Professional athletes have to worry about the states of their bodies for obvious reasons. If their muscles aren’t in tiptop shape, they may lose their ability to excel at their sports and may be out of a career.

But athletes aren’t the only ones who need to know how their bodies work. Performers, musicians in particular, have to know about how their bodies function for reasons most may not suspect.

Janet Alcorn, associate professor of voice at Iowa State, will give advice for musical performers at a seminar today at Music Hall.

“Musicians move for a living,” Alcorn said. “Singers, clarinetists, organists and violinists all move for a living.”

They may not run races across the stage or do back flips over the piano, but they do have to walk to their place on the stage with good stage presence, and this is no small task.

“The first impression one gives as a performer is very important,” Alcorn said. “If there’s any awkwardness in the way a person is first seen, [the performer] has a less than positive impression.”

Another thing musicians have to worry about is any strain in their necks, which may result from nervousness. When neck muscles are tensed, Alcorn said, the rest of the body may be affected.

Alcorn was introduced to these concepts which are part of the “Alexander technique,” when she was singing and auditioning in Europe.

F.M. Alexander, an actor who lived in the early part of the 19th century, invented these concepts as a result of problems he was having with his voice.

“He spent three years experimenting on himself and discovered many of these principles,” Alcorn said.

Intrigued by Alexander’s ideas, Alcorn decided to take a faculty leave in spring of 1998 to study the method and learn how to teach it to large groups of people.

Alcorn went to Ohio State University where Barbara Conable, author of “What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body” and “How to Learn the Alexander Technique,” was teaching others how to teach the course.

After traveling with Conable to different parts of the country to observe her teaching the course and preparing a mock seminar for Conable to watch, Alcorn was given permission to teach the method.

“I was the third person in the United States to be certified to teach the course,” Alcorn noted.

Alcorn said she is excited for the opportunity to teach about her findings at her Thursday afternoon seminar, titled “What every musician needs to know about the body.”

“If we have miscommunication, we become technically limited,” Alcorn said. “That’s just an awful lot of tendonitis running around.”

Alcorn’s seminar will be held at 10 a.m. in the Music Hall Recital Hall. Prior to the seminar, there will be a cookout at the music building which is free to music majors and $3 for non-music majors.