This week, I’m getting ready for a trip to the Netherlands, where I’ll be presenting a session called Feldenkrais in Practice at the ESTA (European String Teachers Association) conference. Each year, ESTA chooses a theme—and this time, it aligns beautifully with the Feldenkrais approach: From the Inside – Out.
My presentation is based on a 4-week course I developed last year as part of a research study with Marina from Lübeck University. Together, we designed a course focused on Improving Awareness, to see whether it could help upper string players reduce pain and feel more freedom in their playing.
Each weekday, Monday through Friday, I created a short, 10-minute movement sequence. These were intended to be done either as part of a practice session or at any convenient time during the day. We chose 10 minutes as a manageable length: long enough to be meaningful, but short enough that players wouldn’t feel overwhelmed adding it to their daily routine. (Saturday and Sunday were left free for rest or catching up.)
We also thought that four weeks might be a realistic length: long enough for people to start feeling the benefits, but not so long that they’d give up halfway through. A while back, I created #100 Days of Practice with some international colleagues, and honestly… it was a bit too ambitious. Over 800 people signed up, but only the determined hardcore made it to the end!
I was genuinely curious about the results. It felt refreshing to explore an idea without being attached to a specific outcome. Normally, Feldenkrais sessions run 45 minutes to an hour, allowing the nervous system time to settle and explore sensation more deeply. But for many musicians, especially those unfamiliar with Feldenkrais, that’s a big time commitment. We wanted to create something accessible: short enough to complete, but meaningful enough to make an impact.
We had 250 people sign up, and around 50 completed the final questionnaire—a response rate that, I later learned, is typical for studies like this.
The biggest challenge? Condensing the lessons into just 10 minutes a day. It was tough to decide what to include and what to leave out – there was so much more I would have liked to explore!
Unfortunately, only I was accepted to present at ESTA, so Marina won’t be joining me. I was hoping we could offer both perspectives from the study, but I’ll do my best to represent our work clearly.
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 