Having trouble reading this email? Click here to view it online

Shelagh Aitken

Alexander Teacher

www.alexander-teacher.com

Issue Vol 4 No 2

November 2010

In this Issue

Working with a Young Musician

New Newsletter Format; Presentations and Other Projects

Contact Shelagh by ringing 07900 823045 or email shelagh@alexander-teacher.com

A young Artur Runbinstein playing piano in 1906. Note the head/neck/back in alignment, straight wrists and finger position. And he kept playing professionally until 1976!

Working with a Young Musician

I was recently working with a young pianist. He plays beautifully from memory. It’s all there – phrasing, timing, musicality. But the young man’s father is concerned that the way he sits at the piano may not be doing him any good. At the same time, one of the trainee teachers at the Alexander Technique Studio and I have been exploring all the things that can happen when you pick up a flute, especially if you have a long-standing relationship with it.

The boy has been complaining, at the age of eleven, of lower back ache and shoulder pain. It would be a shame if he comes to associate playing music with pain.

We started by looking at photos of people using themselves well or not in activity: a goalie in ‘monkey’, grounded, alert, stable. A flute player straining her neck to reach the flute. A guitarist collapsed over his guitar. And the exceptional Eric Clapton, comfortable with his instrument, present and engaged, and having a great time, grinning at the photographer.

We came up with three things for the young pianist to think about:

1- Make sure he has the option of having his feet flat on a stable surface.

2- Find the sitting bones. 1 and 2 give stability to the torso, so shoulders, arms, wrists and hands are free to move.

3- When the music gets hard, don’t raise your left shoulder. We all have compensating habits to help us through the hard bits. Lifting a shoulder is a common one.

And one last thing: don’t forget to breathe.

It’s simple to say that playing music is part of life, but easy to forget. Playing music (or football, or running or singing) is something you set aside time for, something you can’t do while multitasking. Playing can seem to be in a different category than walking or working at the computer or washing dishes.

But the habits and limitations we have in one activity we take into others. So the more attention we pay to the way we do one, the more effect that has on everything else. ‘Simples’, as comparethemeerkat says.

We ended up talking about backpacks. Even toddlers carry them now. They can weigh a ton and are usually slung low on the back. They cause enough back aches in adults who have a fully developed musculature; it must be even worse for children who are developing postural habits and the muscles to support them.

New Newsletter Format; Presentations and Other Projects

I'm switching to a new newsletter delivery system with this issue. I hope that it will be better all round: easier to send, easier to read, better layout, more flexibility. Let me know what you think.

I'm going back to prison again next Wednesday (10 November). Tanya Shoop and I have done one Wellness Day at Wandsworth Prison, and they asked us back to do the same again. We'll be talking to the guards and office staff and giving them a taste of the Alexander Technique.

Tanya and I also gave a presentation for the line nurses' Education Day at Bart's Hospital. Line nurses disseminate information to the rest of their teams, a really important group. We knew we had their interest when they started asking what AT could do for them and their aches and pains! It went so well that we've been asked back to present to the consultants in the New Year.

Remember that I do Workspace Assessments for businesses large and small.

A great introduction to the Alexander Technique for friends and family are my Small Group Workshops

You can safely  from this newsletter