Just Play Naturally: An account of her study with Pablo Casals in the 1950's and her discovery of the resonance between his teaching and the principles of the Alexander Technique (Paperback)

~ Vivien Mackie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

...the insights into Casals' teaching...are thought-provoking and fascinating. Well worth reading for every cellist--really, for any musician. -- STRINGS, August 2002 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

"Just Play Naturally" by Vivien Mackie, in conversation with Joe Armstrong, goes very deep into the creative process by recounting the steps by which Pablo Casals taught Mackie, as a young woman, to go beyond all her formal training in order to become a r

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (May 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1425708692
• ISBN-13: 978-1425708696
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #22 in

  Books > Health, Mind & Body > Exercise & Fitness > Alexander Technique

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brought into Being, August 12, 2002

By	Jeffrey Mitchell (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Play Naturally (Paperback)

For most of us, Pablo Casals exists only through recordings. It's wonderful to encounter him alive through the living voice of Vivien Mackie--to imagine her in a high window-ledge in Prades as he made his magnificent recording of the Schumann Cello Concerto, to hear him regretfully but kindly telling this brilliant new student, "You do not know what you are doing," to learn how she learns his great lesson: "Do only what is necessary." Often, she found, "doing what was necessary meant doing a great deal more than I had ever done before," but sometimes it meant doing a great deal less. Her conversations with Joe Armstrong show us that "doing more" must include a patient but insistently revealing discipline that can allow the musician to "see all the colours and shades" of the music, "and all the texture, where it tightens, where it loosens and where the turning moments are,...to take time to examine it and bring it all into being." "Doing less" means "getting rid of clutter"--not just "questionable intonation,...and inadequate articulation, and any sort of doubt" in the playing, but also, and chiefly, any habitual clutter of mind and body that might prevent a release of "life and energy." The lesson applies beyond music.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a typical Alexander Technique book for musicians, August 30, 2007

By	Jonny Mar (Sao Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews

I've been with the Alexander Technique with over a year now and during this period I have read many books and articles on the subject along with specific approaches on how to apply it to music playing. This book goes beyond the Technique and has very little *direct* mention of it (which I personally loved). It is based more on Vivien Mackie's experience with reconnecting herself to her instrument and a deepened, if not different, approach in HOW she learned, play and interpret music.

Some of the principles she learned from Casals *resonate* with some principles of the Alexander Technique. But as Nelly Ben-Or, pianist and AT teacher, says "in music making so many different elements have to come together and an improved, consciously directed use is but one of them". I have a DVD with a Vivien Mackie masterclass and she goes on by saying that "Through intelligent training of something other than the head and neck you can actually achieve the use, I believe". This is clearly exposed in this book. How Casals brought life back to her fingers without the head-neck-back experience of the Alexander Technique. The Technique is about removing unwanted habits that can help music playing but these bad habits usually show up because of poor music technique itself. So removing the "clutter", as Mackie puts it, does not solve technical limitations as AT teachers are not trained to give music technique. One of the things I learned from this book is the importance of how the player relates to the instrument and how much understanding of this relationship is necessary to overcome plateaus in the learning curve.

Also, one of the things I loved about the book is that it doesn't have a patronising "I am the panacea" attitude like some other AT books I have read. The ideas presented in the book were real experiences and therefore very practical and not just another theoretical "apply the AT principles contained in this book and the right thing will do itself". Some elements here have reinforced certain ideas that I read from Nelly Ben-Or in that music making goes beyond simple mechanical execution and beyond the Alexander Technique. In fact, I don't consider this book an AT book at all because it is written with very little direct mentioning of the Technique and in a language anyone can understand. This is truly a life experience in print.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Natural Education, September 16, 2002

By	alexander murray (u of Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Play Naturally (Paperback)

My problem with this book is that it contains so much. Joseph Campbell would occasionally begin a talk with"The greatest truths cannot be spoken, the lesser are always misunderstood." Before you read on, listen to the Casals recordings of Bach Suites, and if possible place yourself in the hands of a teacher of Alexander's work. In her quest for the art of "Playing Naturally" Vivien was guided by one remarkable teacher and the spirit of another. Alexander had died by the time her three years with Casals were over. Casals metaphors were drawn from Nature, Alexander found the natural "use of the self" in his search for the skill to give expression to the genius of Shakespeare.
Vivien's lesson by lesson account of her relationship with Casals is unique in biographical writings on Casals. Accounts of lessons with Alexander are available from a variety of distinguished sources. This is the first time two such important influences have been united in the sympathetic environment of a conversation between friends. It is a valuable contribution to available writing on the Alexander Work and Music.