Chapter 3: Playing cornetto with the Alexander Technique
But how can we play cornetto like that? Many AT teachers start working with the neck since we already saw it is a key place in our bodies. However, I consider more interesting in this chapter to start talking about sound production, since what we want to do now is play cornetto.
But... A small warning before. We all want to produce a beautiful sound with our instrument and we all want to improve our skills so that we can play the music we like. It can be a little disappointing that during an AT lesson with the instrument, the sound gets worse before it gets better. When one part of the body changes, it affects the rest of the body and we have to readjust our technique accordingly. For example, if the sound is being produced by a certain tension that we create with the arm, and that tension changes or disappears, the sound can also change and we will have to adjust the lips, the air, our internal resonance, etc. Sometimes we have to practice this readjustment for several days or weeks to find the desired sound with the new body coordination that we are learning with the Alexander Technique. It is necessary to understand that the process is more important than the result, and although we do not forget our goal, whether it is to play the cornetto for fun or to earn a living playing it, learning to change our goal-oriented mentality can be an impediment for many people. In my case, it was a challenge that I had to overcome since I started seeing clear the benefits of AT.
Finding the most efficient tension to play: standing, sitting, holding the instrument.
So, as we can see, AT is not about relaxation. You can use it to relax, but to move or to play cornetto, some tension is necessary. Tension, however, doesn’t mean fixing the body. We can find the right tension if we are able to move while playing and be able to come back to our natural upright state. Holding the cornetto and closing the finger holes needs tension, but our wrists and the whole arm structure can be mobile.
To help with this, instead of standing with parallel feet, it helps to be a little offset, that is with one foot slightly behind the other as we can see in the image. When we stand with parallel feet it is easier for the hips to collapse forward and the knees to lock. The offset position helps to prevent this thanks to the multiple points of support of the feet. It will also allow us mobility throughout the torso which will facilitate breathing (remember that breathing depends on the movement of the ribs and the diaphragm, which is connected to the legs) and will make it easier for us to move while we play and produce sound. And so we will be able to look at the conductor, at our colleagues, at the score, perhaps at the audience sometimes, or simply move to the music. Sometimes, when standing without playing or when playing, rotate the body slightly from one side to the other from head to ankles. This will help to unblock the whole body.
The same applies to sitting down. If we sit with parallel feet it is more difficult to maintain the balance of the torso and the head, often resulting in collapse. Sitting in an offset position also prevents this, it is easier to keep the torso in balance, and we achieve mobility in the torso and arms. Thus playing the cornetto becomes a dynamic and mobile body experience. Weight can be transferred to the chair through the sitting bones. To find your sitting bones, bring your body slightly to the edge of the chair, and move your entire torso from one side to the other. You will notice a couple of hard spots under your bottom. Those are your sitting bones.
The next step would be to bring the instrument to your lips. The most common habit in all wind instruments, which I also had, is to bring your head towards the instrument instead of the instrument to your head. This causes us to lose our head balance, collapsing the entire spine and the upper torso. However, remember that our arms are very mobile and we can bring the instrument to our head instead. To break our tension pattern of arms and upper torso, we can start to move the arm by flexing from the elbows, instead of moving the arm as a block. So if you want to realize what your habit is, lift the instrument a couple of times and see what you do with your head at the same time as moving your arms. Up and down two or three times. Now, instead of doing that, bend from the elbows and then bring the instrument to your lips. You can practice this movement if it is unusual for you in a very simple way: with your right arm touch your left cheek on your face. Notice how we first bend from the elbow activating the fingerprints.
Again, this may seem like postural work, fixing the body in a specific posture, which may look like tension. However, when we know where our upright poise is, we can move to return to it whenever we want without excessive tension or shortening the torso. This movement also has to be practiced because the mouthpiece needs stable contact with the lips all the time while playing. If we move the head, the arms have to follow that movement to maintain stable contact. In addition, each note needs a slightly different angle of the instrument. We can adapt that angle easily with the arms at the same time as moving the head. Because this contact needs to be stable when we practice movement at the beginning the sound will fluctuate, change or even break and come back. But this is how we can learn which parts of our body have to be mobile to keep the sound constant and stable. That means air always coming out, which means mobile ribs, and the space in the soft palate always in the desired position to maintain the tuning, and everything around it flexible so that it does not alter the pitch. If we want to practice this, first with the instrument, only make contact with the lips but without producing sound. Move your wrists slightly around without losing contact with the finger holes and with the support points of the hand with which you mainly hold the instrument. Rotate slowly one shoulder girdle backward and then forwards, as you rotate the other shoulder backward and then forwards. Move one leg in circles from the hip joint. Now move the other leg in circles from the hip joint, allowing movement also on the foot. Move your head down starting with your chin to your chest and follow that movement. Just a little bit is enough, you don't need to flex your whole body, and come back up. That is a movement called rolling de spine. The same exercise is performed by making a sound with a note. This way we learn what range of movement we can do while playing and we can increase it. Even if there are alterations in the sound, which may not be a good idea for a concert, we are practicing to be ready to move, which will create mobility in the joints throughout the body, preventing fixation what can lead to pain. The elasticity of body tissue will also help to create a whole body resonance with less effort.
Sound production: Lips and face tension
We need air for the lips to vibrate, but the lips don’t vibrate just because of the air. Try to vibrate the lips with relaxed lips; you will probably look like a pufferfish exhaling. The lips and the muscles around them need tension to create vibration while the air is flowing between them. But we can have tension there, not too much tension on the face, and still have a free neck, so the head is on the top of the spine, and the neck is free to move. It’s about finding a balance.
An exercise that I learned from Gebhard David at the beginning of my studies with the cornetto consists of maintaining a certain tension in the embouchure inside the mouthpiece (and the instrument) and beginning to exhale, not producing sound. Without stopping the air at any time and breathing when you need to, close the lip very slowly until sound begins to be created and open it again to stop producing sound. We close slowly again until the sound starts to happen and open slowly. This way we can learn what tension is necessary in the lips. We can do this by minimizing the movement in our face in front of the mirror. We can learn to move the lips without frowning, creating excessive tension around the eyes and forehead that we don't need to play. The eyes do not have to be relaxed, they are active and alert, but not holding tension. This also helps to create internal space in the oral cavities.
Oral cavities to open the sound and make dynamics.
The following video helped me understand, practice, and improve my control of the soft palate, especially the ng-ah exercise.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phuaeXjWpSQ
Copyright: New York Vocal Coaching
The inward arching of the palate and tongue and the level of tension in the facial muscles can be achieved in an active but gentle way by thinking of something funny that makes us smile. Or also by saying the sound "ñet" out loud or humming with "m", with the tongue resting behind the lower teeth to create a natural curvature. If we are worried about playing the cornetto or achieving a result (end-gaining) the expression on our face will probably be one of concern and it will require much more effort to create inner space. We can also do the ng-ah exercise in front of a mirror with our mouth open, lighting up the inside of the mouth with a flashlight. This way we can see how the back of the tongue and the soft palate move. This is how we open the sound and the first step to create resonance. The next step would be the previous exercise with the cornetto "sound-no sound" with the lips, while at the same time as we close the lips we raise the soft palate with the tongue arched upwards. When practicing this for the first time, the attention will surely not be on efficient breathing or other parts of the body. This is normal and with time everything can be incorporated into a complete whole-body technique.
To connect that head resonance with the rest of the torso, we can also use the “sound - no sound” exercise. When we close the lips to create vibration and the palate and tongue are curved upwards creating space, we can practice releasing the hips without collapsing them forward or pushing them back. When we do this, all the muscles of the back widen and lengthen together with the neck, which produces a deeper resonance in the body without the need to force anything in the chest, which, being flexible and mobile, will resonate naturally. To transfer this resonance to the legs, we simply unlock the knees and ankles, which will act as support for the whole body. This will also prevent excessive tension in the throat since the entire neck section will have its natural length.
Intonation: oral cavities, arm tension, airflow.
We can start the sound-no-sound exercise with the central G note. Once we have the sound, we can move the note up and down in pitch to find where the G that we want is. The soft palate can be moved in synchrony with the tongue up and down, and the jaw can also be flexible. By exploring these two parts, the soft palate and the jaw, we can find the space necessary for each note. This will also give us flexibility in the jaw while maintaining a flexible tension in the lips, preventing fixing the temporomandibular joint. How do we move the palate up or down? It's something we can learn to notice with the ng sound too. Think about a puffer fish swimming or something fun for you to smile, so you don't look like that fish. Then sing a random note that is comfortable for your range and do it with the ng sound, lips open. Move the pitch a little bit up and a little bit down by doing a glissando. As the tongue is attached to the palate with ng, they will both have to move at the same time to go up or down. Then we can continue to do it with the "ah" sound but with the same technique, moving the pitch up and down with a glissando. This little exercise simply serves to gain awareness of what happens inside the mouth, since with the cornetto it is more complicated because the lips are closed.
Our tension patterns can also affect intonation. If, while holding the instrument, our arms do not have the appropriate muscle tone to be light and mobile, the downward pressure they exert on the torso and neck makes it extremely difficult to release the palate upwards. These are two contradictory directions that must then be compensated for with extra effort. This extra pressure can also come from below, from the pressure exerted by the fingers and the whole arm. Personally, it was useful for me to learn to hold the instrument with the index finger, thumb, and little finger of my right hand, creating these three points of support, applying a certain pressure, but with a mobile and flexible wrist, thus being able to move the whole arm structure. This also allows me to adapt the angle of the instrument to personal needs, depending on the teeth of each person, the lips, finding a suitable contact between the lips and the mouthpiece (without excessive tension but with enough so that the air does not escape) and also matching the position of the palate for each note.
Mobility in the whole arm structure will also help to prevent patterns of tension affecting the chest and neck, as these can also affect intonation. Mobility and lightness in the arms will also allow us to feel the vibration of the instrument better when we play, giving us more feedback on our sound and intonation. In addition, we will be freer and more flexible in the neck, which will give flexibility to the entire internal space of the mouth, being able to depend exclusively on it to create the desired intonation, without the need to include excessive muscular effort in the arms to correct each note.
We also need the ribs to be constantly in motion so the breathing can work. With the arms we can significantly restrict that movement and we will have to compensate even more for the air to come out of our lungs.
Holding the instrument with a mobile and light tension in the entire arm structure may look relaxed from the listener's point of view, but it is important to understand that there is actual tension there. It is simply a more appropriate tension for the task we are performing. Relaxed arms would mean the instrument falling to the floor.
Independent movement of the fingers
To help achieve optimal muscle tone in the arms, we also need to learn how to move the fingers independently of the rest of the body. This can be practiced first without playing. We bring the instrument to our lips but without playing, just lip contact, and we move the fingers with the actual fingers of each note, maintaining our attention also on our head, neck, and upper torso, and if we shorten our spine together with the hips. For any note, it is possible to only move the fingers from the elbows without including activity in the shoulders, head, neck, or hips. Then in short periods, we produce sound with the notes we are making with the fingers, keeping that attention on independent fingers, light arms, and head, neck, and back releasing.
When we play fast, we tend to tense everything up, which affects breathing, sound quality, and intonation. With independent finger movement, the torso can remain cool and stable, which stabilizes air flow and sound. With less tension in the hands and arms, all the small joints of the hands can also move faster, improving our speed when needed and preventing pain in that zone.
Articulation with air
As breathing means always movement of the ribs together with the diaphragm, the psoas muscle releasing from the legs, and the lungs constantly changing size, that also means that each articulation, each attack, and each moment of each note is always different, so that we can maintain a uniform sound. This is how we maintain constant air pressure so that the pitch does not vary when articulating. Trying to maintain the sound by keeping the body in the same state will cause fixation, interfering with the movement we need for breathing and making it more difficult to move the sound in pitch or dynamics. Fixing the movement of the tongue in a certain way for tonguing (whether T, D, R, K, or L) is also not a good idea, since, as we have seen, the pitch depends to a large extent on the space created between the soft palate and the tongue. The curvature of the tongue varies from note to note and the consonant we use in that articulation must adapt to that curvature.
This is something that took a lot of practice, since the T sound in my mother tongue, Spanish, is quite strong and uses a lot of tongue tension, which causes the tongue to be too strong in the sound with the cornetto. A goal-oriented approach would have been to try to control the movement of the tongue with additional tension, which would cause more tension in the entire oral cavity and on the lips. The approach with AT consisted, first of all, of playing it in my usual way and observing it. In this way I was able to notice that the excessive tension in the tongue was changing the space between the tongue and the soft palate, altering the sound, and I was able to allow the tongue to articulate the desired consonant while maintaining that space, without needing to alter the relationship of the head, neck and back.
The first attack when starting to play a piece can be simply one more if the body is ready to move, the breath to function and the pitch you want to do is clear in your oral cavities with the necessary lips tension.
Musicality through Alexander Technique: spontaneity in the present moment
“Do or do not. There is no try” (Master Yoda). With AT we don’t prepare for a music performance by fixing it and us, but we practice being able to do what we want to do in that exact moment of time and space. This is of course a very useful skill for an Early Music player since we play each concert in very different locations and acoustics, and we have to adapt the volume, articulation to the environment, and the timbre to the large variety of ensembles we play with. If we try to play “right”, we will fix our bodies and our performance. But we can be present, offering music to the audience, accepting our vulnerability. We also want to control what happens with the sound, and for that, “it is good to tell the story, not to be the story when playing music”. Otherwise, we would become overwhelmed by the music, what will affect the sound quality. We do music with our body, and the body can only be in the present moment; if we develop better body awareness, we become more present, and there is less chance to worry about the future that we don’t know or the past we can’t change (for example the consequences of our performance or that last note that was a bit too high).