Breathing Easy
Imagine this: you're kneeling in church, wrapped up in prayer. The church is silent, the atmosphere is solemn and filled with holiness. Suddenly, ear-splitting shrieks rip through the church, and every head turns around to see, in the farthest pew, a baby no more than a few months old, making more noise than you could imagine could possibly come from such a tiny body. We've all experienced this amazement at the sheer volume of a baby crying, whether in church, the grocery store, or in our own home at two in the morning.
There are few grown-ups who can summon the sheer mind-melting, piercing noise that a shrieking baby can muster. Why is this? Adults' bodies are bigger, their vocal muscles far more developed. The answer is breath. Adults are taught to breath poorly, through poor posture instilled by hunching over desks for years through grade school and office work. Posture is damaged through adolescent societal pressure to slouch and look "cool", sometimes even through psychological trauma which causes one to subconsciously attempt to physically minimize the amount of space one takes up. This is not how the human body is intended to function. Babies have not yet trained themselves to contort themselves into unhealthy stances.
Prepubescents and adolescents are at particular risk of developing posture that is detrimental not only to vocal production, but also general physical health. Developmentally, they're at a point in their lives where their bodies are in a great state of growth and flux; they're also often undergoing psychological stress and hormonal changes which make their bodies and emotions extremely vulnerable. It's of paramount importance, not only for vocal health, but also physical health, that teenagers are put in a position where they are positively encouraged to use their bodies the way they were designed to function. Proper posture ensures that the lungs have the maximum amount of space to expand, that the lower abdomen does not interfere with the placement of the diaphragmatic musculature, that the rib muscles can aid but not enforce breathing. A thorough grounding in vocal technique also ensures that the tongue muscle doesn't put undue pressure on the voice box, causing stress that can ultimately destroy vocal production.
At Winker Music Studio, we subscribe to famed Israeli physicist Moshe Feldenkrais' theory that "thought, feeling, motion, and perception are closely interrelated and influence each other". We try to address the double concern of physical and emotional stress by using some of the gentle stretching and mindfulness techniques employed in yoga. Ultimately, our goal is to aid the human body in working the way it was designed to, and removing learned behaviours that are contrary to our bodies' intended functionality. Early public speakers of the 20th century understood that if a performer has pain or stress anywhere in their body while speaking or performing, the audience will be as aware of it as they are; this distracts from the effectiveness of the performer. At Winker Music Studio, we attempt to remove physical and emotional stress so that the body can, in a sense, get out of its own way. Once healthy breathing is made, well, as easy as breathing, we can incorporate other aspects of vocal technique that center more around the face and vocal musculature. We also stay very mindful of what vocal repertoire the student is working on to make sure they're singing music that is technically accessible for them.
It's said that if you throw curve balls in middle school, you won't throw curve balls in college. Singing works the same way - at Winker Music Studio, we focus on giving our voice students the best possible grounding to ensure that they're singing with ease, health, and agility from age twelve all the way to age eighty-two.
