Alexander Technique | Yoga | Face Yoga
The Alexander Technique prevents the body from stiffening and using force the wrong way. Yoga provides the engine (a strong, supple body and deep breath management). Together, they transform playing from an act of force into an act of precision and coordination.
Individual Alexander Technique Lessons
The Alexander Technique offers trumpet players an extraordinary structural framework. Instead of teaching you how to "do" something, it helps you eliminate the unconscious tensions that block the body. Here is how it optimizes posture, breathing, and tongue mobility:
-
The Posture Framework: By releasing tension in the neck and allowing the head to forward and up, the technique realigns the entire spine. This eliminates the postural collapse caused by the weight of the trumpet and distributes muscular effort evenly, ensuring stability without rigidity.
-
The Breathing Framework: An aligned posture free of parasitic tension acts as a true scaffolding for the lungs. By freeing the rib cage and abdomen from physical compression, the Alexander Technique allows the diaphragm to move without obstacles, ensuring natural inhalation and a fluid, reflex-driven air support.
-
The Tongue and Emouchure Framework: There is a close anatomical connection between head balance, the jaw, and the throat. By freeing the neck, the Alexander Technique deactivates reflex tensions at the base of the tongue. This translates into maximum, relaxed tongue mobility, which is essential for a fast staccato, precise articulation, and agility when changing registers.
Yoga is a perfect combination with brass playing practice. It is indeed particularly useful for brass players because it harmonises breath, providing mobility and lightness both to the body and to the airflow. Conscious breathing translates directly to sustaining a smooth, focused tone and managing air pressure.
Poses open up the shoulders, chest, and spine, which often lock up during intense practice.
Recent research has shown that neuromuscular coordination is the key to address the causes - rather than just the symptoms - of pain and discomfort.
Basic & Advanced Asanas
Playing the trumpet is a highly demanding athletic activity. Holding a heavy brass instrument, maintaining core stability, and managing intense air pressure for hours can lead to chronic tension, performance fatigue, and structural imbalances.
These specialized Basic & Advanced Asana (Postural) Sessions are specifically designed to counteract the physical tolls of brass playing. Instead of generic stretching, we focus on targeted anatomical alignment to transform your body into a strong, resonant, and effortless engine for your music.
Why Asanas Matter for Trumpet Players
-
The Core & Back Powerhouse: Asanas build the deep core and back strength required to hold the trumpet effortlessly without collapsing your lower back or shifting strain to your neck and shoulders.
-
Chest Opening & Rib Mobility: Targeted poses open the thoracic spine and stretch the intercostal muscles, drastically increasing your physical capacity to expand and control your rib cage.
-
Tension Release & Symmetry:Trumpet playing is inherently asymmetrical. Yoga balances the body, releasing the tight shoulders, locked jaws, and compressed lower backs that restrict your sound.
Basic & Advanced Yoga Breathing Techniques (in-person or online sessions)
Yoga breathing techniques optimize trumpet performance by enhancing lung capacity and abdominal support control, both of which are fundamental for range and sound stability. Basic practices reduce stress and keep the throat relaxed, eliminating the tensions that block airflow. Advanced exercises increase muscular strength and breath-hold tolerance, allowing players to sustain long musical phrases and challenging passages in the upper register. In short, they transform the respiratory system into an efficient pressure generator while balancing mental focus.
Basic breathing techniques act on the nervous system to reduce performance anxiety and stabilize the heart rate before stepping onto the stage. Advanced practices improve deep concentration and resistance to mental fatigue during intense practice sessions. By regulating oxygen flow, Pranayama eliminates distractions and fosters the state of flow necessary for performance. This breath control translates into absolute mental presence, which is essential for managing the most complex technical passages with clarity.
I am Bodily Awareness & Posture Professor at the Monteverdi Conservatory in Bolzano, Italy. I am a certified Alexander Technique Teacher since 2009, Face Yoga Certified Teacher, Vinyasa Yoga Certified Teacher and a former dancer with 20 years of international experience.
I was invited to give Masterclasses by ArtEZ Conservatorium Arnhem, Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Royal Conservatory of Copenhagen, DAE Design Academy Eindhoven, Amsterdam Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Monteverdi Brass Days, Middlesex University London, Stella Vorarlberg Privathochschule Musik Feldkirk, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, National Academy of Music and Dance Vilnius, Herentals Music and Theatre Academy Belgium, to name a few.
My lectures have been scheduled at the Weil Cornell Medical Center in NY for the Performing Arts Medicine Association Yearly Meeting, IADMS in Den Haag, IISC in Baden-Baden, University of Urbino, a.o.
I am exchanging knowledge and teaching with Marco Pierobon trumpet player to Bolzano Conservatory's trumpet class. At the Conservatory I also give Physiology of the Voice lessons. In order to provide better insights, I recently started playing the trumpet, and I truly enjoy it.
My work focuses on awakening awareness of the mind, body, emotions, and of the role of physicality in the music-making process, whether in study, performance, or audition.
Inhabiting the body is essential to provide embodied sensations. An embodied sensation for a musician is the physical, felt experience of making or feeling music through the body. It connects muscle movement, breathing, and touch directly to sound, turning the instrument or voice into a physical extension of the self.
Rooted in a philosophy that values the physical experience of the world, my approach resonates with insights from thinkers throughout history, which often inspire my classes.
Session Pathways
Basic Asana Framework (Foundations & Release)
Designed to build the foundational physical awareness every brass player needs. We focus on gently opening the body and releasing the "holding patterns" caused by daily practicing.
-
Shoulder & Neck Decompression: Poses dedicated to undoing the tightness caused by holding the instrument, freeing the throat and shoulder girdle.
-
Pelvic & Spinal Alignment: Finding your true center of gravity to establish a grounded, rock-solid standing and sitting posture for performance.
-
Restorative Openers: Gentle heart and chest openers that passively expand breathing capacity while down-regulating the nervous system.
Advanced Asana Framework (Strength, Stamina & Control)
For players looking to take their physical endurance and breath support to the highest level. We introduce demanding postures that mimic the high-pressure demands of advanced repertoire.
-
Deep Core & Isometric Strength: Challenging balancing poses and planks that fortify the abdominal wall and obliques, providing an unbreakable foundation for upper-register support.
-
Thoracic Flexibility & Backbends: Advanced extensions that unlock the full mobility of the spine and rib cage, allowing for maximum, effortless air intake.
-
Stamina & Mental Focus: Holding complex poses builds the physical endurance and mental grit required to sustain long, grueling concert programs without losing technical precision.
The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony.
Yehudi Menhuin
It's body-and-mind coordination
you get going first, and then breath control.
I suggest simple Hatha yoga breathing exercises.
The exercises both relax and warm you up.
Coordination is no good when
it is attached to nervousness.
Maynard Ferguson