Let's Explore...
So, why is this “so much more than just a voice lesson”? There are many many different approaches to singing. In my experiences over 35+ years, I have seen so many students whose voices have been damaged by teachers and techniques that do not allow the natural voice to emerge. Let me share some thoughts with you on what I’ve learned, and my approach in helping you to discover your natural voice.
But first... think about a few things...
What is it like to sing without fear or doubt?
What is it like to sing with trust, without interference from your “technique”
What is it like to truly sing from your heart?
Breathing and Support
We’ve all heard a lot about breathing and support, but what’s the best way to work with it? How do we utilize it in a natural, easy fashion, versus something that’s forced? Forcing air, tightening up the body, pushing, manipulating, these all cause resistance and tension.
Think about the very beginning of vocal sound... The intake of breath. Our state of mind at that moment will determine what will follow. Are we calm? Are we present? Are we trusting of the body? The idea here is that you and your voice are one. Your job is not to control or manipulate your voice, your job is to free your voice, to be one expression. There is no separation here. In singing a song, you become the song. You ARE the song. You inhabit the song and the song inhabits you.
So when you breathe in, what is your intention? Can you trust your body and your voice and allow this process to flow? I will show you how. Each new breath is a new beginning, a fresh start. It really is like a river flowing, and that’s more literal than you might think. In learning how to give your natural voice the freedom it needs, singing can become a spiritual experience, a journey to places that you didn’t anticipate. This process becomes so much more than just a voice lesson. And when you begin to breathe and sing with purity, trust and freedom, it can change your life. I have seen it time and again. You will discover yourself in many new ways as you learn to free your natural voice.
Balance, Gravity and Your Body
Almost all singers wrestle with competing tensions in their body. Your face and jaw, neck, back, stomach and diaphragm, the Root or First Chakra (aka clenching your butt), even your legs and posture.
You will need to learn how to allow your natural air flow to emerge. This usually involves un-learning years of habits that have created an almost automatic tension in many places of your body as you sing. It’s also many of the same tensions you carry throughout your day. As you learn how to allow those tensions to dissipate, and learn how to trust your body, breath and natural voice, you will also be learning ways to reduce and remove these tensions from your everyday life. So much more than just a voice lesson...
You will learn what it is like to sing with a balanced musculature, where the body and the mind are balanced along with the breath and the voice. The interfering tensions and constriction you are so used to will begin to ease as your natural voice emerges.
And then there’s gravity... How do we deal with gravity? How do we stand? What is correct alignment? Is it standing up straight and deliberate, or are there better ways to stand, more naturally aligned with allowing the voice to flow freely? What are we doing with our shoulders, the back of our neck, the base of our skull, the cervical vertebrae, what kind of pressure is being placed on them by your posture? You can learn to stand with natural balance, not fighting gravity.
Language and the Spoken Word
What purpose does language play in all of this? Think about this... What is a pure vowel? What does it sound like? What is going on in your face to make words? What is going on with your jaw? With your tongue—especially the base of the tongue—and how does that affect the sound you make? Is your sound shaped by manipulation, tension and resistance, or by the natural freedom in your voice?
In our lessons, we will explore aspects of singing and creating sound you likely have never thought about... We’ll explore what goes on throughout your pharyngeal spaces—the lifting of the palate and opening of the throat—in ways that free your natural voice from resistance. You will learn ways to allow the space for your natural voice to soar, to go where it needs to go, to create sound that is pure, that is YOU.
Think about the sound of words... Think about the sound of words as they are sung... What is their weight? Focus? Color? Registration? What does the core sound sound like? If you are not manipulating the resonance and timbre of your voice, then where does timbre, color, weight, focus and all of that come from? The whole idea of placement and projection? How do these things happen? Is it the breathing? Is it the purity of the vowels? Is it through manipulation? Or is it from a different kind of discovery of what happens when these elements align themselves properly? This is good stuff to find out!
Authenticity and Intention
Why do you want to sing?
If you are interested in exploring your natural voice, you will also be exploring all of the life stuff that goes along with it. If you are willing, the journey to your natural voice will also be a journey of self-discovery, because creating sound is one of our most basic, most primal functions as human beings—so you’d better believe it’s going to be all intertwined with many parts of your life. That’s why this is so much more than just a voice lesson!
When you align your body, emotions and mind with your voice, it is a way to tap so very directly into experiencing who you are. It’s the goal of our sessions to realize that you and your voice are one, you are the voice, you are the sound, and the more skilled you become at allowing your natural voice to emerge, the more authentic you become—and the more you have to share when you share that voice with the world.
What is your intention when you sing? Have you ever thought about that? Have you thought about singing with authenticity, with honesty—with love? And can it be felt by the listener? What experience are you sharing when you sing from your natural voice? Can your voice transform the listener? Even heal them? What IS your intention when you sing? Whether you’re alone or singing for thousands, it all comes down to the fact that your intention, your authenticity is what will be heard. By the ears and by the heart.
THIS is the journey to your Natural Voice.