Archive for the ‘confidence’ Category
Voice, Singing & the Alexander Technique, London, Saturday 4th July
Voice, Singing & the Alexander Technique, London, 4th July
Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars
Singing lessons in London presents…
Voice, Singing & the Alexander Technique
Saturday 4th July, 12.00 – 5.00pm, £45.
Movingartsbase, 134 Liverpool Road, Islington, London, N1 1LA
Contact & Booking Information please click here
hainventions.com/
London Voice Training- Vocal skills training courses, classes, workshops
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/
Confidence Tricks, Voice & Presentation Skills – London N1 21st June
Confidence Tricks, Voice & Presentation Skills in London with Alan Mars
Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars
Reliable confidence is based on the repeated practice of surprisingly simple procedures. Experience Alive Relaxation, Energy & Flow during presentations, meetings or any challenging situations. Individual coaching within a group setting.
Sunday 21st June, 12.00 – 5.00pm, £55
Movingartsbase, 134 Liverpool Road, Islington, London, N1 1LA
Contact & Booking Information please click here
hainventions.com/
Semi-Supine Alexander Technique Youtube video- Confidence Tricks 11
Semi-supine Alexander Technique active resting position
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…
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.
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Semi-supine Alexander Technique active resting position
The Lychen Choir!
Confidence Tricks 7. Sir Walter Scott on Adversity – quote
Sir Walter Scott on Adversity – quote
“It’s a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don’t even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don’t just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.” Sir Walter Scott
“Belief is a matter of customary muscle tension” F. M. Alexander
The second quote is by F M Alexander, the originator, of the Alexander Technique. It was considered to be quite a provocative statement in the 1930s. Some people have suggested that he said it in order to shock. Walter Carrington, however, believed that he was perfectly serious about it because he, F M Alexander, equated belief with fixation. In Alexander’s experience a rigidity of mind corresponded to a rigidity of body. (Walter Carrington on the Alexander Technique in discussion with Sean Carey, 1986, p.45f)
Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars
I love the above quote by Sir Walter Scott – it’s so modern! As a little experiment try putting the key words into Google and see what you come up with. You might find quite a few modern versions of “ABC” out there but, to my mind, none of them quite as succinct and pithy as Sir Walter Scott’s.
Try buying into the two quotes. Decide to treat them “as if” they were true. Believe that by changing your muscular reaction to adversity you will also change, for the better, the consequences that arise from adversity.
How can you change your muscular reactions? How can you weaken the hold of a limiting belief? I’m sure there are many possibilities… including, perhaps, dipping into the preceding pages of this blog.
Alexander Technique photo album
Courses in London, Brighton & Hove
Remembering your Words – Confidence Tricks 5
Memory and Centering
“If only I could remember my words then I would be composed” is a complaint that many of us could identify with.
My friend and mentor, Robin Prior, has suggested that the following is a more constructive approach “If only I could be more composed then I would remember my words.”
Have you had the experience of struggling to convey your thoughts on a subject that you know thoroughly? This could range from a total blanking of your mind to finding that you are simply not articulating your thoughts with the accustomed ease.
Adrenaline, the fight/flight hormone, tends to dampen our usual thinking and memory processes. Its job, after all, is to drive us to take physical action. Have you noticed how fast you can move when a speeding car is accelerating toward you? Logical, serial thinking is too slow in this context. It could, literally, be the death of you.
So the most important factor is to moderate your adrenaline flow and turns fear into a buzz, into a pleasant excitement. How? Please see the previous posts, Confidence Tricks 1 – 4.
You do, of course, need to practise what you want to say. It’s important to remember that memory isn’t just psychological – it’s physiological also. So, if you are going to be addressing an audience of 200 it won’t help you if you practice your speech slumped in an easy chair with your feet up in the mantelpiece! At the very least you’ll need to practice your speech whilst standing upright. Preferably standing upright centred, with your weight nicely distributed and a good wide sense of space.
It’s nice, but not essential, if you can practice in the actual venue. If you can’t get into the venue you can always visualise, pretend, that you are practising in it.*
In summary – you link your words and thoughts with a balanced and centred physiology. You link your words and thoughts with the appropriate presentation environment – either physically or in your imagination.
This simple approach can really quieten down your cognitive processes and clear your mind for action. Not only will you be able to articulate your thoughts fluidly you may also find that you are thinking more creatively. You might… surprise yourself… and find that… you know more… than you even suspected… you knew.
* I’ll say more about visualisation and mental rehearsal in a future post.
Confidence Tricks 3. Agents Showcase – The Big Audition
The cast of final term drama students are reciting in unison. At least that is the idea. The sound is flat and ragged. Stressed or disengaged expressions are plain to see on the performers faces. Strain and slump in the postures. Tomorrow is an important evening for everyone’s future. An audience of theatrical agents. Careers could be made… or fizzle out before they start. You can almost see the thought bubbles – “Why do final rehearsals so often end up like this?”
What is happening here? Anxiety? Yes, in varying degrees from person to person. Tiredness and a feeling of not being quite equal to the task? The final term has been a long haul. Conflict of priorities? Time devoted to the ensemble piece is time subtracted from the all important solo slot. Despite the fact that the ensemble pieces are like the rich dark velvet that shows off the individual pieces of jewellery to best effect.
What to do? A good old fashioned motivational speech and then push on? It can work wonders… but not today, not now. The director decides – now is the time for pausing. For regrouping and redirecting the considerable individual and collective resources of the cast.
“Alright everyone! Take five!” A collective sigh of relief. Pursuit of other, small but important, goals ensues. A visit to the ladies or gents. A quick call on the mobile. Smokers huddle at the main entrance. Catch up on some gossip. Some are resting in the Alexander semi-supine position. Some sits and thinks. And some just sits.
We all have an actual need for distraction. A need to place attention elsewhere periodically. Too much work and not enough play etc.
“O.K. everyone, let’s get going again!”
Do they dive straight into the unison speech? No.
For the next ten minutes the students separate out into pairs. One of the students, the tester, starts to gently push the other student, the testee, who becomes wobbly and loses balance. After a short pause the testee places their hand briefly over their lower abdomen and then, returning their hand to their side, stands in a neutral posture. The tester begins to gently push again. This time the testee is stable and not only confidently balanced but looking calmer and more collected.
After swapping roles and repeating the same procedure the attitude in the cast is calmer, more powerful and motivation is high. Unison descends on the cast – the collective voice, like peeling bells, is now bright, clear and resonant.
The performance the following evening, both the ensemble and the individual pieces, is a resounding success. Students get agents and take the next step of their career.
Confidence Tricks 2. Festina Lente – Hasten Slowly
Festina Lente – Hasten Slowly
A potential student approaches a famous Japanese sword master asking for instruction.
The student asks how long it will take for him to achieve mastery in swordwork…
“It will take ten years for you to become competent in the basic skills” the master replied.
“What if I study twice as hard?” the student asks eagerly.
“Then it will take you twenty years!”
“And if I study three times as hard?”
“Thirty years! A pupil in such a hurry learns slowly.”
Confidence Tricks 1 – the Dating Game
“No! You may not call me a “Confidence Guru!” Absolutely not!” – Alan.
“But “Guru” is an extremely respectable term in media circles!” – Television producer.
“That’s as may be but my fellow regulars at the Red Lion will take the… will mock me mercilessly if they hear!” – Alan
“How about “Confidence Coach” then?” – television producer.
“Ok” sigh…
“Ok then” sigh… “Let me introduce you to the “datees” in the Green Room”
I’d been asked by a television production company to help coach some members of the public for live television. It was a dating programme. Interestingly most of the participants were in their late forties or early fifties. The usual participants were in their teens and twenties.
The “datees” would say a bit about their life, their loves, hates and hobbies directly to camera. We sat at a cocktail bar where everyone had to deliver a chat-up line and come up with an appropriate and, hopefully, humorous response. And, oh yes, we all had to strut our stuff down the catwalk (steady tiger!)Nerve wracking, of course, especially if you are not used to being in the limelight.
I taught the participants some basic centering techniques. I’ll say a bit more about the background to some of these techniques in the near future:
- Place your attention in your centre of gravity – just a few inches below your navel.
- Distribute your body weight evenly onto the ground
- Maintain wide vision and wide shoulders
- Balance your head easily on top of your spine
In the end we only had time to rehearse one or two things. The participants could sense the potential of the techniques however. And this seemed to really motivate them to simply have fun in front of the camera. A virtuous cycle?
Not everyone got a date. But everyone had fun. What is it about that wonderful mixture of relaxation and excitement that seems to make the world sparkle with possibility?
One woman who was really quite shy and reserved in the Green Room absolutely blossomed on camera. She demonstrated a golf swing, her hobby, to the camera and very shortly thereafter an eligible gent phoned in with a request to get know her better!
The two interviewers were impressed. How come a group of men and women in their late forties and early fifties could be such fun on camera? Why were they so much less inhibited than the usual “datees” in their teens and twenties?
The centering techniques certainly seemed to help. Is it true that wisdom that comes with increasing maturity? And, perhaps, the ability not to take yourself too seriously? If so then it’s good news for all of us!
The interviewers were also somewhat sceptical. Couldn’t these acting techniques stop people from simply being themselves?
I simply quoted Shakespeare “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”
And I might have added – we often end up playing a part that is unsatisfying and unsuitable. A part that someone else wrote for us. These centering techniques can give us the flexibility, courage and motivation to try out new behaviours. Not all of the techniques will be suitable all of the time. Some of them will be entirely suitable but may take a little time to get used to. Some of them will be absolutely bang-on or, as the old sherry advert used to say, “One instinctively knows when something is right!” and we will take to them like the proverbial duck to water.
PS I’ll be running an introduction to Confidence Tricks at the NLP One day conference on April 19th.
PPS Many of the centering techniques I teach come originally from my training in Ki-Aikido. They’ve grown and adapted with me. Here is a link for my old sparring partner Charles Harris. We did our yellow belt grading together more years ago than I care to remember. He is chief instructor now for one of the biggest Ki-Aikido clubs in London.
