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A quick mind and a slow body: The process of learning to sing.
The art of singing is at once an immensely complicated procedure and an extremely simple one. We can all sing, yet to train in singing we must make a conscious, learned activity out of an activity which we already, unconsciously know how to do.
The trouble with our natural ability to sing is that, in both adults and in children, we cannot always trust our habits. Many bad singing habits are picked up quite young and remain as part of our singing mechanism. For example a child may take a ‘big breath’ by pulling in the belly and raising the shoulders, however this is a less efficient breath and causes unnecessary tension. Even as an adult this habit can remain, completely unconsciously, in the way a person sings.
The body remembers habits for much longer than the brain, a fact that can be both helpful and unhelpful. Old habits of bad singing technique take many hundreds of repetitions to correct, but, on the flip side, once good habits are thoroughly learned the body will retain them, even under the stress of performance.
This being the case the training of the voice must take in to account the different ways that mind and body work in learning and retaining information. Broadly speaking the mind is quick to learn, but may forget more quickly, while the body is slow to learn but will remember for longer.
The body: Slow and repetitive training
Learning the basics of good singing technique is by nature very repetitive. For me a crucial starting place for most singers is breathing, which I teach using the Accent breathing method. At the heart of Accent method is the regular repetition of simple breathing exercises, encouraging the belly to release on the out-breath and the lower abdominal muscles to travel in towards the spine on the voiced or unvoiced sound of the out-breath (shh, sss, fff, zzz, vvv etc.) Simple as this may sound it takes many weeks of repetitions for this to seep into muscle memory and become a habit. Similarly habits of posture can take many weeks to correct. There is something very rewarding and enjoyable for a singer to develop in small but definite stages and to understand their achievement. Once the muscles become used to these particular habits and motions the singer can begin to trust them to work well without conscious control. If a singer has practiced a song with good technique for several weeks then the muscles will ‘remember’ what to do, even if he or she is under a lot of stress or pressure in a performance, or if they want to put their attention into the emotional performance of the song without being constantly distracted by technical issues.
There is also a repetitive element to instruction in singing lessons. Revisiting the same ideas each week strengthens the concept in the pupil’s mind and gives them the tools to help themselves in their own practice. I find that the idea of revisiting ideas is a particularly useful one. For a pupil, recording singing lessons and listening back to them is a very good way of ensuring that they take in everything which the teacher has said. This is also useful as the pupil can hear changes and qualities in their own sound. I also encourage my pupils to repeat back my instructions in their own words or to summarise a lesson, so I can tell whether or not they have a clear concept in their own head.
The mind: quick to learn but potentially our own worst enemy.
It is easy for a clever singer to judge their singing in an attempt to improve it. Many people have some sort of running commentary or critical voice in their head as they sing. It is useful for a singer to be able to have awareness of their singing in the moment, in order to spot mistakes and to make improvements, however the critical voice has a tendency to take over and to stifle creativity and even healthy singing. How much more difficult to sing freely and with sincerity while all the time criticising your own attempts! A singer reaches his or her full potential when being aware of, but not judging the process. The concepts of mindfulness very much tie in with this idea; training a non-judgemental awareness of sensation in the present moment. In practice I find that teaching based very much on sensation, rather than sounds, concepts or instructions, helps to encourage singers to find this non-judgemental connection to their body. Awareness of the muscles of support, the sensation of an efficient breath, the feeling of an open throat gives the singer confidence in the knowledge of how it should feel, and helps bring the mind back to actual vocal production rather than the running commentary. It is also important to encourage the enjoyment of singing which first prompted the pupil to take up lessons. The body and our emotions are very closely linked, so a love of singing helps with vocal technique, helps to distract us from our self-judgement and makes for a much more rewarding experience.
Many singers will try to listen to the sound they are producing. The clever, musical mind will be listening, adjusting; changing the sound to suit what sounds best to them. Unfortunately a singer’s ears are the least reliable judge of their own sound! The sound within our head and the sound we hear bounced back from the room is very different to the sound which the audience hears. Once again a singer has to be encouraged to rely on sensation rather than sound. Eventually, with good practice and supervision the body will recognise the familiar sensations associated with good singing and rely on these, rather than the sound produced.
Other ways in which the mind can get in the way of good singing are through embarrassment or self consciousness. Younger pupils may be reluctant to appear too enthusiastic, older pupils may be unwilling to allow their belly to release on the in-breath for fear of ‘looking fat’. I have also found that those with choral experience are reluctant to sing at full volume for fear of ‘standing out’. In such cases there needs to be a sense of trust between teacher and pupil, a freedom to experiment and to have fun.
I have gone into detail on way which the mind can be an enemy of healthy singing, yet I do not wish to condemn musical, intelligent singing at the expense of a good sound. This article is by no means an encouragement of the stereotyped ‘dumb’ singer. I am a great believer of the greater quality and artistic fulfilment of intelligent singing. The singer as a thinking, feeling musician is as important as the singer as his or her own instrument. What I do wish to encourage, is the understanding of when it is important to prioritise the slow learning body above the quick learning mind. Repetitive, slow processes are essential to training good singing technique and lead to an extremely rewarding sense of in-built, healthy, enjoyable singing. Once a singer has learned the solid grounding of muscle memory they have the tools to perform to the very best of their potential.
