The Music and Art of Alexander Technique

As a lifelong musician and artist there are certain instincts that bring a quality to my work that can really surprise me.

I sometimes know without knowing that I know!

When I listen to a pianist perform if I switch in to a kind of body listening I believe I can tell where the holding patterns of tension are likely to be causing subtle restriction.

This is often confirmed after the concert, when I see the performer away from their instrument.

But it’s not just mechanics.

Several  weeks ago I was privileged to enjoy some practice auditions, and to be able to chat to one of the hugely gifted performers.

I was curious to know if his experience of performing in any way matched my hunch. I had been unable to sketch his physique, but I had doodled a kind of impression.

He said that he had been told that he must “put himself out there more”

My sense of him was that he was everywhere except with himself.

I had scribbled “connect with self, don’t spill away”

We laughed. He had been “putting himself out there until he was nearly blue in the face!”

I usually keep these experimental observations to myself. But I think the time is coming when I shall have the confidence and belief to share these things more widely as, surely, they could be of service/ value to musicians.

Finally some scribbled sketches of the kinds of things I  “see”

These have arrived at the top of the post because I am working from my phone, with limited editing facilities.

They are not intended to be works of art, more to help me “see” better.

A wrinkle here, a squeeze there, some feature that through the haste  of my pen and quirky draft, has become super-exaggerated.

An ear and an eye that simply loves to be around music and musicians.