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The Eyes Have It (Part 1) — by Selma Gokcen

One of the most valuable indicators of well-functioning coordination is eye movement. I have noticed for a long time now that there are different types of gaze in musicians. The "well-trained" musician of today often exhibits what I call blinkered attention, the result of years of too much effortful practice. The strain around the eyes is visible and often accompanied by laboured breathing. Caught by inward feelings and sensations, this musician is "concentrating." In the words of my Alexander teacher, the original meaning of concentration used to be: to relate a set of factors to a central point. It has been increasingly misused in our educational system to encourage the shutting out of everything else out to focus on a single thing. Concentration therefore as a useful aim has been [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T02:04:27-04:00October 22nd, 2011|Categories: Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Heifetz, cello, relaxation, strain, cellobello, Alexander Technique, music, Gokcen, Awareness, concentration, relationships, Selma, practicing, attention, communication, seeing, Coordination, effort, exploration, Feuermann, Casals, Listening|

The Eyes Have It (Part 2): More on Attention — by Selma Gokcen

"The obstacle is the goal." - Zen Proverb The training of attention through my line of work—the Alexander Technique—happens in a particular way, through the application of certain principles. We take the obstacles, in this case a pupil’s habits, and work with them moment by moment, observing and undoing the tensions in the neck area and throughout the back and spinal column. In this way the pupil’s habits become rich material for understanding how their attention can be directed. The head is heavy and bears a particular relationship to the spine, as it is either poised (gently balanced) on top of or pulled into the spinal column. Cellists are vulnerable to tightening the neck and pulling the head either forward and down towards the fingers or back and down, shortening the [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T02:04:50-04:00November 3rd, 2011|Categories: In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: energy, spinal column, Technique, expression, Habits, Teaching, balance, cello, Alexander Technique, cellobello, Gokcen, music, movement, control, Selma, Alexander, sound production, head-neck-back relationship|

The Force of Habit — by Selma Gokcen

“You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.” “We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.” —F.M. Alexander My Alexander teacher is always speaking about the force of habit and the difficulty of keeping the mind on a new track, when, for example, a simple decision is made not to lift an arm or get out of the chair in the usual way. Our kinaesthetic sense, the sense of our muscles in movement, is of little help here. We measure effort by how something feels, and that feeling is our habit. To give up wanting to feel our way forward in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons comes down to a battle with habit, which is [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2021-10-18T12:14:27-04:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: muscular tension, cello, exhilarating, transitions, Experience, Alexander Technique, Preparation, Gokcen, safety, movement, musicians, Selma, challenges, Mind, effort, Habits, Force of Habit, adventure, expectation, lessons|

The Music of Movement — by Selma Gokcen

It is a great pleasure to tickle your screens from across The Pond, as they call the Atlantic Ocean here in Great Britain. I am honoured to be invited to add a few views to what is already a splendid site for cellists and a fruitful educational resource. The London Cello Society is an important part of my work, and as a nurturer of the cello world in the United Kingdom, I always celebrate a new addition to the Cello Cloud from which we can benefit. Our members are just getting to know CelloBello and they will no doubt enjoy and learn from it. It is said that the best things to write about are those you love. Therefore it makes sense in this first blog to introduce my passion [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2020-09-17T02:36:15-04:00April 25th, 2011|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Gokcen, Awareness, movement, intonation, re-education, Technique, reactions, Habits, relationships, Instruments, Selma, exploration, sensory awareness, Alexander Technique, thinking, enjoyment, fundamentals, expression|

The Power of Quietness — by Selma Gokcen

The place to find is within yourself. I learned a little about this in athletics. The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself, and it’s around this, somehow, that his action occurs...There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart. – Joseph Campbell True quiet means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the time has come to go forward. In this way rest and movement are in agreement with the demands of the time, and thus there is light in life. The hexagram signifies the end and the beginning of all movement. The back is named because in the [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T01:48:34-04:00June 15th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: balance, Alexander Technique, artistry, Gokcen, power, movement, cello, cellobello, Selma, Preparation, training, accomplishments, performance, quietness, Technique, unlearning habits|

The Process of Unlearning Habits — by Selma Gokcen

“It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying,’ but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective.” –F.M. Alexander As professional musicians, we have a deeply trained muscle memory system, a network of learned movements which allows us to study and perform a huge number of works in any situation, often in a short space of time. This system is a blessing when it is reliable and accurate and a burden when it does not serve us well. Confronted by unwanted tension or a repetitive stress injury such as tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome, some of us, as F.M. Alexander did, may ask: what is my part in this? How have I brought about this condition? And it [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-11-24T04:09:57-05:00November 5th, 2012|Categories: Artistic Vision, Beyond the Traditional, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: function, musicians, Selma, nervous system, energy, back, Technique, head, training, tension, Habits, effort, cello, muscle memory, cellobello, singing, Effective, Preparation, Alexander Technique, professional musicians, process, Gokcen, unlearning habits, neck, brain, relationships|

The Spine: Our Very Own Superhighway

I only learned about the importance of the spinal column to cello playing as I was introduced more deeply into the Alexander Technique. Of course I knew the superficial facts about the spine and especially how vital it is to the health of the nervous system. But its particular relevance to cellists was not brought home until I began training in the work of teaching the Technique. Here are a few interesting facts about the spine to start off 1: The spinal cord is surrounded by rings of bone called vertebrae. Both are covered by a protective membrane. Together, the vertebrae and the membrane make up the spinal column, or backbone. The backbone, which protects the spinal cord, starts at the base of the skull and ends just above the hips. The spinal cord [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2024-08-08T15:49:18-04:00August 1st, 2016|Categories: Playing Healthy|Tags: cellobello, Alexander Technique, Spine, healthy playing, CelloBlog, Selma Gokcen|

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: 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, Patrick Macdonald, thinking, automatic movement, Habits, perceive, back, behave, learning, powerful expressiveness, nature, collapse, pressure, primary information, attention, Pablo Casals, doing, exploration, pushing|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 2 of 6): Finding our Source of Power — by Selma Gokcen

"You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.” It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying’, but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective.” The stiffened necks and arms of people of today are outward signs of the imperfect development and lack of coordination of the muscular system of the back and spine. —F.M. Alexander Any athlete, and I include musicians here, who is aiming for the top level of performance is by definition working to improve their coordination, timing, balance and accuracy of movement. But musicians have another reason for wanting a reliable 'instrument' (I refer here to their own body, not their musical instrument). We want the freedom to immerse ourselves in the [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-30T05:15:43-04:00February 11th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: top level performing, Alexander Technique, opposition, trying, Gokcen, Part II, cello, well-coordinated body, powerful force of energy, cellobello, willing, Selma, proper weight transfer, music, ability, relationship of the head back and spine, cellists, quietness, sharpening the senses, musicians, attention to detail, Six Part Series, bow arm, tension in the neck, Habits, creating balance, the back, instrumentalists, cultivate awareness, Thinking in a new way, Listening, energy flowing through the body|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 3 of 6): My Cello and Me, a Dynamic Partnership — by Selma Gokcen

Trying is only emphasizing the thing we already know. —F.M. Alexander Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop. —Early Zen scripture (anonymous) Once a reasonable base of understanding is established and a student is able to stop, wait and stay back (this means leaving their back back rather than rushing forward) in the face of simple activities like sitting in and standing up from a chair, going up on the toes, all basic procedures long established in the Alexander Technique, the next challenge is to take up the cello. For each player, their instrument has associations, sometimes happy, sometimes fraught with tension and negative experiences. Just seeing their instrument makes some of my Alexander students anxious! And they are surprised that they don't have to pick up [...]

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 4 of 6): The Arm Becomes the Bow — by Selma Gokcen

The whole organism is responsible for specific trouble. Proof of this is that we eradicate specific defects in process. —F.M. Alexander To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. —Lao Tzu We now come to the bow, the most challenging aspect of cello playing by far. There are so many fantasies and fallacies surrounding the technique of the bow, as well as profound differences of opinion regarding sound production and articulation. Rather than address these directly, I would like to introduce another way of thinking about the bow: as an 'instrument' whose function exists in relationship to the whole body. By starting from the general (the whole of ourselves) and eventually arriving at the specific (the 'bowing instrument'), we might view the process in the right perspective, rather [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2023-10-30T13:36:03-04:00February 25th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: Gokcen, bend and extend, process, pressured sound, body at ease, flexible, principle of opposition, Selma, cello playing muscles, neck, pull and push, sensory awareness, importance of quietness, challenges, repeated sensory stimulation, function, increased resistance, energy, sensitive gesture, bow strokes, Casals, inner pitch, simple gesture, arms, fingers, misguided effort and unease, Habits, teaching table, collapse, wrist, nasal sound, perspective, unwanted sound, Six Part Series, cello, partnership, dynamics, volume, contraction, cellobello, powerful accents, Alexander Technique, thinking in new ways, beauty, powerful arms|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 5 of 6): Fleet Fingers — by Selma Gokcen

"The body is like an instrument; it depends who is playing it." —F.M. Alexander In the Alexander work I do, I consider there are five stages in learning to let go of the left hand fingers in cello playing so they can be free to race around the fingerboard, as well as play expressively. The hand must be soft and empty of all intention in approaching the string. If it has preconceived form and shape, then it cannot function except within the confines of this preconception. In connection with this work, I often ask my students the meaning in Zen Buddhism of "the empty hand that holds the spade." We can think of the fingers as the end of a long chain of joints starting with the upper arm ball [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2023-11-06T13:44:57-05:00March 4th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: expression, Gokcen, paraspinal muscles, tension, sensation of opposition, cello, Selma, sensation of the back, Awareness, body, clarity, bow technique, function, sound production, Healthy, cello playing muscles, connection, bend, articulation, fingers are flexible, Alexander Technique, habit|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 6 of 6): Putting it All Together — by Selma Gokcen

"You get away from all your old preconceived ideas because you are getting away from your old habits." —F.M. Alexander We come to the end of this six part series, having touched on various aspects of cello technique, bringing the principles of the Alexander Technique to the most basic work of balancing the instrument, then using the bow and the left hand. Once this basic work is accomplished, the next stage is to take a new piece of music and to begin to work with it for a few minutes each day. Instead of aiming for the goal—which is to get the piece learned and which can produce all sorts of accompanying reactions—we can take away the goal entirely, and use those few minutes while we work on the piece [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2023-11-13T13:21:02-05:00March 11th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: cellobello, place of silence, thinking, breath flowing, music, Preconceived ideas, musical expression, conceptions, Experience, pressure in the sound, freedom, evaluate, phrasing, psycho-physical, cello technique, exploring our habits, re-training of musicians, muscular tension, framework for self-study, Alexander Technique, refining sensation and awareness, nervous system, fundamental knowledge, Gokcen, self-study, Six Part Series, inner composer, movement, subconscious patterns of learning, Thinking in a new way, bow, lasting value of Alexander Technique, working with music, aiming for a goal, tension, left hand, reactions, automatic, cello, physical pleasure of playing, Selma, balancing the instrument|

To Change or Not to Change — by Selma Gokcen

“Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life.” “You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know.” —F.M. Alexander Summers take musicians to new places where teachers and students meet for the first and sometimes the only time, and within this one or perhaps two or three encounters, Chance and Fate can open unexpected doors. Being out of our familiar circumstances and roles and away from the people we see every week in the same place—and for the same reason—provide just the right marinating sauce for Serendipity. It was during a summer festival in Belgium that I met two Alexander teachers and had my first lesson. I wasn't aware of the effect of that lesson at the time but four years later I [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2021-11-22T14:18:43-05:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: CelloBlog, Selma Gokcen, cellobello, change, Alexander Technique, Pierre Fournier|

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