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)
Primary Control is the basis of organized coordinated singing in the Alexander Technique. When a singer is singing with the most organized elegant gestures and movements possible, then the head is leading the singer’s spine into lengthening, as the torso expands from a decompressed, vertically balanced, and aligned spine.
This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you sing, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.
The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension and compression and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF A SINGER’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.
The Alexander Technique recognizes that a huge amount of wear and tear and physical pain to the singer is caused by how you sing, not by what you sing or how long you sing.
The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.
If you were to observe a 1,000 singers singing, you’d be hard put to see one singer singing with beautiful Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). What does singing without a compromised Primary Control look like?
The singer stands or sits fully upright with a completely mobile body (not trying to stand or sit straight). The singer’s neck is free and the singer is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward, which means that the singer is able to see the conductor and/or the audience, as the head continues to lead a lengthening spine upward.
This means that the singer is completely engaged in singing without being pulled downward trying to communicate with the audience or watch the conductor. This fully upward mobile posture balancing on free legs on grounded feet or the sit bones, gives the shoulders and arms of the singer a balanced torso to float on, so that the singer can effortlessly communicate with the audience.
When the singer’s shoulders are floating on a fully upright torso, then the shoulder girdle is free to float on the supported torso as the singer sings, and the shoulder girdle doesn’t have to tense up to support itself.
When the singer’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the singer is free to place all of his or her awareness on a singing technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the singer’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific singing technique of the singer can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.
WHEN THE FOUNDATION OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED, THEN THE SECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF A SPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKE SINGING, WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESS OR AS CONSISTENT AS IT COULD BE.
