The Alexander Technique

6th day of CMC

Today the Alexander technique lady came to help our trio.

For those of you who don’t know what the Alexander technique, READ:

The Alexander technique was created by Frederick Matthias Alexander.  He was an actor.  Whenever he performed, he would lose his voice.  Obviously this wasn’t too wonderful for him, so he started paying careful attention to what he did when he spoke during a performance.  He found out that he was doing something with his muscles that was harming his voice.  Sooo he pretty much found ways to relax and move the body so that muscle tension goes away.  So that you don’t hurt yourself, and so that you can perform to the best of your abilities.

So yeah, in case you hadn’t already figured this out, the “teaching,” of this method involves somebody handling you XD  I volunteered to go first because Jay is shy, and Eric is STUBBORN.  And I’m just all cute and eager and whatnot, so I figured “What the hell?”  I sort of remembered doing it during my first year.  Anyway, it was slightly weird.  Eric kept making weird faces and it was REALLY hard not to laugh because this woman was holding my arms, moving my head, shaking my legs, etc.  But yeah, after we went through that whole process, I loosened up A LOT.  I had a lot of tension in my shoulders.  That’s common in violinists, I guess.  But just getting rid of that tension really loosened up the fingers on my left hand, which made it eight billion times easier to play sixteenth notes.

I didn’t see much of a change in Jay.  He was reluctant to go along with it.  She mentioned to him that he had A LOT of tension and that he would really benefit from Alexander technique.  He didn’t like that so much, but she’s probably right.  It would probably help him with more than just piano.  It might help his mood.  He always looks… angry, almost?  And scrunched up and solitary and really stuck in his own thoughts. Eric, on the other hand, had a HUGE change.  He’s talented as it is, but his sound was just GORGEOUS after he went through that whole thing.  It might have something to do with the fact that the sound of a cello is deep and smooth, whereas violin and piano are both kind of brisk and sharp.  The woman also took the shortest amount of time with him.  She took the longest with Jay, and right in the middle with me.  It’s interesting because Jay is most definitely the most tense and Eric is undoubtedly the least tense.

So now whenever I play I try to get that relaxed feeling back into my body.  She was talking about the word, “kinesthetic,” and how it had to do with body awareness.  Well, having that awareness really helped me focus and stay calm.  Possible performance-anxiety-curbing tool?  My teacher was just talking about that yesterday.  I mean being aware of my body so I can learn how to let go and have an awareness of what I’m doing instead of freaking out that I’m going to shake like crazy.  She suggested yoga.  I’ll have to look into that.