BETTER PLAYING THROUGH BETTER POSTURE

I've been teaching woodwind students of all ages for so long now that I can tell how a student will perform -- by their posture.

I've seen it time and again, beginning from the time that the student walks into the practice studio.

How you sit at the drum kit, the piano, the clarinet, flute, sax, guitar, and on and on can determine how you will approach the instrument and the music.

With woodwinds of course, posture affects air flow, which in turn affects intonation and a host of other sonic qualities.

The good news? That you can, as Tony Robbins puts it, change your state. In this case, by sitting up, or by standing straight and holding the woodwind instrument at the correct angle so as not to choke the reed.

Case in point: a beginning nine-year-old clarinet student came with a heavy slouch. Repeated requests from me to sit up got ignored. The student could only hit a few notes, and they were badly out of tune. This went on for weeks until mom stepped in and physically lifted the kid up in his seat.

That's when things changed. From that moment on, the kid could make good notes, which reinforced the very notion of playing clarinet. To this day, the student still sits up straight at lessons.

And that's only one example.

A word about appearance: for my advanced readers who are out in public, have you noticed that when you dress like a rock star, you sound like a rock star?  At least, more than when you show up in your baggies and slaps and a Hawaiian shirt, right?

Not to mention smiling on stage.

To wrap it up, here are three things that will improve your playing: stand or sit up, dress for success, and, now and then smile.

performance, hints, better woodwind playing, private sax lessons, energy, self-image, mental state