Your voice is intricately connected with your physical and emotional health:
Provided you are basically healthy, you will feel good physically if you are using your body well (good posture) and breathing well. But if you feel stressed, your muscles tighten and your breathing becomes more shallow. This not only affects voice production but makes you feel worse in yourself. Then the worse you feel the more you tend to ‘shrink’ physically, which worsens your posture and breathing. All too easily you’re trapped in a vicious circle.
Your body language is important to the way you’re perceived by others. A confident and comfortable physical presence is a powerful factor in creating a positive impression and holding people’s attention – not only when you’re singing.
Unfortunately, most of us accumulate muscular and mental habits over time which, to some extent, narrow and twist the natural alignment of our skeleton and interfere with good posture and breathing. Many of our everyday activities in the West, such as sitting on chairs, working at a screen, lounging on the sofa, driving, carrying shopping or cycling, encourage these bad habits.
The good news is that it is possible not only to break the vicious circle but to turn it into a virtuous one, and the exercises in this course will help you do that. That is because while your posture and how you breathe are affected by how you feel, the reverse is also true. Improve your posture and breathing, and you will feel better. And as you feel better, your posture and breathing will improve more.
Good posture and breathing can be summed up in four words: do what is natural. Unfortunately, it’s easy to confuse ‘natural’ and ‘normal’. What feels right to us, because it’s normal, is often extremely unnatural, as a result of habits picked up over the years. The exercises in the following units will help you re-learn what is truly natural, which will benefit both your voice and your overall health.
‘I would struggle to finish an evening’s set, but now I can last the whole set through without damage to my voice. My improved breathing, reduced tension, and better posture have transformed my performing.’ (Gary P., blues-rock singer)
Your voice is intricately connected with your physical and emotional health:
Provided you are basically healthy, you will feel good physically if you are using your body well (good posture) and breathing well. But if you feel stressed, your muscles tighten and your breathing becomes more shallow. This not only affects voice production but makes you feel worse in yourself. Then the worse you feel the more you tend to ‘shrink’ physically, which worsens your posture and breathing. All too easily you’re trapped in a vicious circle.
Your body language is important to the way you’re perceived by others. A confident and comfortable physical presence is a powerful factor in creating a positive impression and holding people’s attention – not only when you’re singing.
Unfortunately, most of us accumulate muscular and mental habits over time which, to some extent, narrow and twist the natural alignment of our skeleton and interfere with good posture and breathing. Many of our everyday activities in the West, such as sitting on chairs, working at a screen, lounging on the sofa, driving, carrying shopping or cycling, encourage these bad habits.
The good news is that it is possible not only to break the vicious circle but to turn it into a virtuous one, and the exercises in this course will help you do that. That is because while your posture and how you breathe are affected by how you feel, the reverse is also true. Improve your posture and breathing, and you will feel better. And as you feel better, your posture and breathing will improve more.
Good posture and breathing can be summed up in four words: do what is natural. Unfortunately, it’s easy to confuse ‘natural’ and ‘normal’. What feels right to us, because it’s normal, is often extremely unnatural, as a result of habits picked up over the years. The exercises in the following units will help you re-learn what is truly natural, which will benefit both your voice and your overall health.
‘I would struggle to finish an evening’s set, but now I can last the whole set through without damage to my voice. My improved breathing, reduced tension, and better posture have transformed my performing.’ (Gary P., blues-rock singer)
