Saturday was the first day back after the long summer break for young musicians at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. It was also the first time many of them would have lessons in the Alexander Technique.

I wanted to begin sessions by giving students a sense of why the work we do together could be so valuable to them. My aim was to set the scene and start a discussion, and so I created the following image:

Balance and Ease pyramid

Those first sessions on Saturday worked a treat, with all my pairs of students (aged 11 to 19) having something to say. Like a good poem, it landed a good punch and yet sparked a number of interpretations. They also got to colour it in (the fun bit!).

In teaching the Alexander Technique to young people, I have found it essential to keep coming back to basics. I will often ask them variants of ‘What is this Technique and why are we doing it?’. I am hoping that recollection of the above image might just do a bit of the legwork for me this year.