A Lesson at BodyChance in Japan

Fumika complained about increasing tension as she performed on her violin.

“Let’s look at it” I said.

So she played.

What struck me was the confused deployment of her parallel motor systems: between her unconscious postural support to hold up the violin and the conscious voluntary movement of her bowing arm. In my BodyThinking course that trainees study, we differentiate these systems by calling them:

1. Coordinating Movements (Postural Support System)
2. Activity Movements (Voluntary Movement System)

1. Coordinating Movements
This is Alexander's Discovery - that head movements calibrate the vertebral coordination of your limbs in an unconscious and normally inaccessible way.

2. Activity Movements
This is the system commonly thought of as being the only one that exists - using conscious guidance to learn new motor skills until they become habits requiring minimal oversight.

In Fumika’s case, I saw that she needed to support the violin as she used her bowing arm, but she was engaging her voluntary movement system to give that support - which was overriding the ability of her postural support system do it. 

Put another way: this support would unconsciously “do itself” if she allowed it.

So what to do?

I think the creativity of an Alexander lesson is discovering the words that can reorganise a student’s thinking so they can utilise their motor system in harmony with its design. To do that requires understanding how the system works and how the student is at odds with that design.

For whatever reason, Fumika appeared to be working to keep her violin up, which was a superfluous conscious goal. Her effort kept increasing because when there is nothing to achieve, the act of achieving becomes the achievement.

So what to do?

In situations like this, Marjorie Barstow’s definition of inhibition often comes to mind: “Inhibition is the activity by which the old habit can not take place.”

How about I ask Fumika to focus her attention on her bowing arm?

I reasoned that if she shifted her focus there, it would become unnecessary to support the violin because that would happen unconsciously in harmony with her design. Of course, I didn’t initially tell her that. Ironic effects and all that.

The final plan to play I suggested was:

“Ask for your coordination so you can move your bowing arm as you need to express what you want to communicate to the listeners.”

It was extraordinary. All the superfluous tension evaporated.

I was impressed at how understanding motor learning and control through the filter of Alexander's Discovery can lead to such a dramatic and immediate improvement in doing something as complex as playing the violin.

Credit must go to Fumika, who has an amazing ability to think as she intends - a skill that all those who learn to apply Alexander's Discovery will eventually get better and better at doing.