Over Breathing and The Singing Body
We would be foolish to think that there is one ‘correct’ way to breathe for singing. There never is, not even within a genre – every single body is different. My goal in working with singers is to create a system (a body) that is flexible enough to respond to the demands of the singing […]
Singers, can you feel your way through?
I read a great article talking about the importance of singers relying on feeling over hearing when it comes to performing well. Author Arden Kaywin says, But there is another kind of listening: listening to your body. Listening in this way means being present to the sensations your body—your instrument—in any given moment. It’s focused in on our […]
Singers! Less isn’t just better…less is more.
“Just because you can go 100%, should you?” “What if 80% gets you the same result, but you’ve preserved 20% of your energy?” Those questions, asked of me in a yoga therapy session several years ago when I was working to rehab my torn labrum in my hip, stopped me in my tracks. “What do […]
Six ways to add movement into your day.
Movement doesn’t have to be complex, take a long time or be difficult to make a difference! Let’s be honest. Most of us spend our days sitting, and sitting, and sitting some more. We sit so many places…* for work – at a desk or piano * to commute – on a train, a bus, […]
Why Singers need a movement practice.
One of the questions I hear most often from singers is, “Why do I need a movement practice?” My simple answer is “because every activity is a whole body activity and singing is no exception.” The slightly longer version is this: Our bodies are tensegrity structures and that means we are held together through a […]
All Bodies Are Welcome Here
The singing world, and world at large, but we’re talking voices here so we’ll stick to this niche, has a long history of discriminating against bodies that fall outside of the acceptable norm – thin (and also white and cis-gender, but I want to focus on weight here). This comes in many forms – being […]