Reviews: Conable: What Every Musician

The book is divided into 12 chapters. Each chapter is represented by a little icon which appears in the top corner of the pages belonging to this chapter. There are no page-numbers. Each page contains one idea or aspect relevant to the theme of the chapter. All pages, with only a few exceptions, have a caption at the top and an inspirational message at the bottom. (E.g: top: "The aim of the Alexander Technique is full stature. You can learn full stature!"; bottom: "If you already play at full stature, receive a TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE!") Graphics are liberally used throughout the book to explain anatomical/functional details and to help one visualize the various concepts being introduced.

The basic idea of the book is that an accurate body map, i.e. one's self-representation of one's body, tends to facilitate good movement and, vice versa, movement based on an inaccurate body map will tend to be inefficient and injury-prone. There is a lot of very useful structural and functional information about muscles, joints, movement of bodysegments relative to each other and how all this relates to playing music in general or to specific problems typical of certain instruments. For this alone it is worth buying the book, especially if you teach musicians.

As far as the Alexander Technique is concerned, I find the book very unsatisfactory. The only concept of the Technique mentioned is the 'primary control':

"If the mind is the felt perception of what the brain does, and the self is the felt perception of what the body does, then, the primary control is the felt perception, within the self, of the postural reflexes (...). F.M. Alexander discovered that dynamic support for voluntary movement depends on a dynamic, uncompromised relationship between the head and the spine, and upon the preservation (or restoration) of the natural lengthening and gathering of the spine, thus, the 'primary' of primary control."

In the context of introducing the Alexander Technique we have here:
(a) a separation between mind and body;
(b) a use of the term 'self' which is diametrically different to how F.M. used it;
(c) the primary control being reduced to postural reflexes instead of being related to the use of the self as a whole, and to top it all:
(d) the introduction of a 'primary' of primary control!

There is no mentioning of inhibition, direction, use, nor of any other concept pertinent to the Alexander Technique.

This book leaves me with mixed feelings. The concept of the body map and the structural/functional information given as a means-whereby to correct and improve it, is helpful, especially in its application to making music. Although the body map and the Alexander Technique feature in equal prominence on the cover it becomes obvious when studying this book that for the author the body map is the all important governing principle and the primary control (a fundamental concept of the Alexander Technique) is just one amongst a variety of helpful ways to make one's body map more accurate. Reliable sensory appreciation (part of which is an accurate body map) is, however, but a stepping stone for developing good use.