The Alexander Technique 2
By Peter Ribeaux
David J, aged 26, a male violinist, was referred for Alexander
lessons by his music college. He is tall, 6’3”,
well built with a pleasant easy personality. He is quietly
spoken, highly intelligent, with a strong ambition to succeed
as a musician.
Medical History
In January 1998 at the age of 23 he had been suffering progressive
severe pain and stiffness in the right arm, his bowing arm,
particularly towards the wrist and hand. This severely restricted
his ability to play the violin. Indeed, he could only play
for about a quarter of an hour at a time before the arm
seized up completely. Various treatments included steroid
injections and physiotherapy for his suspected repetitive
strain injury (RSI) or work-related upper limb disorder
(WRULD), but relief was short lived.
General Social Aspects
David was in the process of taking a postgraduate performance
diploma at Music College, but he was forced to cut short
his studies in January 1998. He started Alexander lessons
immediately (initially once per week and from March onwards
twice a week) hoping that this would enable him to resume
his studies in the following September. There was some improvement
and in the summer he decided to take a chance and go on
a long planned orchestra tour in the Far East. He had to
cut the tour short in spite of the ministrations of local
physicians, traditional and western. These helped on a temporary
basis but the problems came back as soon as he started to
play. This story echoes the experiences of the founder of
the Alexander Technique, F.M. Alexander, with his voice
problems.
In September 1998 David postponed the resumption of his
course for another year. He continued Alexander lessons
twice a week and as a result of noticeable improvement in
his physical condition and moderation of his symptoms he
became sufficiently interested in the process to embark
on the three-year training course to become an Alexander
Teacher. This would enable him to obtain daily support for
his work on himself. He also continued to have one lesson
per week in order to set aside some time for supervised
work on applying the Technique to his violin playing.
David’s Alexander Lessons
The Alexander Technique is to a large extent an educational
technique. Sessions are called lessons and the client is
referred to as the ‘pupil’. The Alexander teacher
uses both verbal and manual guidance. David’s lessons
took the form of learning to stop the constant downward
pulls (collapse) in his body and the tension in his shoulders
and arms. Since these were aggravated whilst playing he
also had to learn specifically to prevent this pattern as
he approached and while playing the instrument. This process
takes time and cannot be speeded up. Twenty years of habit
build-up in the musculature will not easily go away in a
few weeks or even months. This is particularly the case
when skilled performance (as in violin playing) is superimposed
on an already distorted musculature.
A number of standard Alexander procedures in thought and
movement were learnt mainly involving standing, bending,
sitting and lying down. By and large these procedures involve
bending only at the major joints, hips, knees and ankles
and making sure that the arms are able to move independently,
freely and with tone at the shoulders, elbows and wrists.
These procedures are important in order to replace faulty
habits in using the body. The latter include hollowing the
back when standing, stooping with the spine in order to
bend and slumping while sitting. The major work however
is the ongoing process of applying the Alexander principles?
Briefly stated these involve stopping before an action,
preventing the automatic distorting body habits and replacing
them with more appropriate and natural ones. An action in
this context is any response to a stimulus (internal or
external) and it might range from scratching an itchy nose
to (in David’s case) picking up a violin. The work
is both mental and physical and takes time to master.
David did not give up his violin entirely. His practice
regime, however, had to be radically altered. Application
of Alexander principles to this work involved three main
aspects. Firstly, at the start his practice time needed
to be as short as five minutes. Secondly, his practice method
had to change. He had to focus more (even entirely) on the
manner in which he used his body while playing rather than
on playing the piece at any cost. Thirdly, he could save
physical wear and tear by using his mind more than his body.
This meant learning and memorising music away from the instrument
and very clearly conceptualising each piece before ever
playing it. Psychologically this was difficult as it often
felt that he had not really been practising. Once after
he returned to college he reported feeling a fraud one day
having got away with only playing a piece through a couple
of times before being praised by his teacher in a lesson.
He had to be reminded of all the hard work both in his Alexander
lessons and outside that had gone into making this possible.
Outcome
David returned to college in September 1999 and completed
his studies in June 2000. At the time of writing (January
2001) it is now three years since his first Alexander lesson
and he successfully made his first concert performance this
week. He has been practising (with the violin) for up to
five hours per day without ill effect. His use of his body
whilst playing is vastly changed and his movements are noticeably
better co-ordinated. In particular his arms move separately
from the rest of his body without the fixing of the shoulder
joint and the involvement of the torso in his bow strokes.
This case describes application of the Alexander Technique
to a complex problem. Misuse of the body in skilled performance
is likely to take longer to respond than that deriving from
ordinary everyday life particularly when it has reached
the point David had reached. The problem here is that the
skill of playing has been superimposed on an already distorted
musculature. For most people without such complications
learning a sound basis in the Technique can take a much
shorter time. An initial course is generally considered
to be about 25 – 30 lessons.
About the Author
Peter Ribeaux is an Alexander Technique Teacher
of over 30 years standing and is co-director of the Centre
for the Alexander Technique, which runs a teacher training
course in the Alexander Technique. He has worked as a trainer
in the USA, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Israel and
has taught the Alexander Technique in a number of different
settings to people from many walks of life including the
performance arts and industry.
As an occupational psychologist he also works as a consultant,
trainer and coach in the areas of personal development,
stress management and back pain prevention. Stress-related
illness and back pain are the two main causes of sickness
absence at work. He believes that work organisations and
their employees share an interest in remaining as healthy
and free from dysfunctional habits as possible. The former
do so in order to become more productive and the latter
in order to control and enjoy their working lives better.
The Alexander Technique is his main driving force in this
work.
Email: peter@ribeaux.fsnet.co.uk
