Inspiration AND PRACTICALITY

Headnote

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra principal flutist and teacher describes how the Alexander Technique can help us reach our fullest artistic potential.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."-Albert Einstein

This elegant observation of Einstein's speaks directly to our greatest fear as musicians, the fear of making a mistake. No matter where you are in your musical development, whether you are performing professionally in public or auditioning for a youth orchestra or college, this fear can be, quite literally, disabling. The effects can range from a block in expression to full-blown stage fright or from stiff, slow fingers to the devastating debilitation of tendonitis.

Frederick Matthias Alexander, the founder of Alexander Technique, was himself a performer and experienced first-hand the toll that public performance can take on one's body and mental state. As a successful actor, he experienced the terror of losing his voice mid-performance on many occasions. The doctors could not diagnose the problem and simply prescribed rest. This did not solve the problem.

Alexander therefore concluded that he himself, through misuse of his body and "over-efforting" in performance, was creating the circumstances that brought about his vocal problems. Through years of intense, self-directed study, he developed a technique that allows one to regain a sense of choice in how we respond physically and mentally to any stimulus, be it simply picking up one's instrument, walking onstage to do an audition, or getting in and out of a chair. It is possible to move with lightness, balance, ease, and freedom in any circumstance.

The Alexander Technique offers one a sense of agency. It is an invitation to take responsibility for how you move and respond to stressors. It offers a way to deal with unhelpful habits that build up over the years. It offers both the lightness of freedom and the discipline of responsibility. With this "opposition" comes stability.

My Experience

I started Alexander Technique lessons in London when I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in the '90s. I was motivated to have lessons in the first place (as many people are) because I had shoulder pain. Not only did the lessons free me from pain, but as Alexander Technique is a form of re-education, not...