How Alexander Technique Is Transforming My Piano Teaching
I was recently working with a pianist who was experiencing wrist pain, and I could see from his playing that he was overusing his fingers at times when rotation was needed.
My piano teacher mind immediately wanted to tell him that, but these days I’m not so quick to divulge information. Instead of talking about the problem directly, we worked with some Alexander Technique ideas.
I reminded him to feel his arms coming from his back, which he knows how to do because of practicing constructive rest and exercises like the one below.
We also worked with an “open channel” idea that helps us connect our fingers all the way to our back so that we can use our wrist without tensing, like in this video.
After that, we worked with some awareness of the space, where I encouraged him to notice the space behind, above, in front, and to the sides. We often become very focused on our music or our hands, and that intense focus can cause us to contract our bodies and make it more difficult to move.
After we worked with these practices, he played the piece with the appropriate rotation. Not only that, but there was a freedom of movement in his rotation that extended through his whole arm and into his back. And I’m pretty sure he felt that, since he turned to me and said “was that me playing?” 😊
Lately I’ve been having experiences like these in my teaching. I resist the urge to tell my student what to do, and instead guide them through some experiences that might seem unrelated to the technical issue they’re experiencing. Afterward, it’s as if their body knows how to handle the technical challenge.
This indirect approach is what I’ve learned through my Alexander Technique studies. And I find that it’s making me a better piano teacher. Of course it takes trust on both sides--pianists I work with have to trust me enough to believe that a seemingly off topic idea might help them with their struggles. And I have to trust myself enough to know that it’s okay to avoid my piano teacher's tendency to go right to the perceived problem and “fix it”.
But what actually happens when we “fix” something? In my experience, that type of teaching doesn’t last. It might work for our student in that particular piece, but they may not be able to take that idea with them and apply it elsewhere. That leaves us telling them what to do all the time, instead of making them more independent.
In addition, if we just tell our students to rotate, we (and they) may not be focused on how they’re rotating. Are they tensing somewhere unnecessarily in order to achieve the rotation? How much of their body are they allowing to participate in the movement? In addition, how much tension do they create just from trying to meet our request?
If we take an Alexander Technique approach and work with the whole body first, we probably won’t need to worry about all those questions so much. As my student experienced, our body knows what to do if we can get out of the way. Students get in their own way with unnecessary tension, and I’ve learned that we can get in their way by telling them what to do!
Working with Alexander Technique in mind has really changed my teaching, and quite honestly, I’m still finding my footing. What kind of piano teacher does just ask students to rotate?!
But I’m learning to become comfortable teaching this way because I see the benefits. I don’t think it would have been possible for my student to rotate and play with such fluidity if we hadn’t taken an Alexander Technique approach. Not only that, but he discovered the solution himself. That’s a much more powerful and lasting experience than hearing your teacher in your head saying “remember to rotate”.
Working this way changes my piano teaching in other unexpected ways. Rather than seeing students weekly, we meet about once a month and check in with video exchanges in between lessons. After having a lesson with such a breakthrough, students need time to make those particular Alexander Technique practices part of their lives before coming back for more feedback. (But I’m working with advanced pianists who don’t need the structure of weekly lessons like younger pianists do.)
I’m interested to see how I continue to evolve as a teacher through my Alexander Technique studies. Perhaps eventually I won’t even have the urge to mention rotation or whatever the technical idea is. Who cares what I know? Our bodies know better, and if we can allow them to function as they’re meant to, we can surprise ourselves (and our teachers!) when we play.
If you’re curious about taking an Alexander Technique approach with your playing and learning to implement it in your teaching, download our free PDF guide. It will introduce you to basic concepts that you can use right away, and point you in the right direction for further studies.