'Doing' and 'not doing'

I recently took advantage of the opportunity to take an Alexander Technique course with Nigel Evans, one of the Alexander tutors at the college. I heard of this practice a few years ago when I was doing my undergraduate music degree and this was the first time that I had been given practical instructions in the technique with a professional tutor.

The entire course consists of ten individual 30-minute lessons that take place in a comfortable room furnished with a piano, a chair and a long table for lying down. During the first few lessons, Nigel helped me to find more relaxed standing and sitting postures. He reminded me that a lot of the time musicians focus on ‘doing’ rather than ‘not-doing’ and that over a long period of practising we tend to tense up parts of our body and waste a lot of energy unnecessarily. I myself have occasionally experienced a mild degree of neck and back stiffness after a prolonged period of teaching or practising, which inevitably distracts me from my work. Using the Alexander Technique has already enabled me to engage in a longer period of practice without experiencing as much tension or stiffness. I will definitely continue to practise it as a daily routine.

It was very intriguing to be exposed to an entirely new approach to something as fundamental even as sitting or standing up in everyday life. When we have undertaken an activity in a particular way for a long period of time, we sometimes become so used to the routine that we never consider thinking about any other ways of doing it, even though numerous other better alternatives may exist.

I believe that the same is true of music teaching and performance. In one of the masterclasses that I have undertaken, András Schiff told the audience that 90% of what a teacher teaches is what he himself is and does. In another book on piano pedagogy that I recently read, it states that there are as many ways of teaching as there are number of teachers. I have realised from my studies that the best way to become a better teacher is to expose oneself to as many ways of teaching and performance as possible, benefiting both yourself and your students in the journey of music exploration.