I Changed My Embouchure; Now I Can't Play Anymore

Golfers are warned never to change their swing.

And Musicians are cautious changing their embouchure –  the way you pass air into any wind instrument depends on more than your lips, breath and instrument.

Any Professional that relies on skilful movements to accomplish their technique understands the difficulty in readjusting a skill set that began at an early age through the instruction and intuitive mimicking of others.

There are many sad stories of professionals who tried to change their technique and ended up worse than when they started. 

Why is this?

It's because – in the analysis of their skill set – most Professionals are blind to the influence of their head/spinal relationship on the performance of breathing and coordinating hand and leg movements. How much thought goes into balancing your head on your spine as you are performing any skill?

I'd wager very little, if at all. Am I right?

Alexander's discovered that something - incredibly delicate and almost unseen – that precedes all arm/finger, leg and breathing movements: the movement of the head on spine, and spine on limbs.

For example, as a Musician experiments with their embouchure - by changing their lips and contact with the instrument – they have zero attention on how they organise their head/spine as they do this. Perhaps their teacher says silly things like:

"I am adjusting my lower jaw."

Your lower jaw? You only have one jaw, it's called the mandible bone by anatomists. The "upper jaw" is a fairy-tale. There is no upper jaw – that is the bottom of your head. But when you think of upper jaw, you start moving it as though it was somehow not part of your whole head. Crazy. But it happens all the time.

All this thought and focus is going to a small region where lips meet the instrument.

And that is why technique can so quickly go wrong. 

Not just with the musician, but with anyone – Yogini, Athlete, Singer, Salaryworker – who seeks to find a new way to do something. The most critical part of the change is ignored. Who thinks about the head/spine?

BodyChance Teachers, that's who!

At a BodyChance Golden Week residential – you can discover many more of these obvious errors of thinking. Through participating and watching others, you enrich your understanding of your behaviour.

At a BodyChance, we call these explorations "Activities" – this is when you seek feedback on how you are doing something. It takes some humility and courage, and the reward is a new constructive behaviour. You may explore teaching, coaching, playing music, doing an Asana or just walking to the station. 

In every case, your Trainer uses their eyes, words and touch to communicate to you a way to integrate head/spinal thinking into your activity.

And every time – with (almost) no exceptions – your activity improves. 

Golfers can now safely change their swing; Musicians can refind an effective Embouchure; teachers can refresh their approach to behavioural change. Yoginis can finally stretch further and have less pain while they do it.

Come to next year's Golden Week residential - with me, Lucia Walker, Sharyn West and many BodyChance teachers - to see how Alexander's remarkable Postural discovery is used to help people more effectively do what they want.

We only have three rooms available, and two may have already been taken.

https://atsuccess.com/alexander-discovery-workshop-japan-jeremy-chance.html