Shawn (Guest Blog)

This is the second in my series of stories this month by Alexander Technique teachers in my paid coaching program. Shawn Copeland is an Alexander Technique teacher and Adjunct Professor of Clarinet at the Department of Music in High Point University, North Carolina. And this is his story, told from the perspective of a musician seeking excellence… *** Think! Move! Perform! Musicians Move! This is the best description that I've heard for what we do. Movement is a product of thought; sound is a product of movement - the quality of the sound is determined by the quality of the movement; the quality of the movement is determined by the clarity of the thought. It is that simple and that is the point where we begin. I was first introduced to the Alexander Technique in 1997. At the time, I was still very young in my professional career as a clarinetist. I had the opportunity to take a workshop at a summer music festival that I was attending. During the workshop I became fascinated with how I felt immediately easier and better, just by the simple and light touch of the teachers. At the time, there were many barriers in my performance work, I was getting in my own way and I knew it, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Little did I know that Alexander Technique would provide such an opportunity. In 2002 I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to begin work on my graduate degrees in music. Now that I was older, I have begun to notice that many of my friends and colleagues were suffering from pain and injuries associated with their music making. This was new to me – for it was rare for me to have pain that I associated with playing the clarinet with the few exceptions of simple fatigue. One day I mentioned to my fellow graduate students and teacher that I had studied Alexander Technique and perhaps that was what was helping me avoid injury, I was offering it as a possible solution to their problems. It was then that I learned there was a teacher on faculty - Marsha Paludan. I contacted her and set up a lesson right away. When we finally met for our first lesson, I was immediately surprised with the way she worked. I came in to her office and there was no table, no chair. She asked me take out my clarinet for her and we spent the whole lesson working with me playing my clarinet. She told me afterwards that this was called activity work - it was how she learned the Technique, she was a student of Marjory Barstow, F.M. Alexander's first teacher graduate. She asked me, in my first lesson with her, if I was interested in training to be a teacher. In that moment, I became a teacher trainee....I began the work that would change my life. I apprenticed with Marsha for a total of six years, working alongside her, assisting her in her movement classes for actors for 4-6 hours a day, 4 days a week. Within the first three years, I amassed well over the standard 1600 hours required for teacher certification. In 2006 I qualified as a teacher and continued to mentor and apprentice with Marsha until her retirement in 2008. What I teach My training as an Alexander Technique Teacher also unlocked new levels in both my performance and teaching abilities. Since completing my DMA, I've worked to combine Alexander Technique and Body Mapping into my pedagogy. I make the information simple, accessible and applicable to all performers. Musicians come to me to learn about their bodies and develop the awareness needed to avoid the many performance related injuries that are prevalent in our field. They also develop what is called inclusive attention or a unified field of attention. These terms may be unfamiliar to you, but they are another way of saying the “it” factor. We often cannot describe “it” - well...."it" is a sense of whole body, kinesthetic awareness, a wholeness and freedom that allows one to be fully present in that moment in time and be fully invested in the act of performing. Often, teachers wonder how we teach a student to make the jump from just playing it right to playing with abandonment - to creating in that moment, something truly artistic and expressive. This is exactly what I am talking about. I believe creative freedom comes from first being in your body - finding ease in just being, so that your coordination and balance are working for you rather than against you, where your movement is free and you can create a sound that is free. From there, you are free to release your mind into the creative space where anything can happen and you are free to be fully present in that moment. This is the artistic freedom that I think we are all looking for in ourselves. This is what I learned from my study of the Alexander Technique and what I teach to my students. How I teach Although the classic tools of Alexander Technique – the table and chair – are helpful, my work is largely activity based. Together we will use movement and directed activities to reveal and refine your Body Map. This could be something like going for a walk or a run, exploring your exercise routine, and eventually performing on your instrument. We will explore techniques to develop and widen your own field of attention. We will connect movement to breath and breath to sound. We will reveal ways in which your own self is interfering with your creative output and work to release those barriers and find your true creative voice. Jeremy's Comments – Finding A Moment of Magical Mastery Who is the star of this story?

You appear to be co-starring with Alexander Technique, but as they say in Hollywood, I want you above the title. You are the star, Alexander Technique is part of your supporting cast. I want the reader to learn more about Shawn – that is the exercise I am coaching now. Your purpose is to sell them on you as an authentic person who understands the individual reader's needs and concerns: for good sound, for respect, for ease in playing. You want to connect to them, so in the section "How I teach" instead of using the word "we" – meaning student and teacher – saying "you" is better. It makes it more specific and personal. It is about the person reading, not a general student/teacher relationship. In Japan (I know nothing about the American scene) the trumpet players in school bands endure a relentlessly strict order to keep their instruments up at 90 degrees to the ground as they march. If they err just a few degrees, their music teacher is ready to bark. They shrink in fearful anticipation of being wrong, while their teachers wonder why their artistry is suppressed?! Stories like this hark back to days before University and meeting Alexander Technique. My experience with musicians has taught me that most have childhood memories etched into the DNA of their musical identity. Start your story there – then you can connect emotionally with deeper parts. Your story is not to sell them on the benefits of Alexander Technique, but to sell them on the benefits of you! You want to reach into the place of strong emotion, because ultimately their decision to follow you will be emotional, not intellectual. In this writing you have accomplished the intellectual sell - the logic of it, ideas expressed in original ways – now harness more emotion into that logic: personalize it with more of your stories and experiences. For example, you write: "I believe creative freedom comes from first being in your body - finding ease in just being, so that your coordination and balance are working for you rather than against you, where your movement is free and you can create a sound that is free." How did you discover this was true? I am guessing you had an experience of "just being" that was amazing. Did that ever happen during a performance? Here's a fictional example… "I had just arrived for a concert in Boston – the airlines had lost my bag and back home my wife was very ill. As I sat in the Orchestra waiting to start, I kept worrying about Ann and wondered if I had time to quickly call her. Then I felt a sudden jab in my back, and I realized the conductor was waiting for me! I realized how "out of my body" I'd become, how my thinking was separating me from my task right now – to perform, to offer…" A dramatic story shows off a real person struggling with his artistry - and finding a moment of a magical mastery. Other musicians will have more empathy and connection with your discovery. Rather than only share the insight, give the back story that led to it. It is easier to read, quicker to comprehend and leads to stronger bonding. Let's carry on the discussion in our group... https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/