Time as an element in the curriculum at The Royal College of Music
The ASO Newsletter - 44th Edition
Enabling greater understanding of the Alexander Technique.
For the 44th edition of the ASO Newsletter we release an article by Judith Kleinman that discusses the evolution of Alexander Technique (AT) teaching at the Royal College of Music (RCM). The curriculum and work discussed below was developed gradually, and iteratively over time through responding to observations, analyses, and lessons learned through exploration and application of the material. The incorporation and highlighting of the element of Time aims to foster a deeper, embodied understanding of presence, reaction, and the flow of time, essential for both musical performance and personal development in the study and growth of these students.
Introduction
(12 min read)
This article discusses how the Alexander Technique (AT) teaching at the Royal College of Music (RCM) has changed to incorporate time as a key element of the learning process. At the RCM Alexander is part of the curriculum of the degree as well as there being non degree individual lessons available. Incorporated in the degree group lesson courses are an academic element of learning which includes the students making videos, writing essays and diaries. Examples of these are available to view here.
When AT teaching began at RCM
The Alexander technique has been taught at the RCM since the 1960s. We began doing group Alexander work in 1991, and from the start we were very interested in the parallels between musical and Alexander practice.
Musicians understand that learning music requires practice. You can't learn the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in the first lesson. There is a very well understood progression in learning music that became a really useful parallel for us for teaching Alexander Technique, that is to notice that it is important not to expect anybody, especially young people, to understand advanced concepts and advanced theories before they had learned a starter language and gained a sense that ideas will unfold with time and practice.
We wondered, in what way could we help young people to recognize those Alexander skills, either in other people or themselves, and to understand how they would be relevant to their lives and playing. One sign of a great performance is someone making playing look easy. It is so important for young people to discover that trying hard isn't always the road to success.
We discovered that, for Alexander to become a subject, people needed to understand the elements of it in the way that they understand the elements of music, for example, rhythm and pitch and tempo in practice and be able to put it all back together for performance. Learning the Alexander Technique is like learning a language or an instrument. You need to absorb the experience of how to bow an instrument or pluck a string and that takes time. In a language you need to be able to understand punctuation as well as words.
Time
Musical ideas about time can be a little different from our typical chronological ideas of time. Here are four musical concepts that can be applied not just to music but how we use ourselves and perceive the world around us.
Tempo
Within music we have this idea of tempo which very simply could be called the speed of the music but maybe more usefully identified as the sense of the flow of time that the music creates.
For musicians it is easy to understand that the way we use ourselves (musically or otherwise) shapes how we perceive time.
Pulse
A musical pulse, rather like the second hand of a clock, articulates the flow of time (the tempo). Whilst the tempo is perceived the pulse can be directly sensed. This has obvious parallels with our body and its use, including heartbeat (our pulse) but also our breathing, we call our sense of these and other elements within our body interoception.
Rest
Within pieces of music, rests are marked where the musician does not make a sound but the sense of tempo still continues. This idea can help us understand the concept of non-doing without this meaning stopping or collapsing.
Pause
A pause in music, usually a single held note or chord, takes the musician out of the tempo of the piece. It can also be a moment's silence and create a sense of calm repose or a sense of energized suspension. A pause has to be a conscious decision in music. Understanding that we can consciously choose to take a moment out of the momentum of our lives, can be hard to process and takes time to practice and become confident with.
This can correlate to the idea of constructive rest as a radical understanding of balancing our lives and energies. In AT practice we also talk about the practice of ‘taking a moment’ every now and then to reset our choices and connection to ourselves and our reactions to the world around us. Again this is a practice rather than a destination and is a useful skill to develop throughout our lives.
Apollon Delios (Alexander Technique teacher and singer) describes the direct relationship between Alexander technique and time and that it changes our experience of time.
"Everything that we do is bound to time. Happens in Time. Therefore time is an essential component of every action. In the Alexander Technique ultimately what we change or what changes is the way we do things and through that change, changes in our functioning occur. Since time is an essential component of every action and agreeing on the fact that the way we conceive of anything determines the way we relate to it, then changing our conception of time, will ultimately change the way we do things therefore changing us."
- Apollon Delios, 1
Alexander ideas about time
By bringing music students’ attention to how they think, move and breathe we introduce the ideas of being present in time and space to develop their awareness of not just what is happening around them but the embodied tempo of their reaction and response to that stimulus. Teaching students to identify sensory awareness, to be aware of interoception, exteroception and proprioception can be a helpful way of introducing being in the present.
Neuroscience organizes human sense into three categories: exteroception, proprioception and interoception. Exteroception includes all the sense that inform us about the world outside the body... Proprioception tells us where our body is in space. Interoception monitors all that is going on within the body, and it’s a lot: we feel the heart, the breath, the immune system, hunger etc.2
For musicians engaged in performance, access to the present is crucial over the course of a performance but also in the practice and preparation work necessary to play one's instrument. The idea of being in the present is such a fundamental concept in Alexander's work, that it’s easy to lose sight of amidst the other concepts. One of his key insights is that being in the present isn’t actually that easy.
We developed this understanding of time and inhibition3 within our teaching and communicated this through incorporating directed activities that can be practiced during students' instrumental practice. For example, chunking practice time up with rests and semi supine, with wall work and hands on the back of a chair to reset coordination and confidence. Also teaching the practice of regularly taking a moment before playing to notice where you are, what you are doing and how you are doing it? And why? Facilitating more skillful choices being available.
Brigid, a former student, illustrates how a musician's relationship to the present is an important tool for performance.
“This evening we had our Rachmaninov/Prokofiev concert. I greatly enjoyed myself, but I felt like it was a success from a more personal point of view because I was able to really be in the present whilst performing and wasn’t bothered by any of the usual internal dialogues.”
- Brigid Coleridge, Violinist in The Alexander Technique for Musicians.4
Brigid was able to be in the present at the right time, rather than being distracted by her inner voice. She was able to zoom out of internal dialogue or thoughts into a receptive state including exteroception, without losing a sense of self so still being connected to proprioception (how she was playing), and interoception (her sense of her emotions).
Development of the Courses
The early courses made us realise we needed at least a term's worth of lessons to communicate some of the fundamental ideas of the Alexander Technique. The introductory courses in the first year are focused on creating a starter language, understanding the main principles, and acknowledging the importance of the relationship to the present.
A starter language helps students see the relevance of the work. We base this on The Ready List.5 By using a curriculum that introduces the Alexander Technique in simple and fundamental language that develops along with the student, we are able to teach students:
That their use affects their musical practice
That their habits in their daily lives are linked to their music
That both Alexander work, and music take time
That their use can be worked on in parallel and separately from the instrument and will continue to have a positive impact.
For our students this longer-term work made the flow state of performance that Brigid described easier to access and unlock more musically communicative possibilities.
“What I did not believe before, is that we change through being present and aware. The change is more difficult to achieve if we are trying to change. As the weeks went by I noticed a pleasing shift in my performing. After working on letting myself make mistakes in practice and being more present, I felt that I was taking more risks during concerts. These risks were the result of more spontaneity which I believe made my performance more exciting. Not only did others enjoy listening to me more but I enjoyed playing more because I was finding deeper layers in the music, not over-thinking, freeing myself from analysis in performance.”
- RCM Student 2014.
Changes incorporated into the curriculum
What became clear as we taught at RCM is that a lot of Alexander's ideas are still so radical and different from most approaches to educational practices that AT takes time to learn. As AT teachers, we are often asked to give one off AT workshops but if we can demonstrate how these ideas, the thinking and changes of sensory awareness take time to develop and begin to become life skills, becoming an ongoing practice, we can show how important it is to teach the work over a term or a year at least and then to be able to follow that work up with further courses to deepen the understanding. In other words it takes time to learn to take time.
We incorporate many elements of learning into our curriculum acknowledging the many types of learning that go on in a lesson.6
Our intermediate curriculum includes:
Facilitated discussions which help students observe and articulate these ideas in action both for themselves and in others.
Games, designed both to create a relaxed learning environment.
Conversations about practice efficiency, and how to incorporate thinking about their use in their playing and performing.
Performing in class, where students could work specifically on their use when they made music in a safe environment so work on performance anxiety.
Hands on is also a key element of our teaching practice at RCM.
Reading, our set works initially included core alexander texts but more recently we have started to use more music specific reading, including our own book, The Alexander Technique for Musicians, that we wrote to reflect the journey of the courses.
One of the elements of the course that has changed most is developing the assignments we set. As we ran this course, we realized that assignments were a way in which we could guide how students thought about the work away from the lessons.
Development of types of Assignments
In the early days, we asked people for book reviews or essays which were useful for teaching students alexander concepts, they did not help them integrate these concepts into their lives. We gradually developed the coursework into a two-week diary in writing but much more recently with video including discussion about preparing for performances and auditions. They’re then making personal and regular accounts of how they're using the work in different elements of their lives, talking about practicing as well as talking about everyday activity and talking about performance.
In more advanced levels of the course the assignments are designed to help people to research other people's practices through treatises, or performance videos of established artists and compare those with applied Alexander principles and practice. With these more advanced tasks they realize they’re becoming more technically and physically literate in their ability to see how these other musicians use themselves creatively and expressively.
Digital Technology and time
Video recording practice or performance lets students observe their habits from an outside perspective. Quite a few of the students have made videos using time lapse, changing the time of playback, slowing it down or speeding it up. That's really helped them to notice elements of their use at a deeper level, noticing where they've got blind spots or where they could actually make changes to their presentation, balance and movement.
Through group work and video practice we’re separating the playing from reflecting on how the playing is going. This is really important for musicians who often have an inner narrative going on whilst they play or perform. Reflecting can also be more accurate when we are doing it from a neutral calm state. Reflecting by watching a video, they can also notice when they make changes whilst performing they can hear the difference in the sound, it makes clear cause and effect.
Students can listen to themselves with such a lot of anxiety that we wanted to teach them that the way we listen to ourselves can be a habit that can be addressed and changed as much as the way you're standing. We can change our relationship over time with our relationship to ourselves and others, that includes how we give feedback.
Later in the course we invite students to return and reflect on these recordings again. This enables them to notice change over a longer period of time. As practice and change for musicians is incremental this can facilitate students recognising longer term progress that can be difficult to recognise day to day.
What we’re helping students do with these activities and observations is to approach learning with more of a control over its tempo. By slowing down an action or movement we can better identify what's happening either visually or within our bodies. Perhaps this can reflect on the overall tempo of our learning.
Conclusion
Perhaps the biggest change in our teaching was to directly help students notice and understand habits of thought, and how useful it is to think about thinking. Our aim has been to develop the practice of really intelligent problem solving and thinking for practice which can include our AT concepts of inhibition and direction. This thinking includes self respect and kindness and a quality of being positive and helpful in our inner feedback. To be able to identify habits of internal commentary, of overthinking with our inner critic, rumination and future planning whilst playing is critical for a performer. Then to be able to understand how to reach the embodied flow state of performance with its emphasis on time and presence. This develops trust and connection to the music, fellow musicians and the audience.
Perhaps a fitting way to conclude is a testimonial from a former RCM student on the relationship between her Alexander practice and her music:
“What I thought would be a few lessons to help my back pain has actually turned into an incredible lifelong journey. Implementing the AT principles into my daily life over many years has given my system the time and space to shift and change.
Ideas take time to percolate. The system takes time to realise and accept there are other ways of reacting than the one it habitually turns to. Habits, both physical and mental processes, take time to shift. Revelations and break-throughs happen time and time again, but each time with a deeper understanding. New ways of reacting to stimulus take time to settle and assimilate themselves into the everyday functioning of the system. I'm so grateful for this practice over the years that has helped me in so many (all!) aspects of my life.”Felicity Matthews - RCM student, Alexander Teacher and viola player at Royal Opera House
Footnotes
https://apollonioodeio.com/alexander-technique-as-a-practical-philosophy-of-action-time/
Shepherd, Philip. 2017. Radical Wholeness: The embodied present and the ordinary grace of being. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley
The moment of stopping and becoming conscious of habits.
Kleinman, Judith and Buckoke, Peter. 2013. The Alexander Technique For Musicians. Bloomsbury.
There are six interactive components of the learning process: attention, memory,, language, processing and organizing, graphomotor (writing) and higher order thinking. These processes interact not only with each other, but also with emotions, classroom climate, behaviour, social skills, teachers and family. The Center for development and learning Understanding the Learning process to effectively differentiate instruction www.mycll.org
Pictures from Finding Quiet Strength by Judith Kleinman (2002, Quickthorn Press)
Presenter Bio
Judith Kleinman: Originally training to be a musician at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Judith went on to be a member of the English National Opera and performed with the LSO, London Classical Players. The mind-body connection involved in practising and performing music fascinated her. In order to explore this connection more deeply, Judith trained to be an Alexander teacher with Mr. Macdonald and Shoshanna Kaminitz qualifying in 1989 and went on to train to be a Tai Chi and Yoga teacher in London. Judith’s career as an Alexander teacher has been focused on integrating the work into educational and performance practices. She is part of the Alexander team at the Royal College of Music and head of department at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. She is also an assistant head of training at LCATT. Recently she has been a visiting teacher at The London School of Musical Theatre.
For the last twenty-five years, Judith has collaborated with Sue Merry to build connections between the worlds of Alexander and Education. Together they created a thoughtful training for AT teachers interested in working with children of all ages in schools and colleges. This project, known as 'The Developing Self' held its first conference at Regents Park College in 2000, they presented the STAT memorial Lecture that year. The Developing Self has become a platform for videos and discussions about Alexander in Education. These, including the talks of their virtual Alexander conference's 2020/21 that can be found at www.thedevelopingself.net . They have recently started a project known as The Ready List for the general public and the Education world, with a website www.thereadylist.com, and are now running workshops and making videos for schools on ``The well-being Hub”, taking AT work to hundreds of school children. Judith has been an active part of the STAT. She sat on the STAT council for 10 years and coordinated the STAT Education Special Interest group for many years.She directed the group that created the Education satellite section of the STAT website and has produced several short films on different aspects of Alexander in Education. Judith gave the Memorial lecture for STAT in 2014.
Judith has written several books including ‘The Alexander Technique for Musicians’ with Peter Buckoke, published by Bloomsbury in 2014, and The Alexander Technique for Young Musicians a reference book aimed at key stage 3 students. They have also written a chapter on the Alexander Technique in The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance. Further publications include Alexander in Secondary and Tertiary Education a book for teachers looking to integrate Alexander Principles in their teaching and a. This year Judith’s new book Finding Quiet Strength was published by Quickthornbooks, highlighting the aspect of creativity, self-regulations and the emotional Intelligence and embodied awareness the work of conscious choice can develop. Continuing in her work to create dialogues between different modalities, Judith programmes the Interesting Talks series of lectures and workshops which brings other disciplines in dialogue with the Alexander Technique. She regularly writes articles and gives workshops and talks on Alexander in Education in Europe, the USA, and the UK both to the wider public and the Education world.