As an undergraduate music student, I was immediately attracted by the constructive nature of Alexander Technique - it gave me a process to help me learn about myself in a way that was clear and practical, rather than the advice offered to me from chiropracters and physios to "play less" when I asked how to deal with a sore right shoulder. In my first lesson with Greg Holdaway, director of the Sydney Alexander Technique School, it was brought to my attention that I had inadvertently collected a hotpot of conflicting ideas about my body structure & how I perceived I should be playing. It immediately became clear to me that day that something I was doing while playing was leading to my pain, and indeed in a matter of weeks I had resolved the issue of the sore shoulder.
To receive an education in body structure, observation skills, and awareness-in-action is an invaluable gift that has profoundly affected my ability to play my instrument comfortably, enjoyably and freely - and I can thank Greg for starting me on my journey of learning Alexander technique, and now continuing learning to teach Alexander Technique as I have been part of the teacher training course since 2015.
In this interview, Greg shares some of what his work as an Alexander teacher involves and common areas of concern for musicians:
1. A few words describing your mood and where you are writing this now.
I am at my home office desk in the beautiful Blue Mountains, about 7:45am. I can hear the birds outside, see the sunshine and feel the slight chill from the open window. Feeling slightly elated, having just solved a long-standing software problem .
2. Describe your work.
I use my skills and knowledge to assist people to solve their challenges and difficulties, to improve their performance and reach their potential in anything that is important to them. This includes assisting people to return to good functioning and health in the face of long-standing challenges. The work can involve teaching face-to-face lessons, small group classes or larger workshops using a synergy of approaches. That means figuring out what the difficulty or need is and using coaching and hands-on methods to provide new experiences of what is possible. This includes the development of personal cues and self-direction for the person to use in their own practise. The formal ground of the work is Alexander’s first principle, the unity of human functioning, which can be seen and influenced in the relation of head, neck and back, or as we say it these days, “Head and whole body”. That is the reason for our business name: BodyMinded.
The work progresses in the context of having fun with flexibility and creativity.
3. What’s in a typical day?
That depends on the day. A travel to work day is up early, on the train to get to the city before classes start. Teaching can extend from 8am through to 8pm on some days. A non-travel teaching day is up not so early to warmup with a personal routine of awareness and movement practises. And an ‘office’ day starts with energy and engagement and gradually slows down with more breaks and less work, but can also extend to 6 or 7pm in front of the