Alexander Technique | Yoga | Face Yoga
Yoga is 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. Yoga regulates the nervous system and hormones, balancing cortisol, oxytocin, serotonin.
The Alexander Technique is a one-to-one work that helps recognising individual harmful habits that interfere with coordination. These habits are habitual responses to challenges. For example, without noticing, we put too much tension in certain areas of the body when it comes to some difficult passage. Changing habits means acquiring better perception and awareness, learning to use and direct energy appropriately. Promoting lightness and economy of effort, it allows us to conserve and boost our energy reserves to execute movements efficiently, and this results in reduced nervous tension and enhanced performance. The Alexander Technique improves sound quality through reduced bodily constriction and enhances coordination in the execution of simultaneous movements and activities, such as controlling breath, tongue and finger movement. It helps gaining optimal overall control over challenging sections of a piece.
Most importantly, the Alexander Technique trains metal clarity as the faculty of aligning our wishes to our actions, making it easier to find our authentic voice as performers despite the stress of an audition or performance. It enables us to avoid obsessive fixation on specific details, finding a flow state. Numerous European and American music academies consider the Alexander Technique a fundamental part of every student's curriculum, and some Italian and Swiss conservatories have begun introducing it as a supplementary subject, recognising it as a valuable asset for their students.
Who I am
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 since 2024, Yoga Practitioner 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 research has 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.
Philosophy
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.
Inhabiting the body is about "use it well in real time" rather then "stress now and recover later". This approach not only enhances presence and clarity but also encourages spontaneity and creativity.
By embracing these principles, we can cultivate a more vibrant, dynamic and fulfilling life and work experience.
Pedagogy
Several outstanding brass players have pioneered new approaches and developed advanced pedagogies based on bodily awareness. Let's think of the "Wedge", yoga breathing by Bobby Shew, or Song and Wind by Arnold Jacobs.
We know from them what to do, but often what we don't know, is how. And that is because transmitting knowledge isn't an obvious thing at all. What the Alexander Technique teaches us, is a new way of learning. Not by being instructed, not by blindly trying to repeat something, but by observing and coordinating ourselves cleverly. It's the technique before all techniques.
As an example, I will use tongue and articulation. Both in singing and playing brass instruments these are deeply related to our speech habits. Most techniques focus on syllable and consonant work to make it more fluent. But practicing without a clear organisation of the bodily mechanism can lead to straightening harmful habits, or creating new ones because of over-focusing on a body part. The tongue is part of the deep front line, a chain of interconnected muscular tissues depending one on the other for functioning.
Also known as "tongue to toe" fascia chain, the DFL (deep front line) is responsible for stabilising the front of the body. Because fascia operates as an integrated whole, tension or structural restrictions in one part of this pathway can create a cascading domino effect of postural and mechanical compensations throughout the entire body.
The same principle applies to breathing, which is not an isolated mechanical action, but depends upon the larger overall musculoskeletal and upright support system of the body. Efficient breathing relies on general bodily coordination rather than targeted breathing exercises. Only once natural breathing is established, it is possible to play with different rhythms and durations, exercising specific techniques.
First and foremost, yoga made its contribution to my quest to understand consciously the mechanics of violin playing... illustrating the profound truth that strength comes not from strength but from the subtle comprehension of process, proportion and balance.
Yehudi Menuhin
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. Choose only the exercises that are comfortable to you and, most importantly, that you learn from a Hatha yoga teacher.
Maynard Ferguson