Alexander Technique Centre ATC Kyoto - Japan

HELMUTH HAMMIG Silver Flute * HELMUTH HAMMIG * Silver Flute.Junko Kasahara plays a Boesendorfer Grand PianoLucas Lorenzi plays HAMMIG instrumentsRecorded in Asia at the Alexander Techni...

Alexander Technique Work with flutist

Alexander’s Technique is an experience work dealing with self development. It can help people improve their use of themselves and help them improve many areas of their life.
Many people can benefit from Alexander’s Technique:

People who have Posture Problems.
People who suffer from Physical Pain – Back Ache, Neck Problems, Shoulders Pain, etc.
People who have Psychosomatic Problems – Asthma, Migraines, Depression, and Chronic Fatigue.
Stage Performers – Musicians, Actors, Dancer, Singers, Who wish to improve their skill.
People who are interested in Self-Awareness and Self-Improvement.
Alexander’s Technique was founded by F.M Alexander (1869 – 1955). He was a British-Australian actor who suffered from hoarseness, anger outburst and general weakness. Alexander tried seeking medical help but when no doctor could really help him he started observing himself, observing his movement and how it affected his vocals. Alexander noticed that the use of the self (which is also the title of his third book), affected the way he functioned and that it had an influence on his being.

“The Technique evolved by the late F. Matthias Alexander is generally regarded as one for altering postural behavior of individuals, and indeed it can be so regarded. However, it concerns itself with considerably more than this. It is a technique for altering the reaction of the individual to the stimuli of his environment, and thus it can be applied to the whole range of human activities, whether these be regarded as just thought processes or processes involving predominantly muscular activity.” (Patrick Macdonald)

What happens in a lesson?

Lucas Lorenzi works with an Alexander Technique student.
The role of the Alexander teacher is to use gentle guidance with her/his hands to help unravel distortions and encourage the natural responses that underlie posture, balance, breathing and movement to work freely again. In this way a balance can be found between the necessary degree of muscle tone required to support the body against the downward pull of gravity, and the necessary degree of relaxation-in-activity to allow unrestricted movement, breathing, circulation and digestion.

Along with manual guidance, the Alexander teacher also uses verbal instruction to help students become conscious of their own patterns of interference, and teaches them to project simple messages from the brain to the body that will help the natural mechanisms of poise to function more freely. It is for this reason that we call our work re-education and describe ourselves as teachers.

As the student learns to allow natural poise and balance to emerge, he or she will usually notice the change as one of lightness, ease and greater freedom of movement. Removing habitual tension patterns that interfere with free poise and balance is a practice which the student can, after a time, undertake in daily life for her/himself.

Lessons are individual and usually last 30–45 minutes. The number of lessons that may be required varies from one person to another and is best discussed directly with a teacher.

Live a balanced life by using the Alexander Technique
"The hands and feet differ in their duties, the internal organs differ in their functions. They never associate with one another, yet the hundred parts of the body are held together by them in a common unity. This is the way they associate through non-association. They never cooperate and yet both internally and externally, all complete one another. This is the way they cooperate through non-cooperation."

Fung Yu-lan - Chuang-tzu chu (tr. Bodde)
The Chinese characters above depict the ancient concept of wu wei, loosely translated as "actionless action", that absence of strain or effort we see prevailing throughout nature. This philosophy is clearly reflected in Alexander's own ideas of non-doing, that "when you stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing does itself".

We all recognise when things are working smoothly like this - it is there in the actions of a performer with great natural skill, in the easy adaptability of an animal to it's surroundings, and in the free, easy movement of a young child. The ability to consciously direct how we go about things brings with it a sense of confidence and spontaneity into our lives, a feeling that we genuinely have a range of choices within any given situation instead of being stuck with a fixed set of reactions.

In lessons we learn how to stop working against ourselves, and instead how to make a reasoned, appropriate response to what is happening. Awareness reawakens to include a sense of not only how we are balanced within our bodies, but also how we are relating to what is going on around us. This open quality of attention brings real flow into our mental and physical actions, all aspects at ease with one another without conflict.

AT at Work
APPLICATIONS - WORKPLACE
"Alexander's work is of first class importance and investigation by the medical profession is imperative."

British Medical Journal
It is very common to hear complaints of neck, shoulder and back tension, RSI and the like as a result of the demands of the modern workplace. Some of this is undoubtedly affected by office furniture, though much of this is designed to be adjustable and can be considerably adapted to suit our needs. However, Alexander once commented that if there were such a thing as a perfect chair, it would differ for each person, and they would have to take it with them everywhere they went!
What is generally overlooked is that the way we use ourselves has enormous bearing on the way we adapt to our surroundings, and by learning how to recognise and prevent our habitual patterns of postural behaviour, we can approach our work environment in a very different way.

AT & Sports
The Alexander Technique has proven a great help to people involved in all kinds of sports and fitness activities - athletics, competitive sports, swimming and many others, and it is also a great complement to such activities as yoga and tai chi. The technique provides for a natural way of easier breathing, balance, coordination, and economy in movement and allows us to take an intelligent approach to keeping fit, rather than just driving our bodies harder in the hope it will keep us in shape.

Better use means better performance, enhanced self-awareness, and greater control over what we are doing, all of which make for an increase in success, confidence and satisfaction in participating. Additionally, learning to use ourselves in the right manner can help reduce the risk of injury, and is an important aid in recovery and rehabilitation.

Among those who use the AT are such well known athletes as Daley Thompson and Linford Christie, and the technique has been used in British Olympic team training.

"I can definitely say without hesitation that I wouldn't have had the rowing success that I have had the luxury of experiencing in my short time on the water without finding the AT and the great teachers that I have had the privilege to work with."

Valerie Thompson Williams,
Rowing masters gold medalist

In Alexander, we prefer to think of good use in terms of poise rather than posture, which seems to emphasise something rather fixed and static. Nonetheless, it's certainly true that we all recognise examples of both good and bad posture when we see them. Aside from being unattractive to look at, poor posture may be associated with all manner of aches and pains and health troubles, as well as reflecting issues such as low self-esteem and lack of confidence - symptoms which very often disappear when the underlying causes of postural imbalance are taken away.

During lessons, we learn to stop imposing these unnecessary strains and pressures on ourselves, and instead cultivate an even distribution of muscle tone where no one part of the body is overworking at the expense of any other, unduly tightening up in some places and collapsing in others. When things are working well there is no feeling of the need to exercise to keep ourselves in shape - the subtle ongoing movement that takes place when the body is unfixed has an energising and sustaining effect in itself. For this same reason, the feeling of needing to relax is also unnecessary, as the whole body is involved in what we are doing, and the requisite levels of tension required to provide support feel quite natural.

"Alexander has done a service to the subject by insistently treating each act as involving the whole integrated individual, the whole psycho-physical man. To take a step is an affair not of this or that limb solely, but of the total neuromuscular activity of the moment - not least of the head and neck."

Sir Charles Sherrington,
Nobel Prize winner in medicine

The Alexander Technique Center (ATC) Kyoto & Music
Alexander's work has long been recognised in the world of singing and playing music. Such well known personalities as Paul McCartney, Sting, Yehudi Menuhin and Sir Julian Bream have used the technique to help with their performance, and many major music colleges include Alexander lessons in their programme.

With regards to singing, or presenting, public speaking or other similar activities, an improved relationship between head, neck and back will allow the voice and the respiratory mechanisms to function at a much higher standard, with greater fullness and expressiveness and less chance of strain or injury.

When musicians understand how to handle their instruments without inappropriate physical tension, this allows optimal conditions for creativity and spontaneity, as well as accuracy in performance.

The Alexander Technique can be sustaining; it is something that if learned well, can be carried along with you for the rest of your life.
It gives you confidence to be who you are when you are up in front of an audience.

Who is F.M.ALEXANDER and what is his Technique:

F.M.ALEXANDER 1869-1955
"We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains."

F. Matthias Alexander was an Australian actor and Shakespearian reciter who developed trouble with his voice and breathing while performing, such that he was worried he would have to abandon his profession. After consulting various experts without much success, he came to see that he was actually causing the problem himself, putting a lot of unnecessary tension into the way he was using himself - stiffening his neck and pulling back his head, interfering with his vocal and breathing mechanisms, and pulling himself down generally. This was happening not only on stage but in his everyday activities too, and so he went about trying to find a way to prevent these habits of misuse.

After a long period of investigation, Alexander developed a new way of directing himself in his activities, clearing up his vocal and breathing problems, and bringing about a great all-round improvement in his general health. He found he was able to help many people by teaching them the same ideas and principles he had discovered - in later years, such well known people as Aldous Huxley, John Dewey, and George Bernard-Shaw became enthusiastic supporters of his work.

Alexander moved to London in 1904 where his work quickly became recognised. He continued to develop and teach the technique there for the rest of his life, as well as visiting and introducing it in America. He wrote four books, and began a three year full-time training course for teachers in 1931. Nowadays there are many qualified teachers and training courses, and the technique is recognised worldwide.
To find a JSTAT (http://www.jstat.jp) accredited Alexander Teacher in Japan or overseas you may visit the website of the Japan Solidarity of Teachers of the Alexander Technique ~ JSTAT; est.2002 or contact directly the Alexander Technique Centre (ATC)(http://www.alexandertechnique.ne.jp) in Kyoto.

In Covid 19 times we do work masked!
We learn to use just enough effort in everything we do ~ and not more!