Alan Mars’s Weblog

Voice, Singing & Alexander Technique with Alan Mars. 
Singing workshops and private lessons London & Brighton 

• Sing with greater ease, clarity, resonance and power.
• Develop increasing confidence & reduce nerves
• Experiment with simple vocal and breathing exercises.
• Explore vocal anatomy.
• Sing some beautiful group songs and rounds.
• Wrap your mouth around a rich language text!
• Everyone is welcome to this workshop – especially confirmed “non-singers”!
• Click here for courses…

Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars

London singing lesson

Brighton vocal lesson
Alan Mars has taught Alexander Technique, voice-work and singing both privately and at many top London drama and music schools , including the Arts Educational Drama School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music, since 1982. He offers both group and individual coaching.
Contact details – please click here

London Voice Training- Vocal skills training courses, classes, workshops

Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars

London voice training presents…

Alan Mars has taught voice-work, singing and Alexander Technique both privately and at many top London drama and music schools , including the Arts Educational Drama School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music, since 1982.

He has taught Alexander Technique and presentation skills within many top British and international companies (including: Abbey National, General Electric, Sainsbury’s, Lloyds of London and many other)since 1992.

After 22 years of teaching in London he now also teaches in Brighton & Hove and offers courses and personal coaching across the UK.

For more information please go to his website http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/index.htm
A list of workshops in London, Brighton and Hove is available here http://presentationskillslondon.wordpress.com/

http://alphainventions.com/

London and Brighton Confidence Boosting skills workshops

Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars

London singing lessons
Brighton Hove singing lessons
LIBERATING VOICE & CONFIDENCE FOR PERFORMANCE

Most singers experience some anxiety at the prospect of performing or auditioning. For some the nerves can be completely debilitating. Celtic harp player and traditional singer Alan Mars suggests some simple methods for transforming stress and anxiety into confidence and excitement.

The techniques are drawn from the author’s extended training in singing, Alexander Technique, NLP and presentation skills training

NERVE ENDINGS & THE RING OF CONFIDENCE

The performing world is full of remedies for nerves, from the lucky rabbits foot (not so lucky for the rabbit perhaps) to Luciano Pavarotti’s gracefully flourished handkerchief! Ultimately, the luckiest charm you have is a harmonious relationship between mind, body and voice.

A little adrenaline can be the fuel that turns a merely adequate performance into an exhilarating experience for both singer and audience. But what can you do if you have rehearsed your material thoroughly and you still feel the kind of anxiety that turns performance into panic?

THE “OUR SONG” PHENOMENON
Many couples have experienced the phenomenon of “our song”. During the courting phase they had a favourite song. Hearing that song, even decades later, can bring the feelings, images and sounds associated with that time flooding back.

Similarly, for many people, the mere thought of performing in public can spark off feelings of confidence and resourcefulness or terror and abject misery. Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? The trick, of course, is to have your very best experiences of confidence and competence powerfully associated with the thought of the venue within which you are going to perform. How is this done? Nothing could be simpler!

LIBERATING YOUR BODY AND YOUR VOICE- IN REHEARSAL!
EXPERIMENT 1) Vocalising from restriction
Think of a time when you were feeling a bit pressured and restricted. Remember this as fully as possible… what you were seeing around you, what you were hearing and also what you were feeling… Stay fully in this state for a while longer.
Now look around the room, does it look any less bright or any less friendly than before? Now walk around the room. Do you feel taller or shorter? Do you feel wider or narrower? What size does your “personal space” seem to be (indicate with your hands)? Is your walking lighter or heavier?
Vocalise an ah sound. Sing a line or two of a song. How easy or difficult was it to vocalise?

EXPERIMENT 2) Vocalising from ease
Move around the room and stretch to dissipate the effects of the last experiment.
Remember a time when you felt “on top of the world”. Recall and relive this experience… what you were seeing, hearing and feeling…. stay fully in this state a while longer and allow yourself to take two or three easy, deep breaths with the emphasis on the outbreath. Allow this feeling to spread through your entire body…..
Look around the room again. Is it any brighter or friendlier now? Walk around the room. Do you feel shorter or taller? Narrower or wider? How large is your “personal space” now? Is your walking heavier or lighter?
Vocalise an ah sound. Sing a little. Notice how your voice feels and sounds different from the first experiment.

You have just taken the first step in freeing your body and liberating your voice! Which of the two states would you prefer to perform in?

The above experiment demonstrates that, as far as our muscles are concerned, the difference between thinking about a particular event and actually doing it is only a matter of degree.
When I run performance workshops many participants tell me that the room looks more friendly and welcoming after doing the second part of this exercise. This reminds me of the old cartoon series “The Gambols”. One of the characters, George, is portrayed in a variety of moods as he responds to the ups and downs of life. When life is going badly there is a grey or black cloud above his head. This is accompanied by an appropriately sagging posture.
When George is on a high, there is a puffy white cloud above his head or a kind of halo radiating light. This is accompanied by a confident posture, bright eyes and a smile. What this demonstrates so well, as many cartoons do, is that the state we are in at any given moment affects the way that we respond to the pressures of daily life- including any performance activity.
Many cartoons also seem to express the belief that the cartoon characters (and by implication, ourselves) are at the mercy of circumstances. It is possible, however, to stabilise your best physical, mental and emotional states, so that you approach performances with a peak performance state literally at your fingertips…

THE RING OF CONFIDENCE
Fully recall and re-live a focused and easy state by seeing , hearing and feeling it again. As you begin to slide into your focused state, gently link the tips of your forefinger and thumb together. Keep your fingers linked for 10 to 15 seconds. You are now beginning to link or “anchor” your resourceful state to your fingertips.
Once is not enough? Strengthen and reinforce your anchor by repeating the above process three times.
Simply linking your thumb and forefinger will now be sufficient stimulus to take you the critical first few steps into your confident and focused state- a very useful thing to do when waiting for your turn in a competition.

“…I use certain tricks that make me feel more secure. Everybody knows about my white handkerchief, which I used in my first concert in Missouri in 1973, in case I started to perspire… I feel much better if I have it out there with me. It has a function but it’s also for good luck.”
Luciano Pavarotti- My Life

VISUAL ANCHORS
Many different concert halls and audition rooms share similar characteristics e.g. exit signs, furniture, instruments of different types etc.
Get yourself into a resourceful state by using the fingertip “ring of confidence”. As your state changes visualise the furniture, the instruments and the general room layout. Repeat three times.
This will help you to anchor your most confident states to the appropriate context. If you can do this “live” in the venue, before you perform, so much the better.

EVOCATIVE ODOURS
Smells are very powerful. The smell of apple [1] blossom, for example, can virtually transport some people back to childhood, playing in an orchard.
Radio 4 recently reviewed techniques that help actors overcome stage fright. The performer first creates a state of poised relaxation and then sniffs a handkerchief impregnated with aromatherapy oils that encourage even deeper calmness and focus. They then strategically place the handkerchief on their costume just before they go on stage. The odour of the aromatherapy oils then triggers the state of poised relaxation. So there may be more to Pavarotti’s handkerchief than meets the eye!
Imagine your favourite aroma. Breathe it in gently and deeply and let it go with a whispered ah sound. Anchor your peak state to this aroma. Use this technique before performing.

DRIVING THE CAR
Instead of getting into the car and immediately rushing off to do battle with the rest of the traffic…

Pause and place your attention in your physical centre of gravity (just below your belt buckle); extend a strong positive feeling to the world around you; adjust your driving seat; your mirrors; keys in the ignition and your hands on the steering wheel.

This will anchor the touch of the steering wheel to a safer driving state and will ensure that you arrive at work, the interview, the sales appointment etc. in a happier and more efficient state!

POSITIVE FEELINGS
This is perhaps the simplest and most powerful self-management technique of them all. Radiate a strong positive feeling from the core of your self. Cast the “net” of your positive feeling over the whole venue including your audience.

BUT I STILL FEEL NERVOUS!

The point of anchoring is not to stop butterflies in the stomach- the point is to get the butterflies to fly in formation. Adrenaline can give you the critical edge that takes you over the threshold into performance excellence. Adrenaline means that you care.

The attitude behind anchoring, I believe, is of greater importance than any anchoring exercise itself. When I ask people about this they say it is to do with a quality of self belief- “I have a choice”; “I have control over my response patterns” ; “I can learn from all situations.” etc.

REACHING HARMONY- THE INTEGRATED ANCHOR
Much of what is written above is drawn from the field of sports psychology (national and local sports teams please take note!) and, more recently, from the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)- a study of, amongst other things, the structure of excellent performance.
Our best and easiest performances happen when conscious and unconscious are working in harmony. This is like watching two excellent dance partners waltzing. They make it all look and feel oh so easy and flowing. But as you look at them you realize that such skill required repetition, communication and time.
After a while your peak performance states become the new normal- you are no longer walking in the foothills, you are becoming acclimatised to the higher slopes. The higher slopes allow you to glimpse unknown and perhaps unsuspected lands of mental, physical and vocal excellence…

http://alphainventions.com/

Youtube video Alexander Technique Semi-Supine resting position  

Alan Mars- Alexander Technique since 1982

Alexander Technique in Brighton and Hove…

The semi-supine active resting position gives optimum support to your whole back – and to your spine in particular. Alexander Technique teachers recommend it as a daily practice. Do it once a day if possible for up to twenty minutes. As well as easing your posture it is particularly calming and centering. Youtube video clips, picture and written instructions are below…

Semi-supine Alexander Technique

It only requires a firm and warm surface, such as a blanket on the floor, and a few paperback books to serve as a headrest. It will help you to let go of excessive muscular tension in your body as a whole. It allows your torso to widen and your spine to release into its optimum resting length. It eases and reduces pressure on the inter-vertebral discs by placing the spine in a position of maximum mechanical support.

Most people need somewhere between 1 – 3 inches of books underneath the back of the skull. The head-rest encourages release in the muscles that join the back of the neck to the base of your skull. It should be neither too high (or your chin will compress your throat) nor too low (or your chin will stick up in the air). This gives maximum support to your spine. Your feet are flat on the floor, knees pointing up to the ceiling about shoulder-width apart and your hands can rest gently on your torso. It’s the ideal pre-cursor to some voice-work. No wonder my ex-drama students continue to practice it daily decades after being introduced to it!

Over the next ten minutes or so you will simply develop your relationship to the floor and head rest… Imagine the four ‘corners’ of your back–head, shoulders and tail bone– spreading and lengthening and widening away from each other and on to the floor. Let go of trying and forcing. Let it be effortless. Leave it up to gravity and muscular release. Look at the video several times to get a general idea of how to get into the semi-supine position. The main thing to remember about getting into the semi-supine position is to do it mindfully, quite slowly and with awareness. The same thing goes for returning to your feet again. I’ll go into a bit more detail in future postings.

http://alphainventions.com/

From the set “Welcome to a Scots Christmas” – part of the Brighton Early Music Consorts annual Christmas concert in 2008. The singer is Camilla Mars. Alan Mars accompanies on clarsach. They sing three verses. All four verses are printed below.

“Balulalow is an old Scottish word for ‘lullaby’, and this song is a lullaby to the Christ child. Balulalow is one of the few Christmas songs truly associated with Scotland. The text is a 16th century translation of Martin Luther’s hymn for children ‘Vom Himmel hoch’. Martin Luther unlike the Prebyterian Calvinists had a great love for Christmas. So I guess it’s not really Scottish at all… it’s German. A bit like so many of your fine English Carols!”…

 I come from hevin hicht to tell

The best nowells that e’er befell

To you thir tythings trew I bring

And I will of them say and sing.

This day to you is born ane child

Of Marie meik and Virgin mild

That blissit bairn bening and kind

Sall you rejoyce baith hart and mind.

Lat us rejoyis and be blyth

And with the Hyrdis go full swyth

And see what God of his grace hes done

Throu Christ to bring us to his throne

My saull and life stand up and see

Wha lyis in ane cribbe of tree.

What Babe is that, sa gude and fair

It is Christ, God’s son and Air.

The silk and sandell, thee to ease

Are hay and simple swathing-claes

Wherein thou gloriest, greatest King

As thou in Heaven were in thy reign

And were the world ten times sae wide

Clad ower wi gold and staens o pride

Unworthy yit it were to thee

Under thy feet ane stool to be

O my deir hard, yung Jesus sweit

Prepair thy creddil in my spreit!

And I sall rock thee in my hart

And never mair fra thee depart.

Bot I sall praise thee evermoir

With sangis sweit unto thy gloir

The kneis of my hard sall I bow

And sing that rycht Balulalow.

Presentation Skills, Golf and Singing! Confidence Tricks 9

Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars

The following article is by Richard who works in the banking industry. I’m hoping we are going to receive more contributions from him in 2009…

 

I have always had a ‘problem’ talking to groups of people. I knew I was effective talking in one to one situations but never had the confidence to speak in Group situations. What would occur is that I would either undertake lots of planning so that I had an ‘overbusy’ script or I would just note down headings. But in each case, when the time actually came to deliver it, I would freeze and I would just want to get through the presentation as quickly as possible-either rushing through the notes or missing out entire areas completely.

 I recently heard an old colleague of mine give a 2hr presentation virtually without a note and shortly afterwards I also listened to another chap by the name of Adrian Gilpin who did much the same thing. They both intrigued me-I kept asking myself, why can they talk in front of a large group of people apparently without notes and I can’t?

 I made a point of bumping into my colleague who I hadn’t seen for 20 years and after congratulating him, I politely enquired how he managed to produce such a talk, effortlessly and so fluently without notes to which he replied ‘he had all the thoughts and knowledge but it was a question of getting them out in the right order’.

 This just stuck in the back of my mind and I really didn’t think much more about it until earlier in the year when I started a new job. Part of the role was talking to groups of people-some I knew, others I didn’t.

 I had undertaken Presentation skills training courses in various guises in the past whereby they had taught the basics of presentation but they never really covered the issue of confidence-the confidence to actually get up and just do it. I always had to be cajoled into it.

 My first presentation was an unmitigated disaster-I had ‘over-prepared’ in terms of notes and ‘under prepared’ in terms of delivery. In every presentation, there is the singer and the song. I had a well written song-but couldn’t sing it. The next couple of presentations were slightly better but I was never comfortable and I really had to push myself to do them. I knew that I had to do something positive about it.

 I did some searching on the web for the Alexander Technique and came across Alan Mars website and got in touch with him. I explained in our first telephone conversation how I would get nervous before a presentation and then ‘bottle’ it and he explained how adrenalin affects the body and he said there were techniques (tools as he called them) that I could use that would help me take control of these situations. This seemed to make sense because I likened it to playing golf. When I first learned to play, I would just walk up to the ball and hit it and sure enough it would go anywhere-probably anywhere but straight! After a period I learned a set up routine and I now have to go through that procedure before hitting every ball…feet, posture, hands and grip etc. Alan recalled a story of a client, a Solicitor, whom he had taught to sing but who also was helped with his golf game by using Alan’s skills. I said I was interested in meeting him and having an initial session but that he would not get me singing!

 At our first meeting Alan did some ‘centering’ with me, he got me reciting a poem, he taught me how to control my breathing and lastly to start using my voice. This last thing is interesting because he had me humming which I would not have done openly before our meeting. What was more unusual was that his colleague turned up towards the end of the session and I was humming in front of her and also reciting a poem. At the end of the session he said I should go carefully as I might be feeling a little ‘high’.

 The next few days were unbelievable-I practised using my voice at every opportunity and I noticed that people started to listen to me more than they had done previously. I had been working on a new Presentation and I was able to finish off preparing it very quickly and then deliver it without notes-talking without eermms and aarrhs for 15/20 minutes.

 Something else that changed was that I had a sudden surge in confidence. I am an average golfer (handicap 18) and that weekend following the visit to Alan I had put my name down for a club competition and had been paired with the Assistant Pro against the Captain and the Club Pro. Under normal circumstances, I should have been quaking in my boots but I wasn’t-I was quietly confident that as long as I maintained positive state of mind, I could match these players and use my shots wisely.

 Standing on the first, I felt on top of the world as I smashed the ball down the middle of the fairway, then chipped on and 2 putted for a par to take the first hole. This sort of form followed the next few holes and by the 5^th the Captain was a bag of nerves and I knew he had blown it mentally. I also knew that the Pro, who had been a Pro all his life was a different kettle of fish and it would take more than this to wear him down. Shortly afterwards, I overheard him mutter ‘he is fallible’ after I mis-hit one of my fairway shots…but that was a rarity.

 It was ‘tit for tat’ and this went on until I won the 15^th with a Par to go 1 up on the stroke index 2 hole. We halved the 16^th and so should have set ourselves up for the win but a lapse in concentration meant we lost the 17^th and then disaster, we also lost the 18^th to lose the match by 1 hole.

 Afterwards I could see the relief on the Captains face who was still trying to recover his composure and the Pro was most complimentary about my game and blamed the Assistant Pro for not closing out the game when we had had the opportunity.

 Having discovered my voice from just one session, I am now seriously contemplating asking Alan to teach me to sing.

http://alphainventions.com

Significant long-term benefit from Alexander Technique lessons for low back pain has been demonstrated by a major study in the British Medical Journal.

Alexander Technique helps prevent & alleviate conditions associated with undue tension or poor posture: movement difficulties, joint & muscle problems, back, neck or shoulder pain, RSI, breathing or vocal difficulties problems & stress-related conditions.

Alan Mars has been a STAT qualified Alexander Technique teacher since 1982

Alan Mars

Alexander Technique Brighton & Hove Central,

26 Ventnor Villas

Hove, BN3 3DE

East Sussex, UK

01273 747 289 or 07930 323 057

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk    http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/contact.htm

.

Alexander Technique teachers use a combination of gentle manual guidance and verbal coaching to help their pupils bring about greater ease and poise in their daily life.

Related posts:

Alexander Technique history and background 

Alexander Technique photo album

Technique in central Brighton

contact Alan Mars.

 

 

Significant long-term benefit from Alexander Technique lessons for low back pain has been demonstrated by a major study in the British Medical Journal.  Alexander Technique helps prevent & alleviate conditions associated with undue tension or poor posture: movement difficulties, joint & muscle problems, back, neck or shoulder pain, RSI, breathing or vocal difficulties problems & stress-related conditions. Alexander Technique BN3, Hove, East Sussex, UK

Alan Mars has been a STAT qualified Alexander Technique teacher since 1982

Contact details – please click here

Alexander Technique Brighton Hove, East Sussex, UK, Photo Album

Alan Mars- teaching Alexander Technique since 1982

In the last post I mentioned how I used to get tongue-tied or overly enthusiastic when someone asked the question “What is the Alexander Technique?”

Of course, it’ll always be difficult to describe an activity, any activity, that has such a large sensory component. So I promised to put up some photos, with comments, so you can at least get a fly on the wall perspective of what a typical Alexander Technique lesson might look like.

As a general rule, Alexander Technique teachers tend to work from the core of the body — neck, head and back – out towards the extremities ie the arms and legs. The major muscles that move the limbs, however, have their origins in the torso. So working with the neck, head back relationship automatically influences the movement of the arms and legs. The converse is also true – working with the arms and legs will reinforce release and expansion through the neck, head and back.

Having said that “any way in is a way in” as the late, and great, Walter Carrington used to say. Alexander Technique Brighton BN1

“Allow your neck to be free”

“Allow your neck to be free in such a way that your head can go forwards & upwards”

“Allow your neck to be free & your head to go forwards & upwards so that your back can lengthen & widen”

In practice most Alexander Technique teachers do not recite these directions parrot-fashion. The words and language tend to be naturalistic and tailored to fit the individual.

Arms & Legs- Although there are specific directions for the arms & legs often the teacher will ask the pupil to continue focussing on their neck, head and back relationship as they work with the arms and the legs.

Legs

Chair-work

It isn’t just about moving in and out of a chair. It’s a convenient way of learning to move easily and efficiently. A convenient method that can be transferred into all sorts of everyday movements and activities. It’s a great method of learning to suspend habitual muscular and even emotional responses. My own favourite fields of application have been in playing the harp, singing and the martial arts. Here is a picture taken in an Aikido & Alexander technique class several years ago. I’m the one being thrown through the air! Apparently Alexander Technique can be applied at high speed.

Miscellaneous photos

It’s difficult to really capture the living, dynamic quality of an Alexander Technique lesson on a photograph. Young children often embody that Alexander quality unconsciously. Here is a photo of one of my daughters quite literally going forwards and upwards several years ago!

Thanks to that most talented photographer Lisa Rastl (lisa.rastl@gmx.net) and, of course, to Lena for being such a responsive model. And to that fine Alexander Technique teacher Harriet Anderson for turning her Alexander studio into a photographic studio for a few hours. Thanks also to pupils from previous courses for modeling. Thanks to Camilla Mars and to Clara Miriam.

Alan Mars

Alexander Technique Brighton & Hove,

26 Ventnor Villas

Hove

BN3 3DE

01273 747 289 or 07930 323 057

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/contact.htm

http://alphainventions.com/

“everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Albert Einstien excerpted from wikipedia

It’s the story of a wise man who realised that he was, unconsciously, throwing a spanner in his own works. Through observation and reasoning he stopped throwing the spanner and consequently freed up the functioning of his voice, breathing and general well-being.

Soon Alexander was inundated with actors and singers wanting lessons. Alexander found it difficult to pass on his insights verbally. He developed a method of gentle manual guidance and verbal coaching and gave his pupils an experience of using their voice in an easier, more efficient and poised way.

It became clear to Alexander that his approach could have a beneficial effect not just on the voice but on all-round functioning and well being. In today’s post I will focus on background and history. I my next post I will focus on what actually happens during an individual, hands-on Alexander Technique lesson.

“It has helped me to undo knots, unblock energy and deal with almost paralysing stage fright.”

William Hurt, actor from STAT website

Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869 – 1955) was an actor who suffered from career threatening vocal and breathing difficulties. He specialised in a one-man show, in large provincial theatres, requiring a spirited and powerful delivery. A popular actor, Alexander could be on stage six evenings per week plus several matinees. This took its toll in the form of hoarseness, an audible rasping inhalation between phrases and an inflammation of his throat. The whole symptom picture was known as “clergyman’s sore throat”.

Medical interventions were largely fruitless so Alexander pursued his own approach. He concluded that his symptoms were less to do with over-use and more a case of misuse.

To aid his self-study Alexander set up a three-way system of mirrors in which could observe himself while reciting. This painstaking period of self observation stretched out over several years.

At first Alexander noticed nothing unusual in his manner of reciting. Gradually he became aware of a tendency to stiffen his neck, pull his head back and compress his larynx when he anticipated reciting a difficult passage. This pattern was associated with effortful inhalation. If the initial contraction was strong enough it could effect the whole balance of his system from head to toe.

Alexander brought about a complete change in his way of breathing, using his voice and in his general day to day functioning. It wasn’t all plain sailing – there were several blind alleys.

The method he settled on revolved around three main principles

Direction
Sensory Appreciation
Pausing

Direction. Alexander noticed that pulling his head back and down was linked with his voice problems. So he tried physically altering the position of his head by putting it “forwards and upwards”. This didn’t help. The mirrors showed that instead of putting his head forwards and upwards he was either pulling it back and down, as before, or that he was pulling his head forwards and downwards – a different kind of badly.

Pre-school children, unconsciously, have this quality that Alexander Technique teachers call “direction” – easy, upright, open, poised in stillness and activity. As adults we can consciously develop ease and poise in our daily activities. It doesn’t come from exhortations to “Sit up straight!” or “Stand up straight!” and the increasing strain and, eventually, deeper slumping that this causes.

Alexander repeated the directions “Neck to be free”; “Head to go forwards and upwards” and “Back to lengthen and widen” silently to himself without trying to physically impose them and without even caring whether they took seed or not. But gradually his mirrors demonstrated that they were beginning to take seed and slowly grow. And not just in his neck, head and back but through his entire frame.

Sensory Appreciation. Alexander realised that his habits (neck stiffening, pulling his head back and down, shortening and narrowing his back) felt, if not exactly right, then at least so overwhelmingly familiar that he tended to revert to them at the critical moment of actually reciting. Change doesn’t always feel right. What we sense physically can be unreliable. A little girl with an extremely twisted stance was brought to see Alexander. Alexander, using his expert touch, gently brought her into relative balance and symmetry. The result? She complained to her mother “The nasty man’s twisted me all up!” We need a little time and tolerance tolerance to get used to new, unfamiliar, but ultimately healthier conditions.

Pausing. When Alexander eventually noticed his habit – neck stiffening, pulling his head back, shortening his spine and narrowing his back – he wasn’t surprised that it took him so long to observe them. They were small, subtle habits. Tiny tensions. Like water dripping onto granite, year after year, we don’t notice the build-up, until the pain or stress makes us take notice. And even then we only notice the effects, not the causes.

Alexander continually brought himself up to the point of reciting. Up to the point of almost stiffening his neck and pulling his head back. And then, so to speak, he would step back, be still and refresh his directions “Neck… head… back”

And so Alexander navigated himself into that little known area that lies between stimulus and response. He found that he was able to maintain a more poised use of himself whilst reciting. He recited without stiffening his neck, pulling his head back and down and without shortening and narrowing his back. Without hoarseness. Without audibly rasping his breath in.

And so he returned to the stage, briefly, before embarking on a career of teaching what he called “The work”. Until his death in 1955 he continually developed this method of gentle manual guidance and verbal coaching and gave his pupils a way to improve their functioning throughout the range of their day to day activities. “The work” brought him to London in 1904 where he taught the top people from theatre and the arts. People from all walks of life (including politics, science, medicine, the aristocracy) were drawn to the work which made such a significant difference, mentally and physically to their daily lives.

Alexander used observation and reasoning and through this gained a new experience of using himself in daily life. We do it the other way round. We get an experience directly from the hands of an Alexander Technique teacher and understanding slowly follows.

So what does a contemporary Alexander Technique lesson actually look like and sound like? This, with accompanying photographs, will be the subject of my next post.

“I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.”

John Cleese, comedian and actor (taken from www.alexandertechnique.com)

This post was a potted history of the Alexander Technique. If it has been too simple for you or if it’s simply whetted your curiosity please follow these links for more.

Or follow this link to Amazon for some Alexander Technique book reviews.

Or read the excellent “Freedom to Change” by Frank Pierce Jones available from the equally excellent Mouritz site and look at the review

For further information about courses and individual sessions with me, Alan Mars, in Brighton & Hove:

Alan Mars

Alexander Technique Brighton & Hove,

26 Ventnor Villas

Hove

BN3 3DE

01273 747 289 or 07930 323 057

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/contact.htm