to pay close attention to herhand and fingers. I ask her to get fasterand faster until she is going as fast asshe can.

I then stop her, and ask her if she wasable to feel the place where “slow”playing became “fast” playing, and

what the difference is. When she saysno, then we do this a few more times,seeing if she can figure out thedifference between the two. So far, nodouble bass player has come up withthe answer on his or her own.Here is the answer. At a certain tempo,for the double bass player to continueto get faster and faster, the finger thatplays next must already be on its waydown to the neck. You cannot movefaster than your reflexes allow you tomove.

Ex: If you touch a hot plate accidently,you will pull your hand awayreflexively, but you cannot get off the

hot plate any faster than your reflexeswill allow you. Even if you touch itconsciously and attempt to get off itmore quickly, you still can’t make themuscles twitch any faster than theycan.

If you are playing a scale, and keepingyour fingers as close to the strings aspossible and articulating each finger100% independently, in other wordsyou do not move the next finger untilthe previous note has been played, youwill not be able to play at yourpotential tempo. You simply cannotwill your fingers to move faster thanyour reflexes can move them.

But, if the next playing finger isalready on the way down to the neck,then the double bass, not your fingerswill determine your ultimate speed.

If your double bass technique doesbreak down, then what are you doingwrong? You may discover yourtechnique has flaws in it that evenflowing fingers can’t solve, so youneed to troubleshoot your basstechnique by yourself, with a doublebass teacher, with an AlexanderTechnique teacher or all three. So,perform with love and an accuratesense of what it really takes tophysically play the bass, and who

knows how good you’ll become.

Double Bass – Playing Very Softly(Pianissimo) Effortlessly

Why is playing the double bassconsistently very softly through apassage difficult for many bassplayers? Is playing the double basspianissimo INHERENTLY difficult,and there is nothing you can do aboutit?

First, I’m going to describe whatdouble bass players do that makesplaying the bass very softly forsustained periods hard. Second, I’mgoing to describe the remedy, so thatplaying the double bass pianissimo for

long passages can be effortless. Itshould be effortless, shouldn’t it?

A prevalent belief among double bassplayers is that to play very softly, theyneed to KEEP themselves fromplaying too loudly. So, by definition, itis easier to play at a moderately loudvolume than it is to play very softly.IT TAKES ABOUT THE SAMEAMOUNT OF MUSCULARINVOLVEMENT TO PLAY THEBASS SOFTLY AS IT DOES TOPLAY IT LOUDLY.

Many double bass players are used toplaying moderately loud. So, why is

playing pianissimo harder than playingmezzo forte? Because, many bassplayers believe playing very softly isabout pulling back on the reins witheffort. They believe they have tomuscle the right arm to playpianissimo.Think about it. If you believe you haveto KEEP your right arm from playingthe double bass too loud, then you areusing muscle to keep yourself fromusing too much muscle. This is crazy.Is there a better solution? YES!

Why not use the least amount ofmuscle to play softer. You gainconscious control over the

musculature of your arm by usingminimally more muscle when you playmezzo forte. You do this by lovinglyordering your body to do the samework to play pianissimo, by notFORCING the shoulder musculatureto tense to support the bow lightly onthe strings to play pianissimo.

There are two reasons that playingpianissimo on the double bass playeris experienced as more work thanplaying at a mezzo forte. First, it doestake minimally more shoulder muscle,the deltoid, to support the bow lightlyon the strings. But as I said, this workis minimal, especially if you

visualize/experience the arm beingheld up for you with a free shoulder.

The second reason is the main reasonthat playing the double bass verysoftly is experienced as hard work.When it is your intention to play apassage consistently pianissimo, theninvariably many bass players tense theshoulder, arm, and hand to control thepianissimo. This tensing is doing twocontradictory things at the same time –immobilizing the arm and moving thearm to play softly. This is very hard onthe arm and shoulder.

The solution is to experience your arm

floating and to trust your intention toplay the passage effortlessly soft,using the least amount of arm andshoulder musculature. What I mean bytrusting your intention is this: If youhear the performance you want in yourhead and trust your body to produce itusing the least amount of muscle, thenyour body will give you what youwant with minimal work, when yourfaith in your intentions and your bodydemonstrates that getting what youwant out of the double bass is abouttrust, not tension.

One last point: What determines howsoftly you can play? Is it your

technique or the double bass? It is thebass. If you use the least amount ofmuscle, then it is the double bass thatwill determine how softly you canplay. Simply, at a certain point thebass will not produce a sound, with thebow’s lighter and lighter contact onthe strings, combined with the speedof the bow.

Double Bass – Asking the Impossibleof Your Body

The goal of the Alexander Techniqueis to help the double bass player createthe most effortless and balanced basstechnique and posture possible, so thatthe double bass player doesn’t have tostruggle to play the bass. This isn’talways easy, because many doublebass players bring misconceptions ofwhat they are doing physically whenthey play. In other words, the bassplayer thinks they are doing one thing,when they are doing another thing.

What does this mean? The double

bass, as with most instruments, has ahistory of the rules of playing that hasgotten passed from teacher to studentetc., over generations of teachers andstudents. What is taught isn’t alwaysan accurate representation of what isphysically happening on the bass.Here are a few of my correctedmisconceptions of movement in thebody. You can’t lock the knees, youlock the thigh muscles to lock theknees. When you rotate the forearm,turning the hands over up and down, itis the biceps that rotate the forearms.When you move your hand side toside in relationship to the forearm, it isfrom long muscles tied to the elbows.

When you move your fingers, it isfrom the forearms – the flexors and theextensors. When you support bentforearms, it is the brachialis, not thebiceps for the most part.

The last two are critical for the doublebass player, because when the bassplayer is aware that he or she movesthe left hand fingers from the forearm,this means that the double bass playercan create a conscious sense of easeand freedom in the hand and forearmas she or he plays. In other wordswhen you have a misconception ofhow the body does something, thenthat belief causes the body to move

with tension, because of the conflictbetween the believed lie and what isreally happening.

Another issue with double bassplayers is that they are not aware thereis no muscle in the forearms thatsupports the forearms. It is thebrachialis (half biceps) that supportsand moves the forearms. Because somany bass players have experiencedtension in their forearms for years,whether it is conscious orunconscious, they experience theforearms as holding up the forearms.This isn’t true, and it contributesgreatly to forearm pain, tension, and

injury.

Returning back to the first paragraphof this article, if you believe the bodydoes one thing, and it actually doesanother, then the conflict betweenyour misconceptions and what reallyhappens will contribute to pain, strain,and injury. So, when a double bassteacher tells a student something thatis not true about how the body works,then it seems to really cause physicalproblems. Because the student isstacking statements from authority toback up misconceptions of what he orshe is doing on the bass. This canreally lead to strain and injury. It may

take years, but many double bassplayers get in trouble eventually over acareer of teaching and/or performing.

It is an extraordinary feeling when youare made aware of what you are reallydoing on an instrument. Every time Iwas given accurate information froman Alexander Technique teacher onwhat balanced posture and accuratemovement in my guitar techniquewere, my classical guitar playingalways improved dramatically. It wastruly as if I took off blinders, andcould clearly see and experience howeasy and free playing the guitar couldbe.

Double Bass – Orders of Allowancein the Alexander Technique

I coined the phrase ORDERS OFALLOWANCE. It grew out of what F.M. Alexander, the founder of theAlexander Technique, simply calledORDERS. Orders are telling yourbody what you want it to do. If yousay out loud or in your thoughts, “Myneck is free, my head leading mylengthening spine upward, as I playthe bass”, and if you do this enoughtimes with faith, you will establish anew habit.Actually, as you’re about to play thedouble bass, all you need to say before

you play, and whenever you noticeyour neck has locked up as you’replaying is, “My neck is free, my headleading my lengthening spineupward”.

I expanded F. M. Alexander’s ordersto order(s) of allowance, because I feltthat order(s) of allowance was astatement that told your body whatyou wanted and allowed it to do on thedouble bass with kindness. The wordorders by itself connotes a demand,rather than a loving direction to dosomething.

In truth, we give our bodies orders all

of the time, from loving to harsh. Letme explain. Every time you move thearm or a finger on the double bass, youhave given orders of allowance to yourbody, if it is done with kind intentions.We live by orders to our bodies 24/7,but since they are sent so quickly, wedon’t usually register theinstantaneous intention and thought.

So, with the double bass leaningagainst you, and you bend your leftarm to play, the intention, thought, andlifting of the arm has come and goneso quickly, that your arm seems tobend itself.

When you stop and consciously givean order of allowance, you havechosen to do something few bassplayers do. Let me explain. You havetruly brought to full consciousness thefact that you are always telling yourbody what you want from it, but like Isaid, you usually do it so quickly, thatit seems to do itself.

In a sense it does do it to itself,because when you play the doublebass as you’ve always played it, thenwhenever you do something on thebass you’ve done thousands of times,you will do it the same way –consistently habitually good or

habitually bad.

The genius behind Alexander’s orderof allowance is to consciously tellyour body what you want, and thatwhat you order it to do consciously issomething new and healing for thebody. So, when you order your neck torelease before you play the doublebass, and as you repeat this order ofallowance as you’re playing, then youare doing something very new in yourbass technique.

You’re playing the double bass with afree neck, and this will, in a very shortperiod of time, become a new

established part of your bass technique(if you remember to give this order ofallowance).

Here’s why the concept of orders ofallowance can be challenging for somedouble bass players. When you thinkthe order of allowance, “My neck isfree”, you are asking for a change inyour body that is pretty invisible,except to an Alexander Techniqueteacher.

But, when you tell an arm to bend, it isvery clear that your thought has apowerful effect. YOU BEND YOURARM! When you order your neck to

release, you may not experience therelease the first 30 or 40 times yousend the order. But, what will happenis, if have faith in the process, you willbegin to experience the releases inyour neck as you continue to order itto be free, as you play the double bass.

Double Bass – Primary Control in theAlexander Technique

Primary Control is the basis oforganized coordinated double bassplaying in the Alexander Technique.When a bass player is playing thedouble bass with the most organizedelegant movement possible, then thehead is leading the bass player’s spineinto lengthening, as the arms andfingers move from a decompressed,vertically balanced, and aligned spine.

This means that all of the nerves thatradiate from the spinal cord have nopressure on them. So, the nerves can

send the signals from the brain formovement and/or muscular support, asyou play the double bass, withoutbeing slowed down by the vertebraeand muscles pinching the nerves.

The brain and spinal cord alwaysorganize the movement that the bodyproduces, but when the PrimaryControl is interfered with by musculartension and compression and poorposture, then that organization is poororganization. THE ALEXANDERTECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THEQUALITY OF A DOUBLE BASSPLAYER’S POSTURE ANDTECHNIQUE.

The Alexander Technique recognizesthat a huge amount of wear and tearand physical pain on the bass iscaused by how you play, not by whatyou play or how long you play.

The assumption in the AlexanderTechnique is that we are born with aninnate ability to move with beautifulPrimary Control, and that babies crawlwith the head leading a lengtheningspine naturally, given that the baby ishealthy in a healthy environment.

If you were to observe a 1,000 doublebass players playing, you’d be hardput to see one bass player playing with

beautiful Primary Control (given thatnone of them had done any AlexanderTechnique work). What does playingthe double bass without acompromised Primary Control looklike?

The double bass player sits or standsfully upright with a completely mobilebody (not trying to sit or standstraight). The bass player’s neck isfree and the player is aware that thehead is leading a lengthening spineupward, which means that the doublebass player is able to see his or herfingers and bow, as the head continuesto lead a lengthening spine upward.

This means that the double bass playeris completely engaged in playing thebass without being pulled downwardinto the instrument. This fully upwardmobile posture balancing on the sitbones or standing balanced on freelegs, gives the shoulders and arms ofthe bass player a balanced torso tofloat on, so that the performer caneffortlessly generate the tone, volume,and accuracy that he or she wantsfrom the instrument.When the double bass player’sshoulders are floating/supported by afully upright or pivoted torso from thehips, then the shoulder girdle is free toback up the arms and hands as the

bass player performs, and the shouldergirdle doesn’t have to tense up tosupport itself.

When the double bass player’s body isorganized by the Primary Control, thenthe performer is free to place all of hisor her awareness on a bass techniquethat isn’t being compromised by acompromised Primary Control. Inother words, if the double bassplayer’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spineorganization, then the pure specificdouble bass technique of the bassplayer can never be what it would be,since it is not backed up by a balanced

body.

WHEN THE FOUNDATION OFCOORDINATED ELEGANTHUMAN MOVEMENT ISCOMPROMISED, THEN THESECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF ASPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKEPLAYING THE DOUBLE BASS,WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESSOR AS CONSISTENT AS IT COULDBE.

Double Bass – Inhibition in theAlexander Technique

INHIBITION is one of the mostpowerful tools in the AlexanderTechnique. It gives the double bassplayer a tool to change any aspect ofhis bass technique and posture thatdoesn’t work with what works.Inhibition helps the double bass playeridentify what is interfering with thebass player creating the most userfriendly double bass technique andposture possible, and then to be able tochange what isn’t working.

INHIBITION ALLOWS THE

DOUBLE BASS PLAYER TO LETGO OF WHAT ISN’T WORKING,AND TO REPLACE IT WITHWHAT DOES WORK ON THEBASS.

Inhibition is what you do after you’veidentified what is not working in yourdouble bass technique. Let me explain.By the time a bass player hasdiscovered, after years of playing, thatthere are aspects of the double bassplayer’s technique and posture that areinterfering with the bass player’sability to play all of the music that thedouble bass player would like to play,these destructive habits are as central

to the bass player’s technique as theproductive ones are.

So, how do you throw out the bathwater, without throwing out the baby?You identify and list what iscompromising your double bassplaying, and you also make a secondlist of what it is that works in yourbass technique, and you only keep thegood list.

There are the typical big posturalproblems – slumped or over-archedposture, obvious tension throughoutthe body, from hands to legs. Thenthere are the much more subtle

problems, which may be a matter ofdegree. What I mean, is there may bepostural and technique things that youdo that are not obvious to anyone butan Alexander Technique teacher.

Ex: If right before the double bassplayer plays, he locks his neck, thenthis can be pretty invisible to mostpeople. If right before the bass playerplays, he slightly tilts the headbackwards, this can be almostundetectable. If every time there is adifficult passage, the double bassplayer holds his breath, this can bepretty invisible. If every time, in avery rhythmic piece, the bass player

pulls slightly downward, shorteninghis spine to feel the beat, this can be avery subtle habit that interferes withcoordination. This rhythmic hunkeringdown can compress the nerves thatoriginate at the spinal cord.

So, what is the act of inhibition orinhibiting? If right before you do whatyou have always done on the doublebass, just before you play, you stopand choose to do something new, thenyou have just inhibited what isn’tserving you.

Ex: Just as the double bass player isabout to play, he notices he is tilting

the head backward and pulling down.The bass player stops – doesn’t play.He now chooses not to tilt the headbackward, and right after that newchoice, he then plays.

What I have just described isinhibition or inhibiting a habit. It verysubtle and very powerful, because forthe first time, the double bass playerhas chosen not to initiate playing witha bad habit.

He has chosen to play withoutunconscious tension and compressionof the neck/spine. Bringing this intothe double bass player’s awareness is

moving bass playing away from beingsomething you fix, to being somethingwhere you are truly experiencing all ofyour subtle habits, good and bad, youhave played the double bass with.Now you have the tool, INHIBITION,that will allow you to perceive andchoose which habits you want to keepor release.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUEDOES TWO EXTRAORDINARYTHINGS. IT TRULY RAISES YOURAWARENESS OF WHAT YOU AREDOING ON THE DOUBLE BASSTO A LEVEL THAT SHOWS YOUHOW YOU COMPROMISE YOUR

TALENT, AND IT GIVES YOU THETOOLS TO STOP DOING THIS.

Double Bass – Finishing the Journeyof a Loving Radical TechniqueChange

When you find a double bass teacherwho wants to revamp all of your basstechnique, or at least a major part of it,and you know you have finally foundthe right teacher to give you what youneed, how do you deal with it? Do youfollow through and make the radicalchanges to your double basstechnique, or do you walk away? Ifyou don’t walk away, how do you goabout making these huge techniquechanges to your bass technique –letting go of a technique you’ve lived

with for years that is severelylimiting?

When I was 19-years-old I gotaccepted to the Royal College ofMusic in London, and the classicalguitar teacher there wanted to changeeverything about my right hand guitartechnique, and I knew it needed to bedone. I did it. Also, two years after Irevamped my right hand guitartechnique, I went to an AlexanderTechnique teacher in London to healcarpal tunnel syndrome in my leftwrist.

When I went to the Alexander

Technique teacher I had internalized aright hand technique that worked, but Ineeded an Alexander Techniqueteacher to create a left hand techniquethat worked. I also needed theAlexander Technique teacher to createa whole body posture that unified myguitar technique, because when I hadchanged my right hand technique, Ihad been incredibly hard on myself.

Looking back on what I went throughto finally create a classical guitartechnique that worked, I rememberhow hopeful I was at the time that Iwould finally have a guitar techniquethat would let me do what I wanted to

do on the guitar. But I was also indespair, because with every revelationfrom the guitar teacher and theAlexander Technique teacher, I washaving to throw out everything I hadlived by on the guitar.

As a double bass player who may bein the middle of being confronted by abass teacher and/or AlexanderTechnique teacher who can show youhow to let go of all of the artificiallimits on your double bass playing,how are you dealing with this?

You have the following choices: Walkaway. Make the changes in despair.

Make the changes in joy. Make thechanges resisting making the changes.Spend a minimal amount of time eachday, so that the revamping of yourdouble bass technique seems to go onforever. Spend tons of hours every daydetermined to make the changes asquickly as possible, no matter howhard it is on you physically andemotionally.

Here is the middle ground, or theloving way. First, accept that beingoffered a chance to solve all of yourlimiting technique problems on thedouble bass is a wondrous thing.Better late than never is truly an

incredible thing, but only if you’reready to accept the gift. Be gentle,though. You may have to mourn theold technique for a while.

It would also be loving to suspend allof your performing obligations whileyou revamp your double basstechnique. As long as you haveperformance obligations as you’rechanging so much about your bassplaying, you are pulling in oppositedirections, and blocking completingthe changes. (This may be what yourego is sneakily doing – blockingtransformation.)

When I was revamping my right handguitar technique, I wasn’t aware of theAlexander Technique. It is theAlexander Technique tied to majortechnique changes on the double bass,that will allow you to lovingly practiceas many hours as you want each dayto complete your journey to a basstechnique that sets you free.

What the Alexander Technique does isfocuses you on using your whole bodywith the most open expansive posture,as you let go of what didn’t work onthe double bass, and internalize whatdoes work.The other huge piece you have to

provide in this healing your doublebass technique process, is the faith thatthe new technique and posture willbecome so effortless, that it willquickly wash away years of whatdidn’t work. In other words, if you tellyourself it’s going to take forever toreplace the struggling old techniquewith the effortless new, then this is aparticularly harsh form of resistance todoing what is a truly loving gift foryourself.

THAT LOVING GIFT IS LETTINGYOURSELF ENJOY THE GIFT OFLEARNING TO PLAY THEDOUBLE BASS CONSCIOUSLY,

WHICH MEANS TAKING 100%CARE OF YOURSELF AS YOULEARN TO DO WHAT TRULYWORKS ON THE BASS.

Double Bass – Playing withEffortless Accuracy and ApplyingThis to Life

If you know which note you want toplay on the double bass, and you trustyour arm, hand, and finger to play it,YOU CAN’T MISS, and if you domiss, you won’t the next time. Ilearned to play this way on theclassical guitar. When I read this truthin New Pathways to Piano Techniqueby Luigi Bonpensiere and tested it, Iinstantaneously got it, and I realized Iwould never play the guitar the sameway again.

This way of playing the guitar made itpossible for me to play the guitarfearlessly, without fear of theinstrument and fear of myself gettingangry at myself for messing up. Thereis a corollary to this statement of trustin the book. If you miss a note,withdraw even more effort to get itright and trust your finger to play theright note even more the next time,you will hit the mark.

There are double bass players outthere playing with this kind of faith.My question is, as you can tell fromthe title of this article, are they livingtheir lives the same way? In other

words are they living moment tomoment away from the double bassfeeling like they can’t miss? I’m not sosure there are many enlightenedbeings/bass players running aroundout there.

This is my goal and has been for over30 years – to hit the mark in all things,if not the first time, the next time. Idon’t play the guitar anymore, but mystill vivid experience I have ofabsolute trust in my accuracy on theguitar placed me on a spiritual path inmy mid-twenties, and I have been onthe path ever sense.

It has been difficult at times, and nowI realize why I haven’t done in myeveryday life what I did on the guitar.I WOULD NOT LET MYSELF SEETHAT THERE IS NO DIFFERENCEBETWEEN I CAN’T MISS ON THEGUITAR, AND I CAN’T MISS INALL OF MY OTHERINTERACTIONS AND ACTIVITIES.

As I write this, it is obvious, but it hastaken this long for me realize my egohas kept me blind to the truth.

I believe this is what Zen in the Art ofArchery by Eugen Herrigel is about.Hitting the bull’s eye with the arrow is

guaranteed if you watch it happen.This is how I experienced incredibleaccuracy on the guitar. I watched ithappen, and the reason it happened, isbecause I let it be done by the holyme, not the human acquired me.

It is now clear why I didn’t continue topursue a concert career on theclassical guitar. My ego couldn’thandle the implications of playing theguitar with infinite faith and love. So,it has taken me over 30 years to acceptthat life can be lived trusting myselfnot to miss, and if I do miss, I applyeven more faith that I won’t miss thenext time or encounter, and I won’t.

What this means, is that if you trustyourself not to miss on the double bassand in your everyday life, then youcannot live by the rules of an ego. Anego has a pre-programmed reaction foranyone and every situation because ofyour past. This means you can neverreally count on yourself to do the holyloving thing in the present, becauseyou are still saving yourself based onthe past and not who or what is infront of you right now.

What if you accepted that you have nochoice, that you have to respondappropriately/lovingly all of the time.You have to trust yourself, BECAUSE

YOU ARE ALWAYS POISED TOHIT THE MARK – do the lovingthing.

So, play the double bass with absolutefaith in your ability to hit the mark,and live your life with absolute faith inyour inherent desire and ability to hitthe mark.

Double Bass – Opposition in theAlexander Technique

Opposition is an Alexander Techniqueconcept that is about the physicalrelationships within one’s body, andyour relationship to what you aredoing. It is a concept put into practicethat teaches you how not to collapseinto your body and how not to collapseinto what you’re doing.

Applied to the double bass, it meansyou don’t collapse into the bass as youplay the bass or pull the bass into yourbody. If you observe a 1,000 doublebass players, you will see most of

them not in a truly effortless posturalupright balance to the bass. They areusually collapsing downward to theinstrument and their hands, or archingaway from the double bass, even astheir heads are pulling toward theinstrument.

The internal aspect of oppositionmeans that as you collapse downwardto the double bass, it means you’rehead is closer to your hands and yourlegs, as you look down and pull yourhead down to see what you’re doing,which means you’re skeleton is not inopposition posturally and betweenyour joints.

The psychological component of thisis that you are trying to get your headcloser to what you’re doing, to getcontrol of your double bass playing.You unconsciously are attempting tobe more accurate by being very closeto what you are doing. It is actuallyphysicalizing fear posturally, becauseyou’re afraid of making a mistake.Most of us learned to do this when welearned to read and write in school,attempting to read or write well for agood grade, with our heads two inchesaway from the book or paper. Youalso learned to do this when you werea beginner on the double bass,attempting to get it right.

WHEN YOU ALLOW YOURSELFTO STAND OR SIT FULLYUPRIGHT WITH THE DOUBLEBASS WITH BALANCEDPOSTURE AND YOUR HEADRELEASING UPWARD, YOU AREIN CONTROL OF YOUR BODY,TECHNIQUE, AND SELF, ANDYOU WILL ULTIMATELY BE INGREATER CONTROL OF THEBASS.

Opposition is an extraordinaryconcept, that when put into practice,allows you to use your body againstthe double bass in such a balanced

way, that you are able to do the leastamount of work necessary to play thebass with effortless coordination.

Being in opposition to the double bassis also a physicalizing of how youwant your relationship to be to thebass. What I mean, is if you arepulling downward and into the doublebass, then you are not conscious in themoment of how you are using yourbody. In other words, your desire toplay the bass well is shaping yourposture and your technique, and youare not in control.

When you consciously choose your

posture and your technique and remainconscious of how you want to be inrelationship to the double bass, thenyou are choosing also how you wantto feel about the bass. This means asyou stand or sit fully upright with thedouble bass, aware of your head, neck,and torso balanced upward andflowing upward instead of into thebass, and you send your hands andarms to the bass instead of pulling thebass into your body, then you aren’tplaying with tunnel vision.

Tunnel vision leads to tunnel posture,which means as you play the doublebass without opposition, your

technique and posture is being forcedon you, because you are trying to getthe music right. Rather than youchoosing to stand or sit up andbalanced and watching it unfold in themoment, you are using excess tensionand poor posture to try as hard as youcan to play well.

IT IS AN AMAZING FEELINGWHEN YOU PLAY THE DOUBLEBASS MAKING ALL OF THEPOSTURAL AND TECHNIQUEDECISIONS, RATHER THAN THEBASS AND MUSIC FORCING YOUTO SACRIFICE YOUR BODY,BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN

TRYING TO GET WHAT YOUWANT OUT OF THE BASS ATANY COST.

Double Bass – Troubleshooting withthe Alexander Technique

Troubleshooting is the bridge betweenposture and technique I’ve created inmy work with double bass players. I’man Alexander Technique teacher and aformer concert guitarist. One of myformer Alexander Technique teachersgave me the tools to apply all of theprinciples of Alexander Techniquegreat posture to my guitar playing, andshe also gave me the tools to expandthe Alexander Technique principles ofgood postural use to guitar technique.This is what I’ve done in my ebook ondouble bass playing. I go into extreme

detail in this ebook on how to use yourwhole body on the bass for the mostposturally mechanically advantageousbody use. I also go into detailedspecifics of double bass technique.

You can teach a double bass player tohave beautiful posture on the bass, butwhat if the double bass player’stechnique isn’t serving the bassplayer? There are two major reasonsfor this.

The first is the double bass player’stechnique is flawed, completely orpartially. In other words, the bassplayer is asking his arms and hands to

do things that really can’t be done.The second major problem is withhow the double bass player isapproaching his technique – thetechnique is perfectly ok, but the bassplayer’s approach to it is veryinefficient.

This latter is closer to traditionalAlexander Technique thinking. Itsimply means you are doing the rightthing the wrong way. The mostobvious example of this is using toomuch muscle to get the job done. So,the double bass player sits or standswith pretty good upright posture, butuses too much muscle to sit or stand

upright and causes pain, strain,tension, and compression in the wholebody. He looks good and feels bad,and this limits how well he plays.

When this happens in the specificdouble bass technique of how the bassplayer uses his fingers, then if thedouble bass player is always poisedwith tension in his hands and fingersto play, then no matter how externallygood his technique looks to everyoneelse, he is compromising his handsand is probably on his way to arthritis.

Now, the first problem – the doublebass player’s technique isn’t the best

choice. This can only be solved if thebass player is ready to become hisown teacher, his own master. What doI mean?

THE MOMENT THE DOUBLEBASS PLAYER PUTSEVERYTHING, WITHOUTEXCEPTION, THAT HE OR SHEHAS EVER LEARNED ABOUTPLAYING THE INSTRUMENT UPFOR SCRUTINY, THE BASSPLAYER IS TRULY READY TO BEHIS OR HER OWN MASTER. ATTHIS POINT THE DOUBLE BASSPLAYER ISN’T A BASS STUDENTANYMORE AND IS NOW

CONTRIBUTING TO THE DOUBLEBASS WORLD.

When I started questioning everythingI had ever learned about guitartechnique, it was the most freeingthing I had ever experienced as aclassical guitarist. It was an amazingfeeling to take total control of myguitar technique. I revamped nearlymy whole technique.

WHEN YOU REPLACE WHATDOESN’T WORK, AND WILLNEVER ALLOW YOU TO BE THEDOUBLE BASS PLAYER YOUCOULD BE, WITH WHAT WORKS,

THEN YOU ARE FREE TO HAVEFUN ON THE BASS.One final point – when you replacewhat hasn’t been working for you onthe double bass with what works, theinternalizing of the new technique canbe very fast. When you experiencehow effortless the new way can be,then you can very quickly let go of theold way. The old way only takes along time to change, if you resist thenew way by holding onto to the falsesecurity of what never completelyworked.

Double Bass – Renewing the Thoughtin the Alexander Technique

Double Bass players repeatedly telltheir bodies what they want from theirbodies when they play the bass, butthis is usually done subconsciously. Itfeels like, to the double bass player,that the body is doing technique andposture by itself. In other words, thetechnique and posture that the doublebass player has established, maybe along time ago, just do themselves.

THE TECHNIQUE AND POSTUREA DOUBLE BASS PLAYERPRACTICES AND PERFORMS

WITH DO NOT DO THEMSELVES.They are informed by the beliefs thatthe double bass player plays the basswith, and these beliefs/thoughtsconstantly determine what your bodydoes. So, for many fine double bassplayers, the only thing that is stillconscious in their playing is how theyinterpret the piece.

But what if you realize that there aresome things that you would like tochange about your posture ortechnique on the double bass? Otherthan saying to yourself stand or sit upstraight or place the hand in a newposition and force yourself to

remember to do the changes you wantto make to your bass playing, there isa specific tool that the AlexanderTechnique offers.

It is RENEWING THE THOUGHT,and renewing the thought is based ongiving ORDERS OF ALLOWANCEto your body. Orders of allowance areconscious orders given to the bodytelling the body what you want it to doon the double bass. So, when you aremaking a postural or technique changeon the bass, you are bringing to fullconsciousness what needs to be doneto improve how you play the doublebass.

Ex: An example of a postural changeis that you realize your neck iscollapsed and locked when you play.So the order of allowance you give toyour body just before you play thedouble bass is, “My neck is free andmy head is leading a lengthening neckand spine upward”. An example of abass technique change to a tight bowarm shoulder is, “My shoulder is freeas it supports and moves the bow”.And you order/let your body makethese changes.

Notice, in both cases you’re tellingyour body what you want with veryclear orders or directions. The

question is, is saying this once toyourself as you begin your double basspractice session enough? No. That iswhere the tool of RENEWING THETHOUGHT comes in. Let me explain.

As you have probably experienced inyour past on the double bass, whenyou were making changes to your basstechnique or posture, that you wouldmake the changes, and then realizeafter 30 minutes of practice you hadforgotten about the changes. You hadreverted back to your old techniqueand/or posture.

What did you do? I don’t know what

you did, but I got angry and redoubledmy effort to make sure I did the newchanges no matter how mean I was tomyself. I eventually got to the point inmy classical guitar playing that thenew technique or posture were part ofmy established new way of playing theguitar. But what a painful emotionaland physical price I paid to make thesechanges.

The loving act of renewing the thoughtis the kindest way to establish changesin your double bass technique orposture. It is the quickest way toreplace the old with the new. So, asyou practice to establish a new

technique or posture in your bassplaying, and you realize you forgot thechanges, then repeat the order ofallowance. This is renewing thethought and letting your body makethe improvements to your double basstechnique or posture. Very quicklyyou will internalize and kindlyhabituate the new way.

How often do you renew the thought?You repeat it gently every time youbecome aware, as you practice thedouble bass, that you “forgot” to dothe new technique or posture. Thistruly places you in charge of how youwant to play the bass, and it does it

very consciously and very kindly.

Double Bass – Directing (Direction)in the Alexander Technique

When you play the double bass withthe head flowing upward, this is calledDIRECTION or DIRECTING in theAlexander Technique. Directingmeans that there is an upward flow,upward direction, an upward vector inthe bass player’s body. This meansthat the double bass player is orderingthe head to lead the spine upward, sothat all of the disks and vertebrae aredecompressed, so the bass player canhave superb posture and techniqueorganization.

This is a central principle of theAlexander Technique – the body isorganized in vectors, directing, and notin held positions. Directing is the headLEADING the spine into lengthening.This is not an alignment to be held.Think about it. When you play thedouble bass you are in constantmotion, so trying for a specificplacement/position of any part of thebody is asking the impossible of yourbody.

You can look good holding a specificposture and holding a specific doublebass technique, but you will eventuallyfeel bad, because you have

immobilized part or all of your body,as you simultaneously move to playthe bass. You have asked theimpossible of your body, which meansyou have put yourself/body in adouble bind. When you attempt tomove your body and immobilize it atthe same time, the result is pain, strain,compression, and injury.

The Alexander Technique isextraordinary at asking the body to doTHE POSSIBLE. It does thisincredibly well, because the AlexanderTechnique uses a belief system andvocabulary that is very accurate. WhatI mean, is that what we teach double

bass players is very clear and verypossible and very kind to the body.

When you are directing on the doublebass, there as a very light, powerful,and dynamic spine being led intolengthening upward, as you send yourfingers into the bass and hold the bow.Directing is bringing to fullconsciousness what the healthy happybaby does, but usually loses once inschool and possibly on the doublebass.

So many double bass players havelearned that the goal of fine bassplaying may override taking care of

your body, and, “that’s just the way itis”. This does not have to happen ifyou play the double bass directing,you trust your hands to be accurate,and you don’t do anything in your basstechnique that will eventually causeharm to the body.

Implicit in directing is that you aretaking care of your body as you playthe double bass. To make directing anintegral part of your bass technique,you have to practice the double bass asyou direct. This means that you treatdirecting the same as your fingers,hands, and arms. (I’m assuming thatyou treat your fingers, hands, and arms

with love and patience, and that is howyou will approach reclaimingdirecting.)

Remember you naturally directedwhen you were a crawling baby, sowhen you organize your body on thedouble bass with direction, you arereclaiming your birthright.

Double Bass – Grounding in theAlexander Technique

Alexander Technique is focused verymuch on the double bass playerfinding UP in her body. UP means thatthere is an upward flow, upwarddirection, an upward vector in the bassplayer’s body. This means that thedouble bass player is ordering the headto lead the spine upward, so that all ofthe disks and vertebrae aredecompressed, so the double bassplayer can have superb posture andtechnique organization.

Since many double bass players are

pulling downward in their bodies, thenit is primarily the AlexanderTechnique teacher’s job to help thesedownward pulling bass playersorganize their bodies with an upwardflow. But there is an equal andopposite and just as importantcomponent to the organization of thebody in the Alexander Technique.

It is called GROUNDING, not down.GROUNDING is the bodyreleasing/lengthening in oppositedirections muscularly, so that the bodyis fully expanded in all directions. Thereason for this is twofold.

When a double bass player isgrounded, then the bass player isfeeling the full support of the chair andthe floor, feet fully on the ground. Orthe double bass player is feeling thefull support of the legs and feet as thebass player stands.The second reason for grounding is thedownward flow in the legs from thehip joints downward, creates space inthe hip joints, knees, and ankles.

When there isn’t a down flow in abody with a head leading the spineinto lengthening on the double bass, itmeans that the bass player is playingwith bunched up muscles, especially

in the thighs. The effect of the lockedup thigh muscles on the body of thedouble bass player, is to pull the legsup into the pelvis/torso.

Physically and energetically it is as ifyou are trying to pull yourself up offof the chair and/or your feet off of thefloor, and this means you are playingthe double bass without a base. Whatdo I mean?

So many double bass players are onlyaware of their arms and hands, but donot have an awareness that theshoulders float on and are supportedby the torso. The torso is supported by

the pelvis, and the pelvis is supportedby the legs. Even sitting, it is themusculature of the upper legs –quadriceps, biceps femoris, and psoas,that helps balance the torso upright onthe chair.

When this lower body musculature isat ease, releasing to the chair and thefloor or the feet in standing, then youare supported from the ground up, butthere is another very very importantAlexander Technique principle here atwork. When you play the double bassit should be with the least amount ofmuscular work, a balanced body withgreat posture, and with a high dynamic

(high energy).

When you sit or stand for hoursplaying the double bass withunnecessary tension in your legs, thenyou are doing totally unnecessarywork in your body as you play thebass. Since, in the AlexanderTechnique, we view technique as whatthe whole body does when you playthe double bass, then locked legs arecompromising your bass technique.This excess tension is exhausting youand keeping you from experiencingyourself as supported from the groundup. Simply, you are not grounded.

One final point, whatever you do inyour body, no matter how not directlyconnected to the specific technique ofthe double bass, it will have an effecton the tone, accuracy, and effortnecessary for you to play, for good orbad.

Double Bass – Sensing When You’reHurting Yourself

HOW DO YOU KNOW THATYOU’RE NOT DOING ANYTHINGPHYSICALLY HARMFUL INYOUR DOUBLE BASSTECHNIQUE AND POSTURE? Thisquestion seems like it would be veryeasy to answer, even if it isn’t alwayseasy for you to create a double basstechnique/posture that is benign. Oneanswer is, when you are hurting as youplay the bass, you are doing somethingwrong when you play the double bass.But what if you aren’t hurting, andyou’re doing something wrong in your

double bass technique that willeventually get you in physical trouble.How do you know if this ishappening?

There are two signs that hint at futurephysical problems. First, you can’tplay the most difficult music writtenfor the double bass that is worthplaying, without a struggle, so youcan’t count on your hands to make itthrough the most difficult sections ofthese pieces on the bass. Second, youare physically exhausted on a dailybasis after practicing. Maybe a betterword for exhausted is that yourpractice wearies you and your body.

If you are a double bass player whohas played for a very long time, andthe above two things are happening inyour bass playing on a regular basis,and you don’t have any consistentaches or pains on the double bass, thenyou probably have not paid anyattention to your struggle andweariness on the bass.

In fact they may have been with youfor such a long time, that you neverever questioned whether strugglingwith the major double bass literatureand being exhausted by it wasinevitable.

STRUGGLING WITH AND BEINGWEARIED BY THE MAJORLITERATURE OF THE DOUBLEBASS IS NOT INEVITABLE. IT ISHOW YOU LEARNED TO PLAYTHE BASS. IT ISN’T THE NATUREOF THE INSTRUMENT TO HURTYOU WITH ITS BESTCOMPOSITIONS.

So, you have two choices here. Youcan hold it together doing what you’vealways done, and you may never getinto physical trouble. Do you reallynever ever want to explore whetheryou have what it takes to play thegreat literature of the double bass with

great ease and joy and be ecstatic atthe end of a practice session?

Or do you want to preemptively take avery close look at your double basstechnique and posture, and discoverwhether the bass’s best music isavailable to you?

Having said what I just said, let meback up a bit. Most double bassplayers do not question their techniqueand find their way to an AlexanderTechnique teacher, until they get intophysical trouble. I can understand it.Many bass players do not want to backup to almost being a beginner again,

even for a short period, to solvetechnique problems they never knewexisted or shouldn’t exist. What do Imean by “shouldn’t exist”?

I mean that after years of training withteachers you believed in, it can be veryscary to accept that there may be amuch better way to play the doublebass. Is confronting this fear worth it?The better question is, are you worthmaking the changes to how you playthe bass, so that you can create theperformance you want on the doublebass, without struggle and angst?

Yes! But be aware that if live by the

motto, “no strain, no gain”, then youcan’t continue to live by this belief, ifyou pursue the holy grail of effortlessdouble bass playing you deserve.Double Bass – Making TechniqueChanges AND Letting Go of WhatIsn’t Working

There is a very profound thing that theAlexander Technique does for doublebass players. It simultaneously teachesthe bass player how to do somethingnew and let go of something old at thesame time. The more I delve into this,the more unique and profound I realizeit is. Let me explain.

IF YOU DON’T LET GO WHATISN’T WORKING IN YOURDOUBLE BASS TECHNIQUE, ASYOU LEARN SOMETHING NEWIN YOUR BASS TECHNIQUE,THEN YOU WILL COMPROMISETHE CHANGES YOU MAKE ANDKEEP THE NEW FROM WORKING.

I see this as physical, psychological,and spiritual. There is spiritual bookcalled A Course in Miracles. The mostfamous saying that many people knowfrom A Course in Miracles is, “Love isletting go of fear”.

As a double bass player, love is letting

go of what is compromising your basstechnique, which means letting go ofwhat is creating physical limitations inyour double bass playing.

How do you know if you’re doingsomething changeable on the doublebass, or if you have built in limitationsto your playing? Let me restate this.How WILL you know if much of whatappears to be in your way in your basstechnique is inherent or learned, if youdon’t attempt to let it go?

Ex: Play a two octave scale on thedouble bass, at a moderately fasttempo. Now play it with the most

tension possible in your fingers,hands, forearms, and shoulders, at amoderately fast tempo. Now play itwith the least amount of tensionpossible in your fingers, hands,forearms, and shoulders, at amoderately fast tempo.

Repeat the above as many times youwish, noticing the effects of theincreased and lowered tension on yourplaying the double bass. Question:Were you able to consciously raiseand lower the tension level in yourfingers, hands, forearms, andshoulders?

Congratulations! You’ve just had yourfirst Alexander Technique lesson. Youjust discovered you have consciouscontrol over what is fairly invisible tomany double bass players, but is oneof the main culprits in making youthink you have limited talent on thebass.

So, let’s say you go to a wonderfuldouble bass teacher who makes veryvisible changes to your posture andtechnique on the bass, and all of thesechanges are valid. Will they work?

THE BEST TECHNIQUE CHANGESTO YOUR DOUBLE BASS

TECHNIQUE WILL NOT WORK, IFTHE “INVISIBLE” OLD HABITSTHAT COMPROMISED YOURPLAYING IN THE FIRST PLACEARE NOT CONSCIOUSLYRELEASED, INHIBITED, AS THEYSAY IN THE ALEXANDERTECHNIQUE.

Here’s a word of encouragement. Ifyou go to an Alexander Techniqueteacher, and he or she makes bigchanges to your posture andunderlying habits on the double bass,then you have been limiting your owntalent in a big way, so you are notlacking in what it takes to be a fine

player.

Double Bass – Do Less and LessWork

When I was an aspiring concertguitarist at the Royal College of Musicin London, I developed carpal tunnelsyndrome. I went to an AlexanderTechnique teacher, and realized for thefirst time that I was ruining my leftwrist, because I was pressing thestrings incredibly hard to create thecleanest guitar playing possible. I alsohad poor posture.

If I had continued to do what I wasdoing to create clean playing on theguitar, I would have permanently

damaged my wrist. So, what is theAlexander Technique solution for adouble bass player who plays with toomuch tension, potentially causingphysical problems?

PLAY THE DOUBLE BASS WITHFULLY UPRIGHT BALANCEDFLOWING POSTURE, AND DOTHE LEAST AMOUNT OFPHYSICAL WORK TO GET THEJOB DONE WITH THE HIGHESTDYNAMIC (ENERGY). YOU CANALWAYS DO LESS THAN YOU’REDOING ON THE BASS TO CREATETHE PERFORMANCE YOU WANT.What do I mean?

First, if you have poor posture on thedouble bass, your body HAS to domore muscular work to hold you up onthe bass, because your whole body isoff balance. Simply, when you playthe double bass with a misalignedposture, your musculature has tocompensate for your skeleton stackingup poorly, and you CAN’T do theleast amount of work possible as yousit or stand.

Second, if you play the double basswith excess tension, then your wholebody is working too hard to create anaccurate performance, and you can’tdo the least amount work necessary to

create the physically most effortlessperformance. You are playing the basswith fear – trying to avoid mistakes,rather than trusting your hands.

What does it mean to play the doublebass doing less work? It is about whatyour whole body is doing as you playthe bass. It is about you starting apractice session consciously askingyour whole body to do less and lesswork, as you play a scale. When youdo this, then playing a scale is not anunconscious ritual you do at thebeginning of your practice sessiondaily.

As you play the scale on the doublebass, do a very slow internal inventoryof what is happening in your wholebody. This means that you observeand ask your thighs to do less work asyou play. You observe and ask yourneck to release as you play. Youobserve and ask your hands to do lessas you play. You observe and ask yourshoulders to float on your torso as youplay.

This places your warm up on thedouble bass in the service of you beingin loving conscious control of yourwhole body, and doing less daily iscumulative. This means that every day

on the bass, if you monitor and releasethe amount of work you are doingfrom head to toe, you will continue todo less and less muscular work.You will do less and less work on thedouble bass to create a superiorperformance. The psychological andspiritual implications are profound. Inother words, as you do less and lesswork to create the bass performanceyou want, you will begin to experienceplaying the double bass as somethingthat does itself truly effortlessly.

Double Bass – Focus withoutTension

If I was to give a traditional definitionof FOCUS when playing the doublebass, I’d say that focus is ALL of yourattention on playing the piece exactlylike you want it to sound frombeginning to end, with no mistakesand no memory slips.

What I just described is what theAlexander Technique would call end-gaining. End-gaining is performing onthe double bass with all of yourattention placed on getting to the endof a piece as flawlessly and musically

as possible, no matter the physical oremotional price.

So, when I see a double bass playerperforming this way, there are somevery consistent things I see being donephysically. The bass player’s head isusually pulled down to the doublebass, as the bass player tries toguarantee accuracy and no memoryslips by focusing like a laser. There istension in the whole body, as thedouble bass player holds it together.The bass player’s brow is usuallyfurrowed, concentrating on playingwell.

What if we flip this over, and have thedouble bass player perform with themeans-whereby. When the bass playerperforms with the means-whereby,then the double bass player is playingwith his or her focus on a fully openand upright posture and easethroughout the whole body, as theperformer trusts the body to realize thebass player’s intentions.

This is performing in the means andnot focusing on the ends. The result isa double bass performance withoutexcess physical tension and poorposture – in other words, notsacrificing his or her body for the

result.

The question is, does the double bassplayer who plays this way create justas wonderful of a performance as abass player who sits or stands with thedetermination to play great no matterwhat? Yes!, and even better, once thedouble bass player is willing to let goof a lifetime of playing for the bestresults, no matter the cost.

This is a very powerful and at timesemotional thing for a double bassplayer to go through. After years ofplacing all of your focus, energy,practice time, and performances on

trying to guarantee the best possibleplaying, and then to place your focuson how easy you can make the bass,by taking 100% care of your body, thiscan be a very big jolt to your psyche.But, you’re worth it!

Back to my question: Will you playbetter from the means instead of theends? Yes!, because you will actuallyend up with an evolving technique andevolving performances that keepgetting better and better and better.How?Because, if every time you sit or standto warm up, you focus on how uprightand balanced your posture on the

double bass can be, and how muchless muscular work you can do to sitor stand fully at ease on the bass, thenyou’re really in the moment withoutstraining your body.

If, as you warm up, you let go oftension in your arms, hands, fingers,and your brow, as you watch yourbody do less and less work to create amore effortless and more accurateperformance, this is an amazing gift toyourself.

IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOURFOCUS IS ON HOW LITTLE YOUCAN DO TO CREATE THE MOST

POWERFUL AND DYNAMICPERFORMANCE, THEN YOUTRULY FLIP THE DOUBLE BASSPLAYER’S TRADITIONALDEFINITION OF FOCUS ON ITSHEAD. FOCUS BECOMES AN ACTOF RELEASE, NOT AN ACT OFHOLDING IT TOGETHER.

Double Bass – Recovery from Painand Strain

What is the most loving way torecover from pain and/or strain on thedouble bass? In writing this post, I’massuming you’ve done nothing to yourhands, arms, or body that requiressurgery. There is no actual physicaldamage, but your musculature ismaking comfortable playing difficult.

Because of this pain and strain, do youstop playing the double bass until youcan return to the instrument pain-free?Or do you use the bass to heal yourbody, as your own form of

rehabilitative therapy? I vote for usingthe double bass to rehab your body.

IF YOU HAVE CAUSED PAIN ANDSTRAIN TO YOUR BODY ON THEDOUBLE BASS, THEN YOU AREDOING SOMETHING WRONG INYOUR TECHNIQUE AND/ORPOSTURE AS YOU PLAY. YOU DONOT HAVE TO EVENTUALLYHAVE PAIN AND STRAIN ON THEBASS, BECAUSE THIS IS A GIVENGUARANTEED OCCURRENCEWHEN YOU PLAY THE MOSTDIFFICULT LITERATUREWRITTEN FOR THEINSTRUMENT.

So, how do you use the double bass toheal your body? Before I answer thisquestion, I want to say that using thebass as the primary therapy to healyourself is uniquely Alexandrian. It isa principle central to the AlexanderTechnique.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUETEACHER SEES MOST PAIN ANDSTRAIN ON THE DOUBLE BASSAS CAUSED BYMISCONCEPTIONS ABOUTTECHNIQUE AND POSTURE.WHICH MEANS, OVER TIME YOUWILL EVENTUALLY CAUSEYOURSELF TO GET INTO

PHYSICAL TROUBLE, IF YOUARE SOLELY FOCUSED ONWHAT COMES OUT OF THEBASS, RATHER THAN HOWEFFICIENTLY ANDEFFORTLESSLY YOU CAN PLAY.

Now, how do you use the double bassto heal your body? You do what I didwhen I got carpal tunnel syndrome onthe classical guitar. I used the guitar asan activity to find the mostmechanically advantageous postureand the most mechanicallyadvantageous technique, as I sat andpracticed for hours.Everything I had ever been taught or

learned from guitar teachers andacquired by default on posture andtechnique on the guitar wasquestioned. I tested everything I wasdoing on the guitar, and if it didn’t feelbalanced and powerful in my wholebody when I was doing it, then Ireplaced what I was doing.

Let’s apply this to double basstechnique and posture. As you sit orstand with the bass, could you sit orstand the way you’re sitting orstanding and play for an hour withoutpain and strain and aches? If not,you’re doing something wrong. Canyou play and breathe effortlessly

nonstop in everything you play? If not,you’re doing something wrong. Canyou play effortlessly and powerfullyequally with both arms? If not, you’redoing something wrong.

Let me explain this “you’re doingsomething wrong” statement. It isn’t astatement of blame, of saying you’vechosen to consciously do bad thingson the double bass. It is a statementthat says because you are getting intotrouble physically on the bass, it istime to take control of everything youdo on the double bass. Let the bass beat least the one place in your lifewhere you don’t feel off balance, don’t

strain to play well, and don’t haveaches and pains.

If you are incredibly perceptive, youcan do much of what I suggest alone,but it is amazing gift to yourself tohave the feedback of an AlexanderTechnique teacher, who can easily andobjectively help you find a posture anddouble bass technique that is loyal toYOUR body.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUETEACHER NEVER LET’S WHATSHOULD WORK GET IN THEWAY OF WHAT WORKS.

Double Bass – Your Body’sLanguage and Posture inPerformance

When a double bass player isperforming, one of the major ways thatthe bass player conveys what he or sheis feeling to the audience is throughhis or her posture and body language.As an Alexander Technique teacherand former concert guitarist, do I thinkthat there is a negative way to showthe audience how much you love whatyou’re doing? Yes.

What is the positive and negativeeffect on the double bass player and

the audience of showing the audiencewhat the bass player is feeling,through the performer’s body’smovements and postures?

Here’s the negative side. If you createa hunkered down posture to convey tothe audience that you really reallywant to play incredibly well, thatyou’re trying like mad to do so, thenyou’re paying a physical price as youperform. What do I mean?

If you are trying very hard to performwell, then by definition you are usingtoo much effort and muscle to get thejob done. (We have a saying in the

Alexander Technique – DON’T TRY,DO!) It is fairly obvious when thedouble bass player hunkers down andloses the support of the torso and/orlegs for the shoulder girdle, becausethe bass player now has to tense neck,back, shoulder muscles, and legs tocompensate for the body slumpingforward.This also sends excess tension into thehands and arms, as the hands and armsdon’t have a fully supported shouldergirdle and/or legs backing them up,because the shoulder girdle isn’tfloating on the torso and ribcage.

SIMPLY, WHEN THE DOUBLE

BASS PLAYER CREATES ANEXPRESSIVE POSTURE TOCONVEY HOW MUCH THE BASSPLAYER LOVES WHAT HE ORSHE IS DOING AND HOW WELLTHEY WANT TO DO IT, ANDTHEY USE POOR HUNKEREDDOWN POSTURE TO CREATETHIS, THE BASS PLAYERCOMPROMISES HIS OR HERTECHNIQUE.

Here is the positive side of showingthe audience what you’re feeling. Inother words, what does a whole bodyexpressive double bass posture looklike that doesn’t make you pay a

physical price, and lets you convey tothe audience your love of music?

YOUR HEAD, NECK, AND SPINEARE RELEASED ANDLENGTHENING, AS YOUR ARMSRELEASE OUT OF SHOULDERSFLOATING ON A SUPPORTIVETORSO BALANCING ON THE SITBONES, WHETHER YOU’RESTANDING OR SITTING. SO, YOUSWAY FORWARD, SIDEWAYS,AND BACKWARDS WITHINCREDIBLE FREEDOM, WITHYOUR HEAD LEADING ACONTINUOUSLY LENGTHENING,FLEXIBLE, AND DECOMPRESSED

SPINE UPWARD OFF OF THE SITBONES, OR FREE LEGS IFYOU’RE STANDING.

IN OTHER WORDS, YOU CONVEYYOUR LOVE OF THE DOUBLEBASS AND ITS MUSIC BY HOWEXPRESSIVELY FREE YOURBODY CAN BE, AS YOUSIMULTANEOUSLY LET YOURTORSO BE AT ITS FULL HEIGHT,WIDTH, AND DEPTH. YOU GETTO TAKE UP A WHOLE LOT OFSPACE, RATHER THAN BEHUNKERED DOWN IN A TIGHTBALL, WHICH IS INCREDIBLYHARD ON THE BODY.

When your body is telling theaudience you love the music, andyou’re simultaneously not sacrificingyour body and compromising yourtechnique, then the audience gets to beas at ease in their seats as you are onthe double bass. The audience willunconsciously (or consciously) pickup on your expansive, expressive, andhigh energy posture and movements,and they will sit and listen wide openwith high energy and lengtheningspines and free necks.

Double Bass – Effortless PoorTechnique

When you’ve played the double bassfor a long time, then the way you playthe bass does itself. This means thateven if parts of your double basstechnique make playing the bassunnecessarily hard, the way you playthe double bass is still doing itselfeffortlessly.

I’ve always been fascinated by howeffortlessly double bass players dosome of the things they do, when someof these things are hard work. So, poortechnique is both effortless and hard,

interfering with the bass player’sfreedom to play the most difficultdouble bass music with ease.When an internalized poor techniqueis effortless, it can make it difficult tochange, even when a double bassplayer discovers a better way to play.Why do many bass players resistchange for the better?

ONE OF THE WAYS OUR MINDSCAN BLOCK A CHANGE FOR THEBETTER, IS TO TELL US THAT ITIS TOO HARD TO MAKETECHNIQUE CHANGES AFTERYEARS OF DOING WHAT THEDOUBLE BASS PLAYER HAS

DONE. IF THESE KINDS OFTHOUGHTS ARE GOING ON INYOUR HEAD, THEY CAN BESELF-FULFILLING, MAKINGCHANGES TO YOUR TECHNIQUEDIFFICULT.

But what if you tell yourself thatmaking changes to the parts of yourdouble bass technique that are makingyou pay a physical price can be easyand quick, then you’ve opened thedoor to effortless great technique.

WHEN YOU ACCEPT THATMAKING CHANGES TO YOURDOUBLE BASS TECHNIQUE CAN

BE EASY, WHEN YOU HAVEBELIEVED THAT CHANGES AREHARD YOUR WHOLE PLAYINGLIFE, YOU’VE OPENEDYOURSELF TO BEING A GOODLEARNER. What is a good learner?

A GOOD LEARNER is a double bassplayer who finds great joy in makingchanges to his or her bass technique,because it is fun to make the doublebass easier and easier to play. Thismeans you may have to revisit howyou were taught the bass as a child.

If your double bass teacher and otherscreated a pressurized experience, then

this means you were always beingpushed by the teacher, others, andyourself to play better and better. Theresult is that gaining control of yourbass technique needed to be done asquickly as possible, no matter thephysical and emotional costs.

IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN YOUCOULDN’T DO SOMETHING ONTHE DOUBLE BASS, THEEXPERIENCE OF LEARNINGSOMETHING NEW WASN’T TO BESAVORED, IT WAS TO BEGOTTEN THROUGH AS QUICKLYAS POSSIBLE.

So, here you are now, and you want tomake changes to some of your doublebass technique. You’ve got a couple ofchoices. You can come to the bass asthe child you were, and strain and rushto make the changes as quickly aspossible. Or you can come to thedouble bass with faith that you canlearn easily and enjoy this joyous timeof technique transformation, betweenwhat you have always done and whatyou will be able to do guaranteed.

So, is it possible to psychologicallyflip what you’ve always believed, thatlearning is hard, to learning is easy?LEARNING IS EASY! BUT YOU’LL

NEED TO FORGIVE YOURDOUBLE BASS TEACHER ANDYOURSELF AND WHOEVER ELSEPRESSURIZED YOUR LEARNING,IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KEEPGETTING EVERYONE BACK, BYNOT LETTING YOURSELF BE ASGOOD AS YOU CAN BE ON THEBASS.

Double Bass – How Your Body CanCompromise Your Technique

WHEN YOUR POSTURE IS NOTAS GOOD AS YOUR DOUBLEBASS TECHNIQUE, THEN YOUCANNOT PLAY AS WELL AS YOUCOULD WITH A POSTURE ASGOOD AS YOUR BASSTECHNIQUE.

Here is a very simple explanation forthis. By definition, poor posture takesa whole lot more muscle to maintainthan balanced posture. Balancedposture in the Alexander Techniquemeans that you have such a gentle

balanced posture going on in yourbody as you play the double bass, thatsitting or standing fully upright is veryclose to effortless.

When a double bass player with poorposture goes to an AlexanderTechnique teacher who makes gentleradical changes to how the bass playersits or stands with the double bass,why does it feel like a whole lot morework to sit or stand at ease with thebass?

A double bass player’s posture withthe bass is usually a long termdevolution of the body getting in

shape to handle poor posture. Whatdoes this mean? It means that overtime, if your posture with the doublebass becomes poorer and poorer, thenyour musculature handles theseusually gradual changes, as youbecome more and more off balance, byusing too much muscle and youbecome more and more immobile.

Think about it. If, as you age and/ortry to play the double bass better andbetter, you hunker down and collapseyour torso and tense your legs moreand more, you are actually doing moreand more muscular work to play thebass. So, as you get older and usually

weaker, you are working harder toplay the double bass, when you shouldbe evolving a technique and postureover the years, that makes playing thebass more and more effortless to sit orstand with and play.

If your posture is degrading over theyears on the double bass, and you aretensing more and more as you gofurther and further off balance, thenyour technique is going to suffer. Youcannot keep the tension of your wholebody’s poor posture out of yourshoulders, arms, and hands.

There is another side to this issue of

posture compromising your doublebass technique. YOU CAN BE INGOOD POSTURAL ALIGNMENT,BUT IF YOU ARE USING MOREMUSCLE THAN IS NECESSARYTO HAVE GOOD POSTURE ONTHE BASS, YOU WILL STILLCOMPROMISE YOUR DOUBLEBASS TECHNIQUE. This is core tohow the Alexander Technique workswith bass players.

Simply, if you are doingUNNECESSARY work in any part ofyour body as you play the double bass,you will have a negative effect on yourbass technique. This means the tension

level will rise in your shoulders, arms,and hands.

What if you created a balanced posturethat evolved using less and lessmuscle on the double bass over theyears? What if there was constant flowin your body on the bass? What if yourwhole body embodied effortlessdouble bass technique? What if youplayed the bass as if you were gettingyounger and younger every year?

Double Bass – Getting in PlayingShape

GETTING IN SHAPE ON THEDOUBLE BASS IS THE ENDS NOTTHE MEANS. What do I mean?

IF YOU FOCUS ON HOW YOUPLAY WHAT YOU’RE PLAYINGON THE DOUBLE BASS, RATHERTHAN ON TRYING TO ACQUIREGREATER STAMINA, THEN YOUWILL NOT COMPROMISE THEQUALITY OF YOUR PLAYING,AND YOU WILL END UP INSHAPE ANYWAY. What do I meanyou will end up in shape anyway?

If you put in the practice time, youwill get in shape. That’s a given. But ifyou raise the level of tension in yourbody in an attempt to build up yourstamina on the double bass, you willcompromise your technique.

In fact you will change your techniquein a negative way, if you spend hoursand hours of practice time with theintention of getting in playing shapeby hunkering down and trying harderand harder to build your stamina onthe double bass.

Getting in shape on the double bassand learning a difficult piece can

create similar circumstances for thebass player. What do I mean? If youare focused on getting in shape orgetting the piece learned, then youmay not be paying attention to thequality of your technique as you play.It’s like a runner who wants to get tothe end of his run, no matter howpoorly he runs.

When you focus only on the quality ofyour technique as you practice scales,arpeggios, chords, and/or difficultpieces on the double bass to increaseyour stamina on the bass, then you aredoing two loving things. You’regetting in shape and you’re reinforcing

the valid technique that you’ve chosenfor the double bass. In the southernpart of the United States where I’mfrom, we call this a twofer (two forone).

When you get in shape on the doublebass not compromising yourtechnique, you are really givingyourself an amazing gift. It meanswhen you play for long periods and/orplay difficult pieces, that you cancount on your technique not todegrade. This means that you haveestablished a powerful habit of placingyourself first, so you don’t just hunkerdown and do whatever it takes to get

to the end of a piece or concert.

Making music is not an athletic event,where winning may be enough.Making music is about offering a giftto yourself and the listeners, andsacrificing your body is unnecessary.

IF YOU ARE SACRIFICING YOURBODY NEEDLESSLY TOPERFORM, THEN YOU WILL NOTBE OFFERING YOURSELF ANDTHE LISTENERS THE SAMEQUALITY GIFT PHYSICALLY,PSYCHOLOGICALLY,EMOTIONALLY, ANDSPIRITUALLY, THAT YOU

WOULD BE OFFERING IF YOUTOOK CARE OF YOURSELFMOMENT TO MOMENT ON THEDOUBLE BASS.What I just wrote is core to how Iteach the Alexander Technique, andhow I write about the AlexanderTechnique in my ebook on the doublebass.

Double Bass – Integrating NewTechnique and Posture

To INTEGRATE changes to yourdouble bass technique and posture isto MAKE THE CHANGES RIGHT.You stop resisting the changes to yourposture and technique that you knoware valid, and you accept that they arebetter. In other words, you stopMAKING THE CHANGES WRONGand you let yourself learn easily.

The reason that incorporating changesto your double bass posture andtechnique can seem to take forever, isyou are unconsciously resisting them.

On the surface you really see howvalid the changes are, butunconsciously they are a threat to whoyou are on the bass, because of whatyou’ve always done.

Integrating these changes is mucheasier than suppressing them. A majorreason for suppressing them, isbecause they challenge what you’vealways believed is good double basstechnique and posture. And thestronger your identification with whatyou’ve always done on the bass, themore resistance to the new, and theslower you integrate.

MAKING SOMETHING WRONG ishow double bass players block what isin their best interests. When youintegrate something, you aren’t doingsomething, you are letting go of themassive work it takes to resist what isnew and true.

In other words you cease to make thechanges wrong, rather than work atmaking them right. You have to workat making these changes right, ifunconsciously you are making thedesired changes to your technique andposture wrong. This is thepsychological equivalent of nondoing.

In the Alexander Technique non-doingis to do the physically minimumnecessary to play the double bass. Itmeans you have created a posture andtechnique that allows you to play thebass as effortlessly as you can. Whenyou truly non-do, it feels as if playingaccurately is effortless.

SO, WHEN YOU INTEGRATECHANGES INTO YOUR DOUBLEBASS TECHNIQUE AND POSTURETHAT MAKE THE BASS MUCHEASIER TO PLAY, YOU HAVE TOLET GO OF RESISTING WHAT ISRIGHT. THIS IS A STATE OFBEING; IT IS NOT WORKING TO

DO SOMETHING ELSE.

You can’t integrate changes that areloving to your technique and postureon the double bass, as long as youaren’t experiencing how much workyou do to maintain a technique andposture that makes playing the basshard work.

This sounds obvious, but it is amazinghow sneakily a double bass player’sego can make it impossible for thebass player to realize how much hardwork the double bass player is puttingin to do what he or she always done onthe bass. In other words, the double

bass player is unconsciously blockinghim or herself from being able to sensehow hard their inefficient technique orposture is. Or, if the bass player’stechnique and posture is good, howmuch unnecessary muscular effort thedouble bass player is making.

So, let the loving new changes to yourdouble bass technique and posture beright, and they’ll quickly become aneffortless part of your playing.

Double Bass – Clearly Stating theObscured Obvious

IS THE OBVIOUS STATED EVERTOO OBVIOUS? What do I mean? IfI point out to a double bass playersomething they are doing technicallyand/or posturally, am I ever telling thebass player something that is soobvious that it doesn’t need to bestated? No! Never! Nyet! Why?

Because what is so incredibly obviousto me as an Alexander Techniqueteacher and possibly other double bassplayers – that what the player is doingtechnically and posturally is blocking

the bass player’s ability to play his orher effortless best, and this is NOTusually obvious to the performer.

There is a psychological equivalent tothis. We can usually see what theother person is doing that is not good.But the person rarely can see how heor she is harming themselves withtheir habitual behaviors and words.

So, over time as a double bass playerworks with me to make technique andpostural changes that have beencompromising the bass player’s abilityto play his or her best, I point outEVERYTHING I observe in the

double bass player as he or she plays,whether I suggest they change it ornot. Why do I do this?

THE MORE CONSCIOUS ADOUBLE BASS PLAYER ISABOUT HIS OR HER POSTUREAND TECHNIQUE ON THE BASS,THE MORE LIKELY OVER TIMETHE DOUBLE BASS PLAYERWILL NOT CREATE POORPLAYING HABITS.

The perfect analogy is general humanposture. The main reason most peoplelook old as they age, is because all oftheir unconscious poor postural habits

become more pronounced over time.So, many, if not most people, end upslumped over and shuffling as theyage.

To me the best and most famousexample of not being consciousenough was Fred Astaire. When hewas young, he had what wasconsidered by Alexander Techniqueteachers to be the most amazingpostural use when he danced or actedin his movies. When he got old he lostthis incredible postural good use.Why? I don’t believe he wasconscious of exactly what it was hedid posturally that made him such an

exceptional dancer.I don’t mean he didn’t know how goodhe was. I believe he didn’t consciouslyknow how he organized his wholebody to move better than any otherdancer in the world, so he lost what hehad as he aged.

What are the effects on a double bassplayer’s technique and posture whenan Alexander Technique teacherbrings everything the bass player isdoing to consciousness? IT MEANSTHE DOUBLE BASS PLAYER ISGIVEN THE ABILITY TO CHOOSEEVERYTHING THE BASS PLAYERDOES ON THE BASS

TECHNICALLY ANDPOSTURALLY; TO CHOOSE THEMOST EFFORTLESS POSTUREAND TECHNIQUE, AND TO BEABLE TO SUSTAIN OVER ALIFETIME THE MOSTEFFORTLESS TECHNIQUE ANDPOSTURE EFFORTLESSLY.

I know this is a mouth full, but youcannot underestimate what knowingwhat you do on the double bassconsciously can mean to a lifetime ofbass playing. It means you have thetools and the awareness to do the leastamount of work to sustain thetechnique and posture you have fully

consciously chosen to use on thedouble bass.

It also means that because you are socompletely aware of what you do fromhead to toe on the double bass andhow you do what you do, that youhave a complete set of tools totroubleshoot what you’re doing wrong,if you ever get in trouble on the bass.THE LIKELIHOOD OF YOUGETTING INTO TROUBLE GOESDOWN DRAMATICALLY WHENYOU ARE AWARE OF THEOBVIOUS.

Double Bass – Thinking about theBass

When you think about the double bassaway from the bass, what do you feel?Do you feel you can’t wait to play? Doyou fear whether you’ll play wellwhen you practice or have aperformance? Do you usually assumeyou’ll play wonderfully whenever youthink of playing the double bass?

When I was still pursuing a concertcareer on the classical guitar andsimultaneously working out emotionalproblems, I discovered New Pathwaysto Piano Technique by Luigi

Bonpensiere, and I applied whatBonpensiere said to my guitar playing.

Bonpensiere said if you know whatyou want to play and trust your handsto play it, you can’t miss if you playwith total abandon. I did this and Iexperienced the faith of the prodigy onthe guitar from that point on.

I was able to trust my hands to playaccurately effortlessly. I went frompracticing the guitar trying not to makea mistake to expecting myself not tomiss. And I didn’t, and when I didmiss I expected myself not to miss thenext time, and I didn’t.

As long as I was actually playing theguitar and withdrawing all effort to getthe right notes, I experienced thisextraordinary faith creating incredibleaccuracy on the guitar. But there was aproblem that showed up away fromthe guitar.Away from the guitar I would havethese intense feelings of self-doubt,when I thought about playing theguitar. Even though I had experiencedsupreme accuracy on the instrument afew hours before, I began scaringmyself in my thoughts feeling Icouldn’t count on myself to play witheffortless precision.

And I mean really feeling scared that Icouldn’t replicate what I had done onthe guitar again. You need tounderstand that when I was playingthe guitar with faith and trust andgetting out of the way of my hands,even when I missed, I had stoppedattacking myself for making mistakes.

This was so profound, because in avery short time I went from beingafraid of an instrument that I had alove/hate relationship with for 15years, to I can’t wait to play. So, theseincredibly painful doubts aboutwhether I’d have to go back to beatingmyself up whenever I made a mistake

were overwhelming.

What did I do? I realized how cruel Iwas being to myself with these doubtsand overwhelming fears. Then I saidto myself, “I have no choice, if I trustmy hands, I can’t miss. Trusting myhands/self is the only choice I havethat is loving”. It was the “I have nochoice” part that flipped me out of myfear and doubts. It took away myinsane choice to keep frighteningmyself, whenever I thought about notbeing able to do what I wanted on theguitar.

This has to become the same for you

on the double bass. Imagine neverplaying the bass again afraid ofmaking mistakes, because you knowyou don’t have to make the samemistake the next time. And you won’thave to avoid the bass ever again.

I have a section in my double basstechnique ebook that addressesplaying with effortless accuracy indetail.

Double Bass – Sensing What IsHappening

If a double bass player can’t sensewhat is interfering with the bassplayer’s ability to do what he or shewants on the double bass, then insteadof the bass player assuming there issomething wrong with the player’sposture and/or technique, the doublebass player may come to one of twoconclusions. THE DOUBLE BASSPLAYER DOESN’T UNDERSTANDWHY HE OR SHE CAN’T DOWHAT HE OR SHE WANTS, ORTHE BASS PLAYER’S BODY ISFLAWED AND DOESN’T HAVE

WHAT IT TAKES.

When you can’t sense whether you arecausing a problem in your body on thedouble bass, do you assume youaren’t? If you assume you’re a victimof circumstances, then you’re tossingout cause and effect. THERE ISALWAYS CAUSE AND EFFECT,EVEN IF WE CAN’T SENSE THECAUSE.

Here’s a perfect example. If you havealways played the double bass with aspecific level of tension in your hands,arms, and body, and that tension iscausing wear and tear and limiting

your ability to play what you want toplay, and you can’t sense you’re doingthis, because you’ve done it all of yourlife, what do you do?

This is a very crucial point in timehere. What I mean is this is a pointbetween sensing you are causing yourpostural and technique problems onthe double bass, since you aren’t sureyou’re causing your problems, andfinally accepting you are, and findinga way to feel what you’ve been doingto your body on the bass for years.

It is such a weird experience to bringto consciousness what is your norm.

I’m doing this right now in myemotional life. I am struggling torealize and ACCEPT that I have beendefending myself from the world forso long, that this is me doingsomething that doesn’t serve me. WhatI mean, is I believe I create 100% ofeverything in my life, and since thereare still unloving occurrences in mylife, then I have to be doing somethingto cause them.

That something is me constantlyprotecting myself. There is Lesson 135in the book ‘A Course in Miracles’, “IfI defend myself I am attacked”. Ibelieve this, but until now, I kept

blinding myself to the fact that I wasdefending myself 24/7.

When you finally realize that yournorm on the double bass is damagingyour body, or at the very leastcompromising your ability to playwhat you want to play, then you havethe ability to choose whether tocontinue to do what you’ve done orchoose to do what works.

It is a double bass player’s inability tosense what he or she has been doing tohis or herself on the bass that allowsthe double bass player to separatecause and effect. I believe it is our

inability to sense what we do toourselves in so many areas, fromsports to psychological and emotionalhabits, that keep us from realizing thatwe have the power to stop causingourselves grief and be in lovingcontrol of our whole existence.

Double Bass – The Tools to Be theMaster

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALLOWEDYOURSELF TO PERSONALIZEYOUR POSTURE, TECHNIQUE,AND INTERPRETATION ON THEDOUBLE BASS, THEN YOU ARESTILL THE STUDENT, WHETHERYOU’RE FIFTEEN OR FIFTY.

You have a choice here. I believe thatsome double bass teachers and someAlexander Technique teachers do notfully consciously teach bass players tobe their own arbiter of what they dotechnically, posturally, and musically.

THIS DOESN’T MATTER, IF YOURECOGNIZE IT.

What do I mean? If you are workingwith a wonderful double bass teacherand/or a wonderful AlexanderTechnique teacher, it is up to you totake what they teach you and be ableto be your own teacher and solve yourown postural, technique, and musicalproblems. In other words, be your ownteacher away from these mentors andeven with these mentors.This means that as you work withthese teachers, you want to startmaking your own decisions as to whatworks, once you’re able to generalize

the wisdom of your double bass andAlexander Technique teachers ontothe bass. This will allow you to leavethem and not feel lost, continuing toonly mimic your teachers.

It isn’t that you shouldn’t use theseteachers as resources once you’re onyour own. But once you’re on yourown, if you can’t troubleshootsolutions to technique, posture, andinterpretation, then you are still thestudent of the master, even if youaren’t working regularly with yourmasters anymore.

I had a pianist as an Alexander

Technique student, who said thatwhenever she ran into a problem onthe piano, she would ask herself whatwould I say, if she was in anAlexander Technique session with me.I asked her what she meant.

She said that the solution she wasseeking was a combination of usingthe Alexander Technique principles ofgood technique and body use I taughther, moving me out of the way, andthen finding her personal solution thatwas 100% loyal to what she wantedfrom the instrument.

This is how you become the master.

YOU GO TO THE DOUBLE BASSTEACHER AND/OR ALEXANDERTECHNIQUE TEACHERTRUSTING YOURSELF. So manymusic students go to bass teachers orAlexander Technique teachers feelingthat they don’t have the ability todiscern what is best for themselves.

What I mean is that the double bassstudent has always had a bass teachertell them what to do, so he or she mayhave never considered that they wouldrather do in technique or interpretationradically different than the teacher.

There is a fine line between trust and

rebellion. SIMPLY, IF YOUCHOOSE A TECHNIQUE,POSTURE, ANDINTERPRETATION ON THEDOUBLE BASS THATPHYSICALLY MAKES THE BASSEASY TO PLAY AND OPENSYOUR HEART AND OTHERS’HEARTS IN PERFORMANCE,THEN YOU ARE MAKINGLOVING DECISIONS, AND YOUARE YOUR OWN MASTER.

If what you choose is either constantdismissing of what you were taught,and/or gets you in trouble in yourtechnique, posture, and lowers your

life energy, then you are in rebellion.Rebellion is NOT being your ownmaster. It is you still being only thestudent, because all you are doing onthe double bass is in reaction toteachers who aren’t even in your lifeanymore.

Anonymous. A Course in Miracles.Bonpensiere, Luigi. New Pathways toPiano Technique. Diamond, Dr. John.The Life Energy in Music, Volumes 1-3.

BIOGRAPHY

Ethan Kind, formerly Charles Stein,trained as an Alexander Techniqueteacher at the American Center for theAlexander Technique in New York. Heis also a former concert guitarist andhas been an athlete all of his life. Mr.Kind’s writing (as Charles Stein andEthan Kind) has been published in theUnited States, Great Britain andAustralia. He lives in Albuquerque,NM and can be reached atwww.ethankind.com.