A voice´ spiritual journey into the light

It was pouring rain, so much that it seemed like it rained for a whole year within 20 minutes. I was in Buenos Aires and had to catch the boat leaving for Montevideo in a few hours. The streets of Buenos Aires started to flood a bit and I was hoping it would not get too bad before I got to the port.

A heavy subtropical storm, in the meantime everyone was trying to catch a cab. Metro stations were closed. I was soaked wet, so much that it didn´t make any sense trying to hide from the rain anymore, I can say I was one with the rain!

I knew I had no chance to get a cab, for a moment I stopped and just looked around, and there it was, the Gods above sent me a bus, the 93, that drove me from Palermo straight to the port. Weird thing is, I happened to be the only passenger in that whole bus ride! Rain and a chaos around town outside, and there I was, in a safe and dry ride all the way to the port. A bit of magic that no one had to catch that bus.
Still in the bus I managed to get myself a towel out of my luggage and get a bit dry, still my clothes and shoes were soaked wet. When I arrived at the port I used the ladies room  to change into dry clothes and shoes, just before getting into the boat. And off we went crossing the river towards Montevideo.

The very next day I started teaching a three day course at the training school for Alexander teacher´s of Montevideo, bringing my ´uSing your voice and body well´, which is ´baptized´ in Portuguese (and in Spanish) as ´De Canto a Canto´.
What a great atmosphere Mariana di Paula created in her school, the core of inhibition without repression. And she just a wonderful person to be with.

After the short course at the training school we held a weekend workshop in paradise, at Altos de La Serena in La Paloma, a place at the coast of Uruguay.

I was looking forward to both groups, and I was curious on how they would take my line of work. I thought I´d help them find a few new possibilities in their instruments and show a few things on teaching singers and ´professional breathers´, which we did. But the people over there are so open that we managed to get much, much further than the basic principles of the physical instrument.
We deepened ourselves into un-doing the voice, getting in touch with the message of the song, emotions, accepting our own voices and allowing our bodies to sing.

Friday evening we met the participants of the new group at Altos de La Serena. Each of us had a different background, we had one thing in common though: a voice to free up and express, liberate ourselves from rules and judgement, and just be our voices and emotions.

In the evening we had a walk to the beach. There are no pole lights in that part of the city, so we were blessed with an extremely bright milky way right above our heads. Poles of water in the sand that were still there from the day before reflected all the stars above, and like magic we were in between two worlds.
The waves were phosphorescent, each one of the waves gave a little light, even walking on the sand gave us little stars coming from our feet.
This is an effect produced by a phosphorescent algae, it will give light with friction. But I prefer the other explanation for it: magic!

Our last day of work was Sunday, it was the day of individual singing.
Oh what a journey, what a joy. We all went through deep emotions, we all found new ways to be open and accept ourselves where we are now, and we all sung beautifully, from our hearts and bathed our soul with new positive energy.

This is a group I will never ever forget, this magical place and energy of Altos de La Serena at La Paloma will be in my heart forever. It was much more than voice work, this was a real voice´ spiritual journey into the light.

the sunset at La Serena 

view from our working room

Mi Buenos Aires querido

I´ve been preparing for a teaching tour through parts of South America. It turns out this is much more than a teaching tour, it is a life changing experience. It became a voice´ spiritual journey into the light.

I went from Holland straight to Buenos Aires to teach for one week at Etaba (the training course for Alexander teachers in Buenos Aires). The atmosphere over there is just wonderful, and it could not be any different since the director of that school is Merran Poplar. 

Merran brings her wonderful energy, knowledge and wisdom, lovely sharing it with everyone. Etaba feels to me like ´an oasis in Alexander´s land´.

We all had a great time during that week, we all discovered new things and we all made a great jump forward in our development. Yes, I say we because I am also in the same boat, as though in this case I am the teacher, I still have my own learning experiences through teaching and my from my surroundings. I really feel blessed by this work.

During the weekend we had the short course ´uSing your voice and body well´ (De canto a canto) also for people outside of the school, people with or without any prior experience in the Alexander technique, at Cetaba.

We had a wonderful group: singers, from beginners to highly professional (classical, popular, musical and rock), choir directors, actors, and our most inspiring doctor, who was simply curious, and sang so beautifully. 

We had a very intense and productive work, so much inspiration, so much changes in such a little space of time. 

Right after the course I started to receive emails from some of the participants, they still make me cry of happiness. I feel so blessed by the fact that I can contribute so much to their process and how much they changed just because of this weekend of working together. In this work everything seems to be so ´little´, no effort at all, and the changes that this brings, oh my, so deep!For all of you that took part in it, thank you so much for being open to my way of working,thank you so much for being there with me, thank you so much for understanding the work.Thank you for sharing your thoughts, voices and energy with me.

And then... it was time to go further, time to catch the boat to Montevideo.It was pouring rain, so much it seemed that it rained for a whole year within 10 minutes. Little I knew that this was a message from the Gods above, telling me that this was going to be a very emotional journey, a voice´ spiritual journey into the light.

I tell you all about it in the next post.

Thank you so much for being with me, please keep in touch.

Much love,

Georgia

¨You can´t do something you don´t know if you keep doing what you know¨

If you are a professional voice user, or a ´professional breather´ as I like to refer to the wind instrumentalists as well, at one point or another you learnt a thing or two about voice and breathing techniques. Bottom line is, professionally or not we all use our voices and we all breath. Which means that at one point or another we all had some thoughts on how to do it.

People learn different techniques on these subjects, and there is one thing in common with all of them: they all tell you how to do it.

People tell you how to breath, how to produce sounds, how to sing, how to sit, they even tell you how to stand and... you name it, there are plenty of guides and guidelines, recipes on how to do things and how to behave according to the environment.

However, about a century ago, there was a very stubborn man who thought: ¨what if I do not do any of the above?¨

And this my dear reader was the very beginning of the Alexander Technique.

Mr. Alexander´s technique does not tell us how to do things, instead it teaches us what not to do in order to get the best out of ourselves. That famous ´less is more´ idea is totally true, and that applies also to the use of the voice and of the whole body. This is of course of extreme importance when performing for an audience.

The great thing is that we all can relate to the principles of this technique because it is the most natural thing one can possibly imagine. It is actually so easy that it makes quite complicated to describe it in words, after all whatever I might write, the reader will only be able to understand it from his/her own perspective, and not from that unknown territory that we ´Alexander minded´ people like to visit so much.

It is true that singing or any kind of performance is about doings, of course one must know what to do whilst performing, and that is why I am so fond of the combination of voice work and the Alexander Technique, it is a great way of getting to do less in order to achieve much much more.

There are plenty of professionals in all areas that are also fond of working with this technique, if you search the web you will find plenty of quotes of famous actors, musicians, singers, athletes...

In fact John Cleese is one of my favorites. Every Alexander teacher and pupil with already some experience in the technique knows where his famous ´Ministry of silly walks´ and ´The silly olympics´ came from. 

This is what John Cleese says about the technique:

¨I find The Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.¨

If you are already following lessons in the technique than you know exactly what he is talking about, if you never had an ´Alexander experience´ find a teacher in your area and go do it.

Of course you can contact me as well, even if you are not in my area I keep on travelling and bringing my combination of voice and the Alexander Technique around: The ´uSing your voice and body well´ workshops.

And so I will leave you with one of my favorite Alexander´s phrase:

¨You can´t do something you don´t know if you keep doing what you know¨

'De canto a Canto' a voice tour

If you have been following my blog you noticed I stopped writing posts for the last 3 weeks. Forgive me for that, it is certainly not the case of lack of inspiration.
The reason for that is because I am very busy with the preparation of my south American teaching tour, which starts on May 20th in Buenos Aires.

Since I am going for my south American teaching tour and wanted to find a good title for my workshops and short courses in Portuguese because
'uSing your voice and body well' is a title that works well in English, but it makes no sense in other languages. Lucky enough I got to: 'De Canto a Canto' which works both in Portuguese and in Spanish.

I am leaving next week for Buenos Aires, Argentina and I am looking so much forward to meet the group at Etaba and at Cetaba to meet the new comers as well.

And this time 'De Canto a Canto' will also be also at the training course in Montevideo and Altos de La Serena in Uruguay, and as the last stop Brazil with workshops at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, short courses and masterclasses on respiration at 'Pensar em Atividade' in São Paulo, with a probable pit stop in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

It will be a full two month work in which I hope to inspire all the participants, and I am sure they will inspire me a lot as well. And I will keep you posted with all the new ideas and thoughts of the tour, so next time I will be writing with a warm southern breath.

Exploring your instrument

I used to think that exploring my voice meant going as high as high can be, and as low as low can get. I thought it was all about muscle power and about daring.

When I had my first Alexander technique lesson the idea of exploring my voice took a new dimension to me.

I used to think of my own instrument as if started from the diaphragm and up all the way to the nose. Yet through the Alexander Technique I found out that my voice starts with a thought, one simple thought!

Of course every ingredient counts. It is very important to have both feet on the ground because next to the thought, that is where the voice begins. And having ALL my joints free is key to my singing instrument. Nowadays I see the vocal cords as translators, they are the ones that translate my thoughts into sounds, but my instrument goes much much further than that.

I believe the most important ingredient on exploring the voice is to allow yourself to make mistakes. Don't you think it's weird that everybody knows we learn from our mistakes, but nobody wants to make a mistake?

Allowing yourself to make mistakes                                      
Mistakes... Well, of course that's not what we aim for.
All we want is to sing and play as beautiful and perfect as we can. Maybe that has to do with the fact that we need to be accepted? And so we try to please everyone, yet we know we will never be able to do that.

Musicians are experts in 'saving' and disguising mistakes. It can be fun indeed, yet in general they take it so seriously and get so frustrated when making a mistake that it becomes a 'big monster' in their heads. Singers tend to be extra insecure about it. Let's face it, we singers only have a microphone to hide behind, and the classical singers... not even that!

Point is, we musicians take everything way too serious. If we were brain surgeons ok, making a mistake could be tragic, but for God's sake, we are playing music.

If we don't allow ourselves the space to explore we are bound not to make a mistake, and that will certainly keep you right were you are, so you will never get to know your full voice and full capabilities.

There is one thing though, how do you know that that mistake really was a mistake?

Faulty sensory appreciation

Did you ever record yourself in a rehearsal or a concert? Remember that awful mistake that would never ever end? And so you listen back to the recording the next day and have a very hard time to find that 'awful mistake'? Every musician has had such experience before. That is a good example of faulty sensory appreciation.

We all have a habitual way of doing things, we create habits in our bodies without knowing it. That has a lot to do with how we learnt things, and we practise and practise them so we end up reinforcing our habits. Sensorial feelings work together with habits, so once we are a tiny little bit away from that habit all our sensors will send us a clear sign to our brain saying that this is just not right, making us going back and readjusting back to the habit. Back to what is known to the body, to what is known to our ears. I had many of those experiences, just like any other musician.

Trust

Working with the Alexander technique gave me the trust and the tools to stay in my full instrument, allowing my voice to come out freely without falling back into my old habits. I felt freer to explore more and more.

I clearly remember having a rehearsal with my band ages ago, I was singing a song I knew really well, and this time I allowed myself to just sing without any judgement, without trying to sing beautiful, just staying true to the emotions of the song, and of course applying all the tools of the technique.
I was comfortable enough because first of all I knew the tools, and second it was the band I played with for decades. Whilst I was singing my only reference was looking at the faces of my musicians: if they gave me any 'funny' looks it was a clear sign that I was really 'out of it'.
Through the whole song my ears kept on complaining, telling me that it was really awful, but I stayed true to my directions and kept on applying the tools of the technique. Once we were ready the whole band looked flabbergasted and asked me: "Can you please always sing like that?"

Acceptance

I guess that is the core of it all, to accept my own voice the way it is, not wanting to be anybody else but me, not wanting to have any other sound than my own.

If you press play you can listen how my voice sounds like nowadays.

And don't you be alarmed, the spoken text at the beginning of the song is the voice of Thomas Gerretsen, the drummer of the band.

Unconscious Copying of Other Voices

In my last post I described a little bit of my amazement by gaining a whole octave extra in my vocal range after about 6 month of following lessons in the Alexander Technique. It was like magic to me back than because I certainly didn't understand what was going on: I stop doing breathing and singing exercises and I get a whole octave extra! What is happening to me?

Of course I did my lie down every single day, together with my regular Alexander Technique lessons. That is how space was created for my voice to come out freely and for my breathing to be free enough that I never have to think of it anymore and to support my voice on its way out.

In the voice workshops I had the opportunity to get in touch with my own voice. 

When I started singing professionally (about 15 years earlier than my first Alexander lesson) of course I took the example of my favourite singer, to the point that I almost 'became her'. It was not my intention to copy her, but I was after that big sound. When I found out I was stuck 'being someone else' I decided to take examples of other singers to have a 'good mix', so unconsciously I kept on copying. 

In the first voice and Alexander Technique workshop I took part in, a whole new world open up for me. It took a lot of courage to be there and do nothing of the things I was used to do when singing, but be connected with the emotion of the song and... sing it.

I was amazed by the fact that I didn't have to do anything, whenever I did any of the old singing habits my teacher would stop me so I could be aware of 'falling back into my own trap'. 

My voice kept on changing, during my private lessons I went through many voice changes, later I started the training course to become a teacher on this technique, and my voice kept on changing, to the point that my body had to rethink 'the road' of getting the air out of the air pipe (which reminds me of the 'free your neck and go bubbles post). Every body change reflected in a change of voice.

In my process I learnt how to meet and accept my own voice, I didn't have to make any extra effort nor effects  to get my voice beautifully working, and I learnt that I need to make mistakes in order to find it.


I am happy to say I finally did it, maybe I should say that I am doing it. I am sure I don't please everyone with my voice and my songs, but I am very happy because I don't do it to please others, I do sing because it is my calling and I just can't stop doing it. Of course it is nice when other people can also relate and like what you do, but if you depend on what others think you will never be yourself and never meet your own voice.

In one of my earlier posts (mind and voice) someone send me a message and told me how much she agreed with it, I thought it was really sweet from her, yet I felt so misunderstood because she also mentioned telling her pupils to think: 'how does my favourite singer does it?'

That is very sad to me, because it is a 'snow ball of uncounsciones', the teacher bringing the pupil to imitate his/hers favourite singer, and the pupil doing it because he/she wants to learn how to sing. 

So, I will tell you the little secret and wonderful presents I got from the Alexander Technique, if you stay true to this principles you will never have voice problems and you will be able to sing like you never did before: 

* finding your voice doesn't require magic tricks nor singing diets 

* singing well doesn't require any muscle effort

* if you shorten or collapse the torso will be impossible for your voice to come out freely

* if you know what you are saying your brain will bring enough oxygen into your lungs for you to be able to bring the whole phrase out 

* you don't need to pull or push any muscle nor put your ribs out for breathing, this will be on the way of your own voice and taking energy out of you.

* belly breathing (or abdominal breathing as it is called nowadays) does not exist

* don't try to do the job for your body, allow the body to do it for you

*  be in touch with the message and true to the emotions of the song

* listen 

This is one of the old recordings from back than when I still amazed by it all happening to me, my voice did change quite a lot since than, but this was the first recording in which I managed to stay true to my own voice:

It is as simple as that. If you want to experience it with the help of a voice and Alexander Teacher you are welcome to take part in one of my workshops, or find an Alexander Teacher near you that works with the combination. In case you can't find anyone in your area I am also happy to bring a workshop to your area. 

A whole octave extra in my vocal range!

I always loved singing. I sing everywhere and the greatest thing about being a singer is that I can play my instrument anytime, anywhere. Even under the shower!

I became a professional singer in 1986. I was asked to join a professional band back than when I met some musicians during a visit to Amsterdam. My first gig was at the 'Rum Runners', a very nice cafe where the band had a steady gig back than, and about a couple of month later we had a concert at the Meervaat theatre, also in Amsterdam.
So, I can say I am one of the few people that went from the shower straight to the podium.

Working for it
I had to work a lot, and I mean really a lot in the beginning. I had to built a repertoire, cope with phrasing, tempo, rhythm, microphones, performance, not to mention those notes that just didn't want to come out. Yet I was extremely happy to do it, I could spend the whole day and night studying and I never got tired of it.

In time I started to have singing lessons and most important to me was the breathing. I worked and I worked on it, did my daily practice and loved doing it.
I must say it kind of worked somehow, and that is the magic of the body, it will do anything for you! (little I knew that what I was actually doing was to get my habits much stronger).

I became be a good 'breather'. Like most singers and wind instrumentalists I was a 'breath control freak', and I did all there was to keep on being a 'good breather'. I was a professional breather, for God's sake, I needed to know how it is done.

After being 'a dedicated professional breather' for such a long time I started to developed lower back pains and eventually my knees started to complaint. Well, I was certain the lower back pains were due to a 'family legacy'; everyone in my family suffered from lower back pain. And in time my knees also started to complaint, so I paid a visit to the doctor.

My doctor sent me to the physiotherapist of course, and it became one more thing to keep on doing, my regular physio sessions. The physiotherapist showed me exercises to make my muscles stronger. And so I kept on doing it. I had my daily singing practice, my daily breathing exercises, and next to it the exercices for my knees and lower back.

Freedom
One day the Alexander Technique crossed my path. I met my first Alexander teacher without knowing anything about the technique in advance. I went for a singing lesson and that's all. My first Alexander teacher, Ron Murdock, is also a singer (a classical singer).

For my surprise I didn't get any singing or breathing exercises, instead he taught me how to tune myself up!

In fact he asked me to stop doing my singing and breathing exercises and told me to go lie down with a bunch of books under my head and with my knees up (semi-supine). Ron told me to do this everyday and for the rest I was allowed to sing anywhere, just do not practice he said. Do not practise your singing the way as you know, do not practice your breathing nor any other muscle practise, just for now.

I was surprised and relieved, a bit suspicious I must say, but since that was the only 'singing lesson' that I felt deep into my muscles and that my body was screaming for more, I decided to listen and go for my Alexander lessons every week. And I was truly convinced that this was a singing technique, that is because Ron knew I was a singer and all his input in my lessons were connected to singing.

I felt so much changes from the beginning on, it was amazing. In time I noticed I had much more energy than my fellow musicians at the end of a gig and in my daily routine as well, and the greatest thing: my back-aches vanished and my knees didn't complaint at all anymore.

Of course I kept on asking about the breath and how to do it, I kept on asking Ron to give me a 'real singing lesson'. After some time of having private lessons Ron invited me to take part of his monthly voice workshops. Oh joy, finally I get to have a 'real singing lesson' I thought. I went to the workshop and I will never forget it, singing just took another dimension to me. I never thought it could be like that, I never knew it was so easy.

A whole octave extra on my vocal range 
In 6 month of following private lessons on a regular basis I gained a whole extra octave in my vocal range, and that for someone who had been on stage for about 15 years and practising breath and singing on a daily basis. The first time I noticed I was really breathing, breathing as nature intended, I almost had a shock. It was scary because all of a sudden my ribcage was just opening sideways and up for the intake of air, and the shock was because I felt that whilst crossing the avenue behind my house, I was on my way to the bakery, not busy with singing at all!

That's when I decided to follow the training course to become a teacher of the Alexander technique so I can also help singers and musicians to use themselves in a more effective way to play their instruments, and discover the joy of doing less and gain more, much more than ever expected.

If you don't know the Alexander technique and get curious about it just find a teacher in your area, go for it.

In my website I also have a 'testimonial page' so you can get an inside of different people that followed lessons or just workshops.

What is stage fright and how to deal with it

Stage fright comes about due to a disturbance of body use and the messing up of breathing.

Mistakenly considered to be something only beginner performers suffer from, stage fright is something all performers have to face. In its mildest forms, stage fright begins with the excitement of having a performance, even if the performance is months away, unconsciously the process has already started.

It is natural and healthy to feel excited when giving a performance, yet that excitement can be translated by your brain as if you were in a threatening situation. The long waiting time before actually getting on stage and start the performance, and all the preparation before the performance itself can become a form of unreleased energy. If the performer doesn't know how to deal with it, the unreleased energy becomes such a frustration for the body that getting on stage can become a nightmare.

Most of the times the performer doesn't even know he/she is actually in a 'stage-fright' mode. They are bound to get nervous for so many reasons: because sound check is taking to long, or because the technicians didn't arrive yet, or the lights are not good, and so on and so on. The performer is bound to keep on running in circles, looking at the watch worrying if there will be enough time... That is excitement on the verge of becoming anxiety.

Anxiety is a common emotion along with fear, anger, sadness, and happiness (and it has a very important function in relation to survival). It can also disturb your breathing patterns, which leads to fear and it may also lead to hyperventilation.

Anxiety is a combination of cognitive, somatic, emotional and behavioural components. The cognitive part recognises danger, somatically the body is preparing to deal with the cause of the threat and the ‘fight or fly reflex’ or ‘panic reflex’ is activated and it takes form of pulling the back of the neck. Both voluntary and involuntary behaviours may arise making the performer wish 'to escape', to avoid the source of anxiety.

The ‘fight or fly reflex’ is easy to observe on animals. See the picture of this cat about to get into a fight, the muscles of the cat's neck are being 'winded', its head is pulled to the back, and all together will work as a catapult ready to fight or to get away from the source of fright.
In this case the cat decides if it goes through the fight or if it runs away from it.

In the performer's case all he/she can do is wait. The performer can't start before time and can't go home and forget about it. In the meantime the body is readjusting to the situation and releasing the necessary chemicals to help him/her go through it.

As a response to physical or mental stress adrenaline is released into the bloodstream, and the chemical processes that normally will help the performer to adjust to a dangerous situation, in this case will dis-organise and make a torture out of the waiting time.
The 'winding of the muscles' that makes the pull the head will disorganise the breathing to the point of having a hyperventilation attack, becoming paralysed (due to the hyperventilation attack), and / or having to vomit. A good example is Maria Callas, despite being such a wonderful singer and excellent professional, Callas felt such a pressure before the performance that her body responded to it as vomiting. It is known that she had to vomit before every performance.

Finally during the performance itself one is bound to feel a release for the enormous amount of energy which the excitement of anticipation produced.

The Alexander technique is a great way of dealing with stage fright. 
The technique brings the awareness of the way we use ourselves in our daily routine and provides the best preparation for the demands of any performance.
It gives the performer the means of keep on 'tuning up' him/herself, therefore having the panic reflex under control. The performer will be able to undo unnecessary tension, to stop 'the winding' of the muscles of the neck, co-ordinating breath and movements. The performer will feel more confident and being in a positive energy flow during the performance.

Free your neck and go bubbles

The music world is quite demanding!

Somehow musicians decided that there must be no room for mistakes. If they make a mistake they feel something terrible is going to happen and they will never recover from it again, so somehow their necks are always at stake. So singers and musicians go on in life doing their best in order not to make a mistake. 

And so they will safely stay where they are, maybe improving a little in disguising their mistakes, mainly just 'hiding' it better, yet they will stay where they are.

Funny thing is that in order to learn something new we all know we must allow ourselves to make mistakes. Jazz music is the proof of that, a good musician will just 'extend' that mistake and make something else out of it, that's when it becomes improvisation.

Yet when making a mistake, singers and musicians in general tend to freeze and that little mistake is bound to take over the mood for the rest of the song, and it will take them at least another song to recover from it. If only they use their heads they would know the audience wants to hear good music played from their hearts, not from their fear. An audience can forgive any mistake if the musician/singer is honest and open.

No, no mistakes allowed or... let's play and sing ugly

After a long journey of searching for my own voice 'outside of myself', learning tricks and practising the best way I could, doing the best I could not to make mistakes, I finally found it. And I found my own voice not by practising the same again and again but by learning how my instrument really works. And most of all, by allowing myself to go wrong, to feel wrong and most important, to have fun with it. By exploring and playing, really playing!

I decided to bring playful ideas into my way of teaching and to have people 'singing ugly' sometimes, so they can give themselves permission to sing differently. You would be surprised what beautiful voices come out when I ask my pupils to sing ugly!

So we all went bubbles
As I mentioned in the last post, the last 'uSing your voice and body well' workshops were in Zagreb, at Kubus Arts Organisation we had a big range in levels, styles, and professions: singers, musicians, actors, dancers, teachers... Everyone learning from each other, which makes the work so much alive and so much fun.

And at the Academy of Music University, time for something 'really serious': opera singers!
A group of pupils from the 1st till the 5th year and their teachers were present, wonderful voices, wonderful dedicated people. And we all had a great time seriously playing with the work.

From the Alexander Technique we know the importance of not disturbing the relationship between head, neck and torso. Most people will unconsciously pull their head back in relationship to the neck and torso for breathing, a.o. That is such a deeply rooted habit in most of us that we won't feel we are doing it (more about sensors and feeling wrong in one of the next posts, keep tuned).

How to deal with it? Well... I like to go bubbles. No need to force nor to be serious about blowing bubbles!

As usual I was giving a feed back with my hands to each one of the participants so they could feel what they were actually doing when blowing out those bubbles, and they all found out a lot. Some even found that if they didn't pull their head back they'd have to re-direct the air flow in order to blow out the bubbles. Some started to get too serious with the new discovery, but I make sure to remind them it's only bubbles!

Free your neck and go bubbles

I remember when I had to learn how to re-direct my voice because my neck was finally freer. It was scary for a moment, it is quite scary to change so much, but what the heck, we get used to ourselves again and again.

I am now 48 years old, and I feel very privileged to be able to keep on playing and go bubbles with such a great bunch of inspiring people.

The one workshop only success story. Is it really possible to get it in one workshop only?

Well, wouldn't that be great?
Yet, we all know that working on the self requires much more than one workshop, or one more, and another one...

It is an ongoing learning process, and getting really closer to the Alexander Technique I should say unlearning!

I used to get discouraged about giving workshops sometimes, as much as I love to do it, there was always a thought hanging, making me think if this was a good thing to do or not, after all what can one do, what can one pass in one workshop only?

That was up until I got an invitation from professor Vlatka Oršanić to bring my work to the Academy of Music University Zagreb.

Professor Vlatka Oršanić is the head of the voice department of the Academy. Together we decided that a seminar and a few introduction workshops on the combination I do with voice and the Alexander Technique would be the best to start with.

I am very happy to bring my work around of course, at the same time I was very curious to know how did she get to my work or how did she hear about me? Later Vlatka told me it was via a pupil of hers, Martina Latin.

Vlatka knew her pupil for a long time of course, yet there came a moment that, according to Vlatka, Martina had a significant change, and the teacher just couldn't place it. So she asked her pupil what was it she was doing in order to change so much, and so Martina told her that she had been to ONE of my workshops! Martina even wrote a paper about voice work and the Alexander Technique for her final year at the Academy.

I can not tell you how happy I am, SO HAPPY!
I receive loving emails and messages after workshops, and believe me I get VERY EMOTIONAL with each one of them, people telling me how much they appreciated it.
Despite of it, somehow there was always a thought hanging from my part:

Did they really get it? Did it really made a difference for them, even when most participants didn't even had a private lesson on the Alexander Technique.

So now I really know, Yes!
People will get the message when they are ready and open for it.

Another big example is my 'star bass player pupil' Danijel Radanović. Every time I see him I get surprised on the amount of good work he is doing on himself.

I was just back in Zagreb for the new bunch of 'uSing your voice and body well' workshops. At first at the Studio Kubus and later to the Academy of Music University. Knowing that as much as I'd love to, it is just impossible to pass the whole work in one workshop only, or two, or...  But happy, so happy to take one step at the time. To help people change their views and old ways of doing things and help them discover the easiness of doing it in 'the non-doing way'.

I met and worked with wonderful singers, actors, musicians, a whole new bunch of wonderful people and I was also very happy to meet the 'good old group' again.

I am always happy to see Dajana Mar, 'my Croatian angel', Dajana was the first one to bring my work To Zagreb. I am also so grateful for Simona Palatinus and her Studio Kubus Arts Organisation. And for Professor Vlatka Oršanić and the Academy of Music University Zagreb for the warm welcome I received.
And last but not least, to the Shiatsu school for lending us their skeleton 'Stanco' for the weekend.

And for each one of you that took part in this amazing journey, thank you so much for being there.

Next post I will tell you all about the very talented singers the went bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...

                                   

Voice is the Expression of the Self, Singing is the Expression of the Soul

I feel so light, energetic, powerful and joyful when I sing nowadays, it just feels like my body is a channel for my voice, a channelling of feelings through voice.

Singing you don't do, you become
Beginners in general will be struggling with high and low notes, rhythm, tempo, phrasing... so mainly they are busy with 'how to do the singing'. It might be comforting for them to know that experienced professionals also struggle, maybe just as much, but just in another way.

I use to struggle too (mind you, I am not saying I am perfect here, I simply stopped having to struggle), and I truly thought struggling was part of it. Luckily that was only up until I was able to start applying the tools Alexander Technique gave me whilst using my voice. Everything became so much easier and so much more fun, I am happy to say that through this process I became a channel for my voice.

Obviously I am still making discoveries and I am very proud of my latest one: the spine as the main singing instrument. I wrote just a bit about it and you can check it out in my teaching method page if you feel like: using the spine as your main instrument. 
I will write more about it later on a new post, for now let's be in this voice channelling.

Being a channel for your voice
For being a 'channel of voice' I need to use my whole instrument as a whole, an instrument which starts by the sole of my feet and goes all the way up to the crown of my head, and not see it as separate parts. And I need to be conscious of how I use myself on every moment, moment by moment. This gives me the possibility to relay in my whole spine at every moment (thank you for that Mr. Alexander), and the spine becomes the main support for my voice and breathing.

Becoming the singing
To become the singing I need to be in touch with my full singing instrument, with the message and emotion of the song. This can only happen if I don't do the singing, instead I allow my body to sing for me.

Being in your full instrument, being in contact with the message and the emotion of the song, not trying to convince anyone of what you feel, just feel, that is the key. That's when you become a channel for your voice. And again, this can only can happen if you don't do the singing, you must become the singing you see. 

Singing requires quite a lot of research, knowing exactly what the text means and what the composer meant when writing the song and lyrics, that is a very good starting point.
Take the song 'Dindi' as an example (for those who don't know Dindi is a Brazilian jazz standard, here's a good version in English). The association many people have with Brazilian music is that since it is from 'carnaval land' every song must be happy. I know so many singers that do 'Dindi' as if it was a light hearted song, some even do it in a fast tempo to be 'original'. Only if they knew this song was written for a Brazilian singer whose daughter drowned in a river long ago.

You see, you must know what you are singing about if you don't want to make such an awful mistake. When you do know what the song is really about you just have to connect to the emotions and allow your body to sing for you.
That is freedom of singing and expression of the soul.

That strong basis to become the singing

I use the Alexander Technique as that strong basis, I know I can always relay on the tools of this technique to give me the full support of my whole instrument, giving me the freedom to become the singing, because I don't have to do the singing, instead I allow my body to do it for me, and when I sing I can just enjoy this energy going through my whole body and fine tuning into voice.

Let me introduce you to my voice

At first the thoughts were on 'The silent voice',
later on 'Mind and Voice'.
And it is time to introduce you to my singing voice.


This first song is one of my favorites,
composed on the erotic poems of Drummond de Andrade
by Thomas Gerretsen in our project 'O Amor Natural':

And the next one is a live recording from the project 'On the ball':

I hope you enjoy it.

Mind and Voice

I am passionate about singing, about voice and all it involves.
Working on the voice in combination with the Alexander Technique gave me so much more insights on how my full instrument works, and how much I can influence it with the way I think and with the way I use my body.

The vocal instrument involves the whole body, mind and spirit. And it is so much fun to work with it when we find out it is not about how to do, but how to think!
Yes I know, we come again to a very complex subject, but let's take it step by step.

For instance, I am writing my own thoughts about the voice right now, and I do write and think them in my own voice. And you in your turn, you read these lines and (hopefully) think if it makes sense or not, and if you use your power of observation you will find out that you are doing it in your own voice.

That is such a curious thing, your brain will translate written words into a familiar voice.
If you do not know how the writer of those words sound like, then it will most probably pick your own voice.

So we can actually adjust sounds in our head as we please.
Here's a good example of what I mean:
First look at the picture and then read the lines next to it.

It is wonderful how the brain works and how easily can associate the text and the image.
That also means we will always have some expectations and associations about text, images and sound.

So if you are to meet me, you probably would have an expectation on how I sound like. Sometimes we hear a voice on the phone, or in a recording, and we do create an image of that person in our heads.

This is all part of the silent voice and how much we can play, adjust and readjust it in our own minds. I believe the more we give attention to our silent voice, the easier the speech and singing becomes.

So, next time I will present you to my singing voice, let's see if the image you create in your head will be close to what I actually sound like.

The Silent Voice

I find it so remarkable to experience how the body works.
Once into this 'Alexander path' one can feel so much of what is going on in our bodies!
As though we, 'Alexander minded people', learn how to observe instead of feeling, there is a clear moment where observation and feeling meet. Of course we won't stop feeling, we simply learn how to wake up our power of observation instead of being lost in sensorial feelings.

When I started having private lessons in the Alexander Technique (oh that was long ago), after having a bunch of lessons I remember feeling my vocal box working for the first time! In general singers feel their throat and vocal box when it hurts only, not when its working well.

I must say that nowadays I only feel it when I consciously connect to it, otherwise all I feel is space: freedom of voice. Ah, that feels like a warm energetic shower which makes my whole body vibrate, from the sole of my feet to the crown of my head, working like a fountain, a fountain of happiness going up and up.

Of course it was a whole journey to get there, a journey that started when I took my first private lesson. And now, once I can finally enjoy all this freedom, I am also aware that this journey is an ongoing process, which is there to be activated on every moment of the day, so I can grow further.

This journey also got me very much in touch with my 'SILENT VOICE'.
Oh my, I found it so scary at first, the fact that my vocal organ is ALWAYS working! Obviously it is working when I talk, murmur, hum or singing, but the fact that it is also working when I am writing or reading, or even when I am only thinking. That I found quite revealing, and scary at the same time, imagine if I am doing something wrong with my voice without even knowing I am using it!

The way to practise our voices is a daily routine
Most people tend to think that practising the voice is only when you sing or talk with your 'stage voice', but the way to practise your voice is much more than only that.

The way I practise my voice starts before I say my first word, and all the other words of the day, it is also about the way I talk on the phone, the way I talk to my children, to my pupils, and also when I am silent, because the vocal instrument will be there, ready for me to use it when I decide to give consent for my voice to come out loud, and when I give the consent, oh freedom, freedom, freedom!

Please visit my website if you want to know more about the combination of voice and the Alexander Technique

uSing my voice... where do I start?

You might ask yourself what is a good way to start when practicing your voice.

I am from the generation where people were taught about 'belly breathing' and we had to make our muscles strong for breath support. Such a shame, I wasted so much time and effort. 
Not to mention all the back and knees trouble I got, not ever imagining it was due to my so called breathing and support exercises! 

If you still believe you need to do all that, please be aware that there are other ways. All that doing is really not necessary and it will just be on the way of your own voice.

I am so happy I came across the Alexander Technique, and that my first teacher in this technique is also a singer, a classical singer. Ron Murdock, he was the one to open my mind and freed me from having to 'breathe for work'.

Unfortunately the majority of people still believe they need to take a breath in order to sing, and they feel 'relaxed' when breathing out. Well, of course you will need enough air to get your phrase out, yet if you do know exactly what you want to say your brain will take care of sending the message to the rest of the body so that it will know how much air you will need to speak or sing the desired phrase. The real work lies on the out-breath!  

Do you think its weird? No, it is not. It is simply another way to do it but much more connected to what mother nature intended. When you do use your voice you are breathing out after all!

Instead of thinking how to breath in, get your thoughts into how you are breathing out, and just refuse to collapse the torso whilst doing it, that way the muscles will keep on their full length giving you freedom to sing.

And you probably wonder how to do it?
You will need a bunch of Alexander Technique lessons in order to get the freedom to do it. 

Click for more info about breathing

Finding your voice

Finding your own voice and use it well doesn't require 'tricks' on how to 'do the singing', it requires the awareness of how you use yourself whilst doing it.

Finding your inner and outer support, a system that is there by nature for all of us all to use, it will give you the freedom of your body, all the joints, and the freedom of muscles which should be free to move, so they can execute the task that is being asked from them.

When the bodywork is right the breathing mechanism is set free to function properly, it supports the vocal mechanism while the out breath is tuned and resonated as voice. How that is done affects the quality of your voice.

Seeing from the Alexander method the whole speech/singing instrument starts by the sole of your feet and goes all the way up to the crown of your head. Everything you do with your neck, back, legs, knees, hands… even the eyes will play an important roll in voice production.

Through this method you will learn how to use your full instrument and your voice well, knowing what to do and what not to do, you will get in touch with your own voice within the freedom of your instrument and you will learn how to direct yourself and your energy towards a good use of your voice and your audience.

Are you a professional breather?

Breathing is a demand led system. Respiration is a biochemical process, a gas exchange. Control of rates and depths of breathing happens largely automatically outside our awareness, which means we can even fall asleep and the system will keep on working for us.

The respiratory centre in the brain receives messages about levels of CO2 increase and O2 decreases, it stimulates increase in rates and depths via nerves to diaphragm and other respiratory muscles.

Inspiration provides the intake of oxygen needed for the cells to produce enough energy so we can do the things we want to do. During expiration the body gets rid of the gases that have already been burned, remains that the body no longer uses and need to be expelled.

The ribs are intercalated with thousands of muscle fibers to provide the necessary movement in accordance with the demand of the moment. In activity and at rest the respiratory muscles are activated to work, causing the ribs to move (moving side ways only if your system is free, good examples are babies, young children, vertebrate animals…), and together with the action of the diaphragm they force the air out of the lungs, this provides space for air to enter again, facilitating the continuous exchange of gases.

This is a system that is constantly functioning and self-regulating when it's allowed to. It is a process completely controlled by the brain. Yet it can be interfered with when we try to do it for the body, instead of allowing our body to do it for us.

The ‘professional breathers’, mostly singers and wind instrumentalists, are proven to have unstable breathing patterns due to interference of their system and due to habit. Most of them have no idea that by being ‘professional breathers’ they are a great danger to themselves and to others.

Bringing consciousness into how we use ourselves during any activity will help you free your whole system, allowing your body to breath for you.

As far as I know the only technique that brings that kind of awareness is the Alexander Technique, it allows us to co-ordinate the breath into rhythm, during activity and at rest.


Working from the Alexander principle I experienced myself that breathing becomes a continuos movement, just like the waves of the sea: in-breath and out-breath will smoothly cross each other in an ongoing process.

Natural breathing

Breathing is a demand led system and it will be done entirely by your body if you allow it to do it for you.

Most people tend to believe this is not really possible, wrongly believing they need to learn how to breath properly.
Actually what they need to do is to stop the habits they created by collapsing the skeletal structure when breathing. We must realise that in our short lives we will never be able to control something evolution took care of, millions of years were needed to get here, we might as well give it a chance and trust it.

When we look at vertebrate animals, we see that their ribcage is moving all the time. It moves side ways and not up-and-downwards. We are also part of this vertebrate animals and our ribcage is also meant to move sideways during breath.

Have a look at babies and very young children, they are still very connected with their bodies, they too have their breath going without doing anything for it, the ribcage moves side ways without any problems.

Children can run the whole day long and they don’t have to think at all of how they breath, babies can cry the whole night long without any lack of breath nor lose their voices.

Breathing is a continuous movement and it changes all the time. It becomes an issue in singing, speaking for an audience, playing an instrument, running, dancing... Never the less the effect of poor breathing affects everybody’s movement, poise, balance.

Basic mechanisms of breathing

The lungs are elastic in themselves, they are attached to the ribcage by the pleura where you’ll find a vacuum and a liquid protecting that fine mechanism. Any muscle attached to the ribcage can influence it's movements.

The basic mechanism of breathing involves a change in the size of the thoracic cavity.

During inspiration there is a increase in the volume of the thoracic cavity, the diaphragm descends and the rib cage opens. It leads to a decrease in the intra- thoracic pressure causing the air to be drawn into the lungs.

During expiration there is a decrease in volume of thoracic cavity, an elastic recoil of lungs and the diaphragm goes up. It leads to increase intra- thoracic pressure causing the air to be pushed out of the lungs.

The basic requirements of the respiratory system in order to keep working is simply having clear passages ways and let the moving parts move.

Of course if we have extra muscle tension in any part of the body, that extra tension will definitely affect our natural breath rhythm.

I find the Alexander Technique a wonderful tool to restore natural breath.