5 Alexander Technique Tips to Help with Your Singing Auditions

 



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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.

 

 

Head and Neck

The Head and Neck – Up the Front

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.

 

The Tongue, Part 2

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.

I Lost My Sock or Let’s Go To Ballet Class

People often ask me about the balance of the head on the spine and what it looks like. I’m always in search of a good example to share. Many of you may have already seen this video as it has been widely circulated but I think it is worth watching again as an observational exercise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

Notice how the head balances on the spine, and the head leads the body, and the legs move on the back.

As you watch notice how the little boy who is facing away from the camera keeps his head balanced so easily on his spine. You can see how aware he is of the back of his head and how it counterbalances his face.

Observe how they move their legs on their backs. When they pick up their legs it doesn’t disturb the length or width of their backs.

This is a very good example of the head leading and the body following. I noticed this especially when one of the boys squats down and comes back up to his full height with a great amount of ease.

Every time I watch the video I have a whole different idea of what they are saying. It is so amazing how they obviously know what they are talking about! Their attention span is quite amazing.

Alexander Technique on NPR

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!!!