This is the first of several postings on practicing.  Many of us are working at refining something we already engage in or are learning something completely new and different.  In either case the process probably involves practicing (of some sort).  How one goes about getting better at something is an interesting topic. How and what one practices is very important to the outcome.

Geoff Colvin, in his recently published book “Talent is Overrated,” says deliberate practice is needed to improve any activity and he goes so far as to say that if one doesn’t continue to deliberately practice one can actually get worse at something rather than improve.

Sheer repetition of an activity is practicing of a sort but not deliberate practice.  I had one singing student tell me she warmed up while watching TV. She thought that she just needed to put in the hours and she would improve.  Such an extreme example makes it clear that she was just entrenching her habits into muscle memory without any consciousness or awareness of what she was doing.

In the Alexander Technique we learn exactly how to practice deliberately and what to practice. The Alexander Technique can address any activity at a very fundamental level. In fact, I think The Alexander Technique IS conscious deliberate practice.  The Alexander Technique gives us a process to follow that will lead us as far as we can go with our skill in an activity.  As you learn the AT you are learning to build conscious awareness of what/how you think while you are in activity.  From this awareness you learn what it means to deliberately practice in a way that focuses on the process, (Alexander would have said “the means”), rather than only on the goal.

It is my belief the whole point of the Alexander Technique, conscious awareness, and deliberate practice is to take our thoughts and actions off automatic pilot mode. Only then we can bring our habits in to our conscious awareness and make choices about how we are accomplishing very critical and essential aspects of the task at hand.

It is a skill to be able to take an action and break it down into practicable segments that will have an important effect on the outcome of an activity.  Colvin talks about deliberately practicing the parts of an activity rather than the whole activity itself. Then those parts in their “better” form will be available to you while you when you need them. A good Alexander Technique teacher will be able to help you discover the essential elements of any activity (singing, golf/tennis swing, jogging, typing, speaking) you wish to work on that will make the most difference to you. Even if the teacher isn’t proficient at your specific task, they are trained to look at fundamental elements of how you are doing what you are doing and guide you to new concepts and choices for accomplishing your task.

Let’s look at one fundamental aspect of speaking and singing: the inhale.

For the speaker or singer, the inhale, is critical to the vocal production.  If one has not deliberately addressed the inhale; being able to take air in without sucking and pulling (either through the mouth or nose) and where the air is directed on the inhale, it will make some difference to one’s singing if one focuses on pitch, consonants, vowel, and volume but probably won’t create the full desired effect. The fundamental support and airflow have to come first before phonation.

Here are some other aspects of the inhale that can be deliberately practiced.

The first step is to do a good long exhale with your best use and then as you allow the inhale:

-       Allow the sense of your body weight to go into the ground. This requires releasing your joints.

-       Keep your full body length on the inhale (no shrinking -age on the inhale). In other words stay long while the air flows down into your body.

-       Consciously direct the air in up behind your eyes and allow the air to inflate your body from the inside.

-       Sense the movement from the effects of your inhale all the way to your fingertips and toes.

-       Allow your tongue and jaw to be free and easy as you inhale. (Keep the root of the tongue easy too. Clue: The natural resting state of the tongue is higher than most people think.)

This is a good start for your inhale -- of course there are more aspects.

After you have deliberately practiced the parts of your own task, integrate the segments you practiced into your whole activity. Be conscious of allowing the whole to be different and informed by the practice you just performed.

Often students say, “this is much easier physically and much more difficult mentally.”  Ah – then they are paying attention. That is great. In the case of the speaker/singer, when the awareness is there, the sound is much freer, more resonant and easier to listen to.

First, let’s focus on the top end of the tube.

I’ve found that many students think the upper end of their “tube” or “column” is at the level of the bottom of the mouth, base of the tongue, or at the vocal folds. 

The top end of the column through which your air flows extends up into your head, behind your tongue, into your soft palate and the arch formed by the bones of your skull, behind the hard palate.  Notice the top of this arch is above where your skull balances on your spine. The top of this vault is just below the center of gravity of the head and behind part of your eye socket.

This means the air passes through your vocal fold, larynx, in the back of and behind the oral cavity on it’s way to the top of the column.  When the back of the tongue is free (and not pulling down) it helps form the front of the tube, directing the air up in to soft palate toward the vault.  

To experience the full height of your air column, allow your tongue to be in it’s natural position, (as in Alexander’s “whispered ah”) with the rounded tip of your tongue gently contacting the back of your lower teeth, and the back top corner of your tongue wide and high touching the soft palate along with the sides or back of the back upper molars.

This “oral seal” as it is called, divides your nasopharynx from your mouth creating a column of air back by your spine.  You are now breathing in and out through your nose.

The column through which your air flows extends up behind the back of your tongue with the tongue in the oral seal and toward the top of your head.

While exhaling, direct your air up toward the top of your head.  It will automatically go our your nose.

While inhaling, allow the air to come in to the top concha of your nose. This is way up nearly between your eyes.

(image used by permission; David Gorman, pg. 19.)

As you breath make sure there is no sucking, pushing or pulling the air in or out.  Let yourself find the natural suspension as you move from exhale to inhale and then inhale to exhale. Leave your tongue alone.

Please Note:

There should be no sound/noise on the inhale breathe.  If you are making sound you are constricting your throat somewhere.

The oral seal may be higher than you are used to if you habitually press our tongue down.

When you speak and sing well, this air gets caught up behind the back of the tongue, vibrates the skull and creates resonance.

Walter Carrington writes about the oral seal in his chapter on breathing on page 69 of  “Thinking Aloud.”  At the end of his explaination he says: “So there's really a nice lot to work on.” This is the beginning of what I understand the “nice lot” to be.

Begin facing your workstation with your feet flat on the floor, back long, elbows easy, and hands on your thighs.  Allow yourself to sit on your chair without anticipating the work you will be doing during the day.  Stay with yourself for a few minutes (or even a few moments) before beginning to interact with colleagues, the phone, and your computer.  

As you work with these directions from the beginning of the day, you will develop a new habit of finding ease each time you sit down.

Allow the following instructions to guide you to ease and freedom of movement.  As you release and let go, a sense of three-dimensionality will emerge.  You will find a sense of your own body weight rebounding from the floor back up through your entire system. Allow for those directions to emerge and support you from the inside of your body. (This is to say that letting go is not collapsing, slouching, or slumping.)

•       Let the muscles of your neck soften and let go.
•       Let your tongue go by contacting the base of your lower teeth with the rounded tip of your tongue in the front as the back of your tongue rises up toward your soft palate.
•       Notice as you let your tongue go your neck releases more and more.
•       Let your entire larynx release so you sense your whole voice box letting go.
•       Allow a small space between your molars in the back of your mouth.
•       Let your eyes rest in your head. 
•       See specific objects in front you and the space around you as well – use your peripheral vision.  See the space above and below you, as well as side to side.
•       Sense your head balancing on your spine.
•       Play with “yes” and “no” movements of your head from the top of your spine.
•       Allow your air to go out of your body up toward the top of your head and spring back in up into your head behind your tongue.  Repeat this several times.
•       Sense the column of air start in your head up behind your eyes, and travels through your neck and throat into your chest down to your diaphragm.  It feels like the air can go all the way to your pelvic floor.
•       Let the air turn around from your exhale to your inhale easily without any pushing or pulling.  Take the time to let the air move your body on its own time – not when your mind thinks it needs to move.
•       Notice your ribs and abdomen respond to your breathing. 
•       Let your ribs move side to side (wide) as well as front to back (deep - between your sternum and spine)
•       Let the free movement of the ribs remind you to find your length on both your exhale and inhale.
•       Allow your abdomen and pelvis to respond to your exhale and inhale. 
•       Sense movement in the back of your pelvis as well as in the front.
•       Let the chair support your body weight through your sit bones.
•       Rock your whole torso forward and back so that you can sit without any tension in the front of your hip joints.
•       Notice that you can let your legs release when you let the chair take your body weight.
•       Let your legs be in front of your back and your back be behind your legs
•       Allow your lower legs to go straight down from your knees.
•       Sense the bottoms of your feet on the floor.
•       Allow your feet to spread out and soften into your shoes.
•       As you breathe notice the width across your shoulders.
•       Keep the space between your upper arm and the side of your rib case.
•       Notice the width across your back, through the shoulders, out your elbows, through the wrist, and into your fingertips.
•       Return to your breathing and sense the inhale inflating your entire body, all the way into your hands and feet.
•       On your exhale, allow your body to remain where it is without pushing or pulling the air in or out.
•       If you wish, close your eyes for a moment, then open them while you keep your eye muscles and whole body easy.
•       Hear the sounds around you.
•       Feel your weight on the chair again.
•       Sense your entire body responding to your breath.

Now you are ready to go into your day or work session.  Notice how you can return to this state of ease between activities and each time you return to sitting at your desk or when you sit in a meeting.  Notice what pulls you out of this state of ease and choose to return to this ease as often as you can.

Listen to the Balance Arts Center Podcast for "The Daily Preparation for Working at a Desk" (about 10 min).

Download here.