Power is Energy, Unblocked and Properly Directed — by Selma Gokcen

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Power is Energy, Unblocked and Properly Directed — by Selma Gokcen

“The words of truth are always paradoxical.”
—Lao Tzu

Paul Katz was here recently in London giving a workshop on the bow to the members of the London Cello Society and raised an interesting point about strength. His Tai Ch’i teacher once said to him, “Hardness is Weakness, Softness is Strength: Hardness is Death, Softness is Life.” This remarkable saying inspires this article.

As cellists we need to be able to call upon reserves of power to play our big repertoire, to perform long concerts and tours. No way are we not interested in knowing about power and strength, but as soon as we raise the question of where it comes from, then hundreds of viewpoints can be found. Weight training, strength training, aerobic conditioning, and the list goes on.

We in the Alexander Technique look at the issue from the opposite side. What are we doing to block the energy of our organism? Power is energy properly received and directed, but what happens when, instead of the energy flowing along the spine and into the limbs—outward from the centre—it gets trapped in the wrong muscular contractions at the centre. The energy should well up and stream out of us as it does in healthy young children. Watching a child running gives us that sense of freedom and flow—the child is moving as if from a current of electricity and all the movements are coordinated from within and leading into the periphery.

The kind of power we want is not created by muscular over-exertion, it is released through a balance of forces where the spine/back is the central axis and the limbs are, like the wheel, moving in relation to that strong and stable axis. Power is energy, properly directed. If the spine and back collapse or stiffen, then our true power is lost. We then begin to contract the wrong muscles and we lose that ease that comes from a lengthening spine and widening back. How many cellists raise their shoulders or pull down on their shoulders or tighten their arms in the vain hope of generating more power? Pushing and forcing is a far cry from free-flowing energy.

The Technique provides a framework to train the mind to know the back and spine, to know where one is in relation to the world and to others at all times. And of course as a cellist I experience this knowledge moment to moment while playing. I am sure it sounds strange to those without any such direct experience; indeed it may mean nothing at all. But I can say that my new students make the same discovery: most, if not all, of our attention is constantly drawn forward and down into the world in front of us and there is next to none left for ourselves. We have never been made aware of our backs in either our musical or school education. And by aware I mean keenly sensitive to when the back is collapsing, pushing forward under stress or just not staying back where it is meant to be in relation to the rest of our self. There is a reason it is called a back!

My teacher often used to say: “Put your mind in your back,” or “Harmonise the mind with the back.” There is a quality of attention that arises in us when the mind and back are harmonised. The energy flows, we become quiet and can focus; power can be called upon as needed. The principle of moving in opposition to a stable back goes back thousands of years. Alexander rediscovered it for the 20th century man and woman, and put it into a practical discipline that anyone can learn.

By Selma Gokcen|2021-10-11T12:08:13-04:00May 6th, 2014|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Alexander Technique, muscular over-exertion, cello, Gokcen, musical education, cellobello, properly received energy, Katz, Selma, quality of attention, Paul, back, tours, Spine, energy, freedom, repertoire, direction, shoulders, balance, T’ai Chi, concerts, flow, power|

About the Author: Selma Gokcen

Selma Gokcen, born in America of Turkish parentage, has received critical acclaim for her imaginative programming. Along with Bernard Greenhouse and Jonathan Kramer, she presented a programme at London’s South Bank Centre, in New York and at the Kennedy Center entitled Pablo Casals: Artist of Conscience, celebrating the life and music of the legendary cellist.

Ms. Gokcen has performed with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Presidential Symphony in Ankara, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Aspen Philharmonia, among others. Her recital appearances have taken her to such cities as Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Charleston, S.C., and to Belgium, Italy and Turkey. In South America, she has toured under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. She has concertized in Australia and New Zealand, and given master classes in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

In addition to solo appearances, she is an accomplished chamber musician and has participated in the Chamber Music West Festival in San Francisco, the Southeastern Music Festival, the Hindemith Festival in Oregon, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

Ms. Gokcen holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, William Lincer and Robert Mann. She was awarded a First Prize from the Geneva Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Guy Fallot, and also studied privately with Pierre Fournier. In 1999 she was chosen by one of Spain’s greatest composers, Xavier Montsalvatge, to record his complete works for cello. She has also recorded Songs and Dances in Switzerland for the Gallo label.

In 1988, Ms. Gokcen became interested in the Alexander Technique, prompted by a lifelong fascination with the roots of habits and the difficulties of modifying them. Students often entered her cello studio seeking changes but unable to resolve their problems.

Eventually her reading brought her to the Alexander Technique, a discipline described by its founder as “learning to do consciously what nature intended”. She came to London in 1994 and enrolled in a teacher training program at the Centre for the Alexander Technique.

Ms Gokcen was qualified as a fully-fledged teacher by the Society for Teachers of the Alexander Technique in 1998. In September 2000 she was appointed to the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is also a professor of cello. She works with string, wind and brass players, singers and composers. She also incorporates her Alexander Technique teaching as part of her cello studio.

The Alexander Technique embraces what is today called holistic thinking–an indivisibility of the mind-body connection and the awakening of awareness of what Alexander called the “use of the whole self”, which affects our functioning in all our activities, especially the highly complex skill of music-making. It is particularly useful in addressing breathing, coordination, and muscle tensions. Most importantly, the quality of attention developed through the practice of the Technique can transform a musician’s relationship with their instrument and their audience.

Selma Gokcen is also the co-founder and Co-Chair of the London Cello Society.