Asking a prospective teacher ‘how many lessons will I need?’ is a fair question. However, if you ask that to a piano teacher, she might answer: “to do what?” Playing chopsticks is one thing; playing a concerto is another. People ask Alexander Technique teachers that question all the time…

In 1973, Nicholas Tinbergen and two others won the Nobel prize for Physiology-Medicine. He dedicated a good portion of his acceptance speech to F.M. Alexander and the Alexander Technique. He was an Alexander Technique student, as was his wife and daughter. They all took Alexander Technique lessons with different Alexander Technique teachers. What follows is the beginning of the portion of the speech relating to the Alexander Technique:

…My second example of the usefulness of an ethological approach to Medicine has quite a different history. It concerns the work of a very remarkable man, the late F. M. Alexander. His research started some fifty years before the revival of Ethology for which we are now being honoured, yet his procedure was very similar to modern observational methods, and we believe that his achievements and those of his pupils deserve close attention…

…Alexander Technique is something new to learn, and Alexander Technique lessons help you do your morning routine or any other routine in an un-routine way. Alexander Technique teachers… if you have back pain or you have bad posture, take some Alexander Technique lessons. One day it might help you remember…

What are you doing right now as you’re sitting and reading this? I’ll assume you’re sitting and reading right now.

If you are sitting, where is your face? I mean, is it poking towards the computer screen? A clearer way to think about this is that you’re poking your neck towards the screen; your face is going along for the ride. We tend to poke our necks forward and down; compressing. The muscles in our necks are working harder than necessary. It would be better…

‘P‘ words seemp to have have an important and prominent place in the Alexander Technique, precisely why there’ll be a pot-pourri of p’s permeating and peppering this perfunctory post.

It’s plausible to think the Alexander Technique is about particular positions, poses or appearances but more precisely…

1.    Head in the clouds; feet on the earth. Think of the opposition of your head moving up, while your feet are releasing down. If you’re sitting, think of your head moving up and your …

Alexander Technique lessons in New York City, 2009, have a lot in common with the Alexander Technique of the early 1900’s. Slumping and slouching are still alive and well…