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Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique
Written by an experienced professional musician and teacher of the Alexander Technique, this volume is the first to deal specifically with the application of the Technique to music-making. Introducing the musician to the principles and procedures evolved by F. M. Alexander (1869-1955), the
book contains practical advice related to all areas of musical activity, from technique, sound production, and interpretation, to daily practice, rehearsal routines, and the mitigating of stage fright and health problems.
book contains practical advice related to all areas of musical activity, from technique, sound production, and interpretation, to daily practice, rehearsal routines, and the mitigating of stage fright and health problems.
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 24, 1997
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About the author
Pedro De Alcantara
25 books9 followersMy books include the children's novels "Befiddled" and "Backtracked" and works of non-fiction for adults, including "Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique" and "The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life" (published by Crowood). I travel the world giving seminars and master classes for all creative people. I'm currently finishing two new books -- a new novel for young readers titled "The Divine Computer" and a book for musicians titled "Integrated Practice." I'm also putting together a selection of my original improvisations and compositions for performance and recording.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 20, 2009
Excellent. Everyone should read this book. Practical and useful information for anyone seeking to improve not just their habits but they're overall well being. It even addresses stage fright, and general stress. It explains Alexander Technique in logical terms. Very easy to read, but also very thorough. I won't hesitate to say: a life changer. Also, I took lots of notes.
June 19, 2017
More philosophical than I initially expected- lots to unpack here and definitely will need a second read-through.
August 22, 2020
tl;dr: 5/5 for some parts, 2 or 1 for some others.
This is certainly an interesting book to musicians and more generally those interested in the Alexander Technique. I read it as an amateur musician, amateur dancer and person interested in somatic education.
Overall the strengths of the book are that of somatic education in general. Some exercises I feel can be quite life, or practice, changing. For me I definitely felt that "elbows out, wrists in" (p.116) was super interesting and have indeed found it a successful tactic for playing piano. Generally speaking the exercises are clear enough and interesting.
Now, the vocabulary and thinking of Alexander Technique may not be for everyone. I do think it's interesting to know of it.
Some criticism:
The author at times is too lengthy, and, especially in the last chapters, talks a lot about things that I found more or less trivial. At other times, he will boldly produce a claim that's both weakly justified and might have a lot of reason to be wrong. I think, for instance, of how he thinks breath is generally better left alone, i.e. advises not to work on breath. It's certainly a possibility to allow just the breath to come in, but it can also be very interesting to do specific breath exercises.
More generally, I would say that the author does not refer enough to other works in relevant fields (physiology, sport, somatics) and just tells "do that". And there's a kind of two contradictory approaches between "do as fits your unique self" and "do as I tell you".
For instance, the importance of posture, I feel, is largely overstated. This is quite a general problem, actually. The author mentions, of course, several artists whose posture (or use of self, according to the vocabulary) is, so to say, impeccable. But this is cherry picking: the question is whether some musicians can produce efficient sound with a posture other than that prescribed. Glenn Gould comes to mind. He would not be alone in that.
The distinction concave\convex is not clear; in fact, I believe they kind of refer to "bad" and "good". (The author pretty much says so.) Generally speaking, I feel that the vocabulary serves at times a mystification.
Now, what I want to retain from this book:
− part I, the vocabulary of Alexander technique. Conception, inhibition(=non-doing=letting go=letting be), direction, action. To inhibit is to put a little space between a stimulus and your reaction to it. To work on inhibition (perhaps the most complicated of all), the author suggests to inhibit ''small but harmful reactions'' every day. The chapter on direction contains very interesting exercises with arms (I really appreciated the "unbendable arm" exercise) which make uses of images: imagine they are risen by someone else; that floating balloons make them float; imagine hot energy or cold energy around them; imagine you want to point a laser at the sky. Working on action involves thinking differently, on the convincing following premise. If you're doing something in a wrong manner, then doing it the same way won't change anything. Therefore, you have to change how you do it, which is a psychophysical phenomenon. Hence, an efficient way is to go in an indirect procedure -- don't think ''I want to do X'' but focus on something else. (You could also work with a partner or with objects.). During this procedure, it is useful to abstain from judgements.
− part II, the procedures. The monkey (p.103) is an interesting exercise to work on differentiating hip movement and spine (movement of the hip induces a movement of the back as an unity). That's an exercise I think everyone ought to be able to do. The exercises (p.112-116) on pronation, supination, and elbows out-wrists in, are extremely interesting for a musician. The whispered 'ah' is an interesting exercise, but I would not dwell on it (many other exercises can be done). The tongue twisters exercises are quite funny! And helpful for articulation too. The shouts exercises are quite a thing too. There's an interesting exercise to look at a mirror and practice non-judgement.
− part III, the applications. By far the part that interested me the least, see above. A remark about warming up the right way (as a preparation for what comes next). Practising with good rhythm because good rhythm actually helps to learn. Learning through slowing down, simplifying, or slowing down the rate of change of variables. Preparing a gesture, in particular a leap at the piano, by first moving in the opposite direction (I was interested because as a dancer this is for me obvious but I had never thought of this in the context of piano leaps).
Overall, it can really change for the best your practice, but I do think it could be reduced in size and avoid a lot of unnecessary discussions.
This is certainly an interesting book to musicians and more generally those interested in the Alexander Technique. I read it as an amateur musician, amateur dancer and person interested in somatic education.
Overall the strengths of the book are that of somatic education in general. Some exercises I feel can be quite life, or practice, changing. For me I definitely felt that "elbows out, wrists in" (p.116) was super interesting and have indeed found it a successful tactic for playing piano. Generally speaking the exercises are clear enough and interesting.
Now, the vocabulary and thinking of Alexander Technique may not be for everyone. I do think it's interesting to know of it.
Some criticism:
The author at times is too lengthy, and, especially in the last chapters, talks a lot about things that I found more or less trivial. At other times, he will boldly produce a claim that's both weakly justified and might have a lot of reason to be wrong. I think, for instance, of how he thinks breath is generally better left alone, i.e. advises not to work on breath. It's certainly a possibility to allow just the breath to come in, but it can also be very interesting to do specific breath exercises.
More generally, I would say that the author does not refer enough to other works in relevant fields (physiology, sport, somatics) and just tells "do that". And there's a kind of two contradictory approaches between "do as fits your unique self" and "do as I tell you".
For instance, the importance of posture, I feel, is largely overstated. This is quite a general problem, actually. The author mentions, of course, several artists whose posture (or use of self, according to the vocabulary) is, so to say, impeccable. But this is cherry picking: the question is whether some musicians can produce efficient sound with a posture other than that prescribed. Glenn Gould comes to mind. He would not be alone in that.
The distinction concave\convex is not clear; in fact, I believe they kind of refer to "bad" and "good". (The author pretty much says so.) Generally speaking, I feel that the vocabulary serves at times a mystification.
Now, what I want to retain from this book:
− part I, the vocabulary of Alexander technique. Conception, inhibition(=non-doing=letting go=letting be), direction, action. To inhibit is to put a little space between a stimulus and your reaction to it. To work on inhibition (perhaps the most complicated of all), the author suggests to inhibit ''small but harmful reactions'' every day. The chapter on direction contains very interesting exercises with arms (I really appreciated the "unbendable arm" exercise) which make uses of images: imagine they are risen by someone else; that floating balloons make them float; imagine hot energy or cold energy around them; imagine you want to point a laser at the sky. Working on action involves thinking differently, on the convincing following premise. If you're doing something in a wrong manner, then doing it the same way won't change anything. Therefore, you have to change how you do it, which is a psychophysical phenomenon. Hence, an efficient way is to go in an indirect procedure -- don't think ''I want to do X'' but focus on something else. (You could also work with a partner or with objects.). During this procedure, it is useful to abstain from judgements.
− part II, the procedures. The monkey (p.103) is an interesting exercise to work on differentiating hip movement and spine (movement of the hip induces a movement of the back as an unity). That's an exercise I think everyone ought to be able to do. The exercises (p.112-116) on pronation, supination, and elbows out-wrists in, are extremely interesting for a musician. The whispered 'ah' is an interesting exercise, but I would not dwell on it (many other exercises can be done). The tongue twisters exercises are quite funny! And helpful for articulation too. The shouts exercises are quite a thing too. There's an interesting exercise to look at a mirror and practice non-judgement.
− part III, the applications. By far the part that interested me the least, see above. A remark about warming up the right way (as a preparation for what comes next). Practising with good rhythm because good rhythm actually helps to learn. Learning through slowing down, simplifying, or slowing down the rate of change of variables. Preparing a gesture, in particular a leap at the piano, by first moving in the opposite direction (I was interested because as a dancer this is for me obvious but I had never thought of this in the context of piano leaps).
Overall, it can really change for the best your practice, but I do think it could be reduced in size and avoid a lot of unnecessary discussions.
June 19, 2021
Lo leí mientras tomaba clases de Técnica Alexander. A mi me cambió la vida. Los conceptos son claros y prácticos.
Está más que nada destinado a gente que tiene contacto la técnica. De otra manera supongo que es difícil entender el significado de los conceptos, pero no dejaría de recomendarlo.
Está más que nada destinado a gente que tiene contacto la técnica. De otra manera supongo que es difícil entender el significado de los conceptos, pero no dejaría de recomendarlo.
January 17, 2017
I loved this book and read it slowly while taking lots of notes. This is an incredibly thoughtful and interesting guide to the Alexander technique for musicians. I am a non-musician Alexander technique teacher who read this book to learn more about how I can work with musician clients and also because I am interested in Pedro's ideas in general. While it is written for musicians, I think Indirect Procedures also a great book for non-musicians who are interested in the Alexander technique as well as pretty much everything that Pedro applies to music can also be applied to life generally. Pedro gives some very wise advice. (Please note that this second edition is substantially different from the first edition so even if you have read the first edition, it is worth investing time in reading this version.)
June 5, 2008
Indirect Procedures is a how-to about the Alexander Technique that is accessible to those studying the technique yet are not professional musicians. You can read the book metaphorically and glean quite a bit of wisdom about the technique and not be a master cellist. The language of the book simplifies the technique in such a way that it could be considered a viable introduction without taking a class. However, if you are at all interested in a better "use of the self", take a class! It's fascinating and fun to learn about the sixth sense, proprioception.
October 30, 2008
THE best book I ever read in school. This revolutionized the way I approach my instrument, practicing and performing. If not for the Alexander Technique, I would not have been able to continue playing the violin and this book made it accessible when I wasn't able to afford an Alexander Technique therapist. Even if you aren't a musician, you should read this book. Ever wake up with a cramp in your neck or feel like your back is all knotted up? Yeah, read it.
February 3, 2011
If you are looking for info on the Alexander Technique, this is an excellent resource. Finally feel I understand its premises. While this is written at probably the college level, the author does a good job of providing examples of the sometimes rather nebulous concepts. Boiled down, a headache isn't just a headache. Mind-body-soul are all connected. Rather than steps to take, this talks more of undoing bad habits. Much to ponder. For musicians of all types.
January 4, 2013
Fantastic book on Alexander Technique written just for musicians. This was the third time I tried to read it. The first two times I was not studying AT at the time. This really needs to be read and studied under the guidance of an AT teacher. And should be read multiple times. Not the easiest read, but a lot of valuable information.
December 29, 2014
I enjoyed the lucidity, and highly logical and organised structure of this book, immensely. It resonated with much of the positive teaching I have experienced both instrumentally and through Alexander Technique, and helped contextualise and increase my understanding thereof.
October 27, 2007
This is one of my bibles.
January 13, 2010
I feel like I'm learning a lot, but I can't remember what... more about what Alexander technique IS... more about anatomy...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews