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)
HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING PHYSICALLY HARMFUL IN YOUR SINGING TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE? This question seems like it would be very easy to answer, even if it isn’t always easy for you to create a singing technique/posture that is benign. One answer is, when you are hurting as you sing, you are doing something wrong when you sing.
But what if you aren’t hurting, and you’re doing something wrong in your singing technique that will eventually get you in physical trouble. How do you know if this is happening?
There are two signs that hint at future physical problems. First, you can’t sing the most difficult literature that is worth singing, without a struggle, so you can’t count on your vocal cords, diaphragm, and supported torso to make it through the most difficult sections of these pieces without pain and strain. Second, you are physically exhausted on a daily basis after singing. Maybe a better word for exhausted is that your singing wearies you and your body.
If you are a singer who has sung for a very long time, and the above two things are happening in your singing on a regular basis, and you don’t have any consistent aches or pains when you sing, then you probably have not paid any attention to your struggle and weariness as you sing.
In fact they may have been with you for such a long time, that you never ever questioned whether struggling with the best vocal literature and being exhausted by it was inevitable.
STRUGGLING WITH AND BEING WEARIED BY SINGING IS NOT INEVITABLE. IT IS HOW YOU LEARNED TO SING. IT ISN’T THE NATURE OF SINGING TO HURT YOU WITH ITS GREATEST LITERATURE.
So, you have two choices here. You can hold it together doing what you’ve always done, and you may never get into physical trouble. Do you really never ever want to explore whether you have what it takes to sing the best repertoire with great ease and joy and be ecstatic at the end of a practice session?
Or do you want to preemptively take a closer look at your singing technique, posture, and body use, and discover whether the best vocal compositions are available to you?
Having said what I just said, let me back up a bit. Most singers do not question their technique and find their way to an Alexander Technique teacher, until they get into physical trouble. I can understand it. Many singers do not want to back up to almost being a beginner again, even for a short period, to solve technique problems they never knew existed or shouldn’t exist. What do I mean by “shouldn’t exist”?
I mean that after years of training with teachers you believed in, it can be very scary to accept that there may be a much better way to use your body to sing. Is confronting this fear worth it? The better question is, are you worth making the changes to how you sing, so that you can create the performances you want, without struggle and angst?
Yes! But be aware that if you live by the motto, “no strain, no gain”, then you can’t continue to live by this belief, if you pursue the holy grail of effortless singing technique you deserve.
