Norwegian Woods @ 1st Step Chiropractic

Is Chiropractic a substitute for Alexander technique? Is it the other way around? Check your neurology of the central nerve system and you'll see that upper cervical chiropractic fixes the problem that Alexander cannot; when the head isn't on straight, a specific vector is required to get it corrected. That is a different issue from correcting the use of the self. Both set up conditions favorable for healing, but you have to distinguish when to use either.
Careful craftsmanship! That's what we do in either field. Look at what we are doing today in my office, October 23, 2010.

Unsure What IS the Alexander Technique?

At the Womanspace Campus here in Rockford, IL, I led a wonderful group of people in a short tutorial about the Alexander Technique last month - while they were eating lunch.

You cannot learn this work in one 45 minute group session, but you can give some motivated people enough information to begin playing with this work on their own, especially the attentive musician. I wanted to share some of their comments with you...

"Excellent," "Meaningful," "Holistic," "Hands-on, very meaningful," and my favorite, "Unsure what Alexander Technique is!"

When I was a violin teacher I found that those students who couldn't understand me raised my level of awareness more than others. Differences in learning styles, communication methods, or some other mysterious impediment made it unescapably necessary to find a more appropriate way to communicate to this person.

I like a challenge. Especially when it does not involve dangerous animals in the jungle.

So let us answer the question, "What is the Alexander Technique?"

Well, IT isn't anything at all, really. Maybe a door opening, maybe a ladder to climb up metaphorically.

There is no IT, there is only YOU! And when YOU malfunction, YOU need to ask YOURSELF what YOU did to create that malfunction. Alexander simply says quietly in the background (with and Australian accent) "Stop doing that with YOUR neck!"

You have to ponder that problem...the Alexander Technique is not a trinket, not a drug or a multi-level marketing scheme, it is YOU.

And the teacher helps YOU to discover how you have been interfering with YOURSELF so you can give yourself other options.

Give yourself the opportunity to learn more. Alexander Technique in Rockford, IL

FM Alexander for Posture?

Eleven years ago, I led an information session about the FM Alexander technique at a friend's house in Charleston, IL. Among the reviews were one that astounded me. "Fairly standard point about posture." was all it said.

Reflected in that comment was the sad image of a person who had been so harangued by his superiors that he couldn't hear anything else except the most irritating of them. Maybe it was his music teacher from fourth grade. Maybe an older sister. "Sit up straight! Stand up straight! Stop slumping!" might have been the incessant imperatives.

Although the FM Alexander technique has implications for posture, blood pressure, back pain, vocal production, sound production on any instrument, and other diverse realities of living, it is no more about posture than going to the movies is about burning gas in your car. While it's true that you use up gas by going to the movies, it is just a side effect.

When I was an orchestral musician, people wondered why I sat up so straight. I didn't think I sat up straight, it was just a side effect of the head/neck/back system working well. When it does, my hands worked well and freely and I felt physically comfortable with my instrument.

The vertebrate mechanism doesn't work well when you sit or stand up straight. It works well when you mind the head/neck/trunk dynamic. If you are an actor in a devious character with a twisted posture, your posture HAS to be bad, but you can still manage your head/neck/back dynamic in a constructive manner.

So I still ponder the tendency of the newcomer to jump to a conclusion about the Alexander technique as being about posture.

In England, the common equation is: Alexander = Back Pain Relief. In other places across the planet, the questionable drift is toward the equation: Alexander = Relief from Symptoms.

How about we just let it be itself? The Alexander Technique is about learning to use yourself in a conscious, constructive way!

Alexander Technique - Lessons?

A simple quote from Sophocles -

"The ideal condition would be, I admit, that man should be right by instinct; But since we are all too likely to go astray, the resonable thing is to learn from those who can teach."

Pain? Uncoordination? Sensory deficits? Learn from those who can teach!

Alexander Technique and Biology

Considered the father of psycho-biology, CL Herrick stated shortly before he died in 1904, "Structure is a snapshot of behavior." He saw the future of forensics...

But more importantly for human behavior studies, he saw that there is a link between behavior and structure.

One of his students, GE Coghill spent his career studying the behavior of the newt, making important observations about the role of the head in animal movement. When he met FM Alexander, he readily caught on to what Alexander was doing since it agreed with what had been discovered by scientists up to that time. The beautiful thing was that Alexander had transformed this observable fact into practical reality.
Alexander Technique - practical science!

A Technique for Musicians

Ran across this paragraph from Frank Pierce Jones between managing laundry and children's practice sessions... "In teaching the principle (Alexander's work) to a musician (or to anyone else, for that matter), the aim is to increase the pupil's awareness of himself as a whole, until he can detect the interference in the head-neck relationship, which is the first link in the reflex chain of "getting set" to do something - to sit down, to pick up a bow, or to strike a chord. In order to accomplish this, the teacher helps the pupil to carry out the activity without the habitual interference, and to realize by actual experience the lightness and freedom of movement that come when the primary control operates normally. Through repeated experience of this kind, the pupil gradually builds a new standard of kinaesthetic judgement. With this standard he has the power at any time to know whether he is obtaining the maximum of freedom and control in what he is doing."
From "Musical America," January 1, 1949.
Jones' comment that you can know whether you are free or not conflicts with Alexander's comment from the 1930's, "The only thing you'll ever really know is that you're wrong." The fact that they conflict only means we have a great playground for inquiry. That's what we do in Rockford with the Alexander Technique!

Rockford Alexander Technique: Is it About Posture?

Recalling that Alexander's work is about education and unlearning the habits that are getting us in the wrong, let's look at a quote from his first book, Man's Supreme Inheritance.
"The first step in re-education is establishing in the pupil's mind the connection that exists between cause and effect in every function of the body."
Now that's not hard to do, especially if you did yard work all day and have sore muscles all over your body. But what if it's in the area of a sore wrist from too much computer mousing? Or what if you HAVE to produce a big paper/recital/any-kind-of-stressful-project, and you develop a nervous tic in your face?
Alexander simply says, "You did it and are actively engaged in producing those symptoms, so just stop it!"
Fine, you say, what shall I stop?
Just stop.
That's right, stop.
Now for a game.
Decide on a "stimulus" that you react to. Examples include, the telephone ringing, a particular person's way of addressing you, a dog bark, or even your own desire to stand up straignt. Now take a few days to watch how you react to that stimulus. Make notes of what you observe. The more you observe, the more you are going to have ultimate control over how you choose to respond. Do you pull your head back? Do you feel a downward pressure on your ribcage? Do you jump?
Good! Now that you have followed in Alexander's footsteps, you will want to come back to the main controlling issue for vertebrates - stop doing that neck stiffening thing.
It took Alexander about ten years to sort that out. Havinf a teacher helps considerable. Look one up. If you're in the Rockford area, here we are!