Alexander Technique

A friend of mine, whom I have known since both of us were high-school students, visited our institute this week to give us a lesson of Alexander Technique. (11th November, 2009) His Name is Daiju Yokoe (DJ in the following).



I had few items of knowledge of the technique. I know personally some people who are working on Body-Mapping, which is I believe one of the descendant of Alexander Technique, but DJ insisted me that Alexander Technique is not equivalent to Body-Mapping. I thus invited him to give a lecture of the technique. The lecture was divided into two parts. The first session started at 15:10 and lasted for 90 minutes approximately. In the midst of the first session, I volunteered to play the Shamisen, a traditional Japanese three-stringed instrument, in front of the participants as a Guinea Pig. I just played short phrases. The movie clips depicts me, first playing a phrase helped by DJ, followed by another performance where I play the instrument as I used to do. In the latter half of the clip, I played a phrase in sorrow mood. I firstly played it as I do it normally and secondly did it as instructed by DJ.

Recalling my attitude towards music, I have been playing any instruments primarily for me, as a dialogue with myself, not for the audience. Well, I sometimes play music recently for the elderly in nursery. I admit the experience (playing music for the elderly) has done something on me though I am not sure what it is. Anyway, the lesson I learned from the Alexander Technique was impressive. But, I know, there are still lots of things to be learnt in the technique.

• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.mov (17MB, h264 format, 720x460)
• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.mp4 ( 9MB, h264 format, 320x240)
• http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~fuji/movie/alexander/20091111.wmv ( 3MB, wmv format, 320x240)

I myself did not see many differences between the two ways of playing the instrument, but most audiences pointed out that the performances (partly) following AT technique sounded much better than the other. I later viewed the movie clip by myself and realized that they were right. Amazing.

Only the posture is slightly different between the two. I usually tend to bend my trunk forward, but made my spine stand straight when instructed by DJ. The trick gave the tone more power and richness. Wow...

These are photos taken on 27th September, 2008, when I gave a lecture of the Shamisen playing with my teacher, Ms. Kazue Takagi. After the AT lesson, I happened to find those pictures in my office. (I have been cleaning my office these days.) I was rather amazed to see that Kazue sits on the chair with her spine straight up while I was playing it bending my trunk forward. Our attitudes towards the audience were quite different, too. She was facing them with confidence, while I was not. I noticed that my effort to convey the content of music to the audience was not enough to move them. Shame.

Recalling my attitude towards music, I have been playing any instruments primarily for me, as a dialogue with myself, not for the audience. Well, I sometimes play music recently for the elderly in nursery. I admit the experience (playing music for the elderly) has done something on me though I am not sure what it is. Anyway, the lesson I learned from the Alexander Technique was impressive. But, I know, there are still lots of things to be learnt in the technique.