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The Alexander Technique is a method of body and postural integration. Through increasing awareness and release of tension held in the body, this self-help method of postural alignment, redirects one to release old habits of tension that effect the efficiency and freedom of the voice. For the voice, the body is the instrument and needs to be related to as an integrated whole. We all cut off from awareness of our bodies for various reasons, but to sing one must come from a full awareness and responsiveness of the body to the sound one desires to make.
One of the basic maxims of the Alexander Technique is to “suggest to oneself” rather than ‘do” the action of singing or speaking. This approach is critical to using the voice effectively, because singing is reflexive. The voice responds to ideas and impulses. It is a reactor. You as the singer provide the direction and motivation for the voice to respond. The voice serves your desired expression and aural imagination. When you speak, you don’t give the voice a second thought as to whether it will respond or not.
Most of the muscles and organs involved in singing are reflexive. Reflexes such as yawning, sneezing and breathing are important preparatory sensations for singing…According to Lamperti, a bel canto voice teacher of the 19th century, singing is in itself the next reflex beyond a yawn. In some cultures one would think nothing of bursting into song as they worked or played, cried or celebrated life. We too have those moments when we’ve just got to sing. Lamperti, suggests in the book Vocal Wisdom by Earl Brown, “don’t sing unless you’d die if you didn’t.” When we think about what we’re doing as we sing rather than the thought, emotion or image we’re engaged in, the voice becomes rigid and artificially tense.
I always tell my students ‘you are not your voice’ and ‘the voice knows how to sing.’ This puts you in the driver’s seat of desire and releases the voice to respond to your intimate thoughts and feelings. The heart, the imagination, and the body work together to instigate, inspire and otherwise be oblivious to how the voice is doing.
Sarah Lopez
Copyright 2008
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