Singing is a journey back - into presence.
In singing we travel back into a state, when the use of our human instrument was effortless and strong.
We have used sound in a powerful way in order to communicate before we were able to walk and articulate ourselves through words.
The use of our voice has been our means of communication before we could stand up, walk, talk, dance, mime or play theater.

Our desire to relax is connected with the anticipation that we relax our breath, our muscles into our gravity and how we perceive our gravity.
we do perceive the lying position as most relaxing,we lie down in order to sleep.

Growing up is a shift of gravity. We perceive the weight of our body differently when we stand or walk than when we are lying down. We describe our grown up life from a standing or sitting point of view. Up is where the head is and down is where we put our feet even though we still spend about a third of our life in the same position as the babies perspective of the world - which is a prone one.

What we read and learn about the singing voice, about the human instrument, are often observations that we make as we stand or describe from that standing position. but a description changes depending on the perspective of the observer. Up and down are totally different definitions depending on if we stand or lay down.

The problem of understanding the human instrument is that it requires to understand a 3 d model, one that is within us and  to understand relaxation and the use of energy- which is connected to gravity. So it is very interesting to examine the baby’s gravity and what we can learn from it for our understanding of our instrument, since we were in such great control of our voice when we needed it as a baby. And why should that basic knowledge that the baby has about using the voice in a way that is strong, and yet very organic in its use of energy, why should those aspects of the voice shift only because we are shifting our gravity and our understanding of gravity?

The shift of gravity, the act of balancing your weight from your feet up is an incredible move in the history of a person since so many problems arise from the imbalance of your body.

In my workshops i teach an experience and understanding of the voice connected to gravity points.I developed a vowel model, that makes it possible to explore energy and presence through voicework.

The voice shows you a way into your body, it reflects your presence, your use of functions, your ability to create a flow;   it is like a scan of your use of gravity . Singing is a journey back- into presence.

- direction of energetic motion
we have talked about the voice in a mechanical sense,
about the activity of the pelvis giving impulse to any
motion, the diaphragm that directs the flow of the
breath and the soft palate that controls the sound and
the shape of the vowels -
and we talked about sound as vibration.

you can experience and observe functions with a simple
exercise like gargling and you can use this exercise
to find out how far back in the head sound is being
produced and balanced (on the airflow, on the water)

not only can you gargle sounds, but you can shape them
into vowels. you gargle an ‘oooo’ and an ‘oh’ or an
‘ah’ and you can observe how the soft palate changes
its shape for each vowel.
like a juggler you can juggle water in your mouth and
the diaphragm and pelvic diaphragm serve as juggling
hands - the diaphragm serves as a source of air that
blows and juggles a sound like a ball on its top. the
pelvic diaphragm is responsible for the strength of
the flow, like a motor below the stream of air.. and
the soft palate defines the colour and shape of the
‘ball that is being juggled’.

you can hum with your teeth against a cup and you can
make some observations about sound as vibration and
the resonating space. you can observe that in order to
produce a flowing sound your body needs to be
relaxed. that energy in the sound and body can only
increase from a lower level, from a relaxation.

let’s talk about energy now.

when i am thinking about energy, thinking of it
connected to any sounds we make with our voice, i begin by focussing on the newborn baby. a baby can scream for a very long time without getting hoarse. screaming is an essential
function for the baby’s survival. there is not much
more we can do when we are babies. we sleep, we suck,
we have the grabbing reflex and we scream. Read the rest of this entry »

teaching singing is basically an oral work.
a work based on melodies and pieces of melodies.
and on listening to one’s own melodies.
singing is the tool that connects us with a very
essential function of our body, our brain.
it accesses the unconscious.
and it transforms a physical tension into a flow of
vibration, into sound.
singing and work on the voice is an emotional dialogue
with oneself,
and with the teacher.
the teacher guides this dialogue.
sometimes in a very challenging way.
the flexibility in this living communication between
teacher and student
cannot be replaced by a book. Read the rest of this entry »