Yeah Yeah, I just loosely quoted Barney Fife.
If you have read any of my recent blogs you might have seen me mention my own struggles with fixing some bad habits. It's a process and it actually improves a bit each day! It got me thinking, though, about how easy it is to miss things in our playing as well as the playing of our students even when we try to be really observant....even when we watch closely.
HERE'S THE DILEMMA-
Ok, so.....anyone with any experience in any skill driven field knows that the best way to master anything involves tons of work on fundamentals. That's an easy answer, right? Sure, sort of...except when pounding there are basic set up issues; even minute ones, even ones almost impossible to catch. So, back to that dilemma.
Pounding fundamentals with issues in the set up only reinforces those issues! The player learns to make it work doing the wrong things....and it's really common!
The human body is amazing like that. Most of the time, if we ask it to perform a task, we can make it work to a certain point. Take farmers, for example. I doubt many have ever taken a course on proper lifting technique and yet there they are, as they have for centuries, slinging heavy bales of hay and equipment around....because it needs to be done and they just make the body do it.
The same thing holds true in saxophone or any other musical instrument. You can have 'hitches' in your technique and still make things work to a point. At some point, though, two things are likely to happen 1: You are going to hit the proverbial wall in your skill development and/or 2: You are going to develop some sort of overuse injury. Neither are very fun. Both, however, can be dealt with.
Ok, so how to deal with this before it becomes an issue.....(and I don't claim to have all, or even many, of the answers here).
The issue, colleagues, is twofold. 1: There is stuff we cannot always see and 2; You see your students (or yourself) playing enough from day to day, week to week, that you are going to inadvertently overlook things that aren't completely in your face. Here's a good non-music related example. I was diagnosed with A.D.D. when I was 21. It took them 21 years to figure out that I had the disorder. My mother, a well trained and highly regarded Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Clinical Social Work, didn't notice for 21 years that I had A.D.D. She's really good at her job, folks. Do you know why she didn't notice? It's because she saw me every day. Had I not been her son and she encountered me it might have stuck out more to her. Even then, because I don't have the hyperactivity component of the disorder, it would have been harder to see.
So, solutions- 1: Communicate with your students constantly through the lesson. Watch their hand position. Watch their embouchure. Watch their posture. Listen to any 'hitches' in their technique. Are they voicing some areas in an unusual way or are they over-voicing (In an effort to emulate my heroes I'm guilty of that)? Talk to them. Get feedback from them on anything that might feel weird. When they're practicing have them video themselves but have them do some where the camera is focused on their hands or their embouchure. Ask colleagues to watch the videos and see if they catch anything. In your own playing do the same. Don't do what I did and just think "Ok if I just keep working on technique these issues will work themselves out.". Often technical shortcomings are more than simply a lack of time in the practice room. They are a symptom of the bigger issue.
I would LOVE to hear thoughts on this, folks. It's my goal to not only be the best player I can possibly be but also a very fine teacher. This blog is simply one vehicle to help me down that path. Please comment. I'd love to hear any ideas!
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