Isabelle asked:"what do you tell a student who refuses to use ANY effort to
support?"
I call support one of the "magic wand" words because we seem to think it
will magically fix anything. And as teachers, we tend to wave that word over
our students way too much, IMO;-)
Support is a coordination effect, not one thing, but several things working
together, including breath management and body alignment. Especially for a
singer who has concerns about forcing things (even if she's actually forcing
her voice more in the process) it might help to focus more on language that
does not mention "support" or anything that might imply force to this
student.
Alexander-based body alignment is extremely helpful as a basis for this
work...once the body is aligned (no mention of pulling, pushing, bearing
down, etc., just emphasis on proper alignment as useful for living as it is
for singing) then, you can start to get the breathing coordinated better
with this alignment, and then the onset of tone and resonance coordinated
with the rest. When those skills start working together, I'd be surprised if
she continues to sing from the throat.
Exercises that encourage alignment and channel energy well are also useful:
knee bends and arm raises on the highest note of the phrase for example; and
running in place with hands clasped while singing (you won't sound great on
this one, but it's still a useful exercise.)
One of the tougher jobs a voice teacher has is to try to think as each
student does, instead of how *we* like to think. In this case, I'd be sure
to affirm to the student that force has no place in proper singing, but that
Singing is a Sport, and one can expect to put forth some physical exertion
in the process. It's not just the hot lights that make us sweat when we
sing, hahaha, and creating (and harnessing) energy is much of what makes us
exciting as performers.
-y
_Dr. Yvonne Dechance
Email: ydechance@s..., Homepage: http://www.scaredofthat.com/yworld/
The Diction Domain: Free voice diction resources for singers
http://over.to/dictiondomain
_________________________________________________________________
|
|  |
