Challenge performance anxiety. Break the pain cycle.
The Alexander Technique is an inspiring path to challenge music performance anxiety. It has long been recognized by musicians as a practical and thoughtful way to prevent and heal repetitive strain injuries caused by undue tensions. However, the indirect but powerful benefit of A.T. practice is the ability to address issues pertaining to performance anxiety. This key aspect of the practice has also kept musicians coming back.
The Alexander Technique is an inspired and grounded way to approach performance by orienting your practice and performance experience in the here and now, where everything is known, and can be dynamically explored, modified, enjoyed and shared…not feared.
No pain, all gain
Many factors in a musician’s life contribute to feeding the cycle of fatigue, pain, chronic pain, compensations, injury and the struggles to regain one’s previous ability to enjoy practising, playing and performing.
A.T. teachers, Francis and brigitte are concerned with you, the primary instrument through which your audience gets to experience the beauty of music in a way that only you can express it. They can help you build up a better, more coordinated response to playing because they understand the process involved in unlearning faulty habits and acquiring a way of doing/playing that not only respects the way the body works but how the body-mind integrates in movement.
How will learning to improve sitting, standing, walking, using my arms with a better head neck back relationship help me improve my playing?
Influence
Your daily activities influence your musical life. They also are inextricably tied to your stamina and ability to play comfortably.
Preconceptions
Although an Alexander Technique teacher will help you find your way around your instrument with A.T. principles, you can’t just skip ahead to doing things “right” at your instrument, because, as F.M. Alexander pointed out, your idea of right may be the very thing causing you pain.
Practice ground
The misuses that are interfering with your musical technique are usually too full of the anxieties that have been built up throughout the many years of learning to play music. Starting with the simple activities that govern your day and learning how to initiate them in a more coordinated way will indirectly improve your playing and become your practice ground.
Taking into consideration that an individual learns and discovers at his or her own pace, there are some observable changes one could reasonably expect within the first ten lessons from a student who practices. These changes may translate immediately into better playing or may take longer depending on the injury or the student’s willingness to let go of the habits acquired with undue tension.
A musician suffering from serious or long-standing injuries would benefit from the daily A.T. attention provided within a teacher training course by either joining the training course, coming in regularly as a guest student, or considering the professional development option.
We also offer workshops for larger groups. See some of our past events.
Testimonials
As is quite typical, I first came to discover the Alexander Technique as an undergraduate musician with overuse injuries. However, the story I wish to share is far more intriguing.
During my Masters degree, instead of spending the summer at a music festival or program, as most students do, I decided to spend the summer studying Alexander Technique and apply it to my viola playing. I had two A.T. lessons per week – one just on A.T., one with the viola. I then practised with the viola what I had learned in my A.T. lessons rather than practising viola technique or repertoire. It was a lot of fun as well as restful and rejuvenating.
The first week of classes in the fall, I had a placement exam for the school orchestra (typical of all music programs). When I finished the audition, everyone on the panel congratulated me for my marked improvement over the summer and asked where and with whom I had been studying. Imagine their surprise when I told them I hadn’t had a single viola lesson, or ensemble rehearsal all summer, but had spent the summer studying A.T. with brigitte. I eventually joined her teacher training program and am now a certified A.T. teacher.
Erin Macdonald, violist
Thank you, brigitte and Francis for your interest and contribution to the studies conducted for my dissertation, Posture During Piano Performance: Variability and Postural Changes Following Training in the Alexander Technique. I received positive feedback from the participants. They highly enjoyed taking lessons in the Alexander Technique and the general consensus was that the Alexander Technique was useful to them and that it could be employed in piano performance. brigitte, thank you for dedicating a lot of your time to teaching lessons, recruiting teachers to volunteer their own time, and making sure each pianist was well taken care of. This study would not have been possible without your efforts. Francis, I thoroughly enjoyed and greatly appreciated your lessons in the course of preparing for the studies. Thank you!
Grace K. Wong PhD, MA, GDip, BMus(Ed), ARCT