Tension Release in Piano Playing: Teaching Alexander Technique to Undergraduate Piano Majors

This article explores the effectiveness of Alexander Technique in reducing tension in piano playing. Much of the literature regarding the Alexander Technique tends to be guide books for various uses targeting actors, musicians, sportsmen and so forth. There are also a growing number of alternative medical research studies that examine the effectiveness of the Alexander Technique in reducing disability in Parkinson disease, improving postural equilibrium, and relieving back pain. However in the area of music performance, little empirical research has been carried out. In this study, fifteen undergraduate piano majors from a local university in Malaysia were recruited as research subjects. Four major principles of the Alexander Technique were employed in this test. Observation was carried out and a report of tension in certain body parts was recorded. The subjects went through fourteen week of lessons taught by an Alexander Technique instructor, and a survey was carried out. The results indicate a positive outcome that Alexander Technique may help pianists to reduce tension.

Access the article here. 
 

View our Class page for more info. about our upcoming Alexander Technique Workshop.

Upcoming Posture & Movement Training Workshop: Alexander Technique

Re-learning to move easily & efficiently, the way we were designed to, by identifying and changing learned overcompensation habits. Unlock your body...

The Alexander Technique

...is an intelligent way to solve body problems.  Many people are mystified by their own back pain, excess tension or lack of coordination.  They often see problems in their joints or muscles as structural, unchangeable.  As an Alexander teacher, I hear clients say things like, "I've always walked like a duck," or "My posture is just like my father's."  But, as they learn the Technique, they are surprised that they really can make lasting changes in the way they walk, their degree of muscular tension or the shape of their posture.  They learn how dynamic and changeable the body really is.  They find that, by learning the Technique, they can improve their overall movement and achieve optimal health for both body and mind.
 

We all have unconscious movement habits. 

Without realizing it, we put undue pressure on ourselves.  We use more force than we need to lift a coffee pot or a weight bar.  We slouch as we sit, unaware that our way of doing things gives our bodies a certain look.  We blame body problems on activities -- carpal tunnel syndrome on computer work, tennis elbow on tennis.  But often it is how we do something that creates the problem, not the activity itself.

An Alexander Technique teacher helps you see what in your movement style contributes to your recurring difficulties -- whether it's a bad back, neck and shoulder pain, restricted breathing, perpetual exhaustion or limitations in performing a task or sport.  Analyzing your whole movement pattern -- not just your symptom -- the teacher alerts you to habits of compression in your characteristic way of sitting, standing and walking.  He or she then guides you -- with words and a gentle, encouraging touch -- to move in a freer, more integrated way. 

The Technique's basic idea is that when the neck muscles do not overwork, the head balances lightly at the top of spine.  The relationship between the head and the spine is of utmost importance.  How we manage that relationship has ramifications throughout the rest of the body.  As the boss -- good or bad -- sets the tone for an organization, the head / spine relationship -- compressed or free -- determines the quality of the body's overall coordination.  Our neuromuscular system is designed to work in concert with gravity.  Delicate poise of the head sparks the body's anti-gravity response: a natural oppositional force in the torso that easily guides us upward and invites the spine to lengthen, rather than compress, as we move.  Instead of slouching or holding ourselves in a rigid posture, we can learn to mobilize this support system and use it wherever we go -- in the car, at the computer, in the gym.

Young children have this natural poise. If you watch a toddler in action, you will see an erect spine, free joints and a large head balancing easily on a little neck.  A healthy child walks and plays with regal posture.  Barring birth defects, we all began that way.  But over the years, we often lose that spontaneity and ease.
 

Using the Alexander Technique

...you can learn to strip away harmful habits, heighten your self-awareness, and use your thought process to restore your original poise.  In a way, you are learning something that, deep down, your body already knows.  With the Alexander Technique, you come to understand much more about how your body works, and how to make it work for you.  You can tap more of your internal resources, and begin on a path to enhancing your comfort and pleasure in all your activities. (Originally written by Joan Arnold and appeared on alexandertechnique.com)

The Alexander Technique is a way to feel better, and move in a more relaxed and comfortable way... the way nature intended.

An Alexander Technique teacher helps you to identify and lose the harmful habits you have built up over a lifetime of stress and learn to move more freely.

The Alexander Technique is for you if you are ready to feel more comfortable in your own body.

The Alexander Technique can also help you if:

• You suffer from repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome.

• You have a backache or stiff neck and shoulders.

• You become uncomfortable when sitting at your computer for long periods of time.

• You are a singer, musician, actor, dancer or athlete and feel you are not performing at your full potential.
   

Upcoming Alexander Technique Workshop

December 27, 10am - 12pm workshop*
12:30pm - 6:30pm 60 minute private lessons**

PAY BY DONATION* **
** bring with you what you want to work on, like an instrument or a movement, or discuss a posture problem or goal you'd like addressed.

Learn to move with momentum, with the natural fascial lines in your body and how to identify and unravel compensations and tensions in your musculoskeletal system that contribute / lead to chronic pain.

Performing artist, actor, singer and theatre director, Holly Cinnamon, returns to Edmonton from her theatre studies in Boston for a limited time. Sharing strategies she has applied in her personal life and career to train and fine tune her body like a musical instrument and tool.

Holly’s journey as a yogini began 8 years ago when she started attending classes at Shanti Yoga in Edmonton while studying her undergraduate degree in theatre. As a trauma survivor, Holly discovered yoga’s power to heal and free tensions and traumas from the body, allowing her to regain an ownership of her body and a sense of wholeness that she felt she had lost. From digging deeply to rediscover her own body, Holly became deeply interested in experiential anatomy - asking how we experience our structure thorough internal sensation rather than external analysis. 

An incredibly sensitive person since birth, Holly has discovered strength in sensitivity through her work as a yoga teacher. She enjoys giving her students the gift of rediscovering themselves in the present moment, freeing themselves from judgment, and finding joy in the gift of living in a body on this earth and moving with gratitude. Holly has trained in Yin Yoga with Joe Barnett, a primary teaching assistant of Paul Grilley and completed her 200-hour teacher training through YogaWorks with Catherine Munro.