{"id":930,"date":"2013-05-27T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/blog\/?p=930"},"modified":"2020-08-31T07:28:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T12:28:31","slug":"thoughts-on-technique-mechanics-and-adjustment-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/thoughts-on-technique-mechanics-and-adjustment-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Technique, Mechanics and Adjustment Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thoughts on Technique, Mechanics and Adjustment Points<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

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by Stanley Alexandrowicz<\/a> (DMA, Manhattan School of Music)<\/p>\n

Correct and efficient technique is the “starting point” and pre-requisite for any type of musicality or interpretation. Technique should be thought of as a “higher level” stemming from the root-source of “mechanics.”<\/p>\n

Mechanics may be defined as “the efficient use of the hands, fingers, muscles, posture, etc. to attain a fluid movement” which, is the pre-requisite for Technique – which may defined as “use of the player’s skills to express the stated and unstated (inherent) features of a musical composition as directed by the composer.” Efficient Mechanics is essentially based on the proper use of basic geometry.<\/p>\n

There are many “adjustment points” a player may make when approaching his\/her instrument. These vary from instrument to instrument and must be understood (especially by the teacher) to “situate correctly” the student in relation to his instrument. A flutist has a relatively limited number of adjustment points, as the flute is held stable in the hands, whereas the piano has inherently more: the height and width of the seat, the distance the player sits from the piano, the position\/posture of the shoulders, the curvature at the elbow, etc.<\/p>\n

The guitar in fact has even more “adjustment points” as the guitar is moveable in relation to the player\u2019s body, and can even be additionally adjusted with a smaller or larger scale-length, fingerboard width, etc… It can be raised or lowered (in relation to the player’s body) and altered by the neck-angle (in relation to the floor). Some players choose to hold the guitar in an almost “cello-like” posture in contrast to the (more) “standard” Bream or Segovia pose. The guitar may be altered these days even by the addition of an “arm-rest” (employed by British builder Gary Southwell on his ultra-modern A-Series guitars), and the numerous “foot-stool alternatives” often give the player a greater degree of “angle adjustment” in his relation to the instrument.<\/p>\n

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Practice-Right : Wrist Alignment and Position Correction Aid<\/h2>\n

The device Practice-Right<\/a> (developed by Serbian guitarist Stevan Jovic) significantly addresses one of the major “Adjustment Areas” (right-hand stance), and, especially for the novice player, will help him\/her develop a good habit of maintaining an efficient right-hand position from the start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Practice-Right

Practice-Right – Wrist Alignment and Position Correction Aid<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As we all should know, the muscles themselves essentially are employed by habit (as should be established by the teacher) – what one does repeatedly becomes “the norm” (whether good or bad) and the “muscular habit” feels comfortable (whether or not it is maximally efficient). This is the basis of “Alexander Technique” – the efficient, logical, and natural use of the muscles and body.<\/p>\n

All this being said, “sitting and positioning oneself with the guitar” is a very complex matter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thoughts on Technique, Mechanics and Adjustment Points by Stanley Alexandrowicz (DMA, Manhattan School of Music) Correct and efficient technique is the “starting point” and pre-requisite for any type of musicality or interpretation. Technique should be thought of as a “higher level” stemming from the root-source of “mechanics.” Mechanics may be defined as “the efficient use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical-guitar-strings","category-teaching-and-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3163,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/3163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}