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The first time I heard about the Alexander Technique was at a String Teachers conference in Sydney in 1984. I can remember sitting up the back of the lecture theatre thinking that what was being said was very interesting and made a lot of sense, and so the seed was sown. I returned to my life in Melbourne and thought nothing more of it until I developed a shoulder injury from swimming, or so I thought. I went to a chiropractor who told me that in between appointments, I was doing something that was causing the injury and that I needed to see an Alexander Technique Teacher. I wish that I had kept the name of the chiropractor so that I could thank him for his honesty. I went to some Alexander Technique lessons in Brighton and remember feeling very light and much better coordinated afterwards but I didn’t stick with the lessons long term.
The next time I heard the Technique mentioned was by anther violin teacher. I was doing my Suzuki level one Accreditation and was having trouble with the facility of my left hand, to the point where I couldn’t perform up to speed. So once again I went for some Alexander Technique lessons and felt better coordinated and had more ease of movement. I still wasn’t fully engaged in how all of this could help me until in 1990 I went to other String Teacher’s Conference in Perth where Vivien Mackie was speaking. Vivien had come from London to set up an Alexander Technique Training Course for Musicians at Trinity College in Melbourne. I can remember at the time when the course was advertised that it sounded like something I would love to do, but other things, mainly financial, got in the way.
Vivien, being a cellist herself, made a huge amount of sense to me and I immediately approached her after the lecture and asked her to recommend a teacher in my area. As luck would have it Vivien was living close by and said she would teach me, so I booked up to have weekly private lessons with her. I continued this for about 2 years or more. During this time I discovered huge amounts about myself and how I could make changes in a safe and lasting way. One of the biggest things I discovered was that I was very compressed down the front of my body and as I began to lengthen, my digestion improved and so did my breathing.
However, I was much more resistant to change as far as the violin was concerned. I found it difficult to break some of the habits that had become ingrained since childhood and that I was not even aware of. But change I did, and when I took my Long Service Leave from the school where I was teaching, I signed up to attend the final term of Vivien’s Alexander Technique Teacher Training Course for Musicians. It was one of the best decisions I have made in my life because here I was entering an exciting and life changing environment of learning and “un-learning” and being challenged on every front. I had spent years practicing my violin without much thought as to how I was using my body and as I became more aware of my habits I started to peel away the layers of misuse and find another way through re-education of the mind and body.
After being inspired by Vivien’s extensive knowledge and wisdom I eventually made the logical step to enroll in the full time three year Teacher Training Course and become an Alexander Technique Teacher myself.
What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is a process of re-education and a way to free ourselves from unwanted habits. It teaches us to become more aware of the ways in which we use ourselves in our daily life, and achieve a more efficient and coordinated use of the body. The basis of the technique is the understanding of the relationship between the head, neck and back. Correct alignment of these parts allows a dynamic and balanced change in the overall muscular system and a release of unnecessary tension.
The Technique does not teach us something new. It teaches us how to deal with habit and how to bring a more practical intelligence into what we are already doing. Habit played a very strong part in my violin playing and most of it was unconscious or deeply hidden. I was unaware that the way I was holding the violin was contributing to a pulling down in the front of my body, narrowing of my shoulders and the tightening of my neck, all of which affected the facility of my left hand and the ease with which I could bow. The pulling down and narrowing across the shoulders also affected my breathing which became very shallow.
Before I could change any of these things I needed to be able to observe what I was doing at any given time, and we all know how difficult it is to take our attention away from the music and the performance. I discovered that I could expand my awareness to include noticing whether my neck was free, if I was pulling in my back, shortening down the front and narrowing my shoulders, and keep playing the violin at the same time.
In order to change my habitual behavior in response to a stimulus, (for example the violin) I needed to become a skilled observer of how I moved and thought. This can take time as we are often not conscious of our movements and thoughts. Next I had to learn to stop what I was doing and say no to, or inhibit the thoughts and movements that were interfering with my comfort. I then learned to move in a new way, along new pathways and with new direction.
The founder of the Alexander Technique, Frederick Matthias Alexander was born in Tasmania in1869. He became a skilled reciter of Shakespeare’s plays and at the height of his career he developed a hoarseness of voice which affected his performance. On medical advice he rested his voice but this only gave him temporary relief and the hoarseness reoccurred at the critical point during performance.
Alexander came to the conclusion that since there was nothing wrong with his voice medically, he must be doing something to himself to cause the hoarseness and loss of voice. He set out to discover what it was that he was doing to interfere with the natural workings of his voice, by watching himself recite. He set up a series of mirrors and watched himself from all angles, and over a number of years of self observation, he came to the realization that his voice problems were caused by what he called his own “misuse”. He realized that he could not separate his mind from the workings of his body and that thought precedes action. He fully documented his journey of discovery in a book called “The Use of the Self”. Eventually he took his work to London where he had a large following and was well respected.
Alexander set out to show and prove that within each person there is what he called “primary control”. He defined this primary control as a “certain use of the head and neck in relation to the rest of the body”. When primary control is working it brings about an integrated freedom of movement throughout the body. Alexander also showed that most human beings in some form or other unknowingly interfere with this head, neck and back relationship.
The application of these principles has wide ranging benefits for musicians and in particular string players, as we can very easily interfere with the head, neck and back relationship by just picking up the instrument. We spend a lot of time focusing on what we are doing with our hands and arms and to the sounds they are producing, and very little attention to the rest of the body. Any problems with the hands or arms are usually linked to the overall use of the body and we need to find the balance in the muscular movements as a whole. I have certainly benefited from these principles and am happily playing my violin with more ease and awareness. I use these principles in all my daily activities and find that I have more freedom and balance in my life.
Margaret Anderson
Violin Teacher
Alexander Technique Teacher
Ascot Vale, Melbourne
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0412 671 947
03 9370 2635
I first became interested in the Alexander Technique in the 1980’s and have found that it has greatly improved my coordination, balance and overall health. As a qualified Teacher of the Alexander Technique, my focus is on supporting others to release tension in the body and facilitate long lasting changes which allow a person to reach their optimum potential.
Being a musician, this work helps me to identify what habits are interfering with my performance and gives me tools to improve or minimize the pattern affecting the whole body. The Technique has also helped me to overcome a long term injury caused by years of playing a musical instrument incorrectly. I am currently presenting workshops and teaching individual lessons using the principles of the Alexander Technique. A series of lessons is recommended so that changes can be made to the way we use ourselves.
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Alexander Technique 
