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.

Voice work and the Alexander Technique

Babies can cry the whole night long without hurting or damaging their voices, nor they will get out of breath whilst doing it. That is not because they are aware how they are using themselves, but because they are still connected to how mother nature intended us to move and didn't create any bad habits yet. That beautiful information is still there for us to use, the only thing we need to do is to wake it up so we can connect to it and use it consciously.

The way we use our body is reflected in the voice, therefore the awareness of how we use our bodies is of great importance whilst speaking and/or singing for an audience, and getting to know your full instrument will give you more choices in the way you use your body and your voice.

Good or bad we all use our voices, professionally or not. If you are a singer, actor, orator, teacher, if you give presentations, conferences, or deal with having to use your voice for an extended period of time, it can be quite useful to you to know more about your speech and singing instrument.

Using the Alexander technique in combination with voice work is a golden tool for anyone who wishes to discover the full potential and finest nuances of the voice without ever hurting in the process of doing it. This method provides the awareness of the whole body giving the singer/speaker the freedom to fully express his thoughts and emotions without having to worry about breath or how high or how low is the note that comes ahead.

The Alexander technique gives you the conscious control of the way you use your full instrument and voice. Through this method you will find your full range, natural support and breath co-ordination without using unnecessary muscular tension.

What makes a good voice?

What is a good voice? What does that mean to you?

In my teaching experience everyone has a different idea of what is a good voice, yet there is one that stands out and everyone agrees with it: an open, communicative and honest voice! 
A daring voice, voice of your own! 

The voice is a sound mirror of what is happening in your whole body. If you are holding, over-tensing your muscles, forcing in any possible way in order to achieve that desired result the voice just won't be there in its fullest.

A great number of people tend to hold whilst having a performance or delivering a speech or giving a presentation for an audience, some even can 'hide' in the techniques they've learnt. 

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience, think back of the concerts you've been to, did you attend those to enjoy or to criticise the singer/band? When the singer/speaker is true to what (s)he says the audience will forgive any mistake or shortcomings. 

So, stop being a critic and go use your voice, sing, explore!
Being conscious of the way you use your voice on a daily basis, including when you are not singing or using your stage voice, that is what makes a good voice.

Of course there are many ingredients one has to add to a 'good voice': listening, pitch control, breath management, intention, and many more.

This next series of 'uSing your voice well's blogging I'll talk a bit about each and every ingredient that makes a good voice, so stay tuned and please feel free to leave your comment.