A Pianist's Journey with the Alexander Technique

I was given no training in general coordination until I began my early Alexander Technique lessons, but before long I discovered that when moving very fast along the keyboard, Just a slight increase in the feeling of arm weight tested my endurance and decreased the accuracy of my key-position-sense. So when playing an etude up to tempo, plus adding weight, I needed to think more muscularly that I would in gentler playing. Another way of saying that is even a slight adding of arm-weight would make it virtually impossible for me to play the chromatic etude, or the thirds etude, or the winter wind etude, at the approved tempo. Some part of me knows this all the time, but it took this turn of events to bring forward what was missing from my "kinaesthetic" awareness.

Kinaesthetic means a sense of muscle movement; for example, what it feels like to make the number two without looking, or what it feels like to depress a key without sounding the tone. I was simply working too hard, but I could not feel the extra work in my muscles. In other words my kinaesthetic sense was debauched.

In slow lyrical playing, one wants more sensory feedback from the fingers. The human hand has a plethora of nerve endings: "The human hand, designed for grasping and for touching has up to 1,300 nerve endings per square inch. The finger tips are more sensitive than any part of the body except the lips, tongue and tip of the nose, and are twice as sensitive as other parts of the hand." – Dr. Alan E. Norse, The Body (1965); Time Life Books.

My Alexander Technique teacher, who was not a musician, soon became impressed with my overall progress in acquiring the Technique and asked me what I was doing. I frankly told him, "I am assiduously following Alexander's directions as set forth in his third book with a discipline only a dedicated performing musician can explain." Be that as it may, it wasn't long before I made a decision to qualify as an Alexander Technique teacher aspiring to bring it into the 21st century with a speciality in teaching the technique to musicians. This credential required that I take a leave of absence from my teaching assignment at West Chester University in Pennsylvania where I have been a member of the keyboard faculty for thirty-six years.

Now I'll get to the heart of it. My mentors at Juilliard were well-known as pianists and teachers. Moreover, they seemed to possess remarkable general coordination. However, as a naïve teenager thinking only about my career, I did not have the skill and expertise to comprehend the ease and self-assurance with which outstanding performing musicians use their arms and hands. A product of the 60's, I was taught by the apprenticeship method; a famous artist/teacher generally demonstrated at a second piano, often requiring as nearly and as quickly as possible, total imitation. This was not the time in my career to experiment!

Lets move forward 20 years. Only after many years of teaching at the university level did I come across the work of F.M. Alexander, whose third book, The Use of the Self (1932), documents his painstaking research over a period of many years, in my opinion, a stunning leap into the field of human technology. Stimulating and personal, this short book describes a new genre of thinking about human coordination that, in my opinion, remains on the cutting edge of "human technological changes." My friends tell me I'm a sucker for technological breakthroughs, but despite an enormous upheaval of Wellness-Centers in the USA in recent times, knowledge of coordination remains the same. In the late 1960's, a Professor of Classics at Tufts University named Frank Pierce Jones – a scholarly student trained by Alexander – taught the "Technique" and conducted experiments, lending scientific support to Alexander's theories. He reported his findings in a pamphlet entitled, A Technique for Musicians.

During this teaching period, I programmed the Chopin Etudes several times. Nowadays the etudes are easier for me to play – a testament to my Alexander Teacher who had assured me twelve years earlier, that my performance would improve indirectly. "I was to first experience an overall 'kinesthetic lightness', then I would better understand how the 'head/neck/torso relationship' functions optimally in adults, as it does when we are very young." Hearing that promising statement, I happily made my first connection between toddlers' movements and the Alexander Technique!

I've always been fascinated by the movements of animals and toddlers as well as well coordinated adults. Likewise, I frequently paid attention to movements exhibited by outstanding performers such as the Canadian Cirque du Soleil "phenomenon". Naturally, I was intrigued by Jones' pamphlet describing Alexander's work, which helped to identify why some people move very efficiently and others do not.

During my teacher training, I became intimate with the Dart movements, a powerful crawling-to-walking experience that traces in pantomimed detail, human developmental stages of physical growth. Raymond Dart (1893-1988) – the famous anthropologist – was a supported of Alexander's theory. My experiences beautifully complemented Alexander's principles and the Dart Procedures have become a favourite piece of the all-day workshops that I present.

Returning to my story; I discovered that as my general level of coordination improved, rather than focusing only on sound – the phrasing, the textures, the expressive content – I was able to release unnecessary contractions throughout the total body posture. Before long, any common understanding I had had about arm and hand positions, were no longer tenable. At the time, I was feeling a bit estranged from the main stream of pianists. Privately, I faced a novel set of circumstances – to be precise; at 50 years-old I had discovered a visceral sense of freedom allowing an entirely new way ot use my hands, based on increased awareness of how the body integrates to vitalise an expanding posture.

The Technique has had a profound impact on the training of musicians, actors and dancers. Most important performing-artist training centres in the western world utilise Alexander's discoveries. Some of these include: The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, Carnegie Melon University, New York University (NYU), The Royal Academy of Music and Guild Hall.

Every musician wants to feel at home with their instrument, therefore many musicians are drawn to the Alexander Technique because of the wide range of benefits. For some it's that complete sense of control, others enjoy putting on a grandiose show, still others are attracted to the meditative processes which will in due time, engender a less wilful, sweeter-lyrical expression that obtains from a performance of kinetic beauty. Kinetic beauty has been called the twentieth first century's most significant new art form.

Speaking of kinetic beauty, it has often been said in the Alexander Technique community of musicians, that Arthur Rubinstein was the only pianist who didn't need an Alexander Technique lesson. By now most of us have seen the video, Great Pianists of the 20th Century. Personally, I would include Myra Hess and Ignatz Paderewski, two other great performers who didn't need an Alexander lesson.

Robert Bedford, Professor of Keyboard Music Artist Diploma, B.Mus., M.S., The Juilliard School; D.M.A., Catholic University of America

ABOUT THE WRITER

Robert Bedford is a graduate of the Juilliard School. He has appeared widely in solo recitals throughout the United States, as recitalist over radio stations and as featured soloist with the Delaware Valley Orchestra, the Catholic University Orchestra, and the Little Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. Dr. Bedford was first place gold medal award winner in the Piano Guild International Recording.

Many of Dr. Bedford's former students hold positions at University Faculty throughout the country. Robert Bedford presents America's musical Heritage, a Lecture Recital featuring piano compositions of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, George Gershwin and Salvatore Martirano. Dr Bedford is also certified as an F.M. Alexander Technique teacher with Alexander Technique International. Since 1991, he has worked with pianists and instrumentalists individually and in groups, showing how the Alexander Technique can enhance and benefit their practice and performance. Dr. Bedford's video, The Alexander Technique for Pianists, is scheduled to be released in spring 2002.

Copyright: Robert Bedford. Permissions: An article printed in Music Teacher Magazine Vol. 9 No. 3 (September 2002) www.musicteachermag.com Reproduced by kind permission © Music Teacher Magazine