Would you like to go from experiencing back pain every day to 3 days a month, or fewer? That’s the startling evidence of what the Alexander Technique can do, according to a large-scale clinical trial into its effectiveness. The research into the Alexander Technique was conducted by the NHS and was a randomised control trial, considered the ‘gold standard’ for clinical research. You can take a look at my summary of the results here.

Alexander Technique sessions are traditionally taken individually, with hands-on guidance from the teacher, and this is what produced the amazing results above. Yet, very recently, researchers have also been investigating a novel approach to the use of the Alexander Technique for back pain. This new approach involved participants with back pain attending both individual Alexander Technique lessons and small group sessions. Although just a pilot study, it produced encouraging results; for example, there was a significant reduction in participants’ days in pain per week from an average of 5.56 to 3.20.

The researchers found that, in general, participants liked the novel combination of individual and group sessions. They noted that:

[a majority of] participants tended to value the group support and solidarity highly and liked having the opportunity to share experiences and problems with the group. They valued the dual learning environments: focusing on their own specific problems in individual lessons and using group lessons as an opportunity to observe and interact with other participants and learn from one another’s experiences.

There has been no previously published research into group teaching of the Alexander Technique for back pain, but this is a promising start. Importantly, an approach that includes group teaching is more likely to be provided on the NHS because it can be provided more cheaply.

As the authors of the report state, ‘a mixed course of individuals and group AT [Alexander Technique] lessons appears to have the potential to cost-effectively produce clinically important changes in function and pain efficiently and is likely to be acceptable to both participants and practitioners.’

One of the challenges facing all musicians is how to avoid unnecessary tension. There are two main reasons tension is so limiting for musicians:

• Firstly, tension causes discomfort, pain and injury, and can ultimately force you to stop playing altogether.
• Secondly, tension desensitizes you to what you’re doing and so undermines the quality of your playing.

One of the aims of the Alexander Technique is to resolve the problem of excess tension in activity. It is therefore an ideal method for musicians wishing to restore comfort, freedom, sensitivity and quality to their playing.

To take an important aspect, the separate movements which constitute preparing to play are often ‘concertinaed’ by musicians into one undifferentiated pattern of tension. For example, in reaction to the thought of playing, a violinist might automatically raise their left shoulder, jut their head forward, clench their teeth and hold their breath as they place the instrument under their chin.

To tease apart these preparatory tensions, I’ve recently introduced an effective Alexander-based approach with my students at Trinity Laban music conservatoire in London. Inspired by the work of Mio Morales, I’m using what he terms an ‘Alexander étude’. It goes something like this:

• I begin by asking the student to divide up the act of preparing to play into four separate movements. This in itself is usually quite a revelation – up until this point they have rarely considered in detail their own sequence of movements. Together we spend a bit of time dredging up these movements from their unconscious, and then decide on a sequence of four.
• On the count of one, two, three and four, we then rehearse the four movements they’ve decided on – the constituent parts of preparing to play.
• Now comes the clever part. We insert pauses between each number and each movement such that we have: One PAUSE… and then move; Two PAUSE… and then move; and so on. Pausing, or inhibition, is fundamental to the Alexander Technique since it gives the student a chance to break the link between the stimulus to act (the number) and the way they habitually respond. To their surprise, students often find this stage quite challenging because their habit is to move immediately and with tension on hearing an instruction to move.
• Finally, a short ‘constructive thought’ is inserted after the pauses, so that then we have: One PAUSE… CONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHT… and then move; Two PAUSE… CONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHT… and then move; and so on. The constructive thought can be a generalized Alexandrian instruction such as ‘soft and tall’; or it can be something which addresses a student’s specific habits such as ‘just breathe’, ‘see the room around me’ or ‘release my jaw’.

To see the process in action, a complete ‘Alexander étude’ for the violin is demonstrated in this short clip created by Fuensanta Zambrana-Ruiz:

As you’ll see from the video, the calm awareness nurtured by this process is quite palpable, and my experience is that when students learn to attend in this way, the quality of their movements changes in quite a short space of time. No longer are they rushing to play without preparing their minds and bodies, and no longer are their movements so unconscious, habitual or concatenated with tension. (As an aside, musicians sometimes feel that, under the audience’s gaze, they shouldn’t take time for balance, poise or preparation. Yet it is important to realise that in fact the opposite is true. What can feel like an age from the performer’s perspective is not mirrored in what the audience perceives; in fact, audiences (unconsciously or not) adore a performer who takes their time and centres themselves. Indeed, this kind of presence can be electrifying.).

Finally, since my students learn a variety of instruments, I now have quite a collection of Alexander études for different instruments, worked out in collaboration with them. If you have a set of four movements for an instrument that’s not on the list, please contact me and I’ll add it. Here’s what I have so far:

• Violin: 1. violin to collarbone. 2. raise violin a little. 3. rotate head to the left. 4. drop chin onto the instrument.
• Cello (1): 1. move the feet apart. 2. check the chair is behind you. 3. sit down. 4. bring the instrument to you.
• Cello (2): 1. move the feet apart. 2. sit down. 3. bring in instrument. 4. raise arms.
• Cello (3): 1. move the feet apart. 2. sit down. 3. pick up instrument from your side. 4. bring instrument to you.
• Piano (1): 1. move the feet apart. 2. sit down. 3. move the right foot to the pedal. 4. float the hands to the keys.
• Piano (2): 1. sit down. 2. drop the hands to the sides. 3. move the right foot to the pedal. 4. float the hands to the keys.
• Piano (3): 1. sit down. 2. hinge back. 3 move feet forward. 4. float the hands to the keys.
• Piano (4): 1. sit down. 2. adjust seated position. 3. float the right hand to the keys. 4. float the left hand to the keys.
• Singing (1): 1. walk across the stage. 2. place score on the stand. 3. open the score. 2. look across at the accompanist.
• Singing (2): 1. walk across the stage. 2. place score on the stand. 3. arrange the score. 2. put feet apart.
• Drums. 1. sit down. 2. left foot on hi-hat. 3. right foot on bass drum. 4. sticks in ready position.
• Harp. 1. Sit down (slide behind instrument). 2. adjust feet to pedals. 3. bring harp to knees. 4. bring right hand to rest position.
• Flute. 1. pick up instrument with right hand. 2. Place left hand in position. 3. put right hand in position and take instrument to horizontal 4. bring to playing position.
• Trumpet. 1. Pick up trumpet with left hand. 2. Bring right hand in position. 3. Bring left hand into position. 4. Raise trumpet to lips.
• Guitar. 1. sit down. 2. move left foot to stool. 3. open out right leg. 4. bring right hand to guitar.

FM Alexander, the founder of the Alexander Technique, experienced vocal problems as an actor. Whenever he spoke on stage he began to develop a strange hoarseness in his voice. The medical professionals of his day could not help him, and so he resolved to find out whether there was anything he was doing to himself which could have caused it.

Thus began a long voyage of discovery in which Alexander used mirrors to observe how he moved. The process is described in detail in Alexander’s book The Use of the Self. In her helpful retelling of this story, Missy Vineyard recounts how,

Reviewing his progress, Alexander realised that he had several unconscious beliefs about his body. He believed that he would know if he was doing something harmful to himself. He believed that as long as he was not sick, his body would function normally. And he believed that, with sufficient practice, he could make his body do what he wanted. But his observations in the mirror disproved them all. He had not felt what he was doing with his neck muscles, and so had not been aware of his tension as he spoke. He had actually been damaging his body by this unconscious tension, causing his hoarseness. And he could not make his body do what he wanted.

Missy Vineyard, How you stand, How you move, How you live, pp.8-9.

This was the impasse which Alexander reached. Rather than being a predicament unique to him, he began to realise that most people faced the same dead-end when attempting to change harmful habits. You might summarize this unfortunate tangle as follows:

It was this impasse that led Alexander to develop his Technique as a way of overcoming habits of tension that get in the way of our best overall functioning. Just click here to find out more.

A few months ago I helped organise an online Alexander Technique Music Conference. One of the contributors was Peter Buckoke, a professor at the Royal College of Music who teaches both the double bass and the Alexander Technique.

You can watch Peter’s video here:

Peter covered the following topics in his video, and I’m going to summarize briefly the points he made below:

• Standing in balance with the instrument. Avoid your ‘double bass posture’, because when you’re balancing you will be constantly moving. That means that when the double bass leans on you, you lean on it just as much as it leans on you. Allow your body to re-balance – it’ll just happen.
• Breathing freely while playing. Breathing well means the oxygen goes into your blood and that travels to your brain and your muscles. What happens to stop good breathing? It’s probably an anxiety response, and that will interfere with the proper functioning of your brain and muscles. Try talking and playing at the same time to see if you’re breathing well.
• The impact of vision on playing. Make sure you’re not over-focusing your vision when you’re playing. I believe the last thing we should be doing is actually looking at our hands when we’re playing. If you want to see your hands, take a video of yourself. There’s nothing on the fingerboard which shows where you’ve got to put your finger. Your kinaesthetic sense is the best sense for musicians.
• Body-mapping how to bow the instrument. If we work out where the joints are that we use to the play the instrument, and embody that knowledge, then we get better coordination. For example, map the two elbow joints and the shoulder joint for the bow arm.
• The importance of comfort when playing the bass. It’s possible to be totally comfortable when you play the double bass. You will never play your best unless you are totally comfortable. Once you’ve got to the point of pain or discomfort, you’ve already lost some of your coordination because you’ve put pressure on the nerves, and the nerves are responsible for telling your body how to move.

Mark Morley-Fletcher is an educator who, according to his website, teaches the skills and mindsets musicians need for effective practice and performance. He notes that this kind of big-picture thinking is often overlooked among musicians, and I would have to agree.

Recently, Mark posted a video on Youtube which caught my attention because of its striking claim: that less practice could be more effective. Here’s his video:

Mark’s explanation is based on a research paper that compared two groups of people practising on a keyboard. One group practised continually for a set length of time, while the other group took frequent breaks during their practice over the same length of time. In fact, these break times were pretty extreme: the second group actually practised in continuous cycles of ten seconds playing and ten seconds off. Yet the surprising result was that those individuals who took these multiple micro-breaks actually learned faster than those who didn’t, despite only ‘physically’ practising for half the time.

Mark explains,

What was actually happening while [the second group] were trying to think of nothing was that the brain was playing back the sequence that they’d just been practising at 20 times the speed of what was going on when they were practising it for real. So if they were managing to practise the sequence five times within one ten second physical practice, that would mean their brain would be rehearsing it 100 times during the time that they were resting and supposedly doing nothing.

According to the research paper which Mark references, ‘the introduction of rest intervals interspersed with practice strengthens wakeful consolidation of skill’. The authors go on,

… it has been proposed that “much, if not all” skill learning occurs offline during rest rather than during actual practice. For example, performance improvements while acquiring a new skill accumulate almost exclusively during waking rest periods interleaved with practice. These micro-offline gains indicate a rapid form of skill memory consolidation that develops over a much shorter timescale than previously thought, and that is approximately 4-fold greater in magnitude than classically studied overnight consolidation requiring sleep.

‘Consolidation of human skill linked to waking hippocampo-neocortical replay’ (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109193). References within the text removed.

From the Alexander Technique perspective, this finding is very good news. Musicians are notorious for practising long hours without a break, often leading to discomfort, pain or injury. As Alexander Technique practitioners we emphasize the importance of pausing to prevent habitual muscle tension, thus allowing our minds and bodies as a whole to return to balance, poise and good working order. And so, if we can persuade our musician clients that pausing is not only good for their health but actually speeds up their learning as well, then there will be even greater incentive to apply the Alexander Technique principles while they practise.

Perfectionism is a personality trait that is on the increase. Back in the 1980s, psychiatrist Dr David D. Burns rather eloquently defined perfectionists as:

people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment.

Burns, D.D. (1980). The perfectionist’s script for self-defeat. Psychology Today, 14, 34–52, p.34.

It is clear from the above that perfectionism is irrational, anxiety-inducing and ultimately self-defeating. Indeed, as a paper published last year concluded, it is a trap that ensnares both mind and body: ‘Maladaptive perfectionism manifests in cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and physiological responses, potentially leading to emotional and physical exhaustion, as well as physical symptoms through overburdening the stress response system’.

As an Alexander Technique teacher, I’m often working with those in the arts who are under pressure to develop their skills to the very highest level. I’m therefore interested in helping individuals understand that perfectionism is ‘maladaptive’ when developing a complex skill such as a learning a musical instrument. Below is my simple illustration of how perfectionism is self-defeating when learning a physical skill:

Put simply, perfectionism always leads to anxiety, which always leads to muscular tension, which always leads to underperformance. In a recent publication for pianists, Penelope Roskell describes this vicious circle:

Chronic contraction may have set in gradually as a response to anxiety about accuracy. Here we come up against the piano player’s paradox: the more you try to be accurate, the more you contract the muscles in an attempt to control the movement and the less accurate you become.

Penelope Roskell, The Complete Pianist p.79

The Alexander Technique is very good at unwinding such a negative cycle. Firstly, it recognizes that our mental, emotional and physical selves are all deeply intertwined. This means that it is well-placed to tackle a phenomenon like perfectionism which adversely affects all three.

Secondly, the Alexander Technique recognizes that the performance of a part (for example the arm or fingers) depends on the health of the whole organism. Put simply, this means that inappropriate holding in one part of the body will adversely affect the quality of movement somewhere else. Instead, skilled performers need to establish both appropriate and adaptable muscular tone throughout their entire physical selves. Only then can they discover greater freedom, quality and strength in discrete movements.

The Alexander Technique puts the value of a properly functioning whole front and centre, and habits of mind and body which interfere with this properly functioning whole are gradually dealt with. This includes the corrosive habit of perfectionism.

Here is not the place to describe how the Alexander Technique works. Yet it is worth understanding that to deal with something like perfectionism requires a wholesale change in one’s perspective on what one is doing. In his latest book, Iain McGilchrist hints at what this might be like, firstly with a beautiful quote from ancient Chinese, and secondly with reference to how our two brain hemispheres can attend to the world in radically different ways, and how this can alter the quality of what we’re doing:

Even heaven is not complete; that is why when people are building a house they leave off the last three tiles, to correspond. And all things that are under the sky have degrees. It is precisely because creatures are incomplete that they are living.

Ssu-ma Ch’ien, Historical Records (Shih chi), c.100BC. Cited in Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things p.840.

‘Perfect’ literally means completed – done with. The achieved infinite of the left hemisphere is unreal (can never be achieved) and is lifeless; the constantly becoming, processual, infinite of the right hemisphere is real and life-giving. Note that this is an inversion of what we normally hold, namely, that potential means unreal, and actual means real … It seems to me, that, as usual, when it comes to the nature of Being, or God, we are easily attracted to, and too readily comforted by, the idea of a fully achieved perfection, rather than one of open dialectical creativity, continually both expressive and receptive.

Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things p.1247.

Last month I was really pleased to be interviewed about the Alexander Technique by Will Shipp for his How to Heal podcast. Will is a coach who focuses on holistic wellbeing, lifestyle change and helping people navigate the world of health and wellness.

You can listen to his interview with me by clicking on the image below.

We covered a wide range of questions and topics during the conversation; below is just a snapshot:

• What is Alexander Technique (AT)? Why and how did you get into it?
• How has AT helped you solve problems in your own life?
• Any fun anecdotes? What has been a highlight for you so far in AT?
• What are the parts of yourself that AT helps you to access?
• What’s the biggest personal change you’ve experienced since doing AT?
• Is there an AT ‘type’ of person?
• What are three things that someone new to AT needs to know?
• Who’s your biggest inspiration when it comes to the AT?
• As a coach I’m all about powerful conversations. In life, what’s the most impactful conversation you’ve had? What did you or the person say or do to make it powerful?

Will is recording interviews with some other great professionals involved working in the holistic health sector. Do check out his website for further information.

This month, Nicola Hanefeld was the lead author of the paper ‘Women’s experiences of using the Alexander Technique in the postpartum’ published in the journal Midwifery. As part of her research, she drew on the work of Carl Rogers, one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology and famous for his person-centred framework in psychotherapy.

In her Ph.D. thesis completed earlier this year, Hanefeld presented three aspects of Rogers’ work which can help elucidate the process of learning the Alexander Technique. I have found her use of the Rogerian framework to be an intriguing fresh lens through which to view the Alexander Technique, and I hope you also find it illuminating. Her thoughts are summarized below (note: all citations can be found in her thesis). Many thanks for this new perspective, Nicola.

1.Widening the ‘gestalt of the self’

The first area explored by Hanefeld is the concept of self which was defined in different ways by FM Alexander and Carl Rogers. Alexander wrote that he preferred to

call the psycho-physical organism simply ‘the self,’ and to write of it as something ‘in use,’ which ‘functions’ and which ‘reacts.’ My conception of the human organism or of the self is thus very simple … 

Rogers’ definition of the self contrasts with the above, being a ‘gestalt’ based on the perceptions of oneself, perceptions of oneself in relation to others, and the values attached to these perceptions. Rogers’ conception of the self is fluid and changing. Moreover, it also allows for elements which are beyond one’s current awareness.

Hanefield suggests that the Alexander Technique modifies this Rogerian ‘gestalt of the self’ because it

brings experiences and aspects of self not previously symbolized in awareness into awareness. This then potentially enables a more accurate symbolization of experience initiating a shift and revision in the gestalt of the self.

Hanefeld introduces a simple example to illustrate this process. She suggests that the thought ‘my shoulders are tense’ can undergo a conceptual change with the Alexander Technique, becoming instead ‘I’m tensing my shoulders’. This indicates the purview of the self can widen, can extend its control, as I’ve illustrated below:

This ‘widening of the gestalt of the self’ might be viewed as a prerequisite for the Alexander Technique, through which the individual is able to change undesirable patterns of habitual tension. I think it is a helpful clarification of the Alexander Technique process.

2. Moving from Incongruence to Congruence

A second aspect of a change in the self brought about by the Alexander Technique can be elucidated by another Rogerian concept, that of (in)congruence. In short, incongruence describes the discrepancy between the ideal self and an individual’s actual experience. One of the aims of therapy is therefore to move towards greater congruence by reducing that discrepancy. For this to happen, there needs to be an awareness and then adjustment of self-concepts.

In her explanation of how this shift can occur through the Alexander Technique, Hanefeld draws on her research to provide an example of how the ‘maternal sense of duty’ can change as a result of instruction in the Alexander Technique. I have included her illustration of this below. It is worth noticing how there is greater overlap in the second pair, implying greater congruence between self and experience (‘AT’ refers to the Alexander Technique, and ‘CR’ refers to the Alexandrian procedure of ‘Constructive Rest‘):

3. Enabling the Self-Actualizing Tendency (SAT)

The final Rogerian concept that Hanefeld draws on is the ‘Self-Actualizing Tendency’ (SAT), defined by him as:

the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism in its development towards autonomy and away from heteronomy or control by external forces.

Rogers argues that his person-centred framework encourages the SAT and is self-empowering. Hanefeld’s own research suggests that the Alexander Technique empowers in a similar way. This is also backed up by a recent research paper on the non-physical outcomes of the Alexander Technique which suggests that it increases a sense of control.

Hanefeld concludes:

The person-centred framework has become known for the three variables that Rogers found to benefit the SAT during therapy: empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence. I suggest that the mindful, non-judgemental, non-doing attitude that the AT foregrounds when working alone on oneself with the AT principles is both empathic with unconditional positive regard towards oneself.

If you’re interested to learn more, you can watch an interview here with Nicola Hanefeld.

In July this year, a colleague of mine Steve Bingham of the Bingham String Quartet took some drone footage of an outdoor Alexander Technique class I was presenting. There are a lot of advantages to presenting outside; for example, broadening our awareness and taking in a natural environment rejuvenates our body sense and is a natural de-stresser.

The presentation was part of a week of Alexander Technique workshops I had the privilege to give at the European String Teachers Association UK summer school in Chichester.

Below are the comments from one of the attendees:

I found Henry’s classes at the recent string teaching summer school I attended very enjoyable, useful and informative. He is an excellent teacher and presented the technique, that I am a beginner in, incredibly clearly, and made it very accessible and thought provoking. I especially loved the holistic approach and the quotes he included. His calm delivery reflected the aspects at the core of the technique, and enabled us to see first hand the difference embodying them can make in playing and teaching an instrument. I am really looking forward to learning and developing more, both for myself and my pupils. Thank you Henry!

And below are a few of Steve’s shots!

This week, as part of their Crossing Continents series, the BBC broadcast an investigation into the rising problem of insomnia in South Korea. The programme was entitled Sleepless in Seoul.

According to the programme, Koreans work and study harder, sleep less and have higher rates of suicide and depression than almost anywhere else in the world. It’s a hyper-capitalist, competitive nation with very long working hours. Despite government pleas, Korean employers are notoriously bad at respecting boundaries or the idea of a work-life balance.

And so the number of people with insomnia in Korea is apparently increasing by around 8% a year. To address this dire situation, as you might expect, there is now a burgeoning US$2.5 billion ‘sleep industry’ with solutions ranging from medication to sleep cafés and a renewed interest in traditional Buddhist meditation practices. But as journalist Se-Woong Koo concludes at the end of his BBC report:

Myriad services are offering advice and defences against the tribulations of life, but in fact the source of all this stress and sleeplessness is a system that demands more than … individuals can muster.

South Korea is considered a collectivistic society, one in which individuals’ needs are subservient to those of the group. And when aspects of such a society are so dysfunctional – as is so plainly the case in South Korea – then the capacity for individuals to manage their own wellbeing is greatly compromised.

So, what is to be done by those living in not only very pressured societies like South Korea but also our own society where overwork also poses a threat to overall wellbeing?

The Alexander Technique presents a unique take on this problem by ‘upskilling’ individuals to respond to the stimuli around them in non-habitual and healthier ways (you can read more about how it works here). The way this might impact on an individual’s relationship with society at large is a complex question and not one for this blog post. Yet, as a recent paper investigates, the Alexander Technique does seem to strengthen various positive aspects of individualism such as autonomy, self-awareness and self-confidence. It therefore arguably helps shift the dial away from intense or unreasonable societal expectations:

Finally, FM Alexander’s own words on this topic are a striking reminder of the potential reach of his Technique:

For in the mind of man lies the secret of his ability to resist, to conquer and finally to govern the circumstances of his life.

FM Alexander, Man’s Supreme Inheritance (first published 1910).