Alexander S Technique Bmus Year 1 Diary

Alexander’s technique BMus Year 1 diary

David Fearn

Entry 1

After my first Alexander’s technique session I became very interested in where I carry tension in my body most commonly. To explore this idea I worked on lying in the semi supine position. By doing this I was able to notice that I carry an incredible amount of tension in my neck by tilting it back too far causing the front of my neck to be stretched causing unnecessary tension. Also I noticed that my shoulders are often not in the right place due both to the placing of my arms and due to the fact I find that they are often raised due to the stressful activities of the day. I noticed how allowing myself to feel like the tension was being released into the ground helped me in terms of releasing this tension in an almost subconscious way and this is a technique I could apply daily in order to ensure tension is released after highly stressful situations.

Entry 2

Today whilst sat in my lecture I thought about my posture and sitting on my sitting bones. I firstly realised that thinking up helps to alleviate a lot of tension that can be caused when sitting incorrectly. The idea of bringing my hips into alignment, straightening my spine and relaxing my shrugged shoulders made me feel as though a weight had been lifted from my body. From these simple movements I was able to sit comfortably without having to fidget as much, something which I normally find incredibly difficult for long periods of time. As I stood up allowing my weight to transfer slowly and in a relaxed way through bending my knees and bringing myself forward and up (without using my arms), I noticed that I had much more energy than at the end of previous lectures and felt more focussed and alert.

Entry 3

Today I thought about my posture during my lesson through the use of discussions we had in Alexander Technique sessions about the idea of body mapping. Throughout my lessons I have had difficulties with my breathing and through thinking about the way I stand as I prepare to sing I am beginning to see why this may be so. I hold a lot of tension in my body through locking my knees. This is related to the idea of me trying to ground my support but actually all it does is reduces the flexibility of the top of my body inhibiting how easily I can take in air. This relates to my other issue of my back being curved due to my hips being placed too far forward, causing an incredible amount of tension in the area where I am supposed to take in most of my air as a singer. Also by allowing myself to release tension from my shoulders and in general make my stance freer and loose I was able to encourage more natural breathing and greater rib expansion. Also I observed how lifting my chest too much limited my breathing due to it restricting the freedom of my lungs. Throughout my lesson my teacher and I noticed the positive effect these movements had and all in all I felt that this thinking was very useful. Entry 4

As singers we have a lot of classes where we are expected to bring material to work on in other languages, for example Italian and German. These classes take place in front of our peers and a language specialist and can be quite nerve racking. Although not quite at the same level as stage fright they can be useful to use to observe how one’s body reacts to stressful or highly demanding situations. When thinking so much about this I noticed that my posture slowly began to drag down. During a session working on a particularly difficult piece I began to think up half way through. I noticed immediately that I felt more comfortable due to not dragging my shoulders down or weighing myself down. Also I felt like I was able to concentrate at a higher level and all in all get more out of the session. It is very interesting to notice how one holds one’s self when learning or working on repertoire as these issues can become blueprinted and then brought into performance situations having a negative effect.

Entry 5

Today after college I decided to take a walk through Hyde Park rather than jumping straight on the bus. I had a fairly stressful day due to an imminent deadline and feeling slightly ill from a cold. Thinking back to my Alexander’s technique sessions I observed how I was walking. I had my shoulders held quite high and my knees were locked. Firstly I alleviated these tensions by thinking up and forward transferring my weight to a more comfortable position. I then observed how I was constantly looking down even when thinking up. By lifting my head and neck and really allowing myself “to be my own height” I was able to notice much more of the world surrounding me and found my walk much more enjoyable and found that my mood was somewhat lifted and almost as though the stress and unnecessary tension was leaving my body gradually.

Entry 6

Every week in the vocal department we have a performance class for years 1 -3 in which we bring any repertoire we are working on and perform it in an environment surrounded by constructive criticism. As these classes are about improving performance tension can often creep in due to the feeling of the fact that your peers are about to analyse what can be very exposing moment. Today when I knew I was about to get up I thought about the fact that my body was slowly becoming very tense and my breathing more irregular and shallow. I gave myself a few moments to breathe slowly and deeply focussing only on the intake of breath and the release of breath taking with it the tension I was unnecessarily holding beforehand. This allowed me to feel more elevated and free and I found I was less affected beforehand by nerves I normally suffer from.

Entry 7

Today in my Alexander’s technique class we were made to start with the simple task of writing our name’s on a piece of paper. After writing our name’s once we began to think about how each of us had begun to tense our body in one way or another, in my case hunching over and lifting my shoulders. When we were then asked to write our name again but this time thinking up and free and easy with our bodies I immediately noticed the change. Although at first the movement felt unusual it did feel a lot better and in general it felt easier. We also then did a task where we held a pen and our partner held our arm drawing a figure eight. My partner noticed then when I allowed myself to relax focussing on my breathing and posture moving my arm was a lot easier, but when I thought about the fact someone was moving me or allowed my eyes either to over focus or dart around I became tense in my arms. This session made me realise that not only do I probably spend a lot of time building tension by writing for example, but also that sometimes over thinking simple tasks can make them more difficult and tiring and in fact a lot of time the best thing to do is try and relax and lift away any tension.

Entry 8

Recently I have been struggling with practicing as efficiently as I would hope for. In previous practice sessions I found that I was struggling to maintain my concentration for as long as I would hope but also that I was becoming physically tired more quickly than is normal. By sitting down beforehand and planning exactly what I wanted to get done with breaks to relax and release tension through lying down in semi supine and refocusing myself and my breathing. I observed the effect this had on both my support and breathing. I was able to stay focussed and almost find myself doing less but getting more done as I was only focussing on what was necessary to perform. I also noticed the effect of my eyes and that by either staring or darting around both somehow inhibited what I was trying to achieve through affecting my breathing and stance. I was then able to transfer this feeling when I had to perform the piece I was practicing to my peers.

Entry 9

Whilst writing my essay for historical studies I observed how I sit at the computer. First of all I corrected my posture by thinking up and ensuring, that rather than being hunched over at the top of my body and resting a large amount of my weight on my lower back, that I also place my weight correctly on my two sitting bones. By relaxing in this way I observed an increase spinal rotation due to a feeling of my shoulders being much more connected to my back than before. My wrists and hands were also very tense and static by relaxing and giving my arms direction towards my hands I was able to type for longer due to a decrease in the amount of tension building up. I also observed how thinking of an opposition between the arms and the lower back can help to make sure I do not curve my back to much. All in all I found these small adjustments allowed me to focus for longer and finish my essay much more quickly and efficiently than I thought I would. Entry 10

When sitting on the bus on my way into college today I noticed how much of my time I spend sat in a static position. As human beings we are supposed to be constantly moving and free and easy, and our modern culture of sitting around and waiting has in many ways caused a build-up of unnecessary tension. By allowing myself to slowly circle whilst I sat, a simple tiny movement, I began to feel the tension releasing from my body and my thoughts of the busy day ahead becoming calm and collected. Also through focussing on breathing in correctly (through my nose as singers so often don’t) I observed how when I stepped off the bus these two simple changes made me feel more ready and prepared for the day ahead.

Entry 11

Whilst sitting watching one of my peers in a language class I became very aware of my internal dialogue at the time. I realised how speaking to myself internally, often about irrelevant information, really did affect what I gained from watching others. Through tuning out from my own thoughts and noticing the surrounding room and what was being said I was able to take a lot of useful information from the session that may have previously passed me by.

Entry 12

During a practice session this evening I began work on a particular tricky passage in an aria. The aria features a large number of notes at the top of my range on difficult vowel sounds. Realising that I was becoming frustrated and angry with myself I decided to lie down in semi supine. I could feel that even compared to normally stressful situations I had built up a massive amount of tension in my arms, shoulder, back, neck and hips. After releasing this through thinking and focussing my breathing I slowly brought myself up shaking tense parts of my body to further loosen up and prevent tension creeping back in. Imagining I was performing the phrase I sang out noticing the entire room but in a calm relaxed and free state of mind and body and although there were still issues I noticed a definite improvement and managed to substantially increase the quality of my sound and portrayal.

Entry 13

Today whilst performing a song cycle of ranging emotions in a practice session I began to notice the effect emotional portrayal can have on the relaxing of my instrument and the ideas we are working towards through our studies of Alexander’s technique. I began to develop the question I wished to ask in my mind for this diary. I wondered how possible it is to fully release tension but still portray the anger of the Count’s aria or the pain of Violetta’s death scene. This got me thinking about the ideas of unnecessary tension and necessary tension, and how Alexander’s technique can affect us in a positive way but still there is a need to explore how it works for each individual for each person, especially in singing where each instrument is slightly different. Through watching Pavarotti and the relaxed stance he had during performing the idea began to interest me even more and I look forward to exploring and playing with it further.

Entry 14

Today in our Alexander’s technique session we had a very interesting chat about the idea of stage fright. Firstly we observed how stage fright affected each of us for example dry mouths, shaking, butterflies in our stomachs. Then the conversation moved on to focus on the difference between positive adrenaline and incontrollable stage fright, how one can help to aid the portrayal of a performance and make it new and exciting, whilst the other can cause us to get in the way of ourselves and make us disappointed when we come to review back what we have done later on. The idea of balancing nerves and adrenaline is one which interests me very much and one of the girls in my class summed it up best with a simple statement. She said that nerves could be described as a fire, if they are kept at bay they can be good and warming, but if left to get out of control they can burn you.

Question

How much does the effect of us trying to emotionally portray the message of a piece of music cause us to build up unnecessary tension, and can we ever be fully relaxed and free and easy with correct posture whilst still being true to the character of an aria in a concert situation?