nature Archives

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 1 of 6): The Value of Quietness — by Selma Gokcen

We can overcome habits of a lifetime in a few minutes if we learn to use our brains. —F.M. Alexander The obstacle is the path. –Zen proverb I offer this six part series of articles to demonstrate how I work with the Alexander Technique to help musicians to overcome deeply ingrained habits. If a quick and easy fix is what is wanted, then the reader won't find it here. The process as I see it is multi-layered—the same habits that affect our cello playing and music-making are also our habits of life, the way we perceive, react and behave, moment to moment. Such observations are at the heart of Alexander's work. Albeit with the help of a good teacher the process of unlearning habits can be easier, there are no shortcuts. [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2019-10-31T15:42:33-04:00February 3rd, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: Patrick Macdonald, thinking, automatic movement, Habits, perceive, back, behave, learning, powerful expressiveness, nature, collapse, pressure, primary information, attention, Pablo Casals, doing, exploration, pushing, Observation, fingers, feet, hands, react, strain, cello, laying on the floor, Alexander Technique, rediscovering, music-making, cellobello, legs, Gokcen, shortcuts, force, music, manifest, shoulders, brain, process, mental messages, re-education, stretching, animate, neck, overcome deeply ingrained habits, Selma, the value of quietness, arms|

So You Think You Know? (Part 2) — by Selma Gokcen

“Sensory appreciation conditions conception; you can't know a thing by an instrument that is wrong.” -F.M. Alexander. Our body-mind could be called our home. We live in it from the inside, looking out at the world. It provides our orientation, our focus, our sense of what is right and wrong, up and down, around us, beneath us and above us. All day long we are encountering and interacting with the world; stimuli are filtering through our senses and being evaluated against past experience. The question raised within us after only a few lessons in the Alexander Technique is the same one that F.M. Alexander grappled with for nine years as he searched for answers to the mis-use of his voice: what am I doing and how can I know that [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-08T03:12:40-04:00February 12th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Alexander Technique, progress, Gokcen, sensations, movement, tension, Selma, cello, nature, cellobello, body, Preparation, Mind, Awareness, repetition, Sensory, lessons, healthy playing|

Running After What is Behind You — by Selma Gokcen

Much of our training as cellists has us working long hours, working hard, but are we working smart? Do we know what is productive and what is counter-productive in our manner of working? How do we know? Is it possible to know? Many years after my cello study at the Juilliard School, I hit a wall. I could not go further in my work with the traditional methods of cello technique, cello etudes, additional lessons and hours of practice. It seemed I was going round in a circle. I finally realised that solution to problems at the instrument might lie somewhere beyond the green pastures I had hitherto spent my life exploring. I said to myself: Maybe the study of music is like science. You have to go into the [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-08T02:41:22-04:00May 18th, 2011|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Spine, Gokcen, sports, training, Selma, sensory awareness, artistry, artists, back, productive, body awareness, Habits, gestures, balance, head, Coordination, nature, Alexander Technique|