It has been over a month since my last post – tut tut! – time just seems to fly by. Apologies for my tardiness but life just seems to get busier every month.
I have been thinking about breathing and support this month. One of the difficulties one has as a singing teacher or choirmaster is giving advice on what is fundamentally a physical process – singing!
You hear grumpy old choir masters using phrases like “sing with head voice” or “lift your soft palate” but what does that really mean? The problem with putting it into words is that the physical sensations are hard to describe – so I prefer giving you a few practical demonstrations that hopefully will help you.
So I’ll give you a quick three point guide in how to stand (or sit) well for good singing!!
1. When standing place your feet about as far apart as your shoulders. You should be physically well balanced (and mentally for that matter but I’m not sure I can help with that). rock from side to side until you feel “well planted”. If you are sitting don’t slouch in the chair, sit up with your weight supported by your legs; in practice this means that you should sit so that you could stand straight up without moving your feet
2. Stretch your hands way up above your head and then lower your hands to your sides without moving any other part of your body. this will put all your apparatus in the right place!
3. When you breathe in, imagine you whole body filling with air, right down as far as you pelvis. The air pours in very much like water filling a glass – it comes in from the bottom up!
That’s you ready to go. We can’t stretch before each song, phrase or set at a gig but if we learn how these correct positions feel, we can replicate them in the concert environment.
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