Tracy Thompson

Mus 312 Alexander Technique

Professor Barbara Wegher-Thompson

December 20, 2018

Alexander Technique Final Paper: A Subjective Review of the Fall 2018 Semester

I began my foray into the Alexander Technique at the advice of my vocal teacher, Heidi

Vass. As an overweight, introverted vocal music performance major, there was an unceasing

war between my psyche and my body. This lifelong war has had an extremely negative effect

upon my self-esteem. Additionally, I am a survivor of domestic abuse and struggle with severe

anxiety and PTSD symptoms. These psychological issues impaired my ability to perform on

stage. I signed up for the Alexander Technique class, not knowing what I was signing up for or

what to expect. I was to find out, somewhat ironically, that not knowing what to expect is a

core principle in beginning Alexander Technique.

This paper will explain subjectively what I learned this semester through the course of

my Alexander Technique lessons as well as referencing the text, “The Alexander Technique- A

Complete Course in How to Hold and Use Your Body for Maximum Energy” by author John

Gray. This text will be the only source referenced and will be denoted informally throughout

the course of the paper by page number.

My Alexander Technique instructor was Barbara Wegher-Thompson. Meeting with

Barbara is akin to a warm hug, her energy is indescribable. She instantly puts you at ease with

her gentle approach. I have always fully endorsed the idea that a subject is only as accessible to
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the student as an instructor imparts, and Barbara is indispensable in the instruction of this

course at CLU.

To begin, I asked, “What is Alexander Technique?” Beside my vocal professor, my only

information came by way of my friend Lauren, who had taken the class the previous semester.

She was unable to explain it in any way that gave any true insight to what it is. I walked away

from the conversation knowing that there was table work involved, which sounded

comfortingly chiropractic, and that it was intended to retrain the body for performance. How?

I wasn’t sure, but all of it sounded like it couldn’t hurt, so I signed up. The proper answer to

define Alexander Technique is found on page 13 of the text, in which it is defined as follows:

“The Alexander Technique is a process of psycho-physical reeducation: by inhibiting the

automatic habitual responses it allows you to eliminate old habits of reaction and mis-

use of the body, and through more reliable sensory appreciation, brings about improved

use and a more appropriate means of reaction.”

Well, what does that mean? As the song goes, “Where do I begin?” We’ll start at the

beginning. I first met Barbara at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester. I walked in to the

space where we hold our meetings and it was calm, comforting, and welcoming. There was a

table that looked again, vaguely chiropractic. The lesson began with the usual “getting to know

you” conversations. She quickly discovered that as an older returning student I was no

traditional undergraduate and we both seemed to enjoy that fact which made the lessons more

accessible. However, I was unaware that as we were conversing, Barbara was taking mental
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notes on the way I had walked in, sat down, held myself while conversing, the way I held my

head when sitting, all of it. This was the starting point of our lessons, the physical act of sitting.

Barbara explained the history of F.M Alexander, and his experience as an opera singer

made the lesson that much more relevant. The body needs tension released, not relaxed, to

return to “a ‘balanced state of rest’, in which the body is well-aligned, with a desirable

combination of freedom and stability present in the right areas….” (p. 13) The beginning of the

text, which entails the process that Alexander himself went through in developing the

technique, is another reason the text is an essential companion to the course, as it enhances

the pupil’s understanding of the development and implementation of the technique.

We began the lessons with standing. There is more to standing than just standing.

People hold tension in different areas, in different ways, and these habits have been ingrained

within them since they took their first steps. This introduced the lesson about “Inhibition”.

The idea, according to the text on page 31, is that the “emphasis now will be on the point that

the pupil must constantly ‘inhibit’ his old ideas of getting into or out of This is much more

difficult than it appears. These patterns of walking and sitting are lifelong habits that are done

almost subconsciously. It takes energy and focus to change these patterns and even more so to

do it consistently enough that it invokes real change. This is where I find that the text is truly an

invaluable tool to the course. When reading the text, I somewhat subconsciously begin to

adjust my posture, release the tension in my neck, become cognitive as whether my “top joint”

is open and allowing my neck free movement. This lesson wasn’t personally difficult for me as I

had not developed a bad habit of extreme tension in the shoulders, jaw and back when

beginning to sing. The lesson of inhibition is a lesson in becoming self-aware.

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The following lessons introduced the ideas of “Primary Order”. This is another hard to

describe concept. It entails a series of physical adjustments, in order, that allow the pupil to

achieve an open, easy stance comfortably. The first primary order is ‘neck release”, (p.37)

which I described somewhat above in that the top joint, the top of the spine, is cognitively

recognized and the student releases the tension at that point to allow the head to move freely.

The second primary order which works in tandem with the first is the idea of “Head forward

and up’. As a singer I didn’t have issue with this adjustment.

We worked through the first two basic principles of Alexander technique, Inhibition and

Direction and entered the uncharted territory of ‘Working on Oneself’. As I stated previously, it

is somewhat ironic that learning Alexander Technique Is moving through uncharted territory

and we were in strange waters.

The single most important aspect I learned from this course is the idea of awareness. I

moved through a great spectrum towards awareness in this class. I started with not being

comfortable in my skin, to adjusting and standing with confidence and poise, to beginning my

weight loss journey which allows greater flexibility and freedom in implementing the technique

in all areas of my life. I moved through a process of increasing mental awareness and

reunification of mind and body, that I had knowingly severed years ago. The reunification of

mind and body is a daunting, long process, more akin to a dance. It is one step forward, two

steps back at the beginning. I have moved to two steps forward, one step back occasionally

and that is a huge accomplishment.

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The beginning of awareness came with addressing the breath and the link to my road

rage issues. I was able to begin implementing the Alexander Technique lessons of posture,

breath, and decompression while driving and it made an immediate change for the better in my

commute, and I’m sure for the commute of my fellow travelers. This is a non-psychiatric drug

anxiety control tool that is invaluable.

The greatest ‘ah-ha’ moment I had was halfway through the course. It is in relation to a

previous traumatic incident. The physical, psychological and emotional reactions that then

became my default mode of operation, due to this incident.

The entire time I have been taking voice lessons, the resounding critique I heard

repeatedly was to “open your mouth!” Ironic again, in that I was a singer that didn’t like to

open my mouth very much at all. I made the connection to a past incident that had inhibited

me in this manner. When I was in the sixth grade, I was in a school musical number. There was

a solo part which I desperately wanted. I was trying so hard to impress the guest musical

conductor, so she’d give the part to me. I took every correction, every instruction she gave

literally and implemented them immediately. She was watching the chorus and told us to

“open our mouths” to enunciate the words clearly. I opened my mouth, I enunciated, I over-

exaggerated my mouth movements, I sang with all my heart, all the while thinking that I was

doing exactly what she had asked, and I was doing it better than everyone else! I was in the

zone. And then, she stopped us mid-song, threw her hand down angrily, looked in my direction

and asked why I was being a disrespectful smart-ass, mouthing like a fish out of water?!”
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I was stunned. Tears flooded my eyes and spilled on to burning crimson cheeks. I was

devastated. I was so hurt at the unexpected attack and I had no words, so I immediately shrank

into myself, wanting to disappear. Standing now mute, unable to find the words in my twelve-

year old self to explain that my intent was not at all to insult or make fun of what she had

asked, but to exemplify it. This was the moment in which I stopped opening my mouth.

The next year, the weight began to really creep on and I became intimately acquainted

with my lifelong companion, my double-chin. We have a love-hate relationship. I hate it, it

loves to stay with me, it’s a work in progress. This was the nail in the coffin in opening my

mouth, especially when singing. Where I had been chastised unfairly before, this time I was

made fun of by classmates over a glaringly obvious physical issue that I had no control over. If I

opened my mouth, my chins appeared, and I was laughed at no matter how beautiful a sound I

produced. This realization, in tandem with the timing of the C&C Music Factory Video debacle,

were defining moments in this issue. (The C&C Music Factory incident happened in the 90’s, in

which the great soul singer in the group was relegated out of sight to an audio-only capacity.

She was the singer on the track was not publicly part of the group because of her weight. They

used her vocals and tried to pass them off as belonging to the skinny, lip-syncing model in the

music video. This reinforced my belief that the weight and double chins were not only barriers

to musical success but taboo, a cancer.

The final incident, that I now know was a trauma, occurred when I attended Grand

Bethel with my Job’s Daughter Bethel when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. This is a yearly

convention in which all the Bethels in the state join for conference, fellowship and competition.

I entered both the piano and vocal competition. Both competitions were adjudicated by at
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least three separate individuals, on tape, while we were singing so that we could take the

constructive comments and apply them to our future performances. I had raving reviews and

great feedback in my piano competition and in two of the three adjudicators during my vocal

competition. The third judge, a male, stated that “I was clearly the most talented girl

performing today, and it’s a shame that I was so overweight that it detracted from my

performance, and if I were to lose the weight, I would have a chance.” A chance at what?

Success at what? Not offending the eye of a senior citizen Masonic male?

This was the point in which the unbreakable tie between weight and self-worth kicked

talent’s ass out of the fight. Talent didn’t matter, appearance was the end all and be all of

performance. This core belief was the basis of every following decision I made, as my self-

esteem was shattered, I had no self-worth.

The Alexander Technique emphasizes retraining the moment between when one

receives the sensory stimulus and one reacts to it. That moment is seeming subconscious and

fleeting that it is difficult to begin to retrain the reactionary way in which we’ve lived our entire

existences. To call the current era “fast-paced” is like calling the Pacific Ocean “a little wet.”

The speed that we are living, the twenty-four hour per day, seven day a week, relentless stream

of stimulus that we are all subjected to has rendered us in a constant state of fight or flight, so

much so that it becomes our default mode in which we operate without even realizing it.

Alexander Technique is the cognizant realization of that moment between receiving the

stimulus and reacting to it. It is retraining oneself how to think, but it is so much more and yet

so much less than that.

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The retraining physically and mentally goes far beyond the ideas imparted by yoga and

beyond the physical realm of chiropractic care, because the retrained techniques are applied

comprehensively in all aspects of the pupil’s life, from simply sitting in a chair to how one walks

and stands. These seem simple, elementary, easily mastered concepts. The fact that these

core concepts are so essentially elementary is the actual reason they are so in fact, essential.

Lifelong habits are not retrained in one semester. I firmly believe that this course should be

taken over at least two semesters and that the second semester, building on the foundation of

the first, will be where the pupil makes accelerated progress.

WORK CITED

1. Gray, John

The Alexander technique/ John Gray. 1990 St. Martin’s Press, New York, USA.