Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Unexpected improvements
My first client this morning was saying how the Alexander Technique was helping her game of tennis.... how she could get to the ball faster. Her coach had commented on the speed of her reactions and she firmly puts it down to the change of her 'use'; how she uses her body to do things. She is freer, more supple and sprightly and she's more agile.
I am always happy to hear how people's lives have changed beyond the obvious 'getting rid of back ache' or 'reduction in headaches' or the 'knees that don't ache any more' or the 'better confidence and improved speaking voice in meetings'. When they discover something else that was not the reason for taking lessons in the first place, then you know it's getting into their system; it's improving their life on fundamental levels. I think of the entrepreneur lady who came for back and neck problems and found her acidity and digestion improved, and the chap who came with a bad back but who had broken his elbow 30 years previously and had been 'permanently bent ever since, now finds it is straightening.
I've been playing the violin for around 4 years and my recent endeavours have been much improved by a step back from playing music to really working on my own poise, balance, ease of movement. For the last eight months I have been absorbed in such fundamentals as freeing my neck more, paying attention to my balance, so I don't lean, going 'up' within myself so I lengthen and widen in stature as I play. I had found one or two habits creeping in that I wasn't too happy about. Hence the 'step back' to work on fundamentals. My last violin lesson was in August last year...eight months ago. I told my teacher (who is wonderfully understanding) that I was going to do this and he let me go, to go and work on it. I returned just two weeks ago for another lesson and he said that he'd never heard me play so well, that every aspect of my playing had improved. I was chuffed. Thank you!
For the last eight months I have been standing between two mirrors, angled so I can see different sides of my self as I play. This way I get to see what's really going on. This is the way that F.M. Alexander worked in the 1880's when he evolved his technique to help himself. He found he couldn't trust his feelings as the mirrors clearly showed that he was not doing what he thought he was doing. These days, Alexander Technique teachers guide their 'pupils' with their hands, so they get the new experience; the teacher acts as a mirror. But I have been using the mirrors in F.M.'s manner to help myself.......and I've learnt so much! You may think I'm mad, standing between mirrors for eight months, but it's only a fraction of the time that Alexander did for himself; his experimentation lasted many years and I am blessed with a little knowledge of how he did it whereas, he worked it all out for himself!
Mirrors never lie. You see what is.....if you have the eyes to notice. You've got to not look at the balding head, the moles on the face, the belly that's had too many dinners. You've got to be objective and see what is truly happening. Then by using Inhibition to avoid just pulling your shoulders back or sucking your guts in, to use Alexander Technique directions to change how you are. It's an indirect approach where we use a process, rather than aiming for the end result.
So, like my tennis playing pupil who has experienced changes beyond her expectations in another field, I am using the technique that I teach to others to help myself improve at my own chosen activity of playing the violin. It's helping so much..... It does take time, but by giving it plenty of time it pays huge dividends.
If we change our manner of 'use', in our poise and movement, we change how our body functions. This helps us internally with breathing, digestion, circulation, reproductive organs as well as personal confidence and sense of well being. It also helps with everything we do.
I'm very pleased that my violin teacher tells me that I've improved so much...not by practicing the music, but by practicing how I 'use' myself when playing the instrument. He simply said...."Carry on, it's great." So I shall.
Soon I will return to learning more music and I will bring to the task a better performing Noel and I'll do a better job at it, as my own 'use' is improved during the activity.
Comments
Super blog, thank you and congratulations!
Posted by: Stella | March 13, 2009 8:49 PM
Hmmm.. interesting that you look at yourself when you play. Having played violin for 12 years, not once have I studied how I "look" to others. I've, more often than not, not really cared how others view me. Not once have I taken a step back to wonder if they were in awe of my movement or aghast at my ridged arm, purposefully trying to keep the delicate hair in between the bridge and the board. I suppose that's what I'm used to- classical to the T. To each his own. Perhaps, I should try this "self conscious" technique. Then again, I must just laugh! Either way, never have I thought that it mattered. But, thinking of it now, I'm sure it would help my "oh-so-hatred" of fiddling. I still get angry when people ask if I play the fiddle. ;)
Posted by: Tracey | June 12, 2009 3:00 PM
Tracey,
Thanks for your comments, but I fear that you've miss interpreted what I'm trying to say. It's not my recommendation that you use mirrors to look at yourself as how others may view you, from a vanity point of view. I shudder at the suggestion. My comments are drawn from a life-time's involvement with the Alexander Technique; a practical method that aids the elimination of poor posture and tensional habits that interfere with one's ability to perform to the highest standard possible. Tension habits such as stiff shoulders, neck, or stoops etc, can not only cause ill health but prevent you from performing well in music, sport, public speaking or any other activity. Eliminating such tension and poor posture habits help improve your co-ordination and 'use' of your musculature, as well as avoid unnecessary strain.
For many people, using a mirror can be considered as vanity. But if one is able to view HOW you do things objectively i.e. hold the instrument, your freedom of movement etc, without concerns of vanity, one my learn something about one's use, that can help. The fact that the Alexander Technique is so helpful to musicians is why it is part of the full-time curriculum at all the major music academies.
The use of a mirror (or several mirrors at once) was the way FM Alexander worked in the late 1800s, to enable him to 'see' for himself what was wrong, when specialists were unable to help him with his voice.
I recommend you find a local Alexander Technique teacher and find out more by means of a one-to-one lesson. You may learn something most helpful to your playing.
I'm sorry to have misled you.
Posted by: Noel | June 15, 2009 4:42 PM