The neck direction is not like the other directions. "Head forward and up" and "back lengthen and widen" are directions for movement. "Neck free" is not.
The reason most directions are formulated as intentions for movement is probably because they have been found to work. Intentions for movement have a direct influence on the organisation of the musculoskeletal system. Any impending movement means a possible change in balance. All necessary processes will be up and running, making you prepared for the challenge, thereby creating a more dynamic condition.(1)
The directions are primarily preventive. "Head forward and up" is meant to prevent your head from going "back and down", which would tend to compress the body and make it less dynamic. "Neck free" is also preventive, maybe even more so as it is more general in nature.
If you ask somebody to think of letting their neck be "free" there is a good chance they either start wiggling the head about, or hold more on it to ensure nothing is happening in the neck. Trying to let the neck be "free" can go terribly wrong.
But it can also work wonderfully well. If you find a way of thinking that make you tense up the neck a little less, it can have a marked impact on the quality of your movements. This could take only a few minutes to learn and can happen in the beginning of the very first lesson.
Integrating the direction for the neck with the other directions could be a challenge. It is probably best to relate the neck direction to movement as well, more specifically the potential for movement. Alexander Technique teacher Schmuel Nelken put it this way:
… we allow the neck to be free – that is, we will not impose on it one movement or another, contraction or relaxation – it will be available for any possible movement (Nelken 2023, p.24).
Thinking of your "free neck" as a neck with potential for movement does make it possible to combine this idea with the head going up. Ideally, the wish for a free neck should be seamlessly part of the rest of the directions, part of the same idea of expansion, an element of a single gesture.
It takes time to get to this stage, and before the directions become integrated, allowing the neck to be free and having an intention for movement are two different modes of thinking. And thinking about two things at the same time is very often at least one thing too many.
Some teachers choose to skip the neck direction.(2)The rationale is that the head being able to move, or "going up" means you are letting the neck be free anyway. Even Alexander himself considered dropping the direction for the neck. Walter Carrington writes in his diary from 1946, published as A Time to Remember:
The most important reason is probably that it works.(4) Another reason could be tradition. It was possibly with the order for the neck to be free that the Alexander Technique began. In 1894, in his first article to be published, Alexander praises a booklet by London voice teacher Charles Hartley:
Alexander's story in The Use of the Self was of course written down with at least 35 years of hindsight, so it is not possible for us to know for sure to what degree Alexander's account is accurate. But it is not unlikely that the effect of not tensing the neck was his first step, and that Hartley led him on the way.
(6) Natural Elocution by C.S. Hartley: http://www.alextechteaching.org.uk/Natural_Elocution_Hartley[3].pdf
It takes time to get to this stage, and before the directions become integrated, allowing the neck to be free and having an intention for movement are two different modes of thinking. And thinking about two things at the same time is very often at least one thing too many.
Some teachers choose to skip the neck direction.(2)The rationale is that the head being able to move, or "going up" means you are letting the neck be free anyway. Even Alexander himself considered dropping the direction for the neck. Walter Carrington writes in his diary from 1946, published as A Time to Remember:
At tea FM said that he had, at last, decided that we must cut out in future teaching all instructions to order the neck to relax or to be free because such orders only lead to other forms of doing. If a person is stiffening the neck, the remedy is to get them to stop projecting the messages that are bringing about this condition and not to project messages to counter-act the effects of the other messages (Carrington 1996 p.59)(3)
Apparently Alexander Technique teachers did not stop instructing pupils to let their necks be free. Why is that?
The most important reason is probably that it works.(4) Another reason could be tradition. It was possibly with the order for the neck to be free that the Alexander Technique began. In 1894, in his first article to be published, Alexander praises a booklet by London voice teacher Charles Hartley:
… a little work called Natural Elocution, which all reciters and speakers should carefully "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." ("Elocution as an Accomplishment", Alexander 2022 p.3).(5)
Describing the orator's stance, Hartley says:
To produce a good voice, and to speak with ease, whether you stand or sit, the head should be erect, the muscles of the neck free, ... (Hartley n.d. p.5). (Alexander 2022 p.357)(6)
When Alexander first tried to solve his vocal problems, he found that he ' tended to:
… pull back the head, depress the larynx, and suck in breath through the mouth in such a way as to produce a gasping sound' (Alexander 2018 p.26).
He then found he could reduce these symptoms if he stopped pulling his head back, i.e. kept the neck "free". (Hartley also wrote that the head should be held erect. One could wonder if not Alexander also tried this more direct solution first).
Alexander writes in his account of the process in "The Evolution of a Technique" in The Use of the Self:
The importance of this discovery cannot be over-estimated, for through it I was led on to the further discovery of the primary control of the working of all the mechanisms of the human organism, and this marked the first important stage of my investigation (UoS 2018 p.28).
Alexander's story in The Use of the Self was of course written down with at least 35 years of hindsight, so it is not possible for us to know for sure to what degree Alexander's account is accurate. But it is not unlikely that the effect of not tensing the neck was his first step, and that Hartley led him on the way.
We all want a free neck. It is easy to forget that in the Alexander Technique a free neck is more of a means than an end in itself. If you avoid neck tension, the rest of the system is freer. Conversely, the neck can only be truly free within a well-coordinated system. Your neck can be free only to a certain extent if you are holding on to your legs, for instance.
A general awareness of the neck is helpful, both as a preparedness and for monitoring. But if your neck is already tense, it is not at all given that you can do anything about it directly. An indirect approach is best.(7)
It is also important to be pragmatic. How much one should focus on the neck itself at any given moment depends on the situation. In many situations it is probably best to keep the neck in the back of your mind and mind your head instead.(8)
Related blog posts
Notes
(1) Some Norwegian physiotherapists have made use of this fact in their treatment of anxiety. The underlying theory is that planned movements stimulates brain networks to reintegrate and work together, reducing mental "chaos". I wrote a blog article about the method in 2010, https://alexanderteknikk.blogspot.com/2010/04/balansekoden.html (sorry, Norwegian only). There have been published studies on the method in English, for instance in the European Journal of Physiotherapy: Learning oriented physiotherapy (LOP) in anxiety and depression: an 18 months multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) <https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2675380/Bratberg.pdf> [accessed 23 September 2024].
(2) Among the teachers omitting the direction for the neck is (or was) maybe most notably Marjorie Barstow:
(2) Among the teachers omitting the direction for the neck is (or was) maybe most notably Marjorie Barstow:
“If you ask [Barstow] about the neck, “for example, “she’ll say, ‘The only way to free the neck is by moving the head’ (William Conable, in Cole 2022 p.89)
According to Amanda Cole, Barstow also discarded the direction "up":
In the case of “forward,” she made sure her students understood what was meant, and in the case of “up,” she ceased using the word all together (Cole 2022 p.110).
(3) Some Alexander Technique teachers have used this quote as an argument for not giving directions at all. That is clearly a misinterpretation (or a misuse). Alexander meant the directions should be rephrased. The Carrington quote continues:
He said that the implied contradiction had worried him for a long time but, after working on Hallis this morning, he saw that it must be changed so all orders in future will be framed so as to emphasise 'non-doing' (Carrington 1996 p.59).
(4) There is some scientific evidence pointing in this direction: Proactive Selective Inhibition Targeted at the Neck Muscles: This Proximal Constraint Facilitates Learning and Regulates Global Control <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28026778/> [accessed 23 September 2024].
(5) Alexander uses the same quote in his second article, "Speech Culture and Natural Elocution", published the year after. Still enthusiastic about Hartley's work he adds the word "splendid" before "little work" (Alexander 2022 p.12). "… read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" is from The Book of Common Prayer, and Alexander's source possibly P.T. Hill's The Oratorical Trainer. See notes 3 and 7 by Jean Fischer, page 358 in Alexander 2022.
(6) Natural Elocution by C.S. Hartley: http://www.alextechteaching.org.uk/Natural_Elocution_Hartley[3].pdf
(7) Alexander seems to have had a more indirect approach to a stiff neck early in his career: He writes in Man's Supreme Inheritance:
Let us take for example the case of a man who habitually stiffens his neck in walking, sitting, or other ordinary acts of life. This is a sign that he is endeavouring to do with the muscles of his neck the work which should be performed by certain other muscles of his body, notably those of the back. Now if he is told to relax those stiffened muscles of the neck and obeys the order, this mere act of relaxation deals only with an effect, and does not quicken his consciousness of the use of the right mechanism which he should use in place of those relaxed. The desire to stiffen the neck muscles should be inhibited as a preliminary (which is not the same thing at all as a direct order to relax the muscles themselves), … (Alexander 1996, s 59).
He gives a similar example in Constructive Conscicous Control of the Individual, (Alexander 2004, s 103).
(8) This is especiall true for emotionally challenging situations. The level of neck tension will increase, and any attempt at directly “freeing” the neck will mean fighting against yourself.
Literature
Alexander, FM. (1996) Man's Supreme Inheritance. Mouritz.
Literature
Alexander, FM. (1996) Man's Supreme Inheritance. Mouritz.
Alexander, F.M. (2004). Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual. Mouritz.
Alexander, FM (2018) The Use of the Self. Orion Spring.
Alexander, FM, Fischer J.M.O ed. (2022) Articles and Lectures: Articles, Published Letters and Lectures on the F.M. Alexander Technique. Mouritz.
Carrington, Walter (1996) A Time to Remember: Personal Diary of Teaching the F.M.Alexander Technique in 1946. The Sheildrake Press.
Cole, Amanda (2022) Marjorie Barstow and the Alexander Technique: Critical Thinking in Performing Arts Pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Macdonald, Patrick. McNamara (ed) (2015) The Alexander Technique as I See It. Mouritz.
Nelken, Schmuel (2023) The Alexander Technique (3 ed.). AT-Schule, Berlin.
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