{"id":2277,"date":"2018-03-29T07:25:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T07:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirstenharris.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=2277"},"modified":"2018-05-11T07:29:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T07:29:22","slug":"on-being-wiggly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=2277","title":{"rendered":"On Being Wiggly"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Being Wiggly
\n(Notes from teaching 12 \u2013 14 year olds)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Is anything in you body straight?\u2019
\n\u2018Er \u2026 No!?\u2019
\n\u2018That\u2019s right your body wiggles and spirals, curves and flows, it is living and isn\u2019t straight.<\/p>\n

Is anything in nature, the natural world, straight or is it wiggly?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s wiggly\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018How about this school?\u2019
\n\u2018This school is straight!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, people seem to enjoy constructing flat, straight buildings don\u2019t they!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018How about music, is it straight or wiggly?\u2019
\n\u2018Wiggly!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018So you are wiggly children in a flat school doing a wiggly thing, music.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s go for a wiggly walk around the room, let’s let go of your straight morning in a straight classroom on a hard chair and all the straight thinking you have been doing and enjoy a good wiggly walk.<\/p>\n

They loosen up quickly and easily!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Now what happens if you think about walking straight?\u2019<\/p>\n

Everyone slows down and stiffens straight away!<\/p>\n

\u2018Can you wiggle your walk even more? Can you keep the feel of the wiggly walk when you walk in an everyday, forward and up way?\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wiggly walk with them, talking about the body as we go. One boy want to get on the floor and demonstrates The Worm! A brilliant wave like motion though the body.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I ask them to play the piano in a wiggly way, not to worry about getting it right or what it sounds like. To give themselves wiggle room to make mistakes and have fun. To wiggle and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Result \u2013 instant amazing fluidity and ease of playing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We talk about the flow of thought to piano and piano back to person as sound, as a figure of 8, a loop, waves travelling; not a one way thing, not a linear activity from brain to hands to piano in an upright \u2018sit up straight\u2019 posture!<\/p>\n

I ask them to receive the flow of sound back, feel the actual reverberation of the piano through their hands, their spines to their ears. \u2018Aha\u2019 moments emerge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They wiggly think as they play allowing movement and it sounds great. They can all hear and feel the difference. They experiment with changing their thinking to straight thinking and them back to wiggly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now it is really easy to see when unhelpful habits emerge \u2013 thinking habits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They start to see in each other the instant connection between how they think and how the body responds and how that in turn effects the sound of their playing and can observe the changes in each other with no problem by noticing changes in sound and their level of interest in what the other is playing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They give each other great feedback \u2013<\/p>\n

\u2018Your thinking has gone straight, stop trying so hard,\u2019 one girl says to a boy, \u2018be yourself, stop performing and showing off, just be in the music. That\u2019s better, you look much more you now and it sounds much more dynamic!\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018What happened there?<\/p>\n

\u2018I was worrying about getting it right!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Is that straight thinking or wiggly thinking?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Straight!\u2019<\/p>\n

What would be a better thought?<\/p>\n

\u2018I could think that I am exploring the music, I could just have fun experimenting. I could play with the music and just enjoy it.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(We did a class last week all about the word play versus practise \u2013 they play instruments after all!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aha! He makes a connection between his creative mind that doesn\u2019t worry about not getting things right and can explore and his school mind that thinks he HAS to get things right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Great, that\u2019s wiggly thinking. Can you feel and hear the difference?\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We listen and we notice how the sound of the piano reverberates long after the music has stopped. The children notice in each other how many of them slump the moment they stop playing, as though defeated and awaiting criticism, and realise that the music hasn\u2019t stopped and stay with the travelling sound waves, their listening taking them into an easy poise as the sound becomes quieter and quieter finally fading to nothing. They let themselves receive the sound waves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now they are owning their playing and their habits!<\/p>\n

It is so unbelievably simple to teach and so effective.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A bell goes for the next class, they all react!<\/p>\n

\u2018Did you notice your reaction to the sound of the bell?\u2019 I ask.<\/p>\n

(It is a hideous jangly synthetic noise.)
\n\u2018Yes it was straight thinking wasn\u2019t it miss! We all stiffened and panicked a bit.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes the bell ringing is straight isn\u2019t it, a line to tell you the class is ended.\u00a0I think my job is to keep you wiggly as you travel through your years here at school so you can keep your music flowing, don\u2019t you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ha Ha! Yes! Bye Miss, Thank you! Have a good Easter.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you give yourself wiggle room to play in your life? And if you did, what would change?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quotes from 12 year olds on this class \u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Alexander Technique helps me to see music in a different way, and find ways to make music really fun and not just see it as work. If you look at it as work you get really bored, but since last week I\u2019ve really enjoyed playing music, because I saw it as play and not practise. I have really enjoyed sitting at the piano.\u2019 Elian<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Since Alexander Technique I\u2019ve properly enjoyed work because I started to see it positively instead of in a bad way, by opening up and thinking forward and up. It is a lot more jolly to feel what you are playing, to be in the world of music, to feel the nice sound in your heart and in your surroundings\u2019 Sid<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018If it is straight thinking then you just play and get the notes right, if it is wiggly you play it how you are feeling and get the dynamics better, you play it more emotionally.\u2019 Scott<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018When I smile and think forward and up I felt happier and could put more emotion into the music.\u2019 Amalie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(These classes are short, 25 minute, small group classes, the students have Alexander Technique every week as part of their \u2018Curriculum of Excellence.\u2019)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Being Wiggly Part 2 here<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Art work from The Daily Ease, Alexander Technique colouring story book<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

link here<\/a> to The Daily Ease book<\/p>\n

available at \u00a0www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

For media downloads on Alexander Technique www.kirstenharris.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Or check out my free creativity course link below<\/p>\n

Or subscribe for more blogs \u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Being Wiggly (Notes from teaching 12 \u2013 14 year olds)   \u2018Is anything in you body straight?\u2019 \u2018Er \u2026 No!?\u2019 \u2018That\u2019s right your body wiggles and spirals, curves and flows, it is living and isn\u2019t straight. Is anything in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,14,20,13],"tags":[116,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2277"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2348,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions\/2348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}