Suddenly Bessie blurts out:

“But how will I help all the people around me in such tension?! How can they bear it? What can I do?”

Bessie is tightening up worse than the people she is talking about!

What to do?

Welcome to group teaching, where my response to Bessie is being witnessed by 10 other people. It is no longer just Bessie than I am responding to, I need to include 10 other listeners…

“Bessie,” I say, “Just remember how lucky you are that you know something that they don’t know…”

Every week I am publishing some of the comments made in the hidden Facebook group (ATCS) with the 47 teachers and students working together on building their Alexander Technique businesses. Some of the comments are public, and the rest are in the paid area of my blog. You can join us now for less than the cost of one Alexander lesson with me a month.

Suddenly my phone is screaming at me…
Who is calling my business at this hour!?

"Hallo, BodyChance Studio.
I'm sorry, but now we are closed until—"

"Please can you help me!?!"
I think: shouldn't we do names first?

"Who is this speaking?"

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Harry."
I guess he needs to have this conversation now…

"What's the problem Harry?"

"I am in a lot of pain. I can't stand it."
Hmm, me a pain fixer? I think not.

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yes."

Think Different.

This was a hugely successful prelaunch campaign instigated by Steve Jobs to put Apple back on the map after years in the wilderness. It also sums up my approach to Group Teaching. This is not about adding another fiddle to your concert performance, this is about re-orchestration of the entire show.

As teachers have found in my Facebook coaching group, moving your 121 (one to one) people into groups does not always work out. In some cases, it’s fabulous, but in others “I miss my hands-on” is the refrain.

Why is that?

Group teaching can become your main source of income, the primary way you teach. The advantage to you is that you can leverage your time and reach a wider range of people. Does that fit with your vision?

It will demand more of you as a teacher. You have to go verbal. Using touch as a communication tool alone (i.e. “hands on”) simply won’t cut it any more. Many teachers – to their dismay – have already discovered the truth of this with a bored group of students watching another person getting in and out of the chair.

It gets crazy inside our Facebook group sometimes - there are many possibilities that awaken in the minds of those participating, and they tend to share with each other about that. I realize it is equally important that now and again we stop and take stock of what we are learning.

As a service to those who read my blog, but are not in the Facebook group as Basic Members, every now and again I am posting some of the answers I am giving to members' questions. Not all of them are here, but enough to give you some encouragement to build your Alexander Technique practise.

It was constant worry.

I don't see anything!

How can I teach in activities, when I don't notice anything to work with? These thoughts were often running through my mind as I began shifting my teaching from "Alexander-is-a-feeling" into "Alexander-is-how-you-think".

Then I realised - how ridiculous.

In 1976, when I started my training in London, I discovered that I had a choice of what I could do with a teacher: "What would you like to do today?" was asked often of me…

Trouble is, there were only two answers: chairwork or tablework. After three years, I got so bored with this, that during my final 6 months of training, I played cat and mouse with my teachers - hiding out in the kitchen, going for a little walks - so I could avoid having one of these precious "turns" that many others felt entitlement towards. No thanks.

I had a half-written blog prepared on the plane last night, but once I landed in Australia and checked our secret Facebook group (where 43 teachers share as part of the paid area of my blog) I was overwhelmed by the volume of comments to behold!

So instead of posting a blog, I decided to post answers and comments in Facebook. Then I worried that the members may not have caught my torrent of replies in the midst of a messy, scrolling Facebook page, so I decided to post them here. How original ideas are born.

I always know two hands will shoot up before I have barely finished my sentence:

"Has someone got something they want to explore with me?"

Welcome to Basil's Music ProCourse - BodyChance's Teacher Education course exclusively for musicians. This is the niche experiment at it's finest: a band of enthusiastic students intent on developing their skill by leveraging Alexander's Discovery in their playing.