(This article originally appeared in Saxophone Today, March/April 2016.)
In a recent saxophone quartet coaching session, I had a group sight read a string quartet transcription that had a somewhat challenging little passage that passed around the group. Each time a new voice had to play the stream of articulated sixteenth notes, I took note of something that was consistent across all the players. As soon as the lick started, the saxophonist leaned forward, the shoulders came up, everything tensed, and, as one might predict, it did not go well. This stress posture is seemingly universal. Where does it come from, and why do take on this physical position that makes playing the saxophone even more difficult?
When I was a younger man, I had terrible headaches. I eventually ended up doing biofeedback therapy, which proved to be incredibly helpful. The doctor connected sensors to my forehead that measured electrical activity in the muscles, translating into muscular contraction, ergo, stress. The electrodes fed a tone generator that produced a pitch that went down when the muscles relaxed. I practiced progressive muscle relaxation, and sure enough, even relaxing in my feet and legs produced a measurable (and audible) lowering of tension in the forehead. It’s no wonder that we get headaches from any sort of excess tension.
Another helpful treatment involved a fingertip thermometer. The doctor explained that humans have evolved to protect the core organs from perceived threats. Imagine, if a wild animal attacks a person, that person could potentially survive the loss of a limb, but a bite to the torso could easily be fatal. In reaction to stress, the body sends a rush of blood to the internal organs, and this can easily be measured as a drop in temperature in the extremities. Nerves can give us cold hands, enough to be measured with a thermometer. The doctor gave me mental exercises to warm the hands. Much to my amazement, deep breathing and imagining a warm fireplace was very effective at raising the temperature of my fingertips. From a headache perspective, the rushing of blood to the core causes sudden changes in the blood vessels of the head and can cause migraines.
It occurred to me that the raising of the shoulders, the collapsing of the chest, and the leaning forward are all related to this stress-induced need to protect the thorax and abdomen. Every day, I see students tense up under pressure and assume this stress posture. If a bear was attacking, this position would probably be wise, but it certainly doesn’t help one to execute a complicated musical passage. In fact, this physical reaction chokes off the air, constricts voicing and resonance, and interrupts the smooth motion of the fingers. Therefore, we need to actually unlearn this reaction that is deeply embedded in our DNA. We need to relax, and we need to relax the most when it is the least natural thing to do. It is possible to overcome this natural tendency, but it requires disciplined practice.
It should go without saying that we must first learn to relax in a controlled environment. For many of us, this is hard enough! The modern world does not really encourage us to be quiet and concentrate on being relaxed. For starters, try sitting upright in a comfortable chair. Start by tensing your toes, and then relaxing them. Work through every muscle group that you can identify – first tensing, then releasing. Go through the muscles of your legs, your hips, your belly, and your chest. Squeeze your hands into fists and let them go. Raise your shoulders and drop your arms at your sides. Tense and release your neck, your throat, you tongue. Scrunch up your face and then release. As you do this, remember to take deep inhalations and long, slow exhalations. When you have gone through all your muscles, reassess the way you feel and look for any unresolved stress in your body. Take a few minutes to really experience the relaxation, and try to burn it in to your memory. With practice, you will get better, and quicker at achieving this feeling of centered calm and physical ease.
Once you can achieve this feeling of relaxed stillness, start your saxophone practice with a quick session of progressive relaxation. Once you are there, play some long tones, and then move on to scales and technical passages. As you practice, continually assess your level of physical stress. Strive for good posture and loose muscles. I find it helpful to think about soft hands, heavy and warm. Never play with cold hands or any tightness! Work your way from easy and familiar things to more challenging technical exercises and faster tempos and articulations. I like to do this with the “mechanism” exercises from Larry Teal’s The Saxophonist’s Workbook. Make the purpose of your practice to stay relaxed. Bring the saxophone into your world of good posture and calm relaxation. Never lean into the horn, squeeze keys, or let the shoulders rise. This is easier said than done, which is where the disciplined practice comes in.
It isn’t always easy to just “fake” a stressful situation. This can require some creativity. I used to practice reading tone rows (“tropes”) from Yusef Lateef’s Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns with the metronome, gradually increasing the tempo. As the notes come faster and faster, I would focus on keeping relaxed and allowing wrong notes to slip out, rather than to clench up and fall out of time. These days, I do a scale practice that my students coined “The Super Fly,” where I gradually work from eighth notes to triplets, sixteenths, and groupings of five, six, seven, etc. As the notes go faster and faster, I focus on keeping totally relaxed, to the point of barely closing the pads. It helps to think about finger technique as lifting, rather than pressing down.
I have recently become a serious student of calligraphy, for music, handwriting, and art. I read a quote from an 19thcentury master of Spencerian handwriting that said something like, “Remember to breathe as you write.” I chuckled when I caught myself trying to draw a long flourish, only to blow it because I was tensed up and, you guessed it, holding my breath! To live is to breathe, and relaxed and natural breathing is the soul of good technique, whether one is playing the saxophone, driving a racecar, or painting at the canvas. A concerted effort in learning to easily access that place of centered tranquility will undoubtedly result in a better chance of maintaining that calm when the difficult passage comes at you. In a future issue, I will refer to some significant research being conducted by my current students on performance-related stress and measurements of the stress hormone cortisol. For now, practice well, and don’t forget to breathe! §
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