The Alexander Technique Consultancy

Healthier Practise Creates more Exciting Performances.......

Synopsis of a Workshop that I gave at the Oxford International Congress 18/8/2004

“An Open and Shut Case….”:
repetitive actions and how they condition creative acts.

Neither from nor towards;
But at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
T.S.Eliot - 'Burnt Norton' from Four Quartets.

This workshop was presented as a response to my awareness of the lip service that is too often paid to the importance of the quality of preparation by musicians, starting with that seemingly innocuous act of taking the instrument out of the case. The open and shut case metaphor works on many levels such as our attitude to and awareness of the circularity of habit and imitative, ill considered and preconceived ideas that can inform our practising and adversely condition the ends that we seek in music. As Alexander teachers we are always seeking more constructive means, and to discover better means for our musical ends was part of my overall purpose.

TS Eliot’s ‘Burnt Norton’ from the ‘Four Quartets’ provided my initial inspiration for this workshop. One of the main effects for me provided by study of the AT has been an increased ability to stay in the present and to see the effect of end-gaining and dualistic thinking on my own creative range, both as a musician and in daily life.

Musicians are especially subject to a wide range of influences from within and without themselves. Ambition to become ‘better’ players, in relation to self or one’s peers or teacher are two of the most obvious. Add these to the problems of mis-use and we have a potent recipe for lack of enjoyment and anxiety in performance and boredom, and stagnation in practising.

I drew on my teaching experience both as a violinist and Alexander Teacher and my performing career to date to elucidate and perhaps offer some means to help other teachers help themselves and also their pupils.

I started with a presentation of my ‘Means-Whereby Symphony’, a simple verbal ordering game played by all those present, drawing on the details of oral ordering, in the cumulative and repetitive sense that Alexander suggested to some of his own pupils. By repeating an expanding series of orders out loud in a group setting, until a pre-determined action was made, (in this case an incremental step in the evolution of the act of opening a violin case, and playing a few notes), everyone had a chance to see how it might be possible to keep attention on ‘self’ as well as others in the group. Much attention was given to monkey and to supinating and pronating the arms, both very basic and important actions for string players in particular. As in musical performance it is important to listen and expand awareness and to respond accordingly with due inhibition. The whole round of ordering in this way was given a rhythmic feel provided by a two in a bar maracas beat provided by myself.

The 'symphony’ provided a challenge and possibly a novel way of attending to the process of directing in sequence according to a predetermined ‘means- whereby’, as described in Alexander's 'Conscious Constructive Control of the Individual'. I noticed (with some surprise) that not everyone was conversant in building up an act in this way although most people found it to be a fun way of approaching such a demanding task! The action performed by each person was as small and partial as the group size permitted, culminating in a few notes played by myself. The whole activity was like a very slow 'Mexican wave', deliberate and yet dynamic, once the details of the task were understood by everyone.

It was interesting to see fresh evidence in the form of MRIs, provided by contemporary neuroscience (presented throughout the congress) of the positive reinforcement in neurological terms offered by verbal guidance on the part of the teacher in addition to touch, to give more sensory meaning to a pupil's 'directive orders', and shown by increased neural activity in the brain and basal ganglia area in particular. Conscious inhibition, waiting and choosing against habit, is evidentially more onerous and energetic a neural process than falling into the 'old' habit. It can only be assumed that Alexander in his wisdom was further tapping into this at a purely common sense level by getting his pupils to say the 'guiding orders' out loud, in order to re-educate and improve their sensory appreciation.

Alexander's contention that we are 'brutalised by doing,' thus deadening our muscular sense provided a bridge for me to continue with an exploration of the extensor muscular system and the importance of maintaining ‘length’ as a pre-requisite to any action involving flexed fingers or overt arm activity. For the hands to be true ambassadors of the back it was suggested that the ability to apply pressure to a surface, musical or otherwise in such a way as to stimulate a lengthening ‘up-thrust’ through the whole system is important. This is of course well known to most Alexander Teachers and forms a (large) part of the work of re-education. A game that I call the 'two plus eight tango’ showed how fingers in particular can provide pressure in just such a way to stimulate the extensors of the arms, shoulders and back and inhibition heightened to encourage independent activity. The positive effect on the breathing by stimulating the extensors was noticed by a number of participants.

Alexander was at pains to show how incorrect conception and attitude is at the root of our sensory deficits – (thus 'gating out' sensory inputs) and that how by means of the conscientious study of 'Hands on the Back of the Chair’ (HOBC) in particular, this conception can be naturalised and made more reliable. Musical purpose is thus aided by appropriate muscular effort and feeds back reliably to enhance and support our musical wishes.

The use of HOBC is an infinite resource for me generally and as a violinist in particular, and I never get bored by its practise with its clear pedagogic message relating ends to means and the conditioning of means by ends accordingly. Everything sets everything else up in its wake. All is prior. There is only ‘the dance... at the still point of the turning world'.

The workshop finished off with a discussion about holding the violin and demonstrations by me as to useful ways of approaching this area. I gave out some drawings of the collar bone (and the general acromio-clavicular area) suggesting that the clavicle's shape could be used to support the instrument in a way that maximised resonance and also comfort. As a designer of an adjustable chinrest for violinists over ten years ago, I am often surprised by the still urgent sense of enquiry made by violinists into this 'hardware'. Much work probably still needs to be done in this area by teachers who have an understanding of both 'use' and the problems of the violinist.

I had intended to finish the workshop with 'curiosity and risk', (as described in the workshop description in the congress programme) with a performance on the 'balance board' of the 24th Caprice by Paganini, something I'd been working on as a party trick – alas, time was against me on this occasion, and perhaps that was no bad thing in retrospect!


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