bill plake

This is Part 2 of a 2-part series with Saxophonist, Certified Alexander Teacher, and Wellness Coach, Bill Plake.

You can catch up on Part 1 HERE.

Bill Plake works as an Alexander Technique teacher, performance coach, and professional musician.

He is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, maintaining a busy private practice working with musicians of many styles and genres, including members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the LA Opera Orchestra and some of the finest sessions musicians in Los Angeles.

Bill is also an NCCA Certified Health Coach and is certified as a functional fineness specialist, and as a corrective exercise specialist. Helping musicians of all ability levels function better, feel better and perform better is his passion.

The link to his full biography, along with more Resources for this episode, is on our website.

This podcast is sponsored by Rovner Products www.rovnerproducts.com

We spoke about:

🎷 What is the Alexander Technique

🎷 The biggest misinformation out there about articulation 

🎷 The biggest obstacle all musicians face

🎷 How you should pay attention to what you’re doing when you play

🎷 What embouchure dystonia is and what to do about it

🎷 and much more!

We are so grateful to our Patrons, who support the show and help keep the podcast going.

In this Part 2 episode with Bill, Patrons get access to this Bonus Material

• how arthritis affects functionality – how we can function with it
• the anatomy of our thumbs and how we get tendonopathy in the thumbs
• how we should hold our thumbs
• the purpose of the right thumb hook
• all the things saxophonists do that make it harder to play

CLICK HERE for access to this, plus tons of Bonus Content not seen anywhere else.

As a musician, Bill has performed on saxophone throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

He has worked with several creative music and modern jazz luminaries such as Charlie Haden, Ravi Coltrane, James Newton, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, John Carter, Michael Vlatkovich and others, and has been favorably reviewed in such publications as Downbeat, Jazz Times, the Los Angeles Times, Cadence and the New York Times.

He is the composer of 10 ebooks on jazz improvisation pedagogy, and teaches the Alexander Technique at the AMDA Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.

Bill lives in South Pasadena, California with his wife and daughter.

The link to his full biography, along with more Resources for this episode, is on our website.

This podcast is sponsored by Rovner Products

In this episode, we talked about:

🎷 The Bartok-Monk connection

🎷 The biggest sound he've ever heard on flute

🎷 Two types of improvisation

🎷 How Bill approaches learning a new standard

🎷 Why Chris Potter amazes him

🎷 Playing for enjoyment vs being technical

🎷 and much more!

Patrons that support the podcast are getting bonus material on behind-the-scenes conversations, searchable transcript of this video, tons of bonus videos from our previous guests, and so much more!

CLICK HERE for access to this, plus tons of Bonus Content not seen anywhere else.