Beyond the Daily Regime: What Alexander Technique Taught Me About Practice
At the end of my first year as a transfer student in my undergraduate degree, my teacher handed me a piece of paper titled “Daily Regime.” It outlined what he wanted me to do that summer when I’d have limited lessons with him: one hour of exercises, one hour of scales, and two hours of repertoire.
I remember being genuinely excited. The plan was concrete and measurable—something I could do. I believed that if I followed the directions, I’d get the results.
That’s a familiar way of thinking for pianists: do this, and that will happen. It’s direct, practical, and deeply ingrained in how most of us were trained.
Studying Alexander Technique has shifted that mindset for me—and changed the way I think about practice. I’m less focused on hours logged and more on the quality of my attention.
Putting in the “required time” is easy enough—but shifting the focus to quality rather than quantity changes everything. It asks us to be fully engaged in how we practice. That kind of awareness brings responsibility, but also much deeper results.
So what’s my “Daily Regime” now? I don’t really have one—but there are certain practices I return to regularly.
Before I play, I do some kind of movement exploration to bring awareness to my body. If I notice tension as I play, I pause and try to determine how my habit might be getting in the way.
It’s less about doing something new and more about not doing the extra things that interfere.
That same idea—moving away from direct, results-driven effort—translates beautifully into teaching.
How often have we tried to “fix” a student’s hand position to no avail? We think, If they do this, it should get better. That’s the same direct, transactional thinking as my “Daily Regime.”
In Alexander Technique, we call the alternative Indirect Procedures. Instead of focusing on the “problem,” we look at the coordination of the whole body to see what might be causing the trouble.
For example, a tense hand position at the piano often begins elsewhere—perhaps in how the pianist is sitting, which may be affecting the arms or wrists. By improving overall coordination, the hand often reorganizes on its own, at least to some degree.
Students often overuse their hands because they aren’t using their arms and back in their playing. If you delve further into Alexander Technique and incorporate exercises like the one below, you and your students can begin to use the back muscles to support the arms.
I’m amazed at how Alexander Technique continues to change my playing and teaching for the better—and I find that its influence keeps unfolding over time. If you’d like to explore how it might support your own work at the piano, you can download this free PDF to get started.