Foundations in Singing: Notes from My 2015 MMTA Convention Presentation

Jeannine Robinett

Foundations of Singing--Session Notes

MMTA Convention June 15, 2015

Breathing, Resonance, and Vowels Basics

Breathing, resonance, and vowels form the foundation of good singing.  These are a few of the basics that we talk about early in voice lessons. This is not a comprehensive discussion of these topics and more information and exercises will be given in future lessons.  

Breathing

• Inhalation:  
• Low, deep, relaxed.  
• Shoulders stay down.  
• Expansion occurs in the front, sides, and back.  
• One of these imagery exercises might help you to feel that low breath and the openness we need in the soft palate and nose/cheekbones area.  Circle the imagination game that words best for you.  Please note: not all of these exercises work for every person.  In fact, although they may be helpful for one person, for another person, some of these images might create a higher, tighter breath.  If that happens, simply abandon the image.  
• Smell a flower (or your favorite perfume, or favorite food.  It just has to be something that smells good so you take a big whiff of it.)  
• Imagine your head is hollow.  Fill up the empty space in your head before letting the air descend down for a low breath.  
• Pretend you went to Dairy Queen for your favorite flavor of Blizzard.  They ran out of spoons, and now you have to drink your very thick Blizzard through a straw.  
• Yawn.  

• Using the air
• Classical
• Abs come in gently.  You will feel this more at the end of the phrase.  There is no reason to force them in.  Let it happen.  
• Sides of the rib cage stay as expanded as possible.  Some collapse will occur, but we want to delay it as long as possible.
• Back expands further.  
• Push against the wall to feel how your body naturally creates this.  Once you’ve found it, you can also simply push into your palm.  

Resonance

• Resonance in its simplest scientific definition is what happens when something is vibrating and causes something else to vibrate sympathetically.  
• Here’s a cool trick you can show your friends to illustrate resonance.  Play the piano without using your hands:  Using an acoustic piano, hold down the sustaining pedal (the pedal on the right) while you do a loud, energized, siren sound.  The sound waves you create, hit the strings of similar frequencies, causing them to vibrate.  
• Yes, it is possible for a singer to break glass by singing the right frequencies with enough intensity. Myth Busters even did a show about it.  
• In terms of singing, it is the process by which the very tiny sound produced at the vocal folds is changed into the sound we hear when you speak or singing.  
• Everyone already has some resonance because we can hear you.  
• When we speak of resonance for singing, we are really talking about optimal resonance that allows the volume and color of sound needed for the type of singing you are doing.  
• By changing the size, shape, and rigidity of the vocal tract (throat, mouth, nasal and sinus cavities) we can select the overtone frequencies that we want to amplify or dampen.  
• Resonance is very closely related to how we form our vowels (see below.)
• Classical
• Imagine or feel the resonance cheekbones and higher.  
• Use Harley-Davidson lip buzz (lip trills) or tongue roll to help feel this.  If you can’t do either, use an energized zzzz sound.  
• When you do 3 or more repetitions of the buzz or tongue roll, it actually tricks your body creating better resonance when you sing.  

Vowels

• The vowel is extremely important in singing because that is the part of the word that we elongate when we sing.  How we shape and place that vowel affects the kind of resonances we get.  
• Classical vowels are tall, high, open, grand, round, specific.  

Breathing, Resonance, and Vowels Part II

Breathing

Darth Vader inhalation

When you sing in performance, we do not want to hear you breathe.  However, an audible breath can be helpful in finding the feeling of a good singer breath.  

1. First do that obnoxious high breath that your teachers told you not to do.  Notice that it is tight and closed.  Notice that your shoulders probably lifted.  Notice the pitch of the sound you made.  
2. Now do a low pitched inhalation.  The lower the pitch, the lower the breath goes.  How do those two breaths feel different?  
3. Use a Darth Vader inhalation when you have a lot of time to breathe, for example, at the beginning of the song, or when you have a long interlude.  

Shush breathing

1. Place one hand over your belly button and hold one hand comfortably in front of you, palm up.  The hand on the belly button will monitor abdominal movement and the other hand will mimic that movement.  
2. As you hiss intensely (either s or sh will work), notice that the abs gently move in.  Allow the fingers of the other hand to close.
3. Release the abs and pop the hand open.  You do not need to try to inhale.  If the abs have tightened during the hiss, the release of those muscles with create and automatic inhalation.  
4. If you do not feel expansion of inhalation when you release the muscles, try step 2 again, and this time blow out all the air before you release. 
5. This is the kind of breath you want to use when you don’t have much time.  If a teacher asks for a catch breath, or lift breath, this is often what they are referring too.  

Resonance and Vowels

As we talked about before, resonance and vowels are very closely connected.  When you form the vowel correctly, you will get the resonance we are after.  When you have found the correct resonance space, the vowel color tends to correct itself. 

Classical

Yes, you do need to drop the jaw for high notes, but no matter how big the mouth opening gets, the space inside your mouth is bigger.

1. The megaphone is now inverted.  Imagine yawn space inside.  The roof of the mouth is domed.  
2. Crazy Lady is a great exercise for feeling the space inside.  

Tai Chi Breathing

This exercise is adapted from the Open Close movement common in Sun Style Tai Chi.  If is fabulous for focusing on breath, alignment, and freedom in the body.  It’s also great for building energy and dealing with performance anxiety. 

1. Hold your hands in front of your chest at about heart level.  Palms should be facing each other and fingers are up.  Sometimes it is easiest to find this position by putting the hands in prayer position.  Then you separate them to about the width of your head.  
2. As you breath in, allow the hands to follow the action of the rib cage and slowly open up, no further than shoulder width.  Bigger is not better in this exercise.  
3. As you exhale, the palms move together.  
4. Practice that inhalation and exhalation a few times.  
5. Now add the feeling of moving with resistance.  Opening the hands might feel like pulling on a giant rubber band.  Closing the hands might feel like pushing two magnets together.  
6. Continue the open close breathing for a few more breaths, focusing on this resistance.  
7. Add rising and falling through the knees with each breath.  Rise as you inhale.  Bend your knees as you exhale.  
8. After a few breaths, become aware of the crown of your head.  You should feel lifted through the crown of your head when you inhale and when you exhale.  You can think of Spocking (feeling lifted from the pointy part of your Vulcan ears) if that is easier to remember.  
9. Next, become aware of the low back, sacrum, and tail bone.  This area should remain relaxed, and when you bend, imagine your tail bone pointing to the ground.  
10. Take a few more breaths feeling the lengthening of the spine, lifting from the crown of the head and the tucking the tail bone.  
11. Check your feet. Are you staying balanced on the tripod of the foot? Is your weight equally balanced between both feet?  (See Body Mapping)
12. Now pay attention to your knees.  When you rise, see if you can find the place where the knee is straight, but not locked.  This is the position we want to find for singing. 
    

Trains and Train X 3

Vowels must be unique, distinct, and specific.  That is how we tell them apart and understand the words we are hearing.  

For good singing, vowels must also line up in a way that makes them sound similar, as if they are coming from the same place.  It is as if each vowel is a car of a train.  They can all be different like train cars can carry different cargo, but what makes it a train is that all the cars are hooked together traveling along the same tracks.  

In lessons, you heard me demonstrate the nee-nay-nah-noh-noo exercise lined up on the train tracks and with the train derailing.  

Practicing lining up your vowels.  If one feels or sounds very different from the others, play around with how lifted the vowels are and how much jaw drop you are using.  If you still can’t get them to line up, talk to me at lessons.  

The train X 3 exercise is a perfect exercise for reinforcing the basics of Breath, Resonance, and Vowels.  

1. Hiss (no pitch, just air) intensely, as if you are trying to blow out a candle on the far wall.  This reminds you how to use the breath well.  
2. Take a low, silent breath.  
3. Buzz (lip trill), tongue roll, or zzzz with the same energy.  This works both breath and resonance.  

Take a low, silent breath.  

      3.  Sing nee-nay-nah-noh-noo. (Other consonants can be substituted.  Voiced TH also works well.) Use the same     energy and intensity as on the previous two steps.  Think about keep the sound in the same place that you felt it when you buzzed.  Line up the vowels on the train tracks. 

Straws

Vocal exercises with straws can help both breath and resonance.  They also provide a therapeutic effect for tired voices.  

Part I

This video from Ingo Titze, a voice scientist explains a little about some basic exercises that you can do with the straws.  I use both coffee stirrer straws and standard drinking straws allowing students to choose whichever works best for them.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xYDvwvmBIM

1. Glides (I sometimes call these sirens).
2. Accents (or bumps).  
3. Sing a song through the straw.  (He uses “The Star-Spangled Banner”.  I often use “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”  You can also do this with any song you are currently working.  

Part II

1. Review Part I.
2. Using a small section of your song or a favorite warm-up pattern, transition from the mostly occluded opening of the straw the the full opening of an ah vowel.  
1. Straw, mini-buzz, ee through oo lips, oo, ee, ah (big and open)
3. Straw with water bottle.  

Read these articles for more information about the science of how this works and for other ideas for using the straws.  

http://www.ncvs.org/e-learning/nats-pdfs/2002_05_06.PDF

www.patwilson.com.au/Straws.pdf

www.faqs.org/periodicals/201001/1942916311.html

http://www.ncvs.org/e-learning/nats-pdfs/2002_03_04.pdf

Cyclops, Unicorn, Dolphin, Paper Trick

These imagery exercises can help students to find better resonance. Make sure the student understands that they are just imagination games and do not necessarily correspond to what is actually happening physically.  Also, some students will need one image for medium range notes and another for high notes.  They might also benefit from a combination of these.  For example, some of my students are good narwhals.  

1. Cyclops, (the X-Men character) shoots laser beams out of his eyes.  Imagine your sound coming out of your eyes.  
2. You are a unicorn.  Imagine the sound coming up and out from the horn in the middle of your forehead.  
3. You are a dolphin.  Imagine the sound coming out of the blow hole in the top of your head.  
4. Sing over the top of the paper.  Paper can be moved up and down the face to find the best resonance spot. 

Spray Paint and Laser Beams

I use a lot of imagery in my teaching.  This one is great for keeping the tone energized and free, spinning the tone, and making sure that the phrase is going somewhere.  

1. Choose your favorite color for today.  
2. Imagine that there are a couple of cans of spray paint just in front of your face.  As the sound leaves your body, it is spray painted your favorite color.  
3. Now spin the sound to the wall.  See that colored sound moving in a circular motion towards the wall.  
1. Your spin can be spiral (like a drill) or
2. rolling forward, more like a gerbil wheel.  
3. One student even likes to think of it as a time vortex from Dr. Who.

I tend to use spray paint for classical and colored laser beams for belt.  The ideas of color and sending it to the wall still apply, but I take away the circular motion for belt.  

Circles, Bubbles, and Force Fields

Like spray paint and laser beams, circles and bubbles help students to imagine filling a larger space.  

1. Imagine yourself in the center of a circle.
2. Fill that circle with sound.  
3. Gradually increase the size of the circle, still filling the entire circle.  
4. Repeat steps 1-3 this time making the circle into a 3 dimensional bubble.  
5. To help diction, imagine that the bubble is a force field that sparks when the consonants hit it.  

The book I referenced on the aging voice can be found here.

Sing Into Your Sixties... And Beyond! A manual and anthology for group and individual voice instruction by Sangeetha Rayapati

How Hard Should I Push?

Although I love teaching voice lessons, it isn't always easy and it isn't always fun.  One of the things I struggle with is knowing how much to demand of my students.  I firmly believe in teaching that emphasizes process and progress instead of just product.  I believe that my first job is teaching people, not building voices.

The school where I teach is a triple A school meaning that they emphasize excellence in arts, academics, and athletics.  Students are challenged to be the very best they can be. Many of my voice students are the stars in not just one area, but in all three of the A's. That's awesome, but it doesn't leave much time, energy, or focus for practicing for their voice lessons.  And voice lessons always seem to be at the bottom of the priority list.

I struggle with how to inspire them to practice more when I know I'm adding to a work load that is already close to impossible.  I don't want to add stress, but I want them to understand that if they want to win competitions and/or pursue music professionally they need to invest more than just the time they spend with me in lessons.

This all came to a head again this week with the lessons of three very talented students who have a competition in less than two weeks.  One is doing OK, but in an effort to improve technically has completely ignored the interpretative side of things over the last couple of weeks.  Another was exhausted and sick and not yet memorized even though the person has had the song since the summer.  The third (normally a very responsible student) just didn't show up for the last lesson and doesn't have any other lessons scheduled before the competition.  And of course because it is always about me (or so I think sometimes) I began to stress out about how I was failing these kids.  I wondered how to make them realize that they have to do more if they want to reach their goals.

Not only did I struggle with how to talk to them, I couldn't find the words to reach out to my colleagues and ask for advise.  I didn't want to look like a bad teacher.

Then another teacher reached out with a concern and in addressing her situation, I found my answer.  My teacher friend has a student dealing with depression and anxiety and asked for feedback about how she should approach things in lessons.  This was my response:

I have been the student struggling with depression and anxiety, and I have worked with several too. At my worst, music was my anchor, and if my teacher had insisted that I take a break, it would have made the situation worse.

Talking with the student and her parents is probably the best option right now. For the student that I have right now in this situation, together we decided that I will offer her performance and competition opportunities, but she gets to make the decision based on what she thinks she can handle and there is no pressure from me. I also remind her frequently that if I'm pushing her too hard in a lesson and she just needs to have a fun sing day that she can request that.

Several years ago, a student's parents sat next to me at the final choir concert of the year and made a point of thanking me for helping their child make it to graduation.

We can't be therapists, but we can support and encourage, and the healing potential of music is why I keep teaching.

As I thought about that response, I realized that I don't know all the details of everything going on the lives of my students.  With rare exceptions, I don't know who is dealing with depression or anxiety.  I don't know who is still experiencing PTSD from a past trauma.  I can't know all that, and I can't make myself responsible for everything in their lives.  But I can offer every student the options that I give to those that I know are struggling.

I've mentioned my tai chi study before.  Every tai chi class I take and every tai chi class I teach reinforces those ideals that first led made me want to teach voice lessons.  Every student comes to us with different needs and each of those students will need to discover the specifics of how singing (or tai chi) happens in their own unique body.  

In his book Teaching Tai Chi Effectively, Dr. Paul Lam says

When working with the young people, you must be well prepared and yet, very flexible.  Listen to them--with your eyes, as well as ears--and adjust as you go.

We must also listen with our hearts.  We must develop empathy and teach with compassion.

Another of my tai chi heroes, Caroline Demoise wrote this her her book, Tai Chi as a Spiritual Practice.    All you have to do to make this apply to voice lessons is substitute singing for every time she uses tai chi here.

Being interested in them as people and desiring to help them achieve their potential are quite different from having expectations about how good their tai chi should be, how far they could progress or how well they have taken advantage of the instruction they have been given.
Don't have expectations for the class.  Students will feel the pressure of your expectations, and it activates their critical voice when they are not progressing to your satisfaction.  Remember whose journey is unfolding.  It is not about you.  Class is each student's personal journey.  As the teacher, you are coaching, providing an environment for learning, giving encouragement, offering feedback and holding the space for them to unfold their potential.
As a teacher you want your student to succeed and reflect your teaching skill, but ideally your ego will take a backseat to your student's own timetable and development.  Students with incredible natural talent may have multiple priorities and may not be focused solely on tai chi, which influences the unfolding of their potential.  Means do not justify the end, and pressure and criticism are never appropriate as inducements to achieve.  Tai chi is not about competition, but about self-development.  Students who have only a little ability but who regularly show up in class, try their best, have a lot of enthusiasm for learning and feel better at the end of class are a visible demonstration of your success as a teacher.  

So how hard should I push? Maybe I don't need to push at all.  I need to give up the word should, and invite and encourage rather than setting expectations or demanding.  At this point, I think all I can do is offer opportunities and provide tools.  Each student needs to decide for himself or herself what to take and how far they want to go.  And I need to be OK with that.

Workshops

I offer my students studio classes every quarter, plus a recital at the end of the year. They also have performance opportunities like MMTA Contest and Exams, NATS, the Masterclass Day sponsored by the school, and our district Solo and Ensemble Contest. This year, I'm throwing in some new learning experiences, some covered by their quarterly tuition, and some with a small fee.  It's a trial program.  I'll see what kind of response I get and then decide if I want to continue these, modify the offerings, or drop the idea completely.

One of the advantages of offering workshops is the opportunity for me as a teacher to give informations to many students at once, instead of taking a little bit of time from everyone's lessons.  Workshops also allow us to explore more depth of the topic than I would probably take in a single lesson.

This year I will be offering 5 workshops:

• MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep (Fall session)
• MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep (January session)
• Memorization Strategies
• Dealing with Performance Anxiety
• Tai Chi and Singing

MMTA Theory and Voice Exam Prep

Last year was my first year really preparing students for MMTA Theory Exams.  I had a student take the exam the year before, but he had had extensive piano training, so we hardly had to review at all.  Last year, 3 students chose to take the theory exams, and this year, I have a few more that are interested.  I've changed my approach to warm-ups and skills work in lessons for all students so that they are getting a little exposure, and I've asked students who want to take the exams to sign up for longer lessons or extra lessons to make sure we have time to work through everything.  

I'm adding two 90 minutes theory workshops to help students review the material in a group setting.  I'll have different activities and games to help reinforce concepts in a fun way.  Students will pay a small fee for this workshop.

I'm one of those people that is continually revising, but as it stand right now, this is what the structure of the workshop will look like:

• Part I:  Review and Instruction
• Prior to the first workshop, all of the students will have had at least a short introduction to each of these terms or concepts. Many of my students have already learned these things from choir class or other music lessons.  
• Rhythm tree (whole note=two half notes, half note=two quarters, etc.)
• time signature, bar lines, measure
• Sharp, flat, natural
• bass and treble clef
• repeat signs
• tempo, dynamics, articulation (Specific terms for this test)
• intervals--visual and aural identification--use interval songs.  (Only the intervals that the exams cover.)

• Part II:  Individual Work and Tutor Stations  
• Students work in their Theory workbooks.  Worksheets will be provided for students that are taking the voice exam instead of the theory exam.
• If needed, during this time students may move to a station where one of my  advanced students can answer questions.  I will also float during this time, checking student progress and answering questions.  
• Part III:  Reinforce With Games 
• Speed drills with flashcards, reviewing note names, terms, and intervals.  The team that gets the most correct in a certain amount of time wins.  
• Bingo
• Basketball.  Every correct answer earns one shot. 

Memorization Strategies

I've presented this full workshop 5 times now, and I've also incorporated chunks of it into studio classes when I didn't have a full session of singers.  Memorization skills are essential for singers. Until you can get out of the music and really focus on what you are communicating, you can't really make music.  I am a firm believer that everyone can memorize, we just need to find the right strategies and not wait until the last minute to start the memorization process.   

Most young singers still think that the best way to memorize is just to sing the song over and over with the music in front of you just in case you forget.  My workshop explores multiple methods of memorization, employing aural, visual, kinesthetic, and analytical approaches to make memorization faster and more secure.  Several of these options actually work well in a group.  We will also take a little time for individual work with a few of the strategies.  By the end of the session, students will be fairly secure on a song that most of them see for the first time at the beginning of the workshop.  (Yes, it is a very simple folk song, but still, learning and memorizing that quickly is an accomplishment to be proud of.)

Dealing With Performance Anxiety

Because anxiety has been an issue for me, I've done a lot of reading and exploration on this topic.  Pieces of this workshop have found their way into lessons, but I haven't presented the full workshop in a few years, so it's definitely time to do it again.  One of my favorite parts of this workshop it talking about how feeling fear/anxiety and feeling excited actually cause many of the same physiological responses in the body.  We can transform our fear into energy that helps us perform well. I also cover several techniques for calming the body and mind.  And of course, I emphasize that being well prepared goes a long way towards making a performance a more enjoyable experience.  

Tai Chi and Singing

This is my newest workshop.  Although I've been bringing tai chi and qigong into voice lessons for a couple years now, I've only given one workshop on incorporating the two, and that was for the last MMTA convention.  This will be a slight variation on that, teaching students more of the depth of the movements and body alignment.  Tai chi and qigong exercises will be done as we might do them in a tai chi class, and then repeated while singing to reinforce breath and phrase shaping.  

For this year, the memorization, anxiety, and tai chi workshops will be free to all of my students.  In future years, I will offer them for a small fee and I will invite other teachers and students to attend.  All 3 workshops have enough material and depth that students could attend multiple times and still be learning new things.  

If you are interested in having me present any of these workshops to your students or your teacher group, please contact me for more information about rates and scheduling.  

A Journey into the Past, a Glimpse of the Future

I was searching my numerous binders for a document I put together in the mid-90's about what I wanted to teach voice and what that meant to me.  I thought that sharing it and comparing it to some of my recent posts would be fun.  I moved it.  It's not it the binder where it should be and I can't find it any of the others.

But, I did find two other very interesting writings, especially when viewed in light of what I just wrote about Glenda and her book.  This is also a great example of why we need to write what we think and feel.  I had forgotten the passion with which I wrote the second entry.

These first excerpts are from a document I prepared for my own use (thanks EB for the idea and encouragement) titled "Celebration of Self".  This was written in March of 1999.  I was in grad school working on a DMA in vocal performance that I didn't end up finishing.

I AM A SINGER
Sing--vi.  1a.  To produce musical tones by means of the voice  b.  to utter words in musical tones and with musical inflections and modulations
3a.  to relate or celebrate something in verse
5.  to produce musical or harmonious sounds
7.  to give information or evidence
vt. chant, intone 

When I looked up sing and singer in the dictionary and thesaurus, I was struck by how limited these definitions are.  What I do and who I am is so much more than this.   

I AM A TEACHER
Teacher--awakener, guide, one who imparts knowledge, communicator.
teacher--1.  instructor, trainer, coach, educator, pedagogue, master, tutor, professor, lector, lecturer, academian
2.  mentor, counselor, advisor, guide, explainer, expounder, interpreter, annotator
3.  informer, demonstrator, exponent, propagator
4.  exemplar, example, pattern, model, ideal, idol 

I am a teacher.  It's not just what I do, it is central to what I am.  It is my purpose.  I've always know I was a teacher, but only within the last eight years or so have I known that I need to teach singing.  My need to teach is hard to explain to most people.  I need it a much as I need food or air.  I need it as much as most of my friends need to perform.  I love singing and enjoy performing, but the real highs in my life come through teaching. Though at times it can be frustrating, it can also be energizing, invigoration, and stimulating.  Sometime teaching literally keeps me alive.  I will get out of bed to teach when I don't care enough to do anything else.  The sharing of knowledge is so exciting to me.  Sometimes, the most exciting things are the things I learn from my students.  

My last semester of grad school was fall of 1999.  I left mid-year so I could deal with some serious health issues.  I continued study with Glenda off an on for the next few years.  On October 19, 2001, I started writing again with the idea that I would do another full Celebration of Self document to see how I had grown and changed since the first.  I didn't finish it, but I did include this.

I AM A SINGER 

Last time I did a celebration of self project, I found definitions and synonyms for singing, and comment that they really didn't define every things I am and do.  But, I didn't go any further in describing who and what I really am as a singer.  As I singer, I AM A GIVER OF LIFE AND LIGHT.  I PROTECT AND NOURISH BEAUTY.  In the last couple of years, I've found that my purpose in singing.  It's not that teaching is not longer my purpose--it is a purpose--but singing is what I really need to do right now.  It is through singing that I feel completely alive.  When I looked up the word origin for perform, it said to thoroughly complete.  I think that that is what singing does for me.  It makes me feel complete and whole.  It takes me to physical, emotional, and spiritual levels that nothing else can.  It's hard working with Glenda, because I think that she still sees my desires as first a teacher and then a singer.  That's what it used to be, but not I really want to sing.  She helped awaken that in me, and I must admit sometimes I really hate her for it.  (Hate is too strong of a word, but sometimes when you're not sure you're up to fulfilling your potential, you wish that the person who helped you see it hadn't.)

Obviously, I've cycled back since then towards teacher as primary purpose and identity. My favorite phrase is that whole last paragraph is "but singing is what I really need to do right now."  I'm learning to trust my path and honor the things that are there for me as lessons I need at that moment.  I don't think I was wrong in 1999 and I don't think I was wrong in 2001.  It was right for that point in my life.  (And poor Glenda had to deal with all of it, probably never really sure where I stood.)

I'm not going to do another full Celebration of Self right now (lucky you!), but I do want to wrap this post up with where I feel like I am and where I am heading.  Way before college, I knew I wanted to be a teacher or a healer.  I just didn't know what specific thing to teach or what healing professional to pursue.  I've explored a lot of paths and none of the time there was wasted.  All of that fed into who I am right now.  And right now, I still feel like my call is that of teacher and healer.  Although the Western world often separates those 2 professions, I believe they are one and the same.  And right now, singing and tai chi are the vehicles through which I teach and heal.  Other doors are opening.  Other pathways are presenting themselves.  The goal I'm pursuing right now is that of  creating some kind of fusion of the things that mean the most to me--teaching, healing, singing, tai chi, and beauty.  They are one.  I can see it.  I'm close.  Very close.

Using Tai Chi and Qigong in the Voice Studio

I’m presenting two sessions at the MMTA convention tomorrow.  You can read about the Music Teacher’s Helper session here.  I’m also teaching a session on using tai chi and qigong in the voice studio.  I’ve had a few other people ask about it, so I thought I’d flesh out my notes a little bit and make it into a blog post.  Sorry for some of the weird formatting as this includes some copy/paste work from several other documents.  

First, I want everyone to understand that although I will provide a big list of books, articles, and videos as references, you can’t expect to learn tai chi or qigong from a book or video any more than you can learn to sing from a book or video.  You need to take the time to study with a good teacher.  

Second, I don’t use tai chi and qigong in every lesson.  Nor do I use it with every student.  It is one of many tools in my voice teacher tool kit.  

My Tai Chi Journey

I was first introduced to tai chi many years ago in a sociology class taught by Dr. Aho at Idaho State University.  As part of the class, we watched Bill Moyer’s Healing and the Mind.  I was fascinated, and for years, I kept my eyes open for a class that was affordable and fit into my schedule.  Finally, in the fall of 2009, I saw a listing in the Community Education catalog for a class that seemed like it would work for me.  

I started class in January of 2010 and fell in love with tai chi.  For the first time in my life, I could do something well that required physical coordination.  A classmate even commented that I looked graceful.  The teaching philosophy of the Tai Chi For Health programs is one that works beautifully for me, and for many other people too.  It allowed me to grow and progress at my own pace without the need to compete or compare myself to others.  

I was soon enrolled for 2 classes, polishing the first form I learned (Sun 31, which was later revised to become Sun 41, adding more symmetry as requested arthritis experts), and learning Yang 24.  Then I added Sun 73, and then Yang 40.  Along the way,  I’ve also studied Moving Stillness Fan Form, the Five Animal Frolics, Soaring Crane Qigong, and Radiant Lotus Qigong.  Each new form has brought more depth and understanding to my practice.  

I found my singing improving and becoming easier as I applied the principles I was learning in my tai chi classes.  I learned to free my body, allowing the voice I knew was in there to come through unimpeded.  And I learned to trust myself and listen to what my body was trying to tell me.  

In February 2012, I took my first Teacher Certification Course.  It really was a momentous occasion for me.  You can read about it here.  One of the things that really impressed me about the course is that it wasn't just about how to do the form correctly.  It was about successful teaching strategies.  I learned new things and we also covered several ideas that were already part of my own teaching philosophy.  Although I didn't immediately start teaching tai chi classes of my own, those ideas made their way back into my voice teaching.  

Using Teaching Hints from the Tai Chi for Health Programs to Improve Voice Instruction

• Always be comfortable
  If it hurts, don't do it. If it doesn't feel good, it's not right yet. Teach body awareness.
  Rest when you need to. 
• Step-wise Progressive Method.  Watch Me. Follow Me. Show Me.
  Work in small sections using frequent repetitions. Students need models. Have them listen to professional recordings. Demonstrate the change you want them to make in the sound.  Sing along with them and then ask what they hear or feel differently when you are with them.  Ask them if they have questions.  
• Revise instead of correct.  Keep it positive. Phrase refinements positively.  (Avoid don’t and not statements).
  Ask the student to do it another way and compare how it feels and sounds--weird, strange, different are acceptable answers. Some students may even say that it feels totally opposite of what they have always done. (And they are right.)
• Pace. Give time for breaks.
  For some students, this means stopping to talk about interpretation. First of all, you need to do that anyway, and if you can do it when they need a little bit of a vocal rest, it's even better.
• Sandwich
  Make sure that you are complimenting as well as giving things that need revision. Starting with a compliment, then doing a small revision, and then adding another compliment builds their confidence.
• Deal with safety issues first.
  In tai chi, this means adjusting things that affect balance or that may cause joint strain. For singers, the first things we should address are the things that cause tension or strain.
• Ask students what they need help with.  Students teach you how to teach.  Listen and watch.  Ask them what it felt like.  Ask them where they have questions.
  As teachers, we could literally go on all day with things that they need to improve. If we just work our priorities, a student will go home still frustrated about something. Target their issues and then they are in a better place emotionally and vocally to address the things you want to do. Sometimes, the way they phrase their problem gives me a clue to how we need to proceed to accomplish their goals and mine. A student sang through a section one time and I complimented her on it. The second time through, it was not as good and both of us knew it. I asked what she had done differently and she said that her knees were locked the second time. That opened the door for me to once again address body alignment and we found some things that took her to a new level.
• Ask them to tell you what they were thinking about that helped it work. Some of my best ideas I have actually stolen from my students.
• The internal benefits are more important than what we see (or hear) on the outside.

What is Qigong?  What is Tai Chi? 

• Qi (most common meaning is air, life energy), Gong--exercise that requires a great deal of time in which to become proficient.   Qigong=energy practice.  
• Tai Chi is the most prominent Chinese martial art of the Internal style.  Internal styles place emphasis on breathing and the mental component of their training.
• See the links below to Eric Borreson's blog posts.  I love how clearly he defines things for new students and how he challenges those with more experience to go deeper.  

Principles of Tai Chi (as outlined in Teaching Tai Chi Effectively) 

• Outward Movement
• Make your movements slow, smooth, and continuous.  (The flowing motions of tai chi teach students about legato.  The idea of continuous air flow, or sound, or even physical movement is often difficult for young students.  By finding it first through motion, we are then better able to bring it into the sound.)
• Imagine moving against a gentle resistance...This will cultivate inner force.  (Even if you don't buy into the energy theories behind tai chi and qigong, this idea of resistance improves breath support by gently engaging the same muscles that we want to have working when we are singing well.)
• Body Structure
• Alignment.  Qi (energy) flows best in an aligned body.  (Aligned bodies allow free tone to emerge.)
• Weight transfer and balance.  (Where your weight is engages different muscles that can help or get in the way of good singing.  Many students are not even aware that they are standing almost exclusively on their heels or on the balls of their feet rather than on the full foot.) 
• Internal
• Song the joints.  Song means to loosen and relax. We often talk about song as creating space within the joints.  (When I have my singers imagine creating space within the shoulder joint/arm structure, the tension in the surrounding muscles releases.)
• Jing your mind by focusing on your movements.  Jing means mental quietness or serenity. (All singers need to learn to quiet the critics in their heads and just focus on the task at hand.)

Why use this in the voice studio?

• Slow down and deepen the breathing.
• Better alignment means better, freer singing.
• Calm nerves.
• Body/mind connection
• Legato
• Breath support

Specific Exercises and How I Use Them in a Voice Lesson 
(For this section I will be teaching each exercise and showing applications through warm-ups and songs.  I won't be defining the exercise in this blog, but if you are unfamiliar with them, feel free to contact me or check the resources at the end of the post.  Vocal warm-ups are indicated in scale degrees with _ following the longer notes. Someday I might figure out how to import stuff from Finale so I can show the actual music for the exercises.)

• Rocking 
• A great exercise for kids that can’t stand still.  This actually does calm them down.  It also teaches them to feel weight shift.  Some kids are not aware that they are moving when they sing.  By doing it consciously, they learn to feel it, and then stop it for performances.
• Open-Close (Breathing and alignment exercise that appears frequently in Sun style forms.)
• I teach this as a way to help with pre-performance jitters. This can be done with just the hands.  
• I use a full-body version with rising and falling though the knees to talk about alignment and balance.  
• I also use this to calm down and/or focus students in lessons.  
• Although I usually use it as a stand alone breathing exercise, it can also be combined with singing to help students pace the breath.  (You push the hands together slowly as if against resistance, taking a long time for the exhalation.)  
• Separating Heaven and Earth (Qigong exercise and also one of the TCA warm-ups)  
• Vocal warm-up:  Ti-ro (18_78987654321) pushing up and down for the octave jump and the highest pitch of the turn around, or bella signora (1358_531) pushing for the high note.  
• Great for high notes.  
• Also focuses on alignment.
• Song application:  In the A section of Where E'er You Walk at  "trees where you sit (long pause then the high note)...Shall" 
• Single Whip (Sun style)  
• Vocal warm-up: 1345_43421 on oo
• Song application:  I love this move for 2 part phrases like “Il tuo fedel sopira ognor” from Caro mio ben.  
• Parting Wild Horse’s Mane (Yang style) 
• Vocal warm-up:  1_23_45_31_ 2_2123_1 on oo or ah
• To keep things simple, I just do the arms on this exercise with my voice students.  In the Yang forms, it is combined with the walking pattern listed below.
• Great for creating legato in a longer phrase.  
• Great for keeping the energy going on long notes.
• Song application:  The Water is Wide--first line
• Brush Knee (Yang style) 
• Vocal warm-up: 13531 on any single vowel
• To keep things simple, I just do the arms on this exercise with my voice students.  In the Yang forms, it is combined with the walking pattern listed below.  
• Great for keeping the energy going on long notes.  
• Song application:  The Water is Wide--high phrase.
• Walking (This pattern forms the basis of the footwork for many Yang forms.)
• Learn to feel continuous motion (legato). 
• Once learned, it can also be quite meditative.  
• I do not use this with singing. 

For further exploration:

If you are interested in learning more, please contact a certified instructor.  

There are many tai chi teachers in the Twin Cities.  Two great resources are:
Linda Ebeling at www.cranetigertaichi.com
Normandale Community College Continuing Education

If you are not in MN, you can find a Tai Chi For Health instructor here.  

Beginning Tai Chi
Overcoming Arthritis by Dr. Paul Lam and Judith Horstman
Tai Chi for beginners and the 24 Forms by Dr. Paul Lam and Nancy Kaye

Teaching Tai Chi (Many of the teaching principles also apply to teaching singing.)
Teaching Tai Chi Effectively by Dr. Paul Lam with Maureen Miller
Tai Chi as Spiritual Practice by Caroline Demoise (Chapter 4 deals specifically with teaching, but I found teacher helps in other parts of the book as well.)

Qigong
http://www.naturalawareness.net/qigong.pdf  (This document gives a nice introduction to qigong and also provides basic instructions for Eight Brocades, a set of qigong exercises.)
The Way of Qigong:  The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing by Kenneth S. Cohen  (This book is wonderful, but probably more information than a beginning qigong student would need or want.)

Books Incorporating Tai Chi and/or Qigong with Singing
These authors apply the movements differently than I do, but the philosophies are similar.  
Tao of Voice:  A New East-West Approach to Transforming the Singing and speaking Voice by Stephen Chun-Tao Cheng
The Circle of Sound Voice Education:  A Contemplative Approach to Singing Through Mediation, Movement, and Vocalization by Doreen Rao with Bill Perison

Books and videos by Dr. Paul Lam are available at www.taichiproductions.com

Other Articles:

No lotus position needed: Neuroscience pushes meditation into the mainstream

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/209378341.html?page=1&c=y

What I wish I had known in the beginning by Eric Borreson

http://eric-taichi.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-i-wish-i-had-known-at-beginning.html

Seven Essential Questions about Qigong and Tai Chi by Eric Borreson

http://eric-taichi.blogspot.com/2013/04/seven-essential-questions-about-qigong.html

Relax and Loosen in Taiji by Eric Borreson
http://yang-sheng.com/?p=8401

Viewing Teaching and Learning as Sacred and Holy

I am a teacher.  It's not something I choose to do.  It's not my job.  It is who I am at the core of my being.  I teach both voice lessons and tai chi.  I love singing and doing tai chi, but even if I couldn't do them anymore, I would still be a teacher.  They are simply the disciplines that I have chosen for now to express my identity, mission, and purpose.

After teaching two tai chi classes last week, I was flying high.  Emotionally, physically, psychologically  I felt great.  Why?  Was it because I was a brilliant teacher and communicated everything clearly and flawlessly?  Was it because the students immediately caught on to everything I demonstrated and repeated it without errors?  Absolutely not.  I was not the flawless teacher and they were not the flawless students.  But we were open to each other.  I observed and listened to what they needed, and they did their best to refine their moves in the way I asked.  Maybe we weren't flawless, but we were perfect in the sense that we all brought exactly what was needed to the situation.

There is an energy connection that takes place when teachers and students bring their best to the learning situation.  As I talked with a friend about this connection, she said, "I think that teaching and learning are sacred, and when approached that way, magical things happen."  I couldn't have said it better.  Magic happened that day in class, and I've seen it hundreds of times in voice lessons.  But it's not there for every lesson, so I decided to see what I could do to bring that magic into play more often.

The key is to make it a sacred and holy experience.  (This is where I scare a few people off.  Be patient and keep reading.  I promise I don't make my kids pray during lessons).  When I used to teach class voice, we discussed the 6 areas of health--Social, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Spiritual.  Some students would panic at that last one.  "You want me to be all churchy?"  No.   When looking at the spiritual as part of your health, I define it as having an understanding of who you are, and what your purpose is.  For some that will involve organized religion.  For other it will not.  I want to use sacred and holy in a similar way here.

From Merriam-Webster, I would like to use these two definitions for this discussion of sacred.

entitled to reverence and respect 
highly valued and important

When I treat my students with respect, when I approach the art form with reverence and respect and teach my students of its value and importance, I am making voice lessons or tai chi classes a sacred experience.  Sacred can also refer to anything related to the divine or the temple of the divine.  As a teacher I can recognize the divine in all my students.  When I see them as the truly great beings that they really are, I make voice lessons or tai chi classes sacred experiences.

I love this definition of holy from the Wikipedia article on "sacred".  Holy is health, completeness, happiness, wholeness.  It's everything that I want for myself and my students.  

So how can I daily approach my teaching to make sure that it is a sacred and holy thing?  To make sure that the magic happens?

1.  It begins with my attitude.  I have to approach each lesson as an opportunity for me to learn more about that student and the unique properties of his or her voice.  When I am engaged as a learner, I am a better teacher.  I've long since given up the idea that the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing.  (I would have learned a lot more from my teachers if I had abandoned that idea years ago).  We are never solidly in one role or the other.  
2.  I am the expert on voices in general, but the student in front of me is the expert on that particular voice.  They live with it 24/7.  Asking questions about how it sounded or felt to them makes them a part of the process.  Asking what they think they need to work on let's them feel like that are tackling the big issues and moving forward.  And sometimes, their request works as a springboard into other approaches to technique and interpretation.  I am a guide, not a dictator.  

More love.  More learning.  More magic.  

Tai Chi and German Lieder

Last night I forgot to take my CD player to tai chi class.  Not a big deal.  I had my computer with me and I had a Deuter album on iTunes that I really like to listen to while doing tai chi.  You can listen to samples from each of the tracks with the link to amazon, or you can get an idea of what the whole thing is like from this.



So, I got to class, turned on the computer, started the music, and then greeted the students as they arrived.  Class went very well, and we were just getting ready for one final run through of the form, when suddenly the Deuter was over, replaced by another German.  



I've been sharing tai chi principles and even some of the forms with my voice students.  It's actually been quite helpful.  I just never expected to share Dietrich Fischer-Diskau with my tai chi students.