Frank Pierce Jones was a teacher of the Alexander Technique trained by F. M. Alexander and Alexander's brother, A. R. (Albert Redden Alexander). Jones was a professor of classics at Brown University and later became a professor of psychology at Tufts University, where he conducted scientific studies of the Alexander Technique.
Jones explained how the teacher's gentle hands-on guidance is a crucial part of an Alexander Technique lesson:
“[The Alexander Technique] has great advantages in teaching. Instead of telling your pupil what he is doing wrong or even showing him (by means of video or audio playback) what he is doing or exhorting him or admonishing him to change, you give him the experience of doing it a new way and letting him judge the difference for himself.”
These new and non-habitual experiences are a reeducation for the student's neuromuscular system. Otherwise, with only verbal instruction, the student depends completely on his or her own neuromuscular system, which is conditioned and guided by tension habits, to try to change those same tension habits:
“ . . . [F. M. Alexander's] major discovery at this time was that he did not need to depend on words to instruct his students but could give them information directly through the kinesthetic sense. By using his hands he found that he could prevent a maladaptive set from developing and could give his pupil the direct conscious experience of carrying out an habitual action in a non-habitual, easier, and more efficient way. This is a way that usually seems better to the pupil so that, in Skinnerian terms, he is reinforced for changing his old habit pattern.”
