Develop healthy practice habits at Indian Hill and at home! The study of music requires many hours of disciplined and repetitive practice. Musicians do some of the most complex and demanding physical movements of any profession. So, it’s essential that students do everything possible to prevent excess muscular tension and stress while practicing or performing.

Here at Indian Hill Music School, we support the healthy study of music by
offering the Alexander Technique, a program with a long history of helping
instrumentalists perform with less stress and the likelihood of injury. Lessons
in this technique can greatly enhance the enjoyment and fulfillment of being
a musician.

Experiencing excess tension while practicing or performing can lead to
problems like backache, stiff neck and shoulders, or in the extreme, carpal
tunnel syndrome or repetitive strain injury. Due to the pain and limitation that
these conditions cause, free coordinated movement is reduced significantly
and affects the musician adversely in all areas of life: physically, emotionally,
psychologically and spiritually.

Lessons in the Alexander Technique involve sensitive hands-on guidance and
simple conversation where students learn how to make changes in patterns of movement during practice time. They will also learn skills to reduce physical, emotional and mental tension, and fatigue during practice and performance as well as in everyday life.

Improvements are noted in:

- Coordination
- Eyesight
- Listening ability
- Posture
- Voice resonance
- Breathing
- Mental alertness
- Performance
- Creativity

A number of prominent musicians have publicly endorsed the Alexander Technique: Yehudi Menuhin, Paul McCartney, Sting, Julian Bream, James Galway and the conductor Sir Adrian Boult, to name but a few. Besides Indian Hill, you’ll find Alexander Technique instructors at many other schools, including The Boston Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York, The Royal College of Music in London, and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Indian Hill Music School has two internationally certified Alexander Technique instructors on staff, Jamee Culbertson and Sonora Rose Thomas. In addition to offering private lessons to students, Sonora and Jamee will be providing support for the IHMS faculty for students’ music lessons throughout the year. For more information or to sign up for individual instruction in the technique, call (978) 486-9524 x114.

About our IHMS Alexander Technique Instructor:

Jamee Culbertson is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and teaches musicians, performers, athletes, martial artists and people recovering from injuries. A former Board Chair of ATI (Alexander Technique International), she currently serves as Chair of the ATI Vision Mission Team. Jamee also teaches at The Ninth House Holistic Center in Arlington.