How to Learn the Alexander Technique: A Manual for Students

by Barbara Conable, William Conable

A primer for students of the Alexander Technique, a well-known method for improving freedom and ease of movement and physical coordination. This book provides the first authoritative account of William Conable's concept, Body Mapping, the study of how our ideas about our bodies affect our experience and movement. This concept is integrated with a lucid explanation of the Alexander Technique that clarifies and simplifies the task of teaching and learning the Techique.

Genres: Health, Music, Amazon

168 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 1995

Reviews

[Lumine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think that I am the target audience for this book, which is why I am giving it an extra star. But I was required to read it for school. Long story short is that this book took years off my life and made me want to take my own eyes out, it was so boring.

[Maddie Muurisepp · Rating 2 out of 5]

hahahaha. college book #2. maybe the class will explain it more

[KrisAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You must return again and again to the simple truth of your structure. If you read or hear an instruction that is contrary to your structure, scrap it. It can't work."

To be clear, this is not a manual for the technique itself: it's clearly a supplemental guide to help you understand what you're learning as you study the technique with a teacher. So it's actually a pretty dumb thing for me to have read, because I'm not learning AT and actually don't have immediate plans to do so (I had very basic intro workshops as part of an opera program I was in 20+ years ago). Think of this as a resource to supplement your AT work or get you interested in it. I think I picked this up because the author and her husband are proponents of body mapping, a concept I've found hugely helpful in my own teaching--and much of the book is concerned with body mapping, how to correct your map and cultivate your kinesthetic sense, and how these things will help you learn AT effectively and also just perform effectively (whether you're a singer, instrumentalist, actor, dancer, or regular old person in the world). There's a great chapter on breathing, and a lot of helpful tips to teachers on how to help students correct their maps--this is an extremely effective way to teach. "Imagery is time consuming and exhausting when applied to movement. The student struggling to imagine a river flowing through her wrist is even less likely to feel what's actually going on there than when she was imageless. The place for images in teaching is after the fact, not before it."

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a manual for someone working with an Alexander Technique instructor. It doesn't present as much instruction for learning to have better movement. I have read that to really get the benefit of the Alexander Technique you have to study with someone. I am trying to find a book to just help me move my body better.

[Genni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is essentially a deconstruction of the connection between our psychology and movement. If we are lucky, perhaps we had an anatomy class. Yet even with this knowledge, we move in ways that are socio-culturally conditioned, rather than natural, producing all kinds of tension and pain.

Before embarking on this work, I had a session with a teacher of the Alexander technique for musicians and I was shocked at how incorrectly I was sitting, walking, etc. I based my ideas on how I was to move on things I had always heard such as, "Sit up straight!" My idea of sitting up straight, and the way my body is designed to sit up straight, were two completely different things.

I will say this, if I had not had a session before reading the book, some of it may have been a little lost on me because of the writing, which is not great. It assumes some knowledge on the part of the reader that many probably do not have. The writing is also rather cheesy. But the worth of the ideas surpasses these shortcomings, and I highly recommend it to all musicians, or anyone, really, who experiences daily pain and tension.

[Tilopa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il s'agit de concept de «cartographie corporelle» fort prisé pour la Corporalità.

[Greg Langmead · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a life-changing book. Updating my mental map of where my joints are located has changed how I walk and move. Comfort is available!

[Elysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerfully insightful and delightfully articulate. The diagrams and discussions are really helpful for understanding how to let go of self-imposed patterns of tension. A book to go back to again and again for support in the ongoing process of learning to more freely inhabit our bodies. As a massage therapist, zero balancer and singer this book has been a significant resource and there are certain parts I keep recommending to people. I love the discussions of misleadingly dysfunctional concepts like "waist" and "shoulder", or the wonderful description of downward pull, and the explanation of how to develop your kinesthetic sense and how it can help you. I checked it out of the library first and soon realized I needed my own copy.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very frustrating book -- I found it impossible to learn the technique fully from this book. She talk about it, and the wonderful effects it will have, but doesn't actually give away the secrets of the technique.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is definitely a manual and reads like one. Has useful information if you are taking an Alexander class or private lessons it would make good supplementary material. But the reading is very dry and can get technical.

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

i refer to this constantly.

[Joelle.P.S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Alexander Technique! :)