‘The mere in with a the fact of suse would biology elf which Thechair the chair wodoand came to Then we self right wrong, motive or whatever went for Band after going asa she Second. Park, In 1971 he spiritual A pianist’s adventure with the Alexander Technique NELLY BEN-OR A performer and teacher looks back on 30 years of her approach to piano playing through the Alexander Technique. According to a Zen saying: “Before a man embarks upon the Way of Zen he sees Rivers as Rivers and Mountains as Mountains. When he begins to follow the Way, to him Rivers are no more Rivers and Mountains no more Mountains, but thirty years later Rivers are Rivers and Mountains are Mountains". The experience of changes in patterns of habits can initially be very exciting though not without accompanying reactions of confusion, bewilderment or resentment, However, as time passes and some of these changes take root in us we begin to take their effects for granted as if things had always been thus. In my own work as a pianist I have observed that some aspects of piano playing which I now sce as simple and straightforward were not like th twenty or thirty years ago. Certain profound changes have taken place in the y Irelate to playing the piano, Occasionally in teaching, when confronted by a particular problem brought to me by a younger pianist, realise to what ‘extent I by now take for granted the absence of asimilar difficulty in my own playing. That same problem, which for me was also once a challenge, has now become a thing of the past. Many technicalities of piano playing have become either no more difficult orat least much less so than they were before | started learning the Alexander Technique. With years of working with the ‘Technique, changes take place which eradicate problems in playing originating from misuse — problems which one had unwittingly created for oneself. This is true in our daily existence in general, but pethaps even more prominently so in the realm of some highly developed skill or artistic technique. Usually the development of an exac skill, such as that required in playing a musical instrument to a high standard, is helped along by various teachers. ‘These teachers often pass on their own misguided ways which may compound the resulting misuse arising from the lack of a clear understanding of how we function as a psycho: physical entity To develop a complex skill we definitely need to understand the fine ‘mind — body interaction in our total functioning, so that we do not try to develop the skill by leaning 100 much towards either its mental or its physical aspects. I know that many methods of piano playing, for example, are based on a belief in the necessity for a pianist to develop strong fingers. My own 9teachers and others I have met firmly believed in this. From my first years of autempting to incorporate Alexander's principles into piano playing I began to query this generally accepted assumption. Gradually, as my experience of the Technique deepened, I came to understand why this approach is so Prevalent amongst the many exponents of various piano playing methods Thave observed an entire cycle of cause and effect which lies at the r00t of this popular assumption amongst pianists who are convinced that to acquire areally good technique one must develop physically strong fingers, Without doubt there is a specificrelationship which a player creates between his finger contact with the keys and the sound the instrument releases. Varying degrees of impetus with which the pianist’s finger moves the key down result in a varying scale of volume and tone quality that he receives from the piano. Interestingly, the more the player is subject to general misuse in Alexander's rms, the more he limits the scale of response from the instrument In ying to overcome this limitation the player works harder to ‘get ‘more out of the instrument by using sheer force. Thus he increases his misuse by creating growing tensions and interference with what Alexander called the Primary Control. The more misuse sets in, the harder the player ‘feels’ he has to work. The harder he works, the more physical tension he uses; the morehe gets locked into an experience of struggling with the resistance of thekeys and So becomes convinced that he must develop strength of fingers. Thus a vicious circle of growing misuse and difficulties becomes established, Amongst the pianists I have taught, a very talented young musician came to me who had given up performing because of problems with arm pains and muscular rigidity which euch a forceful approach had created for him. He had eventually been told by his teachers that the only way for himto continue was to “break through the barrier of pain’ (whatever that may meanl). This is an example of the locked-in vicious circle created by approaching the development of a skill on premises of real ignorance of the facts about our co-ordination which Alexander had discovered. Reflecting on the years I spent in the pursuit — often struggle — of incorporating Alexander's principles in my own work as a pianist, brings back memories of moments of ‘great’ yet utterly simple discoveries, as well as moments of questioning and real doubts. When I first encountered the Alexander Technique it gave me an cestatic experience of liberation in Playing, It was like walking on clouds. 1 could hardly believe that playing could happen with so much ease. It seemed as if all problems had been solved and all questions answered through this miraculous Technique. At that point everything I had learned about piano technique from my piano teachers seemed, in the light of the Alexander work, to be quite valueless. [rejected wholesale all ideas about what was necessary to work on. in order to acquire a good pianio technique— “. .. rivers were no more rivers and mountains were no more mountai I thought at the time that all that was needed was to become effective in projecting the Alexander 10.toacquire Es Without Fe his finger fing degrees result in a the piano. lexander's to ‘ger’ hismisuse E called the Is he has with arm. jereated for for him to & that may ‘excated by fence of the wzzle — of brings aswell as peered the playing solved from my B be quite directions and the rest in piano playing would take care of tse As this initial experience of the Technique caused me to reject everything Thad learned previously the baby was thrown outaway with the bath-water. I was carried away by unmitigated enthusiasm for the liberating elfect of the Technique and naively believed that a change in my use would suffice to answer every pianistic challenge Teontinued to train as a teacher of the Technique and through the first year played and practised only sporadically. Then 1 began to realise that the initial elation was giving way to a real question of how to establish a more permanent way of playing which would be as free from any strain and physical effort as it had been at first, I began to see that much of what constituted my way of working on piano playing was based on principles that were quite different from Alexander’ teaching. Noneof these principles drew on any knowledge of the integrity in the use of the whole player. It also became gradually mote apparent that the new elating experience of freedom was alas not rooted in anything that was mine yet, but transmitted to me momentarily by my Alexander teacher. ‘This freedom was ‘on loan’ fot ‘moments and only through the agency of his skilful hands Where then was something of my own? I knew about ‘giving directions’ Yet when it came to piano playing my ‘directing’ did not seem to have the desired effect at all. Something more was needed, it seemed. Gradually as 1 returned t0 more commitments in piano playing and had to prepare repertoire for performance, various old habits began to raise their disturbing heads again. My total trust in the omnipotence of the Technique to provide all solutions to difficulties in piano playing began to be overcast by shadows of doubs. I had to play a varied repertoire and had to tackle passages of music which required much pianistic skill. But at that time I found myself sanded between two stools: the old way of dealing with difficult stretches of music, which did not convince me any more, and the new way ... but what was the new way? Simply giving directions was not helping in unravelling complex musical text and enabling me to perform it fluently. In this situation I began to look carefully at every step and component of the act of playing the piano. The Alexander Technique had inadvertently placed me on the road of observation and search fora way of playing based on ‘non-doing’. Playing is afterall a very delinite ‘doing’. There is no getting away from that fact. What was wanted was a way out of the habitual manner of ‘doing’. I began to scrutinise every aspect of piano playing as known to me and went right back to some basic questions What is needed to release a sound from a key? What is the bare minimum that needs to be ‘done’ to produce sound? How can I keep my awareness of the Primary Control within that activity? From these elementary points 1 went on to further and further questions relating to many areas of playing. I began to see that there was to be no sudden, umiraculous change that would take placein my playing. There was howevera possibility of profound change, but it would have to beachieved slowly with much patience and extreme clarity of procedure. The Alexander Technique is a process. Its permanent benefits become evident gradually. ‘The process proved to be by no means a smooth ndisturbed way forward, I encountered many moments of disappointment when what I expected to happen in my playing failed to happen —- and Particularly so during performances. Each time, when facing such disappointments, doubis arose in me about the real efficacy of the Alexander principles in music making at the piano. But then, each time I had to gather new courage and go on with my pursuit Alexander's teaching, after all, made more sense than all theother ways I knew of. The problem became more and more obvious — “old habits die hard”. Iwas witnessing the upsetting truth ofthis saying over and over again, There was, however, no sense in turing away from the ditection T had chosen. Time and persistence seemed to be the only factors that held out any hopes of achieving lasting changes. And time and persistence did not fail my expectations. T continued to work on applying the Alexander Principle according to my continuously modified understanding of it. I went on observing and searching to understand what I and my students really did do in various situations of pianistic demands. The process became one of constant facing and trying to dissolve persistent old pattems of response in playing. Finding out what ‘not to do' by degrees replaced the usual search for ‘what to do Through this gradual process of clearing the way, eliminating the mechanistic unsound procedures adopted by so many pianists, it became mote and more apparent to me that conscious attention as employed in the Alexander Technique offered great new resources for a total technique of iano playing. It enabled one to put together various elements, such as the ‘whole musical image of a composition and its active reality in playing, into an integral experience. Various points which slowly became clear and simple gradually began to link up. With time, certain ways that appeared elusive in the beginning of the search became part of my everyday experience of playing, Whenever I recognised that such a change had come about, my courage and confidence in pursuing this way grew. Some of these points are the ones I now seem to take for granted, as I mentioned earlier. For example: I do know now without any doubt that it is not the ‘physical strength’ of fingers which can help me to roduce a big volume of sound from the piano; Ido know without doubt that is not through the sheer number of mechanical repetitions that some ‘musical passage can be learned well; I am also quite convinced from direct experience that itis not the body that has mechanically to overcome technical difficulties in playing. Thesc, and a host of other aspects of playing, I now view from quite new perspective thanks to the years of working on piano 12, this direcriam Rivers 2e by Ben-< the Alexamiee 9 Meridian ReaAlexander wo gather her ways I habits die seragain. «facing Finding on piano playing through the approach offered by the Alexander Technique ‘The often thoughtless, monotonous drudgery of so-called practising has ceased to be my way of working. Finger strengthening and muscle stretching, exercises are not part of my approach to piano technique. For me they are blind and dull procedures, and above all much less effective than an approach which requires constant alertness and — so far as it is possible at any moment — a clear awareness of ‘what’ and ‘how’ one is really doing in piano playing. This inevitably leads to a marked decrease in physical doing. and encourages more attentive listening. And so alter thirty years of working towards a real integration of the Alexander process into piano playing, there are for me no more dramatic lations, but rather a steady sense of going on in a direction that reveals further its depth and reality with each passing year. I have accumulated, by now, enough evidence of its practical value and am looking forward to whatever new understanding may come my way from continuing to follow this direction. Now, thirty years later, I see, bur with a new vision, that “Rivers are Rivers and Mountains are Mountains". Nelly Ben-Or is an internationally known pianist who qualified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique under Patrick Maedonald in 1968, She is professor of piano and the Alexander Technique at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Lontion, gives concerts all over the world and broadcasts regularly for the BBC and other radio slations. She hay made a number of solo piano and chamber music recordings for Meridian Records,