Review: Macdonald: Use of Voice

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Alexander Technique Review 8.23.15

Reviews

Macdonald, Rob

The Use of the Voice - Sensory Appreciation, Posture, Vocal Functioning and Shakespearean Text Performance

1997 hb, 170+xxii pages, 240 x 165 mm, UK, Macdonald Media. 0-9529870-0-7

In print: Macdonald Media.

1. Review by Walter Carrington

2. Review by John Nicholls

1. Review by Walter Carrington (Construtive Teaching Centre)

First published in STATNews, vol. 5, issue 17, 1997.

This book should be read by everybody concerned with the teaching of speech and drama. The Alexander Technique has now been taught for many years in Drama Schools, but mainly as a method applicable to the everyday life of the students. This book deals specifically with the problems in applying the Technique to the professional needs of the actor.

In 1996 Rob Macdonald conducted a Voice Research Project for a Master of Arts Degree in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His research involved in-depth study of three cases; and both the methods he employed and the results he obtained. He gives a detailed account of the three cases where the subjects not only benefited from the employment of the Technique in a general way but also derives significant help and benefit in the quality of their theatrical performance. Their vocal functioning and Shakespearian Text performance improved but also their awareness, their control and freedom of gesture and their ability to access truthful emotions.

The Alexander Technique grew out of voice research, an unique course of self-experiment that led one man to explore not merely certain facts concerning posture and respiration previously overlooked, but also the whole problem of conscious choice and decision, and all of those subconscious factors that influence the way that we use ourselves. Our manner of use must always be the critical consideration. But, for the actor, the self is his instrument and it is essential that he should know how to use it to the best advantage. In conversation with his father, Alexander once remarked that: “there was no difference between us and the dog or cat. When he asked me why, I replied, ‘Because we do not know how we use ourselves any more than the dog or cat knows.’” (UoS, p. 15, 1946 ed.).

It might be suggested that Alexander’s success in overcoming his vocal and respiratory problems was peculiar to himself, but the teaching of his method to others has now continued for over a hundred years and during this time it has been shown that such is not the case; indeed a great many members of the theatrical profession have benefited from it.

Rob Macdonald’s book discusses the Technique as an educational method which takes account of the importance of the postural reflexes in the overall functioning of the human organism, and he points out that freedom and efficiency of movement, and the subsequent functioning of the vocal reflexes depend on the optimum functioning of our posture.

In order to place the discussion in the context of contemporary voice teaching he considers the writings of four well-known voice teachers. He concludes that the Alexander Technique has a special contribution to make to the teaching of voice (and he demonstrates this in his case studies). He sums up the results as: “A heightened sensory consciousness of performance, a sensitivity that enables the actor to be conscious of himself, while being aware of his fellow actors and awake to the world around him.”

When I first read his original thesis, I urged that it should be shaped into a book that could be made widely available. I am delighted that this has now been done so efficiently, and so I unhesitatingly recommend it to all concerned.

2. Review by John Nicholls

First published in The Alexander Journal no. 15, 1997.

Rob Macdonald’s book began as a research project for a Master’s degree in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. The core of the book is an account of the experiences of three young actors having Alexander lessons with Rob at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he has taught for thirteen years.

The research project was intended to explore the significance of faulty sensory appreciation as a factor hitherto largely unrecognised in the teaching of voice for actors. In the process, another related issue is explored, as the introduction to the book explains:

“There is some confusion for actors in understanding the application of the Alexander Technique to acting. This confusion lies in the balancing of the experience of release that the Alexander Technique gives them, and the necessary tensions that performance demands from them, which can include extreme emotion, disability or contortion of the characters they are portraying. Lessons in the Alexander Technique give actors an improved awareness of efficient posture. However they may feel that the freer posture must be maintained and they become confused about the means whereby they can adopt the anxiety of a character in crisis. I wanted to develop practical procedures and explanations that would help the actor to unify body awareness and imaginative intention in performance. Could these experiences and explanations redefine the role that tension plays in performance, allowing the student actors to eliminate the unnecessary habitual tensions and embody the creative energy that the role requires? Can sensory appreciation and postural awareness become an integral and useful part of an actor’s performance?”

During the period that the three student actors were having their Alexander lessons they were also working on Shakespearean text, and several types of recording took place. Each actor kept a diary, relating their personal experiences during and after each lesson; Rob Macdonald kept a diary recording his observations of each student’s problems and changes from lesson to lesson; and video recordings of the actors performing the pieces they were preparing were made at different stages during the cycle of lessons. Finally each student answered a questionnaire at the end of the project.

Extracts from the diaries, and the comments of the participants on the changes shown in the video recordings make fascinating and instructive reading. I for one have never found the reality of faulty sensory appreciation and its key role in underpinning misuse come so vividly alive. The style of presenting some of this material may strike the casual browser at first as unappealing. If you just leaf through the book you will see quite a few pages of information in a tabular format, perhaps suggesting a dry academic thesis. If you can inhibit any negative reaction to this format you will find the material is enriched by having comments from a lesson placed alongside comments from a diary entry after the lesson, and relevant observations from the final questionnaire.

Around this core of the research project, the author has added further valuable chapters. There is a description of the basics of the Technique, followed by a good summary of relevant scientific literature which would be an excellent starting point for any Alexander teacher unfamiliar with the scientific background to the Technique. The relationship between use, postural mechanisms and vocal functioning is then clearly explained. And a chapter that will particularly interest voice specialists summarises books by four leading voice teachers, assessing the extent to which the problems of faulty sensory appreciation and consequent misuse are overtly recognised in their work. I personally found that reading this section made me all the more appreciative of F.M. Alexander’s genius in working out a Technique, based on observable principles of how the body works. For me this stood out in contrast to the rather piecemeal approach described in the books Rob summarises. An important part of the value of FM’s work lies in the fact that it can be passed on: new generations can be trained to understand the principles and apply and teach the Technique, so that the work is not dependent on one charismatic and intuitive individual.

As someone with no performing arts background myself, and no major personal interest in that field, I nonetheless found this book fascinating and helpful in furthering my understanding of the Alexander Technique and how to teach it. I can therefore happily recommend it to all teachers, not just those working directly with the voice.