This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Singing (Singers’) Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the accurate singing technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
What is the most loving way to recover from pain and/or strain from singing? In writing this post, I’m assuming you’ve done nothing to your neck, throat, ribcage, shoulders, or body that requires surgery. There is no actual physical damage, but your musculature is making comfortable singing difficult.
Because of this pain and strain, do you stop singing until you can return to singing pain-free? Or do you use singing to heal your body, as your own form of rehabilitative therapy? I vote for using singing to rehab your body.
IF YOU HAVE CAUSED PAIN AND STRAIN TO YOUR BODY FROM SINGING, THEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG IN YOUR TECHNIQUE AND/OR POSTURE AS YOU SING. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO EVENTUALLY HAVE PAIN AND STRAIN WHEN YOU SING, BECAUSE THIS IS A GIVEN GUARANTEED OCCURRENCE WHEN YOU SING THE MOST DIFFICULT LITERATURE.
So, how do you use singing to heal your body? Before I answer this question, I want to say that using singing as the primary therapy to heal yourself is uniquely Alexandrian. It is a principle central to the Alexander Technique.
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER SEES MOST PAIN AND STRAIN WHEN YOU SING AS CAUSED BY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE. WHICH MEANS, OVER TIME YOU WILL EVENTUALLY CAUSE YOURSELF TO GET INTO PHYSICAL TROUBLE, IF YOU ARE SOLELY FOCUSED ON WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR THROAT RATHER THAN HOW EFFICIENTLY AND EFFORTLESSLY YOU CAN SING.
Now, how do you use singing to heal your body? You do what I did when I got carpal tunnel syndrome on the classical guitar. I used the guitar as an activity to find the most mechanically advantageous posture and the most mechanically advantageous technique, as I sat and practiced for hours.
Everything I had ever been taught or learned from classical guitar teachers and acquired by default on posture and technique on the guitar was questioned. I tested everything I was doing on the guitar, and if it didn’t feel balanced and powerful in my whole body when I was doing it, then I replaced what I was doing.
Let’s apply this to singing technique and posture. As you sit or stand singing, could you sit or stand the way you’re sitting or standing and sing for an hour without pain and strain and aches? If not, you’re doing something wrong. Can you sing and breathe with effortless torso support in everything you sing? If not, you’re doing something wrong. Can you sing effortlessly and powerfully with your neck staying free? If not, you’re doing something wrong.
Let me explain this “you’re doing something wrong” statement. It isn’t a statement of blame, of saying you’ve chosen to consciously do bad things when you sing. It is a statement that says because you are getting into trouble physically when you sing, it is time to take control of everything you do in your singing. Let singing be at least the one place in your life where you don’t feel off balance, don’t strain to sing well, and don’t have aches and pains.
If you are incredibly perceptive, you can do much of what I suggest alone, but it is amazing gift to yourself to have the feedback of an Alexander Technique teacher, who can easily and objectively help you find a posture and singing technique that is loyal to YOUR body.
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER NEVER LETS WHAT SHOULD WORK GET IN THE WAY OF WHAT WORKS.
