While a guitar student at the Royal College of Music in London (studying with John Williams and Carlos Bonell), he developed severe carpal tunnel syndrome and found an Alexander Technique teacher to alleviate the pain. He discovered very quickly he had been sacrificing his body striving for the perfect performance.
After receiving B.M. and M.M. degrees from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (studying guitar with Mario Abril), Ethan gave classical guitar concerts and taught the guitar.
Mr. Kind trained for three years at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (New York, NY), where he received Professional Certification credentials. Since that time he has taught the Alexander Technique as a private instructor, and classes for musicians and actors at Guilford College, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Salem College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Wake Forest University. He has also taught numerous Alexander Technique workshops.
Ethan has published articles in many journals, including Music Teacher, American Music Teacher, American String Teacher, New Mexico Light, Massage Therapy Journal, Massage and Bodywork, Yoga and Life, and Organists’ Review (September 2020). He has been published in the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Australia.
If you are interested in complete, detailed, and practical applications of the Alexander Technique principles of good posture, then an ebook dedicated to activities from playing an instrument, to running, to yoga etc. is published in a PDF format.
In addition to being an Alexander Technique teacher, author, and a former concert guitarist, Ethan has been an athlete all of his life.
Hello Ethan,
Really appreciate your collection of articles on Alexander Technique for the kindle. Please let me know more about that!
As a colleague, I wanted to fill you in on some of the other attempts to educate people about Alexander Technique that have been happening. There’s a google group: alextech that has attracted many afficionados. We’ve created a saved hashtag on Twitter that can be searched: By including “#AT4u” in any tweets you write on Twitter, others will be able to spread around whatever you say. Also, run by Robert Rickover is http://www.alexandertechnique.com – on it’s own URL: http://atblogs.wordpress.com – a collection of blogs on Alexander Technique. Of course, you could list this blog also on that site by contacting Robert.
Good work – you came up as a link on the Google feature called “What Do You Love” when I put in Alexander Technique!
Franis Engel
About a year ago I started writing these articles on the Alexander Technique. It was my intention for them to be really complete and practical. So, I didn’t write them only as an introduction to the technique, but more as a real practical application to whatever the activity is. My first Alexander Technique teacher really helped me transform my guitar technique that was ruining my left hand.
I wanted to write really complete articles, and most of them average around 13,000 words, but I didn’t want the runner or cellist or whomever to have to read a whole book to find a solution to a specific technical problem that was causing them pain. My first Alexander teacher in London really taught me how to combine the general principles of the technique with the specific technique of the guitar, and this is what I’ve done in all of these articles. This way, if a person doesn’t have access to an Alexander Technique teacher, they can still make practical changes to the parts of a technique in an activity that may be hurting them.