It is wise to take good advice, even if it comes from a most unlikely source. Pat recently bought a pillow which had a large sticker on it with excellent advice to all pipers who plan to perform at their best.
FOR BEST PERFORMANCE
PLEASE PLUMP UP
BEFORE USE.
******
TURN, TURN AND TURN AGAIN.
I have spent most of my piping life trying to ensure that I am as relaxed as possible when piping. I well recall those early days of gripping my chanter like grim death; grasping it so tightly that it left white channels beneath the tips of my fingers and the imprint of each finger hole at the bottom of each channel. And whenever I teach anyone piping I encourage them to relax their fingers and I teach several nifty wheezes that can help them. It is perfectly logical.... if your fingers are tense, then so will be your arms and shoulders... your whole body is involved in using energy that ultimately is reducing your ability to play the music with fluidity. Which is what I assume every musician wants to achieve.
For the last two years I have treated myself to weekly Alexander Technique lessons and this is helping me observe how I use my body in everything I involve it with. I am now much more aware that there are ways that I use my body that are not beneficial to me.... in fact they often are detrimental. Who is it who repeatedly bites the blow pipe tip on all my own pipes? Of course it is me. It is fascinating to reassess all the ways that I choose to stand and move my body; all the habits I have acquired without considering if they benefit me.
I am a self taught wood turner. I started when I was about 12. It used to be potentially hazardous back in the days when I was using a crude home made lathe and jabbing decidedly dodgy and blunt turning tools at a bit of wood that was whizzing round at over 1000 rpm and hoping for the best. At any moment there might have been be a sudden jolt and a spinning chunk of wood could free itself from its moorings and fly into the air. It is not surprising that in the early days I tended to approach the process with trepidation. But I now very seldom have scary moments. I have a solid lathe, extremely sharp tools and after 33 years of professional wood turning am pretty confident in how to use them safely and efficiently. However my body is still stuck in habits acquired when turning wood was scary.
There is no activity in one's life where the Alexander Technique cannot be consciously applied and I have only just begun to consider how I use my body when I am turning wood. My teacher came to the workshop for a lesson to observe how I use the lathe and to help me find ways of operating the lathe that might be more beneficial. And it has been a real 'eye opener' as she drew my attention to the amount of tension I hold in my shoulders, arms, hands... she even spotted the tension I hold in my jaw! I tend to grip my turning tool like grim death..... Now that I have begun to notice it myself I am in a position to do something about letting it go... to break these habits that I set up within me back in the days I was always aware that things could get nasty and dangerous in a split second.
It is so obvious and so exciting! There is so much to unlearn.... and new choices to make in my posture at the lathe. I suspect that I have tended to stand upright with my feet together and my neck bent down over the piece I am turning. I now see that it should come as no surprise that I sometimes get back problems. I am now busy experimenting with new foot positions, and bending from my knees and hips.
And last week, even though I was busy concentrating on changing my habitual posture, I observed that my turning was going really well... I don't think that is a coincidence. And I wonder why it has taken me 33 years to notice the similarities there are between playing a musical instrument and turning wood?
Ah well... right now it is time to wander back down to the workshop, thinking FORWARD and UP as I go!