Maxim Vengerov Bach masterclass

This is a link dedicated to my violinist students. Watch this video to practise your English and learn violin at the same time.
Let me know what  you think about the masterclass!

Dear students,

 here you have the video we listened to in class with the complete script:

Posture awareness:

Semi-supine

This is a practice that you’ll learn in Alexander technique lessons, and it contains all the elements that you need to help you reorganize your use. It can help with back pain, it can help with breathing, it can help you to understand your own balance a little bit better. So this talk is about what it is, how to set about it and how long you might stay there.

For example, people are quite familiar with this position, here you are, lying on your back with your knees bent, and sometimes people adopt this for meditation or for yoga. But when you do it from an Alexander point of view, it is a little different. First of all, let me stress that it’s not about relaxing; it’s not about going heavy or sinking into the floor in any way. Rather it’s about becoming springy, letting your whole body be more alive. Also it’s not a meditative process, although it does help you quieten the mind.

So let’s look first of all at the position itself:

You want to be lying on something quite firm. If you are very frail, perhaps if you’ve got osteoporosis or you’ve really got very severe back pain, then you could consider lying on your bed. But for most people the best option is lying on the floor. Preferably a wooden floor with a nice padded carpet or a mat.

Get on a floor in a very simple way, a way that doesn’t cause you any pain or discomfort, you might stand, then perhaps kneel on one knee, possibly sit back on your heels, and then take the time to let yourself roll down onto the floor in a very easy way.

Just make sure that you’re not under any kind of strain. That’s the most important thing, so adapt according to how you need to.

Let your feet be nicely balanced so that your knees are pointing up to the ceiling. Have your feet reasonably close to your buttocks so that you don’t have to hold on tight to your legs, and have them a little bit apart from each other.

Let your head rest on a little pile of books under your occiput. If you have a teacher, get them to show you the right height for you because it does vary from person to person. It needs to be right for each individual.

Let your hands rest slightly on your abdomen, just make sure you don’t interlace your fingers, keep your hands  nice  and free, with your fingers fairly straight but not  stiff and your wrists nice and free.

Now you’re ready to engage in some Alexander thinking. This is what makes the difference between just a position and a procedure.

So first of all, take some time simply to ask your whole back to lengthen, from the crown of your head to your tailbone. Whilst you’re doing that, you want to ask your neck muscles to release, to allow this lengthening to happen.

This way of thinking combines to key Alexander technique skills: the skill of inhibition, which is where you are very clear in your mind what you don’t want, so you don’t try to make the lengthening happen, you don’t push, you don’t stretch even a tiny little bit. And the skill of direction. Both of these skills come with practice, they’re not something that you’re going to get right the first time.

The skill of direction is asking your body to release in the way that you want it to, that’s why, first of all, we start with asking for lengthening, or we ask the back to lengthen. It’s not so difficult when you’re lying on the floor like this, to think about this direction.

When you send your head away from your tailbone, you are literally directing your back to lengthen.

 One key to help you get your back lengthening is to ask all the muscles of the neck to free, to release, so your back can lengthen.

You can also ask your knees to go up to the ceiling. In this way you’re actually increasing the length of your leg muscles and encouraging your back on its lengthening journey. Make sure you don’t try and push them up, just ask them. This is the clue, just asking. At repeat a time you can become very skilled at semi-supine and it will help you release tensions that you didn’t know that you had. Don’t be in a hurry to get results. Do seek help of a teacher to help you get it exactly right for you. You can do this daily and it will really help you. Stay there from anything from 5 minutes up to 20 minutes. The clues are, when your mind wanders, just gently bring it back to the inhibition and direction process. And take your time in getting up, don’t rush and then just walk off calmly into your day. Please enjoy this practice; it’s very good for you. Goodbye!