A client came in this week with severe speech problems. She gets about two words into a sentence and her voice tightens so much, she can hardly continue. Her day job is that of an ESL teacher in grades K - 12 in a small town. She has been struggling with her speech for seven years.
She visited a laryngologist who, in absence of being able to see clearly what was wrong with her, gave her a diagnosis of vocal dysphonia so that she had a legitimate claim for insurance. She had been going several times a year for the past two years to this laryngologist for botox injections to relieve her symptoms and was desperate to try another way. Some colleagues of hers suggested she contact me and also the local Speech and Hearing clinic. The laryngologist agreed that other paths should be looked into.
When I met her, she had already gone to the Speech and Hearing Center and had a scope done. The scope revealed an interference in her vocal fold activity to the point where her false folds were attempting to take over the process of phonation. Hmmm...how much can I help here?
Our first lesson together was a chance to take a history (I was especially curious about any type of trauma to her head/neck) and have the beginnings of a discussion about breathing, a choice of first topic that she brought up. She is a small woman, barely 5 feet tall, sweet and intelligent, and with a lovely openness and self-awareness. The first things I noticed physically about her was a significant down and forward head position and severe jaw and tongue tension when she tried to speak. She had an intuition that at least some of her vocal trouble was breathing related. We clarified the diaphramatic direction of breathing: down on the inhale, up on the exhale. As her inhale became deeper and her exhale became smoother, we heard immediate improvement in her speech and were encouraged.
We had a second lesson together yesterday. I checked in with how her breathing practice had gone that week - definitely clearer movement throughout her torso; ribs responding more easily and naturally. I opened the topic of head/spine relationship and vocal tract shape and structures. The information on the vocal tract, larynx, etc. was already familiar to her from her doctor visits. The truly amazing moment came when we began to trace where and how her head rested on the top of her spine. With a little guidance, she found a better head/spine balance and, suddenly! her voice was flowing freely. She started to cry in amazement and joy. She couldn't sustain the new balance for long, some of the supporting muscles were weakened, but by the end of the hour she could re-find the new balance on her own. It was the fastest response to the Alexander Technique I had ever seen.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Working with ADHD
I have two adult students with ADHD, who take medication for their condition. I have had others in the past. ADHD appears to make it difficult for a singer to track multiple events at the same time, such as the piano part and their own vocal part during a song. The singer wanders off pitch, not because they can't hear their pitches but because they can't hear the relationship between their notes and the piano part. To hear the relationship, they have to be able to track both simultaneously, something the rest of us take for granted.
It's difficult to tell whether the inability to track simultaneous events is the condition itself or a result of compensatory habits developed in childhood in order to be effective in school; specifically, the habit of concentration. Concentration is the habit of blocking everything out except for the object of your focus; your homework, perhaps. Is there another option? Barbara Conable, in her course "What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body (Andover Educators, www.bodymap.org)", discusses the concept of Inclusive Awareness. In Inclusive Awareness, a central focus is maintained in a broader field of awareness. We are all taught this as part of learning to drive a car; we are told to keep our peripheral vision on our mirrors while we focus on the road ahead and to keep an expanded field of awareness at all times (this became much more developed in me when I started to ride a motorcycle). By contrast, concentration could be described as Exclusive Awareness. When someone only knows how to concentrate and they must track multiple events simultaneously, they end up scanning, moving thier attention rapidly back and forth, which requires a great deal of mental effort.
I had some success with one of my ADHD students by introducing a mental game based on a meditation technigue. I asked her to do this for a few minutes before bed, when she was already lying down. The game was to say hello to each part of her body sequentially, beginning with her feet, and to "see" in her mind's eye that part of her body while she acknowledged it. When she finished at her head, she was to take a mental step back and see her entire body as a whole ( like going from seeing just a tree to seeing the whole forest). After a few weeks of this, her ability to track simultaneous events, such as piano and vocal line in a song, improved 90%. She had only to reference the mental "stepping back".
It's difficult to tell whether the inability to track simultaneous events is the condition itself or a result of compensatory habits developed in childhood in order to be effective in school; specifically, the habit of concentration. Concentration is the habit of blocking everything out except for the object of your focus; your homework, perhaps. Is there another option? Barbara Conable, in her course "What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body (Andover Educators, www.bodymap.org)", discusses the concept of Inclusive Awareness. In Inclusive Awareness, a central focus is maintained in a broader field of awareness. We are all taught this as part of learning to drive a car; we are told to keep our peripheral vision on our mirrors while we focus on the road ahead and to keep an expanded field of awareness at all times (this became much more developed in me when I started to ride a motorcycle). By contrast, concentration could be described as Exclusive Awareness. When someone only knows how to concentrate and they must track multiple events simultaneously, they end up scanning, moving thier attention rapidly back and forth, which requires a great deal of mental effort.
I had some success with one of my ADHD students by introducing a mental game based on a meditation technigue. I asked her to do this for a few minutes before bed, when she was already lying down. The game was to say hello to each part of her body sequentially, beginning with her feet, and to "see" in her mind's eye that part of her body while she acknowledged it. When she finished at her head, she was to take a mental step back and see her entire body as a whole ( like going from seeing just a tree to seeing the whole forest). After a few weeks of this, her ability to track simultaneous events, such as piano and vocal line in a song, improved 90%. She had only to reference the mental "stepping back".
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Visualization...
An actor was in her lesson with me yesterday. We were exploring how much or how little breath she needed to speak and sing and how to deliver that breath steadily. Allowing arm movements to reflect breath movement, we discovered that she started every phrase with a "push" of air. She shared that she has an image in her mind of having to "throw" her air with a lot of force for it to go far enough to make it to the end of the phrase, like throwing a ball. The effect, of course, is the opposite: if you release the bulk of your breath at the beginning of a phrase, you have less for the end of the phrase. As soon as she verbalized the image, she realized the ineffectiveness of it. So, we went on a search for a new image for her: starting the sound like setting a top spinning, controlling the release of breath like a bellows (closing the handles quickly or slowly). She's going to do some more searching this week for an image that really makes sense to her.
It's a good illustration of how the singer's perception influences their production (almost 100%). When I hear an ineffective approach to singing being used consistantly, then I ask "How are you thinking of that?" Sometimes, the thought is under the surface, but asking gives permission for the singer to take a look and, after a bit, the current image comes bubbling to the surface. Sometimes, I also ask if the production is beautifully done. One singer I had several years ago had the most beautiful onset of sound I had heard in a long time. I asked her how she thought of her sound. She said she started her sound like an airplane gently touching down.
It's a good illustration of how the singer's perception influences their production (almost 100%). When I hear an ineffective approach to singing being used consistantly, then I ask "How are you thinking of that?" Sometimes, the thought is under the surface, but asking gives permission for the singer to take a look and, after a bit, the current image comes bubbling to the surface. Sometimes, I also ask if the production is beautifully done. One singer I had several years ago had the most beautiful onset of sound I had heard in a long time. I asked her how she thought of her sound. She said she started her sound like an airplane gently touching down.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Funny voices...
I have a young, female student, just going through puberty. She came into the studio a year ago with a heavy belting low voice, a gap in the middle and no clue how to access her high voice. She loves to sing and has made good progress because she practices a lot at home on her own. Her low voice is now much less strident, the gap in the middle has closed, though the notes are still not very strong, and she has high notes now.
Sometimes, students make breakthroughs on their own, without realizing it. This young singer was singing Popular, from Wicked, today in her lesson. After we had gone through it a couple of times, I asked her to sing it like a cat. The sound was immediately strong & clear in the mid-range! She then divulged that she loved using character voices and had also tried singing Popular with a British accent at home. I asked her to show me and again, the mid-range voice was clear and strong. We spent the rest of the lesson trying out other "character" voices, coming up with Kermit, a plugged up nose and country. She's going to explore some more voices on her own this week, her only watch-for is that it shouldn't hurt at all.
Sometimes, students make breakthroughs on their own, without realizing it. This young singer was singing Popular, from Wicked, today in her lesson. After we had gone through it a couple of times, I asked her to sing it like a cat. The sound was immediately strong & clear in the mid-range! She then divulged that she loved using character voices and had also tried singing Popular with a British accent at home. I asked her to show me and again, the mid-range voice was clear and strong. We spent the rest of the lesson trying out other "character" voices, coming up with Kermit, a plugged up nose and country. She's going to explore some more voices on her own this week, her only watch-for is that it shouldn't hurt at all.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Breathing...
If somebody asked me, "What is at the core of your teaching approach?", I would have to say "teaching people how to breathe." Some people have simply lost flexibility and strength in their breathing structures and musculature. Some, out of ignorance or incorrect information, impose an artificial and usually labored secondary breathing pattern over the organic one. Some seek to control their breathing. Some manipulate their breathing for an effect. Some hold their breath, when they are thinking or emotional or editing their speech. And some have adopted compensatory breathing patterns because of allergies or asthma.
Believe it or not, one of the most important influencers on breathing is body balance.
If a person's body balance is off of their skeletal structure, then the breathing structures in the core of the body cannot function properly. Body balance is posture in a sense, but the word posture has come to connotate something rigid, whereas body balance has to be something flexible and fluid. Just in normal breathing, our bodies make dozens of micro-movement adjustments to our balance. Try standing on a non-solid surface, such as a trampoline, a piece of foam or a mattress and notice the changes in your balance as you breathe.
Singing is based on breathing - we are a wind instrument, essentially. The most frequent thank-you comment I get is: "Thanks for teaching me how to breathe."
Believe it or not, one of the most important influencers on breathing is body balance.
If a person's body balance is off of their skeletal structure, then the breathing structures in the core of the body cannot function properly. Body balance is posture in a sense, but the word posture has come to connotate something rigid, whereas body balance has to be something flexible and fluid. Just in normal breathing, our bodies make dozens of micro-movement adjustments to our balance. Try standing on a non-solid surface, such as a trampoline, a piece of foam or a mattress and notice the changes in your balance as you breathe.
Singing is based on breathing - we are a wind instrument, essentially. The most frequent thank-you comment I get is: "Thanks for teaching me how to breathe."
Friday, September 9, 2011
A palate of colors
One of my singers is an actor with a pretty active career in commercials, voiceovers, etc. We were working on a musical theater song yesterday that requires a semi-speech approach to the first section. The melodic line lay in her mid-range, a difficult transition for her because she usually speaks in her lowest range. As we explored the mid-range speech a little more (with a few giggles), a nasal quality appeared in her voice that I had noticed before, but that she was unaware of. What a learning moment! I identified it for her, demonstrated an alternative which she imitated, and asked her what the difference was in her experience. She immediately identified a difference in her throat; right before starting the more nasal sound, there was some tension/closure. I asked if she could inhibit the closure. After a couple of tries, she was successful and went on to easily "speak" the first section of the song in her mid-range with clarity.
This process was especially important for her because she's always been cast as a character actor and wants to develop more options. All sorts of vocal colors are possible and can be considered a palate of colors. Some colors are more difficult to produce and should be used sparingly, for effect. The goal is to give the performer complete freedom of choice.
This process was especially important for her because she's always been cast as a character actor and wants to develop more options. All sorts of vocal colors are possible and can be considered a palate of colors. Some colors are more difficult to produce and should be used sparingly, for effect. The goal is to give the performer complete freedom of choice.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Max
I'm trying out blogging from my iphone :). Summer has been pretty full teaching-wise, with lots of students studying jazz just for fun. We planned a jazz soiree at the home of one of the singers. My jazz trio came and we had our own open mic night, complete with wine & appetizers. Everyone wants to do it again next summer.
Unusual high school male singer came in this summer: very ADHD, with a subsequent speech disorder. We'll call him Max. He loves to sing and wants to be a comedian - well, why not?
Discovered quickly that he is VERY intelligent. Picks up and applies concepts so fast, it's amazing to watch. We've worked on 3 songs and 2 monologues so far. The most effective directive I've given him so far seems to be to slow down. One day, I suggested he deliver his monologue in slow motion and suddenly all the words came out clearly, with no dropped syllables. He's a very good mimic :). He seems to have the support of his high school drama teacher. He's trying out for the school play this week: I wonder how he'll do?
Unusual high school male singer came in this summer: very ADHD, with a subsequent speech disorder. We'll call him Max. He loves to sing and wants to be a comedian - well, why not?
Discovered quickly that he is VERY intelligent. Picks up and applies concepts so fast, it's amazing to watch. We've worked on 3 songs and 2 monologues so far. The most effective directive I've given him so far seems to be to slow down. One day, I suggested he deliver his monologue in slow motion and suddenly all the words came out clearly, with no dropped syllables. He's a very good mimic :). He seems to have the support of his high school drama teacher. He's trying out for the school play this week: I wonder how he'll do?
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