Thanks for that Denys. I too follow AT with interest, though I have no local practitioner to work with. I was fortunate to have a class with Jacob Heringman at an LSA seminar, a couple summers ago. It was a great experience. Interestingly, I asked him about chronic pain and he indicated that he'd never really had much.
I agree that Alexander Technique and other approaches (stretching, yoga, Tai Chi, etc.) are all wonderful and useful techniques that can help avoid problems, and perhaps even resolve minor ones. With specific lute-related issues, there are obviously lots of "good use" practices and techniques that make sense. I wish very much that my violin instructors had been aware of such things when I was young (the chin rest and shoulder pad are tools of the Devil!) Unfortunately, for some of us, the muscular issues are too deeply set for "good posture" and "good use" to reverse. In my case, yoga, stretching, and exercise (all of which I practiced for some time) actually made matters worse for me. I later learned that conventional stretching of a muscle with trigger points often has this effect as you tend to stretch the muscle around the trigger point rather than targeting the actual problem. Now that I have made some progress with the Trigger Point Therapy, I find it ever so much easier to achieve the good posture and good use that AT drives toward. Put simply, with relaxed musculature, these things come much more naturally. In other words, I see these approaches as highly complementary. Some people may well be fine with AT... some of us need to resolve deeper issues to get to a place where AT can keep us out of trouble. In principal, Trigger Point Therapy goes right to the issue, performing "micro-stretching" right where the problem is, namely at the point where the chronic muscular contraction is taking place. Its not a matter of "breaking up" the contraction as much as getting the muscle to eventually release its tension on its own terms. Both Trigger Point Therapy and AT drive at muscular awareness... clearly the path to health... and maybe even a little lute playing... Best, Eric ps - I'd love an electronic copy of your article! On May 4, 2006, at 12:11 PM, Denys Stephens wrote: > Dear All, > Long term readers of the list will have seen my > past mailings on lute playing and the Alexander Technique > so I will make this one short. > > For many of us engaging in physical activities like playing > the lute can inadvertently involve excess muscle tension > and poor posture - both of these can lead to chronic muscle > pains and other symptoms like headaches and numbness in > parts of the body. I know - I have been there. There are many > techniques and therapies that can reduce pain and muscle tension, > and I feel sure that many of them are helpful. However, Alexander > Technique is the only one that I know of that enables a person to > consciously reinstate a balanced natural use of the body. > Alexander's discoveries are fundamental to the process - essentially, > our bodies are often not doing what we think they are doing, and > we cannot force them to relax or adopt good posture by simply trying > to make it happen. > > It would take far too much space to provide the full story here, so > for anyone that's interested there is a transcript of an excellent > talk by Jacob Heringman on the Alexander Technique and the lute > in the Lute Society's magazine 'Lute News' number 73 April 2005. > Jacob, as far as I am aware, is the only high profile lute player > to also be qualified as a teacher of the Technique. I think there > is also information on the Technique on his website at > http://www.heringman.com/. > > There is also my own article 'An easie gracefulnesse - lute playing > and > the Alexander Technique' in 'Lute News' Number 59 September 2001. > I am happy to send anyone that's interested an electronic copy of > that. > > I share Jacob's view that when used to the greatest advantage by > musicians > the Alexander Technique not only eliminates the negative effects > of excess > tension and poor posture but can open the door to higher standards of > performance. > > Best wishes, > > Denys > <snip> To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
