Customer Reviews

Voice and the Alexander Technique

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Meticulous cross-indexing alone whets an appetite for this book - invaluable for any teacher of AT or Voice. Attention to detail throughout makes it an interactive workbook that invites use. A CD with musical examples and chart for non music-readers are included.
Heirich, well-known Alexander teacher, taught a voice technique class in Michigan for over 30 years, and learned that not everyone responds to the same approach. She uses whatever it takes to get her message through. I particularly like "Singing to a candle" to clarify the difference between blowing a stream of air and creating a sound wave.
The first half discusses habit, Alexander and his technique, and includes a voice primer describing skills that promote effortless effort, vitality, resonance and intelligibility throughout the vocal range. It also gives examples of postural and vocal problems including the effects of knee-locking, TMJ tension and rib cage corseting.
The interlude connects AT and voice work and includes a beautiful illustration of the "nodding place". It also invites the reader to use the later chapters (which address postural and vocal problems) to have an experience rather than just read about it, and cautions that this takes awareness of existing habits. Naturally, guidance from an Alexander teacher would be helpful here, but the following games and explorations are described with such clarity that a conscientious and motivated reader could discover a lot without a teacher - preferably with a sympathetic friend. Heirich mentions the essential feedback of an observing listener.
By getting out of our own way we can free the voice and learn the resultant sensations so we can choose and enjoy them. Heirich says the voice is one of the most habitual of our daily tools, and inarguably one of our most valuable. With thought and practice, we can change and mold it into something healthy, flexible, beautiful, and alive.

Finally someone has written it -a book that explains the Alexander Technique (AT) in a warm, generous style, and also offers simple and sophisticated integrations of AT into voice work.

This book is also a terrific introduction to bel canto singing with a foundation in voice science.

Clear textual explanations are enriched in multiple ways, making this book user-friendly for people with a variety of learning styles. There are dozens of anatomical sketches, photos of human figures in motion and diagrams. Sidebar stories of students learning the AT and achieving vocal victory abound. A few poems dot the manuscript. There are numerous "to do's" (vocal explorations) to conduct alone or with a partner. Musical exercises are written in notation with ample explanation. There is a companion CD, most helpful with its piano accompaniment. Could one have asked for more? There is even a diagram of a keyboard with note names.

One can learn neither singing nor the AT entirely from a book, but this one gives the reader ample information and suggestions that will support self study for weeks and even months.

I think this book is wonderful. I am a vocalist/performer and I teach voice. I have already ordered a copy for my student to read because the information is given in such a clear and easy to understand manner. So many voice books get convoluded when it comes to anatomy and technique but this book really trys to stay pretty straight forward. You can take or leave the visual imagery. It works for some people and not for others but don't let that stop you from adding this to your collection. I know that I will be using this book as my main teaching/practicing reference for a long time

I can highly recommend this book to all voice users and singers;and since we all use our voices, it can be recommended to everyone. The connexion between the Alexander Technique and Voice is not accidental; it was his enquiry into the causes of misuse of his voice and respiration that led Alexander to devise his Technique. That Technique has been tested and proved by scientists and professional voice users for over a hundred years. Unfortunately it requires careful individual instruction to master.
Jane Ruby Heirich, our author, received her training from the hands of two of the most experienced teachers in the U.S.A., Joan and Alex Muray, both former students of mine. I was so fortunate as to receive mine from Mr.F.Matthias Alexander himself. I think that he would not only have approved, but taken pleasure in, this handsome volume. It is the product of Mornum Time Press, the proprietor of which, Jerry Sontag, is also an experienced and skilful teacher of the Technique.

It gives me great pleasure to recommend Voice and the Alexander Technique, written by the highly regarded educator and certified Alexander teacher, Jane Ruby Heirich, to teachers and students of speech, singing and Alexander Technique.

The book's nine chapters are preceded by an introduction, which is one of several times in which she cautions that the "guidance of an Alexander teacher's hands" would be the ideal way for one without previous Alexander training to use this book, while she acknowledges that not all communities have a certified teacher. The first four chapters cover the basics of habit, a short history of F.M. Alexander and what his Technique is and what it is not, a vocal technique primer, and some common postural and vocal problems. The next four chapters apply principles of Alexander Technique via "Games and Explorations". The final chapter is a two page summary of the book. Four appendices follow: an explanation of IPA International Phonetic Alphabet), an additional Alexander exercise called hands on the back of a chair, contact information for teachers and books, and a generous glossary of musical and Alexandrian terms.

"To Do" sections in each chapter explore ways to address vocal and use problems. Use (as defined in the aforementioned glossary) is "the term Alexander used to mean how a person organizes him/herself in daily activities. He often spoke and wrote about the use of the Self in activity, meaning how one responds to a stimulus or does everything he does." The vocal (sung) "To Do" exercises, included on the CD which accompanies the book, are discussed and then played on a piano in several keys.

Voice teachers may quibble with some of the information found in the vocal primer section (Chapter 3), but most will appreciate her multi-sided approach to the art of vocal pedagogy, combining complex mechanistic and anatomical description, while also offering solutions to problems via imagery and movement. In a later chapter she states, " I will not pretend to define what is meant by all voice teachers when they uses these three terms - support, breath support or project." And to avoid Alexandrian semantic squabbles, she often gives several names for one "Alexandrian" term, for example: Alexander Lie-Down, Semi-Supine and Constructive Rest Position. I enjoyed her definition of "up". "Up" at its simplest means the direction in which the head is releasing away from the other end of the spine, the tailbone." And her discussion of the whispered ah as taught by Alexander (Pages 85-91) resulted in several rewarding practice sessions for me and therefore my students.

The book is tall and heavy which presents an Alexandrian challenge (I propped it up on two pillows), but it is this bulkiness which allows the excellent, clear illustrations by Jaye Schlesinger and other sidebars to appear on the pertinent page. These gray shaded sidebars, sprinkled throughout the book, detail stories about students of the author which are relevant to the chapter.

According to Ms. Heirich, the first factor in the process of changing a habit is that the individual must desire to change and the second is that "we must begin where we are". Reading this book is a wonderful place for either the novice or the professional to do just that. Katherine Keyes, certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, voice teacher, singer. VoicePrints-Sept.2005

As a singer, voice teacher, and Alexander Technique teacher myself, I've been hoping someone would write this book. Jane Heirich has done a great job of synthesizing the viewpoints of bel canto pedagogy and the Alexander Technique. The writing is clear and remarkably succinct (considering the breadth of issues it covers), and the book is attractive and beautifully illustrated. As editor of Alexander Technique International's journal, ExChange, I'm recommending this both to colleagues and students (even as a text for introductory voice classes). Especially with the voice, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure--good coordination allows for efficient reflex functioning of the voice in speaking and singing, and eliminates the need for "fixes" and gimmicky "techniques."

Voice and the Alexander Technique: Active Explorations for Speaking and Singing (w/CD), by Jane Heirich, Mornum Time Press

Many books have been written about the art and the science of singing. Most of them follow the medical model, that is, they deal with the actual physiology of making vocal sound. And there is no shortage of written material about the Alexander Technique-the remarkable method of aligning the body for maximum physical efficiency in any endeavor, be it singing, playing tennis, washing dishes or whatever-formulated by the Tasmanian Shakespearean actor F. M. Alexander in the late-19th century. But Jane Ruby Heirich's book, Voice and the Alexander Technique, is, as far as I know, the first to delineate the specific benefits of the Alexander Technique for those who are concerned with the quality and healthfulness of vocal sound in either spoken or sung form.
Heirich knows her business; she dispenses her excellent information with the expertise of sequence and timing that only comes from having coached hundreds of subjects in these techniques for many years. She intersperses her factual material with exercises, which she refers to as "to dos," and almost every page has a box in the margin with an anecdote pertaining to the problem at hand or a technique used for its remedy. There are many well-executed and useful illustrations, and the material, even though sophisticated and scientific in nature, is presented in the clear, easy-to-understand English similar to a do-it-yourself self-help manual. Furthermore, there is a glossary of terms, appendices with all manner of other useful information and a CD with recordings of vocal exercises recommended in the book is included.
I have only one complaint about this publication: it is hardbound, over-sized and rather expensive. So, many students who should have access to this information, will pass it up for economic reasons. Let's hope for a quicker-to-read, smaller and cheaper reprinting in paperback. Reviewed by Benton Hess, Webster, New York.

Reprinted from American Music Teacher, Volume 55, No. 1, August/September 2005, with permission of Music Teachers National Association.

As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I've read many basic and more esoteric books on the subject. This is one of the clearest and most useful I've read with the addition of emphasis on the voice. The book is fun to hold -- the colors and layout invite one in. The diagrams, explanations and explorations are unusually direct and clear. It's a unique resource for vocalists. Even though I'm not a singer, I have begun to use this book both personally and professionally, since I use my speaking voice as do others.

The best book I have found so far on the combination of Bel Canto & Alexander Techniques. A clear and precise book for the beginner to the professional singer, actor, public speaker, etc... Heirich teaches that the voice is a vehicle of human expression; vocal training should not be just about 'beautiful tone' and hitting the high notes, but about the full spectrum of human emotion.

Anyone who is interested in the human voice should own this book.

This is a fantastic resource for every singer. I am a teacher of the Alexander Technique in NYC and use Jane's book in my teaching. Many of my students are singers. I especially like the clarity of the anatomical information. I find that having a clear mental image of the anatomy goes a long way in helping a singer understand how their mind and body are connected in vocal production.

The Alexander Technique is SO helpful for singers of all styles.

Thanks to Jerry Sontag for publishing this book!

Ann Rodiger