RE: [ET2] Easy?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: maalberse [mailto:maalberse_at_v9M6KDBWXdgxDN3UGgT6bAWWQoAyp4wtYt4SvWwyl-KLYWjCU1oUooLCPhoW-tlwWo_-GTO6f.yahoo.invalid]
> Sent: 11 February 2003 07:08
> To: emotrance2_at_yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [ET2] Easy?
>
>
> <<Oh dear Silvia, I usually hang out in lurkdom but I
> am so curious about this I just had to come out. If
> I'm understanding this last part correctly, you play
> guitar but have some "bad habits so ingrained that it
> is virtually impossible to undo them now" Now it
> appears as if there might be a few tightly held beliefs
> in there and what I am so curious about is if you could
> feel where those bad habits are so ingrained in your
> body and well, mmm, well just EmoTrance them???
> Is that possible?
> --Mary>>
>

Mary, the problem with these kinds of things is that they feel
right - through endless practise - even though they are
inefficient in the long run. They don't feel wrong or in any way
problematic - but they are.

Think Alexander Technique.

Slouching feels right and good but its wrong and has repercussions
and structural limitations.

Also, as my focus is on singing and playing rather than on
correcting the structural problems there is very little motivation
to tap for these things, or to even endeavour to correct them.

I am slouching big time here and my focus is on writing this mail,
NOT on correcting my posture.

And herein lies the "trying to pull yourself from the swamp by
your own hair" problem.

I don't see either the wrongful guitar playing or the slouching as
a problem because they appear natural to me and there are so many
other things that bug the living daylight out of me to be dealing
with in a priority setting.

Chances are if the time was indeed spend to correct these
structural imbalances, some of these other many things that bug
the living daylights out of me and which are nothing but symptoms
would disappear also.

But when, pray, did any human ever spend time in structural
endeavours just because they were there?

I don't think I could begin to resolve this by myself. Let's stay
with the guitar playing metaphor.

I've done some tapping on some of the most bugging things and
they've nicely alleviated to a point where I can live with them -
at which point they drop out of conscious awareness and other,
more pressing things turn up.

What I would need to make some serious headway would be *another*
who would say, ok, no, a betterment from 7 out of 10 on the
bugging scale to 5 out of ten isn't good enough. Let's focus here
and get the thing first to a 0 and then turn it into the energised
end state breakthrough. Come on Silvia, let's do it.

I would also need another to point out the things that I don't
even know are problems because I am unaware of them - I can only
guess. Like in golf I'm sure there are perfectly observable
tensening up's and breaks in the smooth flowing of the movements;
holding of breath when there shouldn't be, unaligned neck
movements, weird eye accessing that gives away brief lacks of
concentration, "where do you feel that in your body" when you come
up to a chord that's more difficult - well I could go on for hours
but I think you get the drift.

And the best thing of all - 90% of all of that could have been
*entirely* avoided in the first place if I'd asked someone who
knew what was going on before buying my first ever guitar for some
help!

I didn't know anything about it, bought some old thing from a
second hand shop, thinking I'd save myself some money. The bridge
was about a foot high and left me to this day with clamping down
even on electric guitars that need just the lightest finger touch
like I was trying to squash a landrover in vice into a small
square parcel of metal!

This in turn makes certain chord shapes basically impossible
*unless* you compensate with some incredibly weird finger
positions and the whole thing is in highest tension - and that is
just *one little aspect* of the whole deal.

And so, being entirely human (apart from a few stray strands of
stray DNA :-) it is a great deal easier to just pick it up and
play it *badly* as I am used to and because it now feels right to
play like that.

Moral of the tale?

There are many.

SF

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Received on Tue Feb 11 2003 - 11:06:27 GMT