Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the ways music makes our lives better and spotlight the resources you can use to enhance your life with music. My guest today is an international award winning violinist and holistic double certified Alexander Technique coach. Jennifer Roig-Francoli has been featured at Carnegie Hall and in Time Magazine. She’s been an educator on university faculties, and she recently wrote a number one Amazon bestseller book called Make Great Music with Ease: The Secret to Smarter Practice, Confident Performance, and Living a Happier Life. Jennifer’s coaching methods empower creatives with tools for artistic success and personal fulfillment. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Jennifer.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:00:49] Thank you so much, Mindy. I’m really excited to talk with you today.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:53] I’m looking forward to this. Tell us, starting out just in a nutshell, what is the Alexander Technique for listeners who might not be familiar?
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:01:02] Sure. The Alexander Technique is a really comprehensive mind body system that helps people with all kinds of difficulties in life anything from pain relief to performance anxiety and skills improvement. So it’s really for anybody. But I specialize in in coaching musicians since that’s who I am. I’m a musician myself, as you said. Sure.
Mindy Peterson: [00:01:29] Yeah. And you sort of answered my next question a little bit. And that was who is this book for? When I hear the phrase Alexander Technique, I do immediately think of musicians. And that’s probably just because when I first became acquainted with Alexander Technique, it was through a presentation at my local Music Teachers Association meeting. So it was it was in the context of music teachers, and the presentation was geared toward music teachers. So that’s what I think of it as. But the endorsements in your book and your writing in the book is very clear that your book and Alexander Technique are not just for musicians. So talk to us about who your book is for, who the audience is.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:02:15] Yeah. Thank you. Um, the book is geared specifically towards musicians, but I’ve had so many people tell me that it’s really not just for musicians, and it’s for really it’s for human beings. And anybody who wants to live a more conscious, aware, healthier lifestyle. And, um, it makes sense because the originator of the Alexander Technique actually was an actor. But like you said, you found out about it through music. And I’d say most people in the world have found found out about the Alexander Technique through the arts. Most musicians have heard of it. Actors have definitely heard of it. And I’d say probably most of the famous actors that anybody’s heard of has studied Alexander. They have studied Alexander technique.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:07] Oh, interesting.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:03:08] In fact, it’s required for actors at the Juilliard School. And so, yeah, creatives and artists have heard of the Alexander Technique. But truly, even though Alexander was an actor and solved his performance issues with his discoveries, he very soon realized that the problems he was solving in himself were actually universal to all human beings. And then he started teaching all kinds of people, not just actors. Um, and he was teaching them to think differently, to get different results in their bodies and in their lives. Hmm.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:46] Interesting. Well, I know one of the endorsements in your book is from a psychiatrist, and, um, I’m trying to think if I can find her quote here. I here it is. She said. You do not need to be a musician to benefit from this beautiful book. I am a psychiatrist of over 30 years. I believe that if more people understood Alexander Technique, especially through Jennifer’s insightful lens, there would be less anxiety, depression, and struggle with body image. And then you’ve also you designed a successful pilot study on the Alexander Technique to help surgeons while performing surgery, laparoscopic surgery. So that’s another population that obviously this has been hugely helpful for. I have a sister who’s an equestrian, and I was really thinking about her a lot as I read your book, because I thought, this really sounds like something that she would be interested in that would resonate with her. She does dressage with horses, and that really is an art form, you know, once you become familiar with that, it’s she and I have fun kind of talking shop, even though she’s not necessarily a musician. There’s so much overlap in our worlds, and I know nothing about horses other than what I’ve learned through her. But still, I think there’s so much overlap, and I think that this book would be something that would really be of interest to her.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:05:06] Yeah. It’s so interesting that you’re mentioning that and you’re spot on. In fact, there are a lot of Alexander teachers who do help equestrians. Really? Um, yeah. And and what I’m thinking of when you’re saying that is I’m so interested in the essence of the Alexander Technique. Like, what is it, really? And ultimately, it’s about relationships, whether it’s. And it all starts about your relationship with yourself. But then, you know, as a musician, it’s about my relationship to my instrument and to my students and to my audiences and my family members. It’s like how we relate to people and the world, and that includes animals, you know, how do you really even to a horse? And the interesting thing about animals and small children, I’ll have to say, is that they’re so sensitive and they pick up on everything that we do. And so as a musician, we are, you know, we’re using unless you’re a singer, of course. And then your voice is your instrument. But we’re using instruments to express ourselves. And so we need to learn actually how to be really, really sensitive to responding to the instrument and to respond to our audiences. How do we relate? And basically, how do we get in the way of great communication? And if you’re, you know, you’re working with a horse, the horse is going to pick up on all the slightest body movements and tone of voice and all the the thoughts. Ultimately, we pick up on other people’s thoughts and body language. So we need to learn how to be really, really conscious about what we’re actually communicating and conveying to other people. To me, that’s what the Alexander Technique is really about. It’s about getting to know yourself, your habits, what are you actually thinking, and how do your thoughts influence your own movements and the people around you? Yeah. Fascinating. Yes. Tired of this stuff?
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:10] Well, everything that you’re saying, I was just like, yes, yes, yes. I mean, I am blown away when I hear my sister talk about working with these horses and read articles about it, where just the slightest movement by the rider is communicating so much to the horse. And when you said that they’re picking up even on thoughts. I mean, she said that and it just blows my mind. But then when you mentioned children, too, I remember when my kids were younger, one of my kids, I thought of as sort of like the canary in the coal mine for me, because it’s like, if anything, if I was struggling internally with something, she would just pick up on it and I could just tell how she was relating to me that she was picking up on something. It was like, wow, that’s amazing.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:07:54] So they have far fewer barriers. They’ve put up fewer protective walls. Yeah. We adults have really learned to mask our feelings and to unfortunately say things we don’t mean or, you know, even when we’re trying to be really polite. But, you know, children and sensitive people can pick up what’s underneath. Sure. In fact, everybody really picks up what’s underneath. But most people aren’t really aware of what they’re picking up on. They just get a feeling. Sure.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:23] Well, you talked about how the Alexander Technique really starts with with our own self. And I love in the book how you call ourself, we are our own primary instrument as musicians. I know I work for a music store, and so a lot of times when I’m talking to people, I’ll, I’ll ask, oh, what’s your primary instrument? Because I’ll work with a lot of music department faculty at schools. And and I love how you talk in the book about how we are our own primary instrument. The whole of our self and primary practice is how we’re coordinating our own thinking and movements and behaviors, not just in our musical instrument and how we practice our our own primary instrument. It really manifests in our musical instrument and what comes out. Absolutely. And in fact, there’s a quote in your book that I’m going to read, and then I’m just going to have you unpack it, because I think this one quote will really lead to a lot of, um, conversation that really gets to the heart of what the Alexander Technique is about, what your book is about. So in your book, you say, in fact, all of our problems as people and artists stem from a profound lack of self-knowledge, a misunderstanding of who we are in relation to the world, and a general lack of awareness in the moment. So unpack that a little bit. And how Alexander Technique and your specific practice of it really stems and feeds from this quote. Yeah.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:09:57] Oh my gosh. I could talk about that for days. There’s just so much there. So it’s like you just like put your finger on like an essential quote that the whole book is about. Right. So, well, let me just say a couple things. First, like as a little bit of background, and then I’ll get into it in a more detailed way. Um, I, I am a specialist at the Alexander Technique. That is what I live and breathe, and yet I teach it in a sort of an unconventional, really modern, updated way, which goes back to the roots of the Alexander Technique. We’ve been talking about the essence of it, and to me, it’s really about how you think and how your thoughts influence your movement and your life. And so I have chosen to teach without touch, which is not the traditional way, but I teach something called Primal Alexander Technique, which was created by my partner Maya-morales. And then I am putting those practical tools, that practical methodology into a broader context that I call the Art of freedom method for conscious living and masterful artistry. And so kind of to answer your question, I have five. I call them life pillars. And they are purpose, mind, body, spirit and artistry. And you can’t separate any of those out. Really. We are creative, artistic beings. We are energetic. We have minds and bodies that you can’t really separate. And I believe we have a spirit. You could call that a creative spark or God or source or just love whatever word works for people, I don’t really care.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:11:48] I just call it spirit or love. We’re creative. We’re artistic, you know? If we choose to see it that way. And so that’s the container that I put all of my work in. And the reason I do that is because, well, first of all, I am really very interested in personal development and meditation and really, you know, fulfilling our human potential. That’s what I’m most interested in, whether it’s for musicians or non-musicians. I don’t really care because we’re just people, and we’re learning how to use this primary instrument of ourselves to create the lives that we want. And back to the quote where I don’t remember saying this or writing it, but I’m sure I did, and it’s in there. But I do believe what you said. Yeah. I mean, I really do think that the thing that gets in our way is a profound lack of self knowledge. We live most of our lives mindlessly without really being conscious of what we’re thinking and doing. I mean, thank goodness for habits, right? We can live on autopilot. And because of that, I can speak to you right now because I know how to talk, and I don’t have to think about which muscles in my mouth and throat I need to use to talk. So habits are great. We need them. And yet most of what we do is just rehashing and redoing the old same old thing over and over again.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:13:22] And unfortunately, most people really are not tapping into their full potential. And a lot of people are not very happy. I mean, there’s an epidemic of unhappiness in, if not our country, the whole or not the whole world, our country. Right. I think the statistics have shown. And, you know, you just look at the younger generation and it’s kind of alarming, the lack of happiness that’s there. And so I feel like that is one of the most important things we need to look at. And we are I believe we’re made for joy and happiness. We are energetic beings that are made to learn and grow and radiate just this wonderfulness that human beings are essentially. But then we get in our own way and block that light with how we think. And our thoughts tend to be self-critical, and we tend to have a lot of doubt and fear. Self doubt. We’re critical of ourselves, we second guess ourselves, and we’re also just just basically fear based living instead of love and joy based living. Sure. So my work is all about learning how to notice that we’re doing this moment by moment, and then making a simple choice and using really simple tools that I teach to stop getting in our own way and actually enjoy ourselves and learn and grow and improve our skills so that we can share it all with other people.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:57] Sure. Well, you mentioned awareness, and at some point in the book you you say something about how we need to give up this illusion of control, because really our attention is all that we can control. And so it really is a matter of mind and, and attention and being able to focus that and control that. You, you also, you mentioned the five life pillars that you kind of came up with for the Art of freedom method that you use. And in your book you say by integrating the five life pillars of the art of freedom, you can experience accelerated success in all areas of your life, including mastering your instrument and finding balance and joy in your relationships and routine activities, and that’s a pretty big claim. That’s a pretty bold claim, but it’s really interesting how in the book you really kind of demonstrate how how we use our mind body self in one activity really does represent a microcosm of how we do everything in life, whether it’s.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:16:00] Exactly it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:01] Which is really I found that really fascinating. And you talk about, you know, if you get stressed out at work and you find that you clench your jaw, you’re probably also having that same reaction to tension in your relationships with your friends or your spouse or your kids, or maybe you just get stressed with how much you have to do. That’s probably where the the tension is going to show up again. And I was like, oh my goodness, that was really interesting. I was like, immediately I thought, I know where I carry my tension. It’s in my traps like I, you know, if I’m working all of a sudden, I’ll suddenly realize, like, oh, I’m kind of like lifting my shoulders, you know? And I’m like, that’s that’s where my my tension is going. So. That’s right. Really interesting. Oh go ahead.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:16:52] No. And the let me just ask you, what would you do if you did notice shoulder tension. What’s the what’s like the habitual thing that you would do. What would you tell yourself if you caught yourself tensing your shoulders.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:06] I, I would tell myself to relax them. And I remember in your book you talking about how that doesn’t last, that like that doesn’t work long term because that’s right. But there’s a thought that’s causing those shoulders to tense up. That’s right.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:17:23] Yeah. The thing is that we’re always going in the direction of overall tension that shows up in specific areas, like shoulders or your neck or your back. People have places where they feel it, but ultimately it’s an overall reaction to how we’re thinking and feeling. And so we’re either going in the direction of contracting and closing down and getting tight, or we’re going in the opposite direction, which is more open and free and happier and more loving. It’s like either one or the other, but we’re constantly going back and forth. It’s like we’re vibrating, energetic beings that are constantly going back and forth between shutting down and getting tight and protecting ourselves from pain, and we’re anxious and worried and doubtful, or we’re letting go of that and we’re allowing our natural ease and. And like I said, joy and love and light, the life force. We’re letting that move and flow. That’s a flow state.
Mindy Peterson: [00:18:27] Well, and as.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:18:28] You point out, we want we want that, I think.
Mindy Peterson: [00:18:30] Yeah. And you point out in the book the sort of dichotomy that artists and creatives especially face in that area. Because on the one hand, we’re driven to excellence and ambitious and want success professionally. And on the other hand, there’s this recognition that tension can tend to block artistic expression and creative expression. And so it’s kind of like walking this balance between the two.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:18:57] Yeah, that’s actually that’s a very important point because actually having desires and goals and things to work towards is healthy. It’s natural. It’s human. It keeps us alive. After all, if we didn’t have the desire for food, we wouldn’t eat and we’d die. So, you know, goals are important. The problem in our society and our education, our upbringing, is our culture as a whole is so goal oriented that it makes the goals more important than the process and the steps that we need. And so we’re we’re not living in the present moment. And when you’re not living in the present moment and you’re projecting always towards a potential future, or you’re regretting the past or nostalgic about past, that’s over. When you’re not living in the present, you’re not really living in an integrated, holistic way. You’re not bringing your whole self to your life. And it’s not possible to fully be yourself and feel free and really, fully, deeply, joyfully experience your life if you’re not doing it now. Mm. Yeah. So it really is a, an awareness, like you said, it’s an awareness process. It’s a presencing process. And the good news is that it’s actually really easy because it’s how we are naturally designed to be. So all we need to do is start observing ourselves with clear intention of wanting to be present and realizing that we have this incredible power in our brains and bodies that we’re not tapping into, which is largely about imagination. And so we get to imagine and create like, what do I actually want? What do I want to experience right now? Oh, I want to be happy.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:20:54] Well, what if I stopped thinking the things that make me unhappy? Well, in that moment. And we do something very specific in my programs, like I teach people on the first day how to do what we call constructive thinking, which is a very specific way to use the brain to let go of the unhelpful, mindless, destructive thinking that we do to ourselves that keeps us stuck. So it’s actually really easy to learn how to catch yourself doing it, and then how to stop. And as soon as you stop doing what doesn’t work, Your natural ease and growth and radiance can happen. And it’s a wonderful thing. I love, love, love teaching this because it’s natural, it’s easy, it’s quick, and it does lead to unbelievable results in whatever person wants to focus on. And for my people, it’s usually their music, their career, their skills improvement, whether they’re professionals or amateurs. It doesn’t matter to me. But then anybody else reading the book, if somebody’s not a musician, it doesn’t matter because it’s the same process. It’s about the primary instrument. It’s about how the mind and body work together naturally. And it’s just about it’s like, stop and observe yourself, make a conscious choice for what you want, and then do the constructive thinking that I teach in the book and in the materials that come with the book, it’s not hard and it’s fun.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:27] It sounds like it’s more about recognizing and removing obstacles than it is about adding to our list of to do’s and our list of exercises and things like that.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:22:39] Yeah, it’s actually an undoing. It’s like a subtraction technique. We want to stop doing the stuff that we’ve superimposed on ourselves, that kind of mask, who we really are.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:49] Mm. I found it really interesting in the book. You tried Alexander Technique twice with two different teachers. Yes. And you just just decided it was unpleasant and not for you. So tell us what brought you back to Alexander Technique?
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:23:07] Well, you’re right, it was the third time. Third time was the charm. And I was not interested because the first time I tried it, it just was like, oh, this is ridiculous. I don’t like this. And I don’t think it was a good teacher, to be honest. I don’t think she knew what she was doing. So I just was unlucky. And it wasn’t until more than a decade later when I found another teacher, got curious about it again, and tried again. Tried it again. I liked it more that time, but then I had another experience that was really unpleasant. And again, I didn’t connect with the actual teacher. And it was. There were other reasons it didn’t work for me, but I was really turned off like, I don’t like this Alexander technique, but I’m forever grateful to a friend of mine who was really into the Alexander Technique. And when I started having neck problems, I started having pain and the doctors couldn’t help. The chiropractors didn’t help like nothing was helping me. So my my friend said, Jennifer, you just have to try the Alexander Technique one more time. I know, I know, you would love it. And I said, no, I don’t like that. Just try it. And she said, you just have to find the right teacher for you. And she had heard of someone else who had just moved to Cincinnati, who had a good reputation. So she said, just try one more time. So I did, and to be honest, that person, the teacher I went to, opened up the front door and I immediately had this strong intuition, strong sense that this time it was going to work and I was totally, totally right.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:24:44] Because within a week my neck pain was gone. But everything else about me felt amazing. Like I could move my arms freely in a way I didn’t even know was possible. And so I kept taking lessons and fell in love with life again. I had been kind of I don’t I don’t want to say depressed, but I really wasn’t very happy. I was having issues in different areas of my life, and I was getting really frustrated. And I did have kind of a crisis moment that somehow miraculously sent me to this teacher. And really, those lessons changed my life completely. And it wasn’t even about music at that time. That that was not why I went. I went because I had a neck pain. And even when that was cured very quickly, I kept going because of the transformation in my overall life and well-being that I was experiencing. And I wanted more of it, and I wanted to understand it. And I ended up doing a three year teacher training course, and I’ve since then done more than eight years of training in touch free Primal Alexander Technique. Um, and it’s just become my entire life. I love it, I’m passionate about it because my students, like their lives, are being transformed. And like I said, it’s not hard. This is how the mind and body are designed to work. And it blows my mind that more people don’t know about this, because we wouldn’t have wars if people understood how to let go and just be happy and love people.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:24] A war free world. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Yes. Well, tell us a little bit about your coaching. You offer it online, so wherever listeners are, they can take advantage of the resources and coaching that you offer. You’ve mentioned Primal Alexander Technique and how it’s touch free. And that wasn’t that’s not necessarily the most common practice of Alexander Technique. In fact, you said it in your book. It was pretty uncommon in 2012. Is that around when you started becoming more involved in Primal Alexander?
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:26:56] Actually around 2012 is when I started experimenting with touch free teaching. Okay. But I met my partner Maya-morales in 2015, I believe, at an international conference for the Alexander Technique in Ireland, and he had already been working without his hands and experimenting with the Alexander Technique in his own way, which was really revolutionary at the time. But so we sort of hit it off because there were literally a handful of people in the whole world experimenting with touch free Alexander Technique teaching, even though Alexander himself originally did not use touch. So in a sense, we’re kind of going back to Pure Alexander, where he experimented and observed himself and discovered that he was thinking in ways to cause his pain and, well, not pain, but really performance issues for him. And he learned to stop doing that and think differently. And it freed up his whole life. So that’s what we’re doing now in a new way. So Mia has come up with this system he calls Primal Alexander. And then I put it into the musicians context with the Art of freedom method, and I bring in my own ideas about spirituality if someone’s interested in that, but more about just like, creativity and how to be happy. Not that Mayo doesn’t do that with his work, but I like to be very explicit about the five life pillars, and I will go anywhere with a coach and client. Wherever they want to work on is fair game. Well, it was really fortuitous.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:36] The timing that you became investigating this touch free model and motive of Alexander Technique, because of course, we all know what happened in 2020 and all of a sudden music teachers everywhere and probably Alexander Technique coaches everywhere were suddenly unable to be physically. They were.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:28:57] Desperate.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:58] Yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:28:59] We were very fortunate, the two of us, that we’d already established our coaching businesses online. And actually, when the pandemic hit, I had the idea to like I remember going down into the basement where my partner and I lived together, and he was in the basement where he has his studio. And I said, mio, you have to help the Alexander teachers and show them how to do this online. And he’s like, he’s such a good person. He’s like, no, no, I couldn’t capitalize on a pandemic. I’m like, yes, yes you can. And you have to. You have to. So we actually set up these a series of two day workshops for a month. We did three of them and had like 800 Alexander teachers from around the world coming to these workshops where mio is teaching them. Mio specializes in teaching Alexander Technique teachers. Okay. And I specialize in helping musicians. So together we did these joint workshops where he taught his methods to the Alexander Technique teachers. And they were so, so, so grateful to learn some of the tools that he had developed to help people without touch. You’re totally right. And since the pandemic, there are more Alexander teachers teaching online, but they’re still, if you look at the the number of Alexander teachers as a whole, the people who teach without touch are a small percentage, and it’s even smaller percentage of those people who teach online that teach primal Alexander, which personally I think is by far the best system to teach without touch. So I’m like, that’s all I’m ever going to do because it works so well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:30:42] And I know the benefits that you mentioned in the book make complete sense to me as a teacher. I’m a former piano teacher and taught for decades before switching and going to work for a music store where I work now. But you mentioned in your book the benefit of how empowering it is for students to not have that dependence on a teacher and their touch and that physical guidance, because you are really limiting yourself to, okay, we have to be together in order for me to experience these benefits. I can’t replicate this when I’m away from my teacher, whereas when it’s touch free, they’re learning to do this on their own, and they have that self-efficacy that’s really developed and honed early on in the, in the, the practice and the coaching sessions. So that totally makes sense to me, where they’re developing the skills on their own without having that dependence on a teacher.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:31:38] Yeah. And I think that’s a that’s one of the main reasons that I started experimenting without using my hands in the, in the very beginning is because for me personally, I had such a transformative experience with hands on Alexander technique, but I didn’t understand at all what was going on, and I had no clue how to get those results for myself, which is the only reason I went to that three year teacher training. I didn’t actually do it to become a teacher. I wanted to understand how to do it for myself, and I thought that would be the best way. Oh, and it did help me learn better how to help myself. But it wasn’t until, you know, some years later when I met neo and started working with Primal Alexander, where it’s a clear system, it’s step by step, and it’s so logical, and it really satisfied my intellectual curiosity. Like, I really wanted to understand what was going on. I didn’t want to just feel good and have my pain go away. I wanted to have tools that then I could use the next time something started to hurt. Or, you know, how do I apply this to my violin playing? So yeah, that’s why I started doing it. It’s exactly what you said. I feel like it’s empowering for my students to, from day one, have very specific tools that they get to practice and develop and expand on, and then to tell them, listen, you just need to shift this little thing about how you’re thinking and experiment with this when you’re walking the dog and doing the dishes and talking to your spouse, experiment with these things, find out what happens, and then apply it to your musical instrument. And like we said earlier, if you’re improving your primary instrument, which is your whole self, anything that you do is going to improve in quality as a result. There’s no way around it. If you’re thinking better and you’re moving with more ease, anything you do is going to improve.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:41] It’s fun to read in the books about some of the aha moments that your students have experienced when they’re working with you. Thank you. Your Art of freedom method is a coaching method. You you offer one on one private coaching. You offer group, um, group learning experiences. There’s self-study online courses.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:34:02] That’s right. Everything I do is online now. Except for the rare. The rare in-person workshop or something.
Mindy Peterson: [00:34:08] Okay. You also have a lot of free Re resources available on your website. As I was reading through the book, there’s many, many links that say go to this link for this free resources, this bonus material that corresponds to whatever that chapter is about. So you have lots of information available on your website. There’s a free guide, seven Keys to Make Your Music Great and Video Training audiobook. Any other resources that you want listeners to know about, either on your website or otherwise?
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:34:43] Um, yeah. Like you said, there’s there’s a lot it’s like hard for me to even keep track of what I’ve put out there. Sure. Um, but I do have a YouTube channel, and I try to, at least in the last year or so, I’ve been pretty consistent about in the most recent videos at the bottom of the description, people can usually sign up for some free materials, like I have a five day, um, best warm up challenge where and a non-musician could benefit from this too. If they wanted to sign up for this five day challenge, I teach the very first what we call Awareness Etude. It’s a study. It’s like a little experiment that you can do to start to notice the tensing that we do unconsciously and let go of it. So it’s a very powerful 2 or 3 minute practice that I challenge people to do twice a day for five days, and the results are pretty much guaranteed. Anybody who does it is going to feel better and have a little more conscious control over themselves and, you know, letting go of tension and just less stress and feeling better. So that’s that’s a very powerful free thing that people can find through my YouTube channel. Great. And there I’ve got lots of videos that are like tutorials and things that people can find.
Mindy Peterson: [00:36:04] And we’ll have all those links in the show notes. Your website, Art of freedom, dot Army, is that right? Yes. Okay. That’s right. Tell me. Yes. I’ll have links, of course, to your book and YouTube channel and so forth in the show notes. Well, love the book. Highly recommend it. If this conversation is resonating with anyone for sure, check out Jennifer’s website. Check out her book. So many more resources and bonus materials available through the book. The links that are in there, as we mentioned, Jennifer, as you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending a coda by sharing a song or a story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Tell us about a song. I think it’s a song that you’re going to share with us in closing.
Jennifer Roig-Francoli: [00:36:52] Uh, well, you know, it’s funny. I keep going back and forth between two things that are like my favorites. I have the serious music, which is the Bach Chaconne that’s been in my fingers forever. But I think what I’d like to share with you today is, is like the lighter, fun side. Okay. And this is actually a few years ago when I just got into something called gypsy jazz. I’m. And I didn’t know anything about it and never played jazz before, but I just fell in love with this piece called The Minor Swing, which was played by Stephane Grappelli. And Django Grappelli was a fiddler, a really great gypsy jazz violinist, and he played it with Django Gypsy guitarist. And so this duo played this piece called The Minor Swing. I fell in love with it, and I decided to learn it, and I after two weeks, I thought, yeah, I’m just going to make a video for fun. And I just uploaded it for fun. I think it’s my most popular video now, really, and it’s short and it’s fun and I think people really like it. So hopefully everyone listening will enjoy taking a listen to that too.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai