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
Is singing a piece very slowly, below tempo, a form of making mistakes? This is what many singers believe, and most singers believe mistakes should be avoided at all costs. I’ve found that almost all singers believe that a mistake made is a mistake learned. This is the central belief of singers that makes for fear based singing. “Thou shalt avoid mistakes at all costs!
I do not believe a mistake made, and recognized as such as it is being sung is a wrong note learned, unless this is believed. What we believe, true or not, is self-fulfilling. In other words, if you believe every mistake made is learned, you will make that same mistake over and over again to prove you are right. Humans love to be right!
So, if you accept that a missed note sung that is recognized is not a mistake learned, then slow practice is not singing a whole piece wrong.
What is the physical difference between singing slowly and quickly? I ask a singer to sing a two octave scale and to do so very slowly, and to pay close attention to the diaphragm and support. I ask him to really experience how little torso muscle it takes to create support as he sustains the singing of each note in the scale very slowly, ascending and descending nonstop. As he continues to sing the scale, I ask him to gradually pick up the tempo, continuing to pay close attention to how the torso support changes or doesn’t change. I ask him to get faster and faster until she is going as fast as she can.
I then stop him, and ask him if he was able to feel the place where “slow” singing became “fast” singing, and what the difference is. When he says no, then we do this a few more times, seeing if he can figure out the difference between the two. So far, no singer has come up with the answer on his own.
Here is the answer. At a certain tempo, as he speeds up, as the singer continues to get faster and faster, he may increase the tension of the torso’s support. This isn’t necessary. So, you want to consciously do the minimum necessary with the torso musculature with high dynamic for support, whether you’re singing very slow or very fast.
If your singing technique does break down, then what are you doing wrong? You may discover your technique has flaws in it that even the right amount of support can’t solve, so you need to troubleshoot your singing technique by yourself, with a singing teacher, with an Alexander Technique teacher or all three. So, perform with love and an accurate sense of what it really takes to physically sing, and who knows how good you’ll become.
