The Alexander Technique for Performers - Musicians, Actors and Athletes

FM Alexander made discoveries about the way he used his body and moved in his acting career and learnt how his habits were contributing to the loss of his voice. He also realised how he could perform with less stress and injury. All performers - actors, musicians and athletes - have benefitted from the Technique and continue to do so.

Musicians, for example, perform complex and demanding movements and these, coupled with repetitive practice, could give rise to symptoms such as RSI if not performed correctly. The Alexander Technique helps musicians improve on the quality of their movements, preventing stress-related pain. This is turn has a positive effect on the quality of music itself. Think of a singer - if he or she sings with a tightened neck or jaw, the quality of the sound is nasal and less resonant. In an attempt to produce a better sound, in spite of what the singer is already subconsciously doing, he or she may try, or be advised, other muscular movements to counter this. "Stand your back slightly arched forward." "Drop your jaw to increase the vocal cavity and keep it wide to allow more sound out." But the advice, no matter how well-intended, only superimposes another layer of tension onto an existing one! It is the same with flautists, for example. They play with their instrument off to one side, and may come across advice to hold the elbows out at a particular angle to allow the rib cage to expand, supposedly for more air and somehow better tone production. Or they may be told to hold the shoulders at a certain angle, or aim for a particular stance or posture. The muscular movements stemming from such advice only leads to short-term gains; the added tension contributes to injury sooner or later, through habit and repetition.

The Alexander Technique helps musicians identify the undue tension so that performances are less tense, but full of fluidity. The emphasis is on "not doing" and to release underlying stress, rather than on doing another movement to counter the existing one.

Prominent musicians from various fields have endorsed the Alexander Technique publicly. Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Adrian Boult, Paul McCartney and Sting, among others have spoken about how the Technique has benefitted them. The Alexander Technique is taught in prestigious performing arts schools such as the Royal College of Music, The Juilliard School of Performing Arts and the Boston Conservatory of Music.

For performers, the Technique is a way of using kinaesthetic cues such as tension, weight and effort, in order to organise the whole being to accomplish aims without any side effects.

How can the Alexander Technique benefit an actor? FM Alexander found that he was constantly tightening his neck and back in anticipation of the need to project his voice, but the tension only minimised the potential of his voice and made him hoarse - in direct opposition of what he was seeking to achieve.

Preventing Excess Tension

Between a stimulus and response, there is an unconscious preparation or getting ready which affects the quality of the response.

We are conditioned, in society, to react instantly. Sprinters well up all their energy in anticipation of the start gun, to be released at the exact moment it goes off. There is a lot of nervous energy and tension building up in anticipation. Commuters flood out of trains the moment doors open, and if there is any slight delay you may witness the nervous energy manifest itself in the form of a passenger pressing the buttons repeatedly before the doors have yet to be unlocked! For actors, such tension in the form of stage fright may build up such at the crucial point of speech, it interferes with performance. How many times have you seen actors fluff their lines just as they are about to speak?

FM Alexander set up three mirrors and observed himself as he was reciting. He discovered that before recitation, he tended to pull his neck back and down, collapsing the natural state and curve of his spine, impinging on the nerves that emerge from the spinal column. When these nerves are squashed by vertebra, it goes without saying that the potential for muscular activity is minimised.

An Alexander Technique teacher gives you a positive sense of direction through a kinaesthetic touch. He or she guides you into preventing the habitual responses of tension build-up before any activity, from the point the stimulus is given. When you think about performing an action, your body has already unconsciously geared itself up to do so, in its habitual response, and accumulated preparatory stresses. Any movement that is executed in this manner is unnecessarily effortful, and directs the body over time to increasingly devote more resources to perform the same action. The irony is that once a pattern of excess tension has built up, we try to overcome that with a pattern of even more excess tension! Eventually pain develops and the body breaks down from the heaped tension.

All movement requires a certain level of tension. The human body moves by contracting certain muscles to precipitate movement. When we are walking, the contraction of the hamstrings pulls the leg back and pulls us forward in motion. The contraction of the quadriceps returns the leg to its former position. We lift things by contracting the biceps. If we did not have tension we could flop around. The Alexander Technique is not about completely reducing tension. It is about reducing unnecessary tension; to find the optimal level required for movement, so that there is no additional tension which actually gets in the quality of the performance.