by David Oromaner

I had the opportunity of studying the Alexander Technique at ACAT (American Center for the Alexander Technique) for one year. The Alexander Technique, developed by F.M. Alexander, is an educational process that teaches a set of skills for managing one’s mind and body towards the direction of lightness, freedom and ease.

I first learned about the technique while studying at The Drummer’s Collective in 2001. One of The Collective’s administrators (Sandra Reid) was an Alexander Teacher. During my first lesson Sandra guided me through an Alexander lie down called “Constructive rest.” This self-help tool involves lying down on a firm surface with your knees elevated (also called semi-supine) with some support under your head. This position promotes natural spinal alignment and creates an opportunity to release tension. It’s also a good moment to observe and focus on your breathing. Suffice it to say my body desperately needed this.

I continued AT lessons once every few months for around ten years, during which time I learned more about what F.M. Alexander termed “my use of self.” In 2016 I got into a car wreck. I was lucky to have escaped without any permanent body damage but I did have eight bone fractures, soft tissue damage, and severe whiplash. I decided to take my AT practice more seriously and enrolled in the health and well-being program at ACAT in New York City.

This intensive style of study gave me an opportunity to practice and study the Alexander Technique with master teachers for up to sixteen hours per week. When you are practicing good use in your body for that many hours per week, it tends to seep into your everyday use.

The program also gave me a new perspective towards my drum teaching. As private teachers we have a ton of influence over our students (especially young beginners.) We tend to teach technique focusing only on the individual parts of the body. For example, most drum instructors teach stick technique from the hands and arms without considering the rest of the body. This specific viewpoint could be limiting for many reasons. An Alexander teacher approach would take a look at the entire individual and then use the technique to re-educate movements that are needed to play the instrument (without added muscular tension) thus educating the student’s entire kinesthetic sense. For this reason, I think it’s important for students to have Alexander Technique lessons along with learning their instrument. This combination will go a long way towards avoiding any repetitive muscle injuries further down the road.

I’ve been able to incorporate the Alexander Technique into my music lessons by observing my students and giving verbal suggestions. For example, if a student is engaging muscles that aren’t needed to execute a particular drum pattern I would first make them aware of what they are doing and then ask him or her to see if they could play the pattern without engaging those muscles quite so much. I also utilize “Body Mapping,” which is a developed modality that applies anatomy to help understand and improve movement. Many of my drum students improve their use after I explain to them where their hip joints are. This new awareness could influence the way students use their bodies to drum which in time could inspire deeper exploration of their movements and kinesthetic sense.

If you’re interested in the Alexander Technique’s training methods I recommend checking out the ACAT health and well-being program in NYC. If you’re interested in learning more about the Alexander Technique I recommend checking out Body Learning by Michael Gelb. This book explains what the Alexander Technique is as well as detailing some of the technique’s basic principals.

This post originally appeared here.

DAVID OROMANER is an alumnus of The Collective School of Music in NYC and also holds a bachelor's degree from University at Albany and a Masters in Education from Touro College in New York, and is a recipient of the prestigious Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. Some of the diverse artists David has performed with include Max Bennett, Llew Matthews (Nancy Wilson), Bob Quaranta (Mongo Santamaria), Mambo NYC, Emma Larsson, PJ Loughran, and Changing Modes. David is currently recording and producing with the jazz/rock fusion trio, Outside Pedestrian. As a drum instructor David specializes in technique and coordinated body movements. David is currently studying to teach the Alexander Technique at ATTIC in Chicago, IL. David started the training course at ACAT-NYC. https://davidoromaner.com/