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5 Alexander Technique Tips to Help with Your Singing Auditions

Auditions, rehearsals, and even lessons can be a time of heightened experience and awareness.  There are ways to work with the stress and anxiety of those moments that will help you perform optimally.

Following are five tips will help you stay focused and present during these moments so you have access to your best vocal technique and your intentions for communication are realized.  They will help you as you prepare for your audition and during the times you are in front of an audience.

The tips are based on the concepts of the Alexander Technique.  The Alexander Technique helps you become awareness of what you are doing mentally and physically and gives you ideas and experiences of how to cultivate your best posture, balance and breathing. Remember, the Alexander Technique is about finding the optimal tone and direction for your body, not releasing or collapsing into a puddle.

Tip #1.  Singing is a Whole Body Activity

Your whole body supports your singing so make sure you consider your entire being as you prepare and perform. It is easy to become so focused on one part that the whole is forgotten.  The goal is to be free and fluid with your entire body so the air and sound flow through your three-dimensional body and are not blocked at any point.

To find your whole body, sense the ground and your own body weight through the bottom of your feet (let your feet spread out on the floor – no gripping of the toes of arches of the feet) into the ground.  Notice that you can then sense an easy upward motion coming up from the ground through your entire body and out the top of your head.  This buoyancy comes from keeping all of your joints free and easy – from your ankles to the top of your spine (keeping all of the natural curves in your spine so your neck isn’t over straightened).  Allow this movement to happen by letting your body balance easily rather that “fixing” or “reaching” for a position or direction.

Tip #2.  Keep your Head – Neck – Tongue – Jaw Free

Now that you have your whole body in mind and in your awareness, let your head, neck, tongue, and jaw soften and release.  This does not mean to go limp, be passive or let your jaw sag (thus pulling your whole system down).

Instead, keep gently lengthening through your easy neck behind your tongue and jaw out through the top your head (no reaching or pulling on your neck) while your head balances on the top of your spine.  As you do this you will notice that it helps you find the sense of your whole body rebounding from the ground and lengthening as mentioned in Tip #1.  Let your tongue be easy and wide, and your jaw move on your skull from the joint (back by your ears) so it doesn’t disturb the balance of your head on your spine..

Through developing an awareness and conscious perception of the head- neck tongue and jaw independently you will be more aware of the whole.  And you will have a better ability to articulate your vowels and consonants.

Thinking of these directions every time you inhale will help you find your best balance and state of readiness for each phrase.  They will help you get back on track for the next phrase if you notice that something is not the way you want it to be while you are singing.

Tip #3.  Use Your Breath Well – Sing on Your Air

Use you breath to calm your body and your mind.  This is especially useful while you are in a waiting or green room.  This will help you stay with yourself in the midst of a potentially active and tense situation.

Stay long and exhale more air more than you might do normally (out toward the top of your head) and then let your air spring in above your tongue and into your entire body.  Sense the movement of your inhale all the way down to the soles of your feet while you keep your tongue easy.

The inhale will help you define your length, width, and depth and lead you to your best support.  Let the air come in above your tongue and travel all the way down to your sit bones and then into your feet, lengthening your body in two directions at once.

Start each phrase by catching the initial movement of your air as it turns around to an exhale and singing on that air.  Make sure not to blow the air or push it up through your body by squeezing your ribs.

Tip #4.  Use Your Eyes Easily

The head leads the body and the eyes often lead the head.  Allow yourself to see a specific object and see peripherally as well. Staying easy in the eyes helps you maintain your best balance (keeps you from pulling forward off your legs and even subtly leaning on the audience).  It also helps you to present yourself in a confident and assured manner.

Remember that peripheral vision is up and down as well as side to side.
Leaving your eyes easy will help you to stay in your back and find your support, again because it helps you to not lean forward.

Tip #5. Pay Attention – Stay Conscious

Stay tuned in while you are singing.  It is important to “sing” and communicate what you wish to communicate and still stay conscious (no checking out on high notes).  It can be a delicate balance between focusing on the technical things you know you need to attend to, being in character, and giving it your all.

Another way of saying this is to find a balance between the specific aspects of what you are doing and the more global overall full body awareness you need for singing.  The dance between these two things is something every performer grapples with. Everyone needs to find their own balance.

The most important thing is not to “zone out” but to “zone in” and stay conscious. Find how/when you need to focus on what.  This varies with each person. Sometimes “zoning in” feels like “zoning out” if you have been micromanaging your singing.  In any case, stay conscious and notice what happens so you can direct yourself to your best singing.

Most of all it is important to enjoy your singing and let that show to whomever is listening.

Before we return to a discussion of the tongue let’s look more closely at the head and neck relationship.  I started this discussion in the April 2009 entry entitled “Neck Free” and will expand it here.  This will inform the next discussions of the tongue.

In the Alexander work the head and neck are given a great deal of attention due to the fact that the leads the body into motion when we use ourselves well. Keeping the neck free allows the body to follow the head in lengthening, widening, and deepening  – no matter what “position” you are in.

Often, when we think of the head-neck connection, the focus is drawn to the back of the skull where the head meets the spine at the Atlanto-Occipital joint.  (AO joint)  This is very useful AND there is more to the picture.

When the anterior (front) of the neck and spine, near the tongue and larynx, are included in the discussion of the head and neck, the full neck, head, and full body begin to fill in more clearly.  In the picture below, notice that:

*  the front part of the Atlas is higher than the back part

*  there is a large vault/arch up in the skull forward and ABOVE the AO joint

*  the center of gravity of the head is well above the AO joint (forward and up away from the AO joint)

As you release the front part of your head on the spine this allows you to continue your upward direction up into the vault of the skull toward region of the center of gravity.

This knowledge and awareness allows you to play with the balance of your head on your spine in a very refined way.  Focusing on the area of the center of gravity of your skull when you direct your head gives a higher and clearer sense of what the head is, and were to direct it from.

Activity:  From a seated position, look down at your knees, allowing your head to follow your eyes as you look down.  Keep in mind to keep yourself free in the front of your AO joint and keep the upward direction going up toward the center of gravity of your head.

When you look down lengthen along both the front AND back of your spine.  This is much higher and longer than many people seem to recognize.

Big Hint:  (preview for what is to come) You can see already that if you are pulling your tongue down you are compressing the front of the spine and taking away the inner space of your skull – the very space you need to give your speaking and singing have the best vibration and resonance.

A few months ago I wrote about the tongue and all of the ways it effects the breathing and speaking. The tongue continues to reveal itself to me as a huge influence in the overall use of the body. I hope your experimentation from the previous tongue blog entry has helped you.

The Tongue, Part 2 will address a few more thoughts about the tongue and ways to improve your speaking and singing.

Consciously release any downward pressure you may be putting on your body with your tongue by letting your tongue soften and drift upwards in your mouth (especially in the back of your mouth). Notice again how this frees up your breathing and immediately gives you a sense of lightness throughout your entire body.

Reestablish an easy exhale and inhale without pushing or sucking the air in or out.  Close your lips on the inhale so you can breath in through the nose in the direction up behind the eyes and nose.

As you let the air come naturally in to your body, inflating you from the inside, you will experience the movement from your inhale up into your head, down to your pelvic floor, side to side and front to back in your torso, and in out in to your limbs.  Make sure your ribs are allowed to respond to your breathing process. The air itself and the lungs don’t extend into your pelvis or limbs but you can sense the motion from the intake of the air throughout your entire system.  Imagine the movement of the air giving you an internal massage that tones your organs.

Next, focus on the moment between your inhale and exhale (without anticipating the turn around of air or trying to control it in any way) and you will notice the breath suspends slightly before it turns around to go the other direction. Let that moment of suspension expand just a little bit and notice that your entire body can release into your directions (length, width, and depth) more when you allow the suspension to exist. The moment between your inhale and exhale can be particularly buoyant and grounded simultaneously.

Use that moment of more ease and freedom to begin your sound while speaking and singing.  Make a vowel sound of your choice starting the sound just above your high tongue in the back of your oral cavity.  The moment you are looking for may well be the moment when you feel you can’t make a sound and nothing will happen – go for that moment without squeezing the air out. The sounds will come out.

Let the air move ever so slightly behind the tongue up toward the soft palate and allow the sound to begin. Keep allowing the air to move gently up behind the tongue while you continue with the sound.  Notice that you can sustain the sound for quite awhile in this suspended state.

Some practice phrases might be:

“Hello how are you” as the “h” encourages the air to move.

“Hi”  for the same reason.

Counting to 10 or beyond as you can focus on the process rather than the content of the words.

Note:  It is not necessary to move the air that is in the bottom of the lungs up to the top of the soft palate before you start the sound.  I have found that many of us think we have to move the air that is in the lungs all the say up to the vocal cords in order to make a sound. Actually there is air in the whole tube all the time and you can use the air already in your column to produce the sound.  This is a revelation to many people and helps reduce any squeezing that may be associated with the beginning of speaking or singing.

Next we will pay attention to where your body is vibrating while you make sound.  Stay tuned.

The Alexander Technique made it on to National Public Radio. This is great. San Francisco Alexander Technique Teacher Jo Gray is featured on the program that aired this past Monday. You can hear the interview and read the text through this link.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134861319/alexander-technique-a-balm-for-back-pain

It is also posted on the AmSAT (American Society of Alexander Technique) website.

http://www.amsatonline.org/

Enjoy the interview!!!

Over the summer I worked with singers at two different summer opera programs in Germany. It was wonderful to see the immediate change in the voice as students became more and more balanced and directed in their bodies. Even small changes in their understanding and use were audible. The work was very exciting and fulfilling.

One component of vocal production is the use of the tongue. It influences the entire body and applies to all of us whether we are singing or not. The tongue is the strongest muscle in the body. If it is tight, narrow, and pulling down it is not only sitting on the larynx and vocal cords, but it is pulling the head down on your neck, restricting free breathing and actively pulling the entire body in a downward direction.

Allowing the tongue to be soft, wide, and free in the mouth takes enormous pressure off the head and neck, breathing mechanism, and thus the entire body.

To find the best use of your tongue in everyday activities, touch the rounded tip of your tongue to the bottom of your lower teeth as in Alexander’s procedure the “whispered ah”. Then let the back of your tongue drift up to touch the roof of your mouth. It is best if you can let the tongue touch the soft palate behind the back of the hard palate. This way, you can sense the back edge of the hard palate. Make sure the tongue is coming up to your head and not your head coming down to meet the tongue. At the same time let the tongue be wide so the sides of the back of the tongue touch the back of your upper teeth.

Stay easy in your jaw by keeping a small space between the upper and lower back teeth. This will help with the articulation of the tongue and jaw. They can move independently of each other and often it takes practice as to how to do this.

If you are doing this correctly you are closing off your mouth to the air and are now breathing only through your nose.

Now, keeping that seal between your soft palate and the tongue, continue breathing. Let your larynx and throat soften and hang from this point of contact. Monitor yourself so you can breathe in and out without tightening or pulling the tongue down. Your throat can also stay easy while you breathe. Pay special attention to the moments when you change direction of the breath – from the inhale to the exhale and from the exhale to the inhale. In other words there is no sucking in of the air and no pushing it out. (As you play with this you will find a natural suspension during the turn-around of the air.)

As you continue to play with this idea and then speak or sing (releasing your tongue from the contact with the soft palate and not pushing the tongue down), you will have extended the tube or column of air you are using up behind the back of the mouth. It may feel like you are closing your throat or that your tongue is too big for your mouth. That is okay. Stay with it and see what happens.

This will give you an efficient use of your air, bring you up the front of your body, give you support for your sound, and give you a lighter sense in your body while giving you more grounding.

Other good times to notice when you might be pulling your tongue down are when you:

• go up stairs
• stand up from sitting
• start to speak

Tip: If you have trouble finding the back of your hard palate run the tip or your tongue back along the roof of your mouth toward the back of your teeth. The end of the hard palate is the moment your tongue goes up toward the top of your head. Look in a mirror if you need more help locating the hard palate.

This is a big topic so more to come. Stay tuned……..

The Basics – Overview of Elements

An overview of the elements who, what, where, how, when, why, is useful so you can immediately see how you are working with your whole being. These basics will be given more attention in the following pages.

You will not learn a set of “exercises” or “postures” that you can do and then forget about for the rest of the day. You will learn a balanced way of working and an awareness that you can use for a long time and in many settings.

WHO: You–The Human Factor

The human element is the factor that is most frequently left out of the ergonomic equation. You are an integral factor in the ergonomic setup and its functioning. You could have the best, most expensive setup available and yet still have aches and pains from working at your workstation. By refining how you move and how you think about moving, you can make a difference in the outcome of your workday.

You will discover that you have more choices in how you work than you might have thought. You will find that your active participation in the process will make an enormous difference in your well-being.

WHAT: The Physical Setup

Having a setup that allows you to work optimally is extremely helpful in maintaining good health and a pain-free body.

Each of us has a unique body with our own proportions, so we need to tailor our equipment setup to fit our own needs. You may spend quite a bit of time working, so making the appropriate adjustments to your setup will substantially increase your level of comfort and productivity. The more options you have to adjust your setup, the better. The variables in a work setup include desk and chair heights as well as placement of monitor, key- board, mouse, and other objects you use frequently.

Would you ride a bicycle or drive a car that was misaligned so you had to compensate constantly just to keep the bike or car going straight down the road? Not likely. The same thing should be true at your desk. It doesn’t make sense to work in a situation that requires you to adjust and adapt constantly in ways that pull you off balance and pull your focus off your work.

WHERE: At Your Desk or Workstation

The ideas presented here are specifically related to the activities you perform at your workstation. You will learn to find ways of sitting that will help with typing, handwriting, answering the phone, working with files, and so on.

The principles presented relate to and apply to all the actions you perform throughout the day. Use your work activities and setup as a laboratory for discovering how to improve all of your activities.

HOW: Attention–Change Your Habits

You are going to learn to pay attention in a way that will change your work habits for the better. This process of learning and building awareness requires focusing on yourself. As you become aware of the various activities and stimuli that are in your sitting environment, you will be able to attend to them in a way that gives you more choice in your response. You will learn to recognize the choices you are making currently that may be detrimental and direct yourself to make new choices. Often the current choices are unconscious and need to be brought forward into your awareness. Some- times seemingly small unconscious habits have a very large effect on the outcome of your day.

Learning to pay attention to your habitual movements and patterns will not take your attention or time away from your work. You will see very shortly that even a few new ideas can result in changes in how you feel and work.

WHEN: Often

The more you pay attention to the ideas presented in this book the more quickly you will improve and discover the benefits of this new way of working. You will find that noticing what you do and giving yourself directions will become an integral and integrated part of your work routine. At first it might seem to you that you could drive yourself crazy by constantly paying attention to these ideas. If that is the case, incorporate the process slowly into your work routine. Sticking with the process at whatever pace you choose will be well worth it.

WHY: To Feel Better and Be More Productive

The freer and more balanced you are in your body, the better you think and feel. The better you think and feel the more focused you can be. And the more focused and clear you are, the more productive you will be without accumulating new tensions. As you acquire new habits you will enhance your thinking and productivity. You will find yourself on an upward spiral toward ease and lightness.

You are learning a process that helps prevent stress and injury. This is a process of refined balance and can result in new habitual ways of moving and being. It will lead you to thinking that is creative and movement that is coordinated and easy.

There IS space between all of our bones even if it is minimal space. That space, even when filled with fluid, allows for movement and cushioning between the bones. It means that bones don’t actually sit on bones – they float and balance in relation to each other. The bones are held together by the tension throughout the muscles, tendons, and ligaments – guide wires, if you will. This makes our bodies’ tensegrity systems (a la Buckminster Fuller and the geodesic dome) where the struts don’t touch each other but suspend inside the system.

Considering this model for the structure of the body is a paradigm shift for many of us. Instead of thinking of our body as bones piled up and resting on top of each other (the post and beam or stack of plates system), the body is seen as a fluid and mobile structure capable of free and easy movement.

As we consciously lengthen our bodies and allow for the spaces between our bones, we can maintain the integrity of the tensegrity system.

Entertaining this way of understanding the body can change the way you experience your body.

Try this experiment:

First, as you sit or stand, think of your bones as supporting your body by resting on each other and thus compressing your body weight into the floor – how do you sense yourself?

Now conscious allow for space between your bones. Think of space between every bone, even between the bones of your head.

Add to that the thought of your body lengthen up out through your head, rebounding from gravity, and see how you sense yourself.

This is a good way to see how much our thinking changes how we move. Working with new ideas can reveal what we have been thinking in the past. Even if those previous thoughts have been unconscious we have been functioning from those principles.

At the recent AGM (Annual General Meeting of AmSAT American Society of the Alexander Technique) Carol Boggs gave a presentation where she quoted Dr. Stephen Levin who said that “all bones are sesamoid bones.” We played with this concept during Carol’s workshop and found that it significantly changed our experience of own body and balance.

Wikipedia says that in anatomy, a sesamoid bone is a bone embedded within a tendon. Basically our tissues thin and thicken into tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Fibers from one density flow into fibers with another density or elasticity. Our structure is continuous and fluid.

We suspend, we float, and we balance AND you can experience it!!!!

The most wonderful aspect of the conference was everyone’s willingness to explore and listen with openness, curiosity and utmost respect for each others’ ideas and points of view. This created an atmosphere of exploration and support for our various areas of interest.

Most of the presenters have been living and working with the principles of the Alexander Technique for many years and their understanding of the work has permeated their entire beings. We had a lively time playing with how we are using the concepts of the AT in relationship to all the many sides of the field of dance: choreographing, teaching dance, improving our own movement and performance, etc. Everyone, presenters and participants, was generous with their teaching and learning. It was fascinating to see how working with the principles of the work lead each of us to discoveries, new awareness, and ways of thinking about our own movement, and how to communicate that to others. The AT has profoundly shaped the way we approach, see, talk about, and create movement.

The conference was a good reminder that the Alexander Technique is a Technique that is fundamental to all the various forms of movement we do, whether or not we are in the field of dance.

There is so much more to explore and to share. We plan to hold another conference again next year.

Photos of the conference are posted at www.balanceartscenter.com

You can also hear a podcast of the panel discussion “The Alexander Technique and Creativity”. The Conference schedule is still posted on the website as well.

It was extremely inspiring to see how people are utilizing the concepts and how they are creatively applying them to their own areas of interest. It was a good reminder that we all need to make the AT principles our own and that they can be applied to every aspect of our life making, each thing we do a creative act.

The Inhale

It is useful to focus on an aspect of the breathing process that is often unconscious and goes unnoticed: the inhale. A good inhale is triggered after air has been expelled from the body up and out behind the tongue. Most of us don’t breathe out enough.

Spend a few moments each day (even a breathing cycle or two will help build awareness) consciously allowing your body to provide the cues to exhale and inhale. At the top and bottom of the exhale/inhale wait (probably longer than you usually do) until you sense the internal kinesthetic signals to change the direction of the air.

Notice how you use your tongue and jaw while inhaling. Monitoring this will help keep you from sucking of gulping the air in. Make sure there is an easy space between your teeth and that your tongue is high and wide at the back of your mouth by your upper teeth. Let the tip of your tongue touch the back of your lower teeth. Let the air come up into your head, behind your nose and eyes, to come down into your lungs. The air will automatically go down into your lungs. No need to pull or suck the air down into your body.

When you can, keep your lips closed as you inhale. This will clean and warm the air.

Think of your air tube or column as coming all the way up your throat to the top of your tongue as it is high in the back of your mouth.

Cultivating a good inhale will help enhance your upward direction and help you find your three-dimensionality from the inside of your body. There is no need to feel any resistance to the air coming in. When the air is moving freely you will probably “feel” less.

When you breathe in well, you are ready to speak, sing, or exhale without doing anything extra or changing anything.

Clues:

1. If you are hearing sound on your inhale, your throat is tight!

2. There is no need to try to open your throat on the inhale!

go back to the Balance Arts Center website: www.balanceartscenter.com