For musicians who want to realise more of their potential and play with greater ease
What holds most musicians back isn’t lack of ability. It’s tension, unhelpful habits, and restriction which are often built up over years. The Alexander Technique gives you the practical skills to change these.
For singers
Singing is one of the most physically and mentally demanding things a person can do. The instrument is your whole self and this directly shapes your voice.
Jenny has worked with opera singers, music theatre performers, and singers across many other traditions. She understands the demands, the precision required, the relationship between physical ease and sound quality, and the pressures of performance.
Singers often bring pain or tension that limits their voice, a sound that’s inconsistent or feels effortful, anxiety that creates its own physical consequences, or a desire to take their art to the next level. Whatever brings someone in, Jenny works with that person. In her experience, there is almost always more room for change than the person expects and usually this happens quicker than they could have imagined.
For instrumentalists
Whatever your instrument, the way you use your whole-body shapes everything about how you play – tone, endurance, consistency, and ease under pressure. When something isn’t working, the cause is often not obvious to the instrumentalist.
Jenny has worked with orchestral players, ensemble musicians, and instrumentalists at all levels, from committed amateurs to upcoming and established professionals. Her own background spans keyboard, strings, and wind, and she brings that breadth to every lesson.
Instrumentalists come to her with many different experiences: pain or injury that has built up through years of playing, fatigue that limits practice or performance, a technique that seems to have hit a ceiling, tension that appears under pressure and performance, or simply a sense that more should be possible.
Jenny works with each individual’s unique situation. What they usually find is that there is significant room for change beyond their initial reason for seeking lessons.
Jenny has worked with orchestral players, ensemble musicians, and instrumentalists at all levels. Her own background includes keyboard, strings, and wind, and she brings that breadth to every lesson.
Why AT works differently
Most performance coaching focuses on adding – more technique, more practice, more things to do. The Alexander Technique starts somewhere different: with what’s holding the performer back and what’s causing any pain that is present.
Something is getting in the way of how you play or sing. It may not be obvious what. But when the underlying cause is identified and addressed, rather than worked around, real change becomes possible. That change shows up directly in the sound and the ease of performing.
“Working with Jenny over three years transformed how I sing and perform. I came looking for technical improvement and found something I hadn’t expected – a completely different relationship with my instrument and my body.”
Angela Clarke, Singer/Songwriter & PhD Candidate
Credentials
Jenny Thirtle has worked with musicians for over 23 years. Her clients include professional opera singers, music theatre and ensemble performers, orchestral players, including members of major orchestras, and musicians across many other traditions, as well as committed amateurs and aspiring professionals.
She came to this work as a professional opera singer, and multi-instrumentalist. That experience shapes how she works with performers. She understands the world musicians inhabit, the pressures they face, and what it actually takes to play or sing at your best.
She has taught Alexander Technique to music students at the Victorian College of the Arts and runs workshops for the Melba Opera Trust. Also, she has run workshops and workshop series for musicians at schools and Registered Training Organisations (RTOs). For over 20 years has facilitated a weekly voice and performance day at the School for F.M. Alexander Studies (Melbourne’s only Alexander Technique teacher training course).
People living with pain – If you are living with injury, chronic tension, or physical pain , the pain page speaks directly to that experience. → Transforming Pain
Ready to explore what’s possible?
Your first lesson is a chance to talk through what you’re dealing with and get a feel for the approach – with no commitment beyond that. → Contact Jenny