Week 2: Application and Integration
Welcome to week 2 of our Primary Pattern Mini-Challenge. We are taking 2 minutes a day to reset our relationship with our body awareness and discovering how small changes can reap large rewards!
Day 8 - Leading with the Head
Before walking, picking something up, or singing a note-think: My head leads, my whole body follows. Can
you sense less bracing?
Day 9 - Posture Check, Not Fix
Instead of "fixing" your posture, ask: What's happening with my head, neck, and spine right now? Observe
without judgment.
Day 10 - Let the Breath Move You
Before singing or playing, let your breath come in naturally. Can you breathe without pulling your head or
collapsing your spine?
Day 11 - Stillness with Ease
While sitting or standing, can you be still without holding? Notice how freedom in the neck helps the whole
body feel lighter.
Day 12 - Practice Pause
In the middle of your session today, pause for 10 seconds. Come back to: Neck free, head forward and up,
spine following. Then begin again.
Day 13 - Let It Be Easy
Choose one moment today to do less. Sing a phrase, bow a note, or play a chord with the thought: I don't
have to hold myself together.
Day 14 - Reflect + Reset
Look back on what you've noticed over the past two weeks. Has your awareness changed? What moments
surprised you? Share a takeaway in the forum!
27 replies
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Just checking in here to see how your week two applications and integrations are going?? Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something that you are noticing as you work through these daily prompts??
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Yes 🙌 I've been doing some Alexander Technique exercises in general...
I've made an audio of a Constructive Rest... tell myself to inhibit, Say 'No' not get ready and jump in to action; give myself directions for my head to be forward and up, soften my gaze, jaw and shoulders, lengthen and widen back; Breathing calmly; Stop my mental and emotional chatter, think of space between ears and throat; check I'm in balance and visualise coordination; Pause before, then 'Just Doing It'.... Stopping mid way and starting again.
I'm new to using it to my voice...
Having fun 😊 applying to piano and everyday things.
Thank you 🙏 for doing this topic.
Learning many things...
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Hi Roxi,
Thank you for this wonderful summary !
I like this idea of thinking space between ears and throat.
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Working on my singing technique in relationship with Alexander technique and with the little tensions I can feel in my neck when going up in range, I would like to share some videos that helped me understand what's happening in my body.
This first one is about the jaw and it can influence the freedom of the top joint.
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This one helped me understand how to feel the muscles at the base of the skull more released
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLLRdtLpxM2/?igsh=Y3l2ZW16MW9ycGcx
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/C71Wyk9Rmfk/?igsh=MWwzN2R5cDY5ZGh6dQ==
This one is about shoulders, since I can feel a clear relationship between shoulders and neck while singing. When my shoulder blades stay low, there is less tension in the neck.
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJB5r8Fx2-j/?igsh=MTd0bDJvaHRyYzFqYw==
This last one is about fascia. This could perhaps be interesting to watch before the life about throat massage ?
I find these videos good because they are very visual and concrete.
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I find it very interesting that Alexander asks us to be aware of what we feel inside AND on the same time to be aware of what's around us. This is NOT obvious if we also have to express the piece...
In that order, I think it's a good idea to begin this dubble awareness (in and out) with every day thinks like you said, Roxy.
I will try to do this....
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I like the image of space between eyes and throat. While practicing I realised that, trying to have my head up, I used to engage the jaw (masseter). I wasn't aware of that but this image made me realise it. And tension in the jaw causes tension in the neck...
So glad to discover this !
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I've been enjoying watching this from the background. I teach stretching and fitness, and much of what is being discussed here is part of what I teach to my stretching clients (they generally come to me for gentle and restorative stretching). I find that a lot of what I teach translates directly into how I stand, move, and even breathe while singing.
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Just wanted to pop in here to see if there were any final observations or questions? Thank you so much for sharing your work and participating. I hope this was helpful and that you discovered some good new habits along the way!
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Thank you Heidi to gave organised this two weeks round posturec and Alexander technique.
Thanks to this, I watched the course of Barbara Wegher Thompson on tonebase music, this was my first contact with Alexander technique. And I made connections with being in the moment, being conscient of the space around me, and the shape of my body in space. This is complementary for me, since I work a lot on internal sensations.
I discovered new sensations and new ideas, new details, but in a global body. The image I have of my body and my posture has not fundamentally changed but is modified by more flexibility or space in some specific places.
More releasing in hips, knees and ankles. Thevsrnsation of being seated.
Widening higher at the back of the neck.
The feeling that the head cannot be exactly at the same place for the entire range.
More awereness of relationship between shoulders, jaw, larynx and neck.
Sensation of the upper joint.
As you said, Heidi, now this will take some time to integrate these elements in my current technique.
I remain with questionning about the right image for the upper head, since I don’t start with the same head posture as Alexander. So it will take some time for me to work on that. But I find the video about primary posture very good.
I also made some knew observations with my clarinet. I realised my mouthpiece posture was not so good because my jaw was to much forward.