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)
Most of the singers I have worked with over the years warm up. Most of them say they are not happy with how well they sing when they practice 50% of their practice time. So, three to four days out of each week most singers are not happy with how they’re singing/practicing. This means that warming up with scales, arpeggios, etc. does not work half of the time. Why?
BECAUSE MOST SINGERS PRACTICE FOCUSING ON THE ENDS OVER THE MEANS. The Alexander Technique calls this end-gaining. END-GAINING means that the singer doing his or her warm-ups is focusing only on what the singer is hearing or what the singer would like to hear, and is not taking care of him or herself.
Simply, the warm-ups are not being used as a place for the singer to bring him or herself into balance as he or she sings. They are a place to do a daily mostly unconscious RITUAL, and hope that at the end of the warm-ups that the singer will sing well. AS I SAID, MOST SINGERS DON’T SING WELL AT LEAST HALF OF THE TIME.
How does the Alexander Technique solve this problem of making warming up when singing effective? IF AT LEAST HALF OF THE TIME THE WARM-UPS AREN’T HELPING, THEN WARMING UP IS NOT EFFECTIVE!
Here is a famous definition of insanity: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over expecting different results. This seems to be what is happening to most singers. They believe that warming up before performing works, because isn’t this what everybody does? And even though it doesn’t at least half of the time, this doesn’t seem to shake most singers’ faith in warming up. They just keep warming up!
So is this faith misplaced in most singers? No! Why? If the intention of warming up is to take the singer to a place each day that they can sing with ease and grace, this intention is perfectly sane. IT IS HOW THE AVERAGE SINGER WARMS UP THAT DOESN’T WORK.
So, in an Alexander Technique session I have the singer stand or sit, and I ask the singer to sing a scale for me for a few minutes. I ask the singer what they thought. Usually I get a response telling me they are NOT HAPPY with how they are singing.
I now ask him or her to sing the scale at a very easy slow tempo. They’re usually happier with the performance. I then ask the singer to place all of their awareness on standing or sitting fully upright WITH EASE and not care how the scale sounds. They’re usually even happier with the singing. I now ask the singer to focus on releasing any unnecessary tension out the torso with support, and the singer is really beginning to like what he or she is experiencing and hearing. Why?
I’VE ALTERED THE WHOLE INTENTION OF THE WARM-UP. I’VE MADE THE WARM-UP A PLACE WHERE THE SINGER CAN CONSCIOUSLY BRING THEIR MIND AND WHOLE BODY INTO BALANCE WITH THE AID OF THE MUSIC.
Now, the warm-up is a place where the singer can fully connect to what is happening in his or her body at that very moment as he or she sings, and can consciously choose with the Alexander Technique knowledge of what a balanced poised body is in singing. The singer is now using the warm-up as a place to consistently, day after day, create physical and emotional well-being with the aid of singing.
This approach truly turns singing into something you do daily into a place where you know almost every time you sing, even if you are in a bad place, singing can be used to lovingly return you to a good place.
So, after a warm-up where you bring your whole body into coordinated poised balance as you sing, then singing can be what you do daily to make yourself happy almost every single day.
