<p>In this essay, I want to achieve an accessible and applicable entrance to Alexander Technique as a method for learning to use the body in such a way as to allow emotional expression in music. It is necessary to see the real need of Alexander Technique for the active musician, and therefore important components of music-making will be presented. These components are presented from an Alexander-perspective in order to produce a clear picture of the method of application.The prerequisite for emotional expression in music is musicians and music listeners with the ability to generate, and respond after emotional impressions. Alexander Technique provides an approach to make it easier for musicians, especially guitarists, to express emotions in a performance situation.After years of practice and obtaining musical knowledge and practical skills at the instrument, it is common that muscle tension and ingrained patterns contribute to limited expression. Muscle tensions arising from pressured situations such as auditions, competitions and concerts. Repetitive movements contribute to this, and lays the foundation for an insufficient technique. It is clear that traditional learning methods need to be complemented with an approach that treats body awareness as an essential part of musical performances. The notion that the use of the body affects mental states is now a truism, and one can see an opening towards new approaches that facilitate learning as well as performance of musical works. The emotional expression is in focus here, and this study deals with musical production based on the philosophy that music should be driven by decisions involving emotional expression.</p>

Title: A possibility of use of principles of Alexander Technique in Primary Schools and in Children and Youth Sport Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to introduce Alexander Technique and relate it to the school environment as an element of predominantly primary prevention. First we elucidate the theme of school environment in relation to student movement habits and health. Then we will suggest a possibility of an enrichment of school P.E. and health promotion of children with the help of the principles of Alexander Technique in games within school P.E. and explain their contribution to daily life. Methods: Analysis, argumentation, critic reasoning, creative thinking, qualitative observation Results: Application of Alexander Technique to the school environment. Designed children's motion games based on principles of Alexander Technique. Keywords: Alexander Technique, posture, prevention, Physical Education, sport

In this essay, I want to achieve an accessible and applicable entrance to Alexander Technique as a method for learning to use the body in such a way as to allow emotional expression in music. It is necessary to see the real need of Alexander Technique for the active musician, and therefore important components of music-making will be presented. These components are presented from an Alexander-perspective in order to produce a clear picture of the method of application.The prerequisite for emotional expression in music is musicians and music listeners with the ability to generate, and respond after emotional impressions. Alexander Technique provides an approach to make it easier for musicians, especially guitarists, to express emotions in a performance situation.After years of practice and obtaining musical knowledge and practical skills at the instrument, it is common that muscle tension and ingrained patterns contribute to limited expression. Muscle tensions arising from pressured situations such as auditions, competitions and concerts. Repetitive movements contribute to this, and lays the foundation for an insufficient technique. It is clear that traditional learning methods need to be complemented with an approach that treats body awareness as an essential part of musical performances. The notion that the use of the body affects mental states is now a truism, and one can see an opening towards new approaches that facilitate learning as well as performance of musical works. The emotional expression is in focus here, and this study deals with musical production based on the philosophy that music should be driven by decisions involving emotional expression.

The use of the Alexander Technique in teaching, performing and practicing the flute is investigated, in order to determine how to apply the Technique to the art of producing a good flute tone. The author's application of the Alexander Technique to teaching and playing the flute is described. Knowledge was acquired both through doing case studies on two flute pupils, and through the integration of personal experience, gained through taking Alexander Technique lessons, into flute lessons. This is set out in detail. The decision to work intensively on the technique of sound production on the flute, made the author aware of the fact that we. as teachers and performers, encounter a large number of different problems in teaching and playing. Matters are complicated by a pupil's eagerness and "wanting to do things right". This can cause a certain amount of apprehension and even anxiety. Often the habits which inhibit progress prove very difficult for the teacher to correct. This study is aimed at detecting and solving these problems by using the Alexander Technique; hopefully leading to a better understanding of how the Technique can be applied to flute teaching and playing. Posture, breathing and embouchure control are specifically addressed. For the teacher or performer who has little understanding of his/her own problems in playing the flute - e.g. in coping with the loss of a good tone caused by stage fright and other anxieties - the use of the Alexander Technique can mean the creation a new sense of physical freedom and mental flexibility. A knowledge of how to work on changing faulty habits and the creating of new and better means of body use, can be gained through the taking of Alexander IV Technique lessons. The general principles and various applications of the Technique are described. The problems musicians face - e.g. postural problems from sitting or standing for hours while practicing the instrument, instrument-specific problems such as pain in the arms or shoulders, or physical tension caused by anxiety - are all habitual difficulties which can be detected, weakened and, hopefully, even erased through the use of the Alexander Technique. This study aims to show that mind-body awareness work is fundamental for the teacher, the pupil and the performer. Very often, what appear to be simple problems in musical performance are bound to deeply-felt and long-standing emotions and experiences. Therefore, the seemingly simple problems associated with producing a good flute tone cannot be addressed without dealing with the person as a whole. It is thus crucial for us as musicians to attend to the whole person - as we practice, perform and teach. This study attempts to lead musicians to a better understanding of all facets of themselves and others, through the application of the Alexander Technique. / Dissertation (MMus (Performing Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Music / unrestricted

Many musicians are forced to scale down or even abandon their profession due to injuries caused by playing and practicing their instruments for long hours in unnatural body positions; also, the competition and the high standard expected of performers in the industry causes anxiety and tension in their lives. Increasingly, music schools, conservatories and colleges attempt to cater for these problems by including classes in the Alexander Technique. But young learners can also fall prey to these problems. Performance anxiety is potentially a threat to any musician’s career and can be experienced at all levels of expertise. In the light of this the following research question was tested: Is it possible to substantially reduce performance anxiety (stage fright) in instrumental playing by implementing Alexander Technique principles? The study included a group of twelve school-going children who had been identified as being prone to performance anxiety. They were divided into two groups of six each, one being the experimental group and the other the control group. The experimental group consisted of six flute students who were exposed to selected Alexander Technique principles in their lessons, while the control group consisted of six flute students that were taught by different teachers, who provided no exposure. Both groups were tested at the beginning of the research, before they played an examination, to ascertain the level of performance anxiety they experienced. Eighteen months later, after the experimental group had been exposed to Alexander principles, both groups played another examination and were then tested again to ascertain whether or not the experimental group’s levels of anxiety had been significantly reduced, compared to the control group. The control groups’ second testing was very similar to their first testing and performance anxiety was still a big drawback to their musical performance. Not only was performance anxiety markedly reduced in the experimental group, but their self-esteem and self-confidence were increased as well. As a result it was deduced that young learners can benefit tremendously from learning and applying Alexander Technique principles to the playing of a musical instrument. Copyright / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Music / unrestricted

There is a growing popularity among musicians to turn to somatic approaches such as the Alexander Technique, Body Mapping and Feldenkrais Method to improve posture and movement at the instrument and to produce better tone quality. There is little scientific and objective data to support the changes that are apparently seen and heard after such training. This study examines if a single somatic session has an immediate, perceivable effect on pianists’ body usage and musical quality. In the first mode of evaluation, judges rated specific aspects of body usage and musical quality. In the second mode of evaluation, judges were asked to identify post-somatic performances. Results indicated that there are perceivable changes in body usage and musical quality although those differences are not as apparent or easily detectable as is often believed. The findings also suggest that it is easier to identify post-somatic performances through body usage than musical quality.

The aim of my project was to find different ways to make playing easier and freer. What does it actually mean to let go and what could help to achieve more secure and relaxed feeling in your body when playing your instrument? I collected and experimented with exercises from a book The Inner Game of Music and Alexander Technique. I found out that knowing more precisely what to focus on and being more aware of the body can have a great effect. I discovered more gentle ways to teach myself and learned about the importance of how we are treating and using our bodies during practicing and in everyday situations. / <p>The sounding part consists of the following recording; Esa-Pekka Salonen: Pentatonic Étude.The recording has been archived. </p>

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the actor's process in tackling the roles of Harry Dalton in Equus by Peter Shaffer, Duke Senior in As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and Dionysus in The Bacchae by Euripedes. Each production is assigned its own chapter, respectively. The chapters explore each role vocally, psychologically, and physically, including the examination of the Alexander Technique. Reflection on the experience of portraying the character and an evaluation of the actor's growth also transpires. The fourth chapter, Finding My Light, summarizes related observations and analysis as a result of performing all three roles. Finally, the fifth chapter, Curtain Call: A Tableau of Contemplation, deliberates on three years of graduate education. It features the benefits and shortcomings realized as a result of participating as one of the first students the Professional Studio Acting Track of Virginia Commonwealth University.

The purpose of this study lies in investigating the embodied learning of applied aesthetics in our sense of balance in the educational space and how it can contribute to change one of a present major public health related problem, the problem of sedentary behaviour in school and society. The investigation is not an effect study, but aims to question our sensorial cultural practice of applied aesthetics, by looking at how we use our ability to balance in the educational space.  Introducing and including elements from the field of art, the aesthetics field of knowledge and life science, the question of acknowledging embodied learning is explored mainly in the sensorial cultural praxis of our ability to balance. Embodied praxis is represented by the Alexander Technique and Elsa Gindler’s concept, with relation to modern neuromechanics. An educational view of knowledge that unilaterally enhances and rewards abstraction as well as theoretical thinking, by validating matrices and merit points, creates unbalance. Treating this unbalance solely with physical exercises enhances the conflict of how to use learning time in school and seems not to lead to a solution. By seeing the educational space as a space of embodied practice the investigation is built around participants’ sense of balance in embodied learning during a school day. The established sensorial cultural practice of how we are using our sense of balance in movement responses is observed during a school day and in a complementary inquiry explored and discussed with the children. Also the time of sitting is measured. The qualitative analysis or reading in this research of embodied learning is done by analysing directions or pointing in poise in momentum for finding inclusive or exclusive corresponsive sensorial tendencies in relation to sensorial cultural practice, including individual, social and regulative aspects. The minor quantitative part in this investigation is looking at the time spent sitting during the school day in the given conditions for defining the pupils’ sedimentary behaviour. The found embodied learning was not noticably acknowledged and not commented by the teacher.  The learning sessions were varying in space, form and in their content. In spite of the attempt of the teacher to create moveability, the children were sitting 54%  or more of the day in school. Inclusive dynamic responsiveness gave ability to balance and promoted embodied learning. Isolated or excluded responsiveness did not noticably engage the sense of balance and did not promote embodied learning. It resulted into pointing or directing downwards and leaning forward, backward or inwards into supportive furniture in accordance with gravitation. The study finds that inclusive responsiveness increases aligned balancing in poise in momentum. In its conclusion the study recognizes the value and effect of physical activity, but argues that moving to be healthy is not effectively changing sedentary behaviour. It argues instead for embodied health sufficient moving on a general sensorial level.  To be able to use our sense of balance as function of intelligence, we still need to increase acknowledgment of our evolutionary inherited skill further. / Studiens syfte ligger i att undersöka möjligheten, att med embodied learning, lärandet genom estetisk sensorisk kommunikation och förtrogen inlärning, finna möjligheter att påverka ett av de stora folkhälsoproblemen, stillasittande beteende i skolan och i samhället. Arbetet utgör ingen effektstudie, utan syftar till att ifrågasätta vår sensoriska kulturella praxis och estetik, genom att undersöka hur vi använder oss av vårt balanssinne i skolan.  En pedagogisk syn på kunskap som ensidigt främjar och belönar abstraktion liksom teoretisk konception, genom meritpoäng och bedömningsmatriser, skapar obalans. Att genom enbart fysisk aktivitet försöka lösa denna obalans, förstärker konflikten om hur tiden i skolan ska fördelas och verkar inte leda till en tillfredsställande lösning av problemet.  Studien har en tvärvetenskaplig karaktär, där utbildningsvetenskapliga aspekter, konstnärlig forskning och naturvetenskap först presenteras och sedan inkluderas i frågan om hur embodied learning i relation till vår färdighet att balansera är igenkänd i skolans sensoriska kulturella praxis och estetik. Embodied praxis och dess användning, representerad genom Alexandertekniken och Elsa Gindlers koncept, är sedan närmare diskuterad, samt dess relation till modern neuromekanik. Genom att se skolan som en plats för embodied praxis, estetisk sensorisk praktik och förtrogenhetspraktik, bygger undersökningen på deltagarnas användning av balanssinnet, sett i hållningen i ögonblicket under en skoldag. Etablerad sensorisk kulturell praxis om hur vi använder vår förmåga att vara i balans observeras från ett intersubjektivt perspektiv. Detta kompletteras med samtal och enstaka explorationer, som utgör endast en mindre del i undersökningen. Även tiden för stillasittande mäts.  Den framtagna empirin av embodied learning analyseras kvalitativt. Detta sker genom att analysera riktningar i hållningen i ögonblicket, för att hitta inkluderande eller exkluderande motsvarande sensoriska tendenser i relation till individuell, social och reglerande sensorisk kulturell praxis. Den mindre kvantitativa delen i denna undersökning består av att mäta tiden som eleverna sitter under skoldagen, för att kunna analysera elevernas sedimentära beteende.   Resultaten visar att embodied learning inte var märkbart igenkänd och inte kommenterad av läraren. Undervisningspassen var varierande i rum, form och innehåll. Trots lärarens ihållande försök att skapa rörlighet, satt barnen minst 54 % av skoldagen. Inkluderande dynamisk sensorisk korrespondens resulterade i en väl fungerande funktionell användning av balanssinnet och främjade embodied learning. Isolerande eller uteslutande respons främjade inte den funktionella användningen av balanssinnet eller embodied learning märkbart. Resultatet visar också att elevernas hållningar största delen av tiden, visade riktningar som pekade nedåt, de lutade sig framåt, bakåt eller inåt och sjönk ner i möblerna i enlighet med tyngdlagen. Visade de en inkluderande korrespondens, ökade balanssinnets fungerande i hållningen i ögonblicket. Studien tillstår i sin slutsats att fysisk aktivitet är nödvändig och har effekt, men argumenterar, att röra sig för att vara frisk är inget effektivt sätt för att förändra stillasittande beteende. Resonemanget i studien leder i stället till att vi behöver röra oss generellt på ett införlivat hälsofrämjande sätt. För att kunna använda oss av vårt balanssinne på ett intelligent sätt, behöver vi fortfarande fördjupa förståelsen av vår evolutionärt nedärvda färdighet ytterligare. / <p>This interdisciplinary study in educational science includes elements from the field of art and aesthetics as well as life science.  The investigation is not an effect study. It is about our sensorial cultural use of balance, from the perspective of an embodied practitioner.</p>