At SMTD, most music majors must pass three classes of group piano. In my first semester of freshman year I enrolled for the first of these classes I had to take. The class met four times a week for an hour and I spent thirty extra minutes a day practicing on my own. Being a singer, this was the first time I really had to think about the effects of fine motor movement and hand coordination daily. While many of my classmates were instrumental-focused, I found that a lot of them were already much more aware of the tension and movement patterns present in their hands and wrists.
As I struggled through the class, continuously banging out the notes and frantically trying to play them in time, I quickly gained a lot of pain in my wrist that I did not understand how to alleviate. While I had asked my piano teacher for help, it posed a difficulty, as there were ten other students in the class who also needed the teacher’s attention. Since my major specifically required that I take six semesters of piano, I knew that I needed to seek out help before this problem escalated.
When I started working for SMTD Wellness in my sophomore year I was exposed to a service I did not know was available, the free Performing Arts Health Clinic for SMTD students. The occupational therapist was able to give me some exercises to help warm up my hands before playing and a brace to wear to bed.
I decided that now with these tools at my disposal, I would never try to force a movement, which was so much of what my piano journey had been thus far. I remembered briefly researching a concept called the Alexander Technique in high school and perusing the available videos on YouTube about it. While I didn’t fully understand it back then I got the general gist: natural, easy, and free movement was the goal. I heard there was a class on Alexander Technique here at SMTD, which many of my peers raved about, and decided to enroll.
Nature’s balance, once we learn to tap it, helps us go forward into the world energetically and purposefully.
Michelle Obrecht, SMTD Lecturer, Certified Instructor of Alexander Technique
Michelle Obrecht, certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and SMTD Lecturer, explains the goal of the Alexander Technique class is to acquire the ability, “…to express our full creativity without the roadblocks of discomfort, tension, and doubt,” and, “[learn] how to undo harmful habits and replace them with habits of elastic expansiveness.”
One of the very first lessons we had in the class was about standing with intrinsic mobility, meaning using suspension and support to stand with effortlessness. Oftentimes, what we think is standing up straight and balanced is actually us leaning back on our heels. Instead, we must stand in a way that promotes forward movement, our natural desire to move forward in the world toward necessities for our survival, such as food. By sending an equal amount of energy into the ground as is being pushed back up to us from the floor, we are able to help support ourselves while standing.
Michelle explained to us that when you are standing in this balanced position your head only weighs twelve pounds. However, when our neck is leaning forward three inches while the rest of our body is balanced (like when we are reading on our laptop or our phone), our head now weighs forty-six pounds, an extra weight that our body has to support.
I realized that there was one place where I had always felt light and like I was moving with ease: when I was working at a restaurant over the summer. I could stand for four-hour shifts and feel so energized after, even though I was running up and down stairs, taking orders, and carrying heavy bags: I was standing with intrinsic mobility. I made it a goal of mine to try and reflect that feeling in my singing, playing, conducting, etc. If I had felt intrinsic mobility before, I knew it was possible to achieve it again with the right guidance. The Alexander Technique class has helped me to label the habits that were preventing this so I can be aware of it. That awareness is the first step.
Michelle gave me some insight into the goals and reasoning behind her class, “Computer and phone use have conspired to reduce our access to the full upright power, vitality, and fluidity we had as children. Nature’s balance, once we learn to tap it, helps us go forward into the world energetically and purposefully.” Technology plays a major role in harming the natural movement of our bodies.
We must be aware of how certain stimuli, like phones and laptops, can hurt our bodies, so we can be prepared with tools that encourage relaxed and healthy bodily movement.
Michelle states that learning to sit with intrinsic mobility, a similar idea to standing with intrinsic mobility, can allow us to utilize technology in a way that better aligns with our body’s natural patterns of movement. Michelle’s biggest tips for sitting with intrinsic mobility include using a phone stand on a table whenever you are looking at your phone and buying a laptop stand with a detached keyboard for typing so your spine is not stuck in a “c” shaped curve from bending over and your eyes can be level with the screen. We must be aware of how certain stimuli, like phones and laptops, can hurt our bodies, so we can be prepared with tools that encourage relaxed and healthy bodily movement.
Many of these issues with sitting are also presented by the flawed chair designs commonly found in Western culture. To help with this, last week, Michelle brought out devices called Miracle Balls that you place behind your back when sitting on a chair. These help us to sit in a way that promotes intrinsic mobility by adding support to our backs for when we get tired instead of just defaulting to a slouching position that crushes our spine.
We must think of sitting with intrinsic mobility as a goal in order to make these changes. When we think of it in this way, we can visualize the process to achieve it, which allows us to plan effectively about how we will get there. This thinking (which can be applied to many other facets of Alexander Technique) ensures that we are thinking about the best practices for our bodies, rather than just slumping back into our chairs when we get tired.
An important aspect of Alexander Technique is that it is for everyone. You do not need to have some kind of physical injury or endure a major trauma in your life for it to benefit you.
I spoke with junior choral music education student, Emily Barrett, about her experience taking the Alexander Technique course. She states, “I have been able to better care for myself and my instrument in a smart and healthy way. The instructor, Michelle, has a wealth of knowledge and experience and provided endless support to her students, looking to find ways to make their day-to-day life as individuals less taxing and painful.” She goes on to explain that Alexander Technique was one of the most beneficial classes she’s taken during her time here and is one she thinks everyone would benefit from.
An important aspect of Alexander Technique is that it is for everyone. You do not need to have some kind of physical injury or endure a major trauma in your life for it to benefit you. The principles of Alexander technique work to better the lived experiences of all individuals.
As a part of the class, you receive two free hour-long private lessons with Michelle where you bring your instrument and she assesses some of your habits in your movement while performing. I had my first private lesson last week.
Michelle told me I tend to sit by putting the weight on my hips and thighs rather than on my “sitting bones” at the bottom of my pelvis, meaning my spine can never fully lengthen and widen while sitting. She also explained that I often collapse my chest into my torso, which we need to open up so it is aligned with these sitting bones. Michelle suggested I place my palms face up on my thighs while sitting to instantly open my chest and work on keeping this structure without placing my palms there. She also instructed me on some exercises I could do to loosen up my lower back and make my motions overall much looser and freer.
These private lessons are important as students can be assessed while actively participating in the motions they perform every day in their degree program. After these lessons, students are better able to apply the insight Michelle gave them in their practice.
This semester, SMTD Wellness is offering, for the first time, Alexander Technique Mini lessons where students can “try out” Alexander Technique without fully enrolling in the class. These lessons are 15 minutes in length and are free and open to all SMTD students. During the lesson, Michelle will assess your movement habits while playing, singing, acting, dancing, etc. With ever-growing popularity among the student body, we hope to continue these services into the coming semesters.
Remember, there are so many available (and free!) resources for you to take advantage of. I urge you to take a look at some of our wellness videos on the SMTD YouTube Channel or sign up for the Mind-Body Balance Series where you can receive free weekly movement videos sent to your inbox. You can also watch this video for a 13-minute introduction to Alexander Technique with Michelle Obrecht. Starting the journey to easier, purposeful, and more expansive movement is within reach and truly makes all the difference.
Performing well 