Ron Murdock_Singing and the Alexander Technique.pdf

The Alexander Technique for

Musicians

Born to Sing

by Ron Murdock

I can't remember a time when I did not sing. My

earliest memories are of singing with my mother

while she baked bread or did the ironing. I sang my

first solo in our church when I was four years old.

I did not begin any formal voice training until my

voice broke when I was 14 years old. I grew up in a

small village in Nova Scotia and was indeed

fortunate to have Vivian Brand, a music educator

par excellence, as my first singing teacher. She

taught music in the schools in the nearby town.

Every child or teenager who came in contact with

her could sing because she firmly believes we are

born to sing.

When I went to the University, the professor who

taught School Music Education impressed upon us

that all children, unless something is organically

wrong, can sing. She gave us various skills,

exercises and ideas, (including "tone matching"

games) to use with children who were so-called

"droners"--meaning they could not sing in tune.

(She also impressed upon us that droners were most

often children who had not been sung to at home.)

These tone matching games developed and

reinforced the coordination between the ear and the

larynx. Once this is done the child sings in tune. It

can be that simple.

I applied these skills when I taught school music in

Montreal between the years 1962 and 1966, to

children between age 6 and 13. In this four year

span, dealing with hundreds of children, there was

not one who, eventually, could not sing. At most, it

took about three months (one half-hour class lesson

per week) of tone matching exercises before all

were "in tune" (and usually it took less); in the end

they all sang and what fun they had doing so.

A grade 4 class (10 year olds) at

Maisonneuve School, Montreal

recorded May 1962 (wav file 145K)

Why then are so many people reluctant to sing?

Why do they feel they can not sing at all? It is a

strange situation given the fact that children love to

sing and their first attempts at speech are singing

sounds. And it is even stranger, given that with the

right help children can, and want to, sing. In my

experience, people who are embarrassed to sing (or

who think they cannot sing) almost always were

told in school that they had an ugly voice, sang too

loudly, that they did not know how to sing or were

"droners." They were excluded from class singing

or the choir and still feel hurt about it.

Children tend to believe what adults tell them and

are, therefore, at the mercy of teachers and parents.

If they are told they cannot sing, they will believe

it. They will not be able to sing--at least not until

their beliefs change. It is cruel to tell a child he

does not know how to sing, and people suffer for

years because of it. If you are someone this has

happened to, then you have been deprived of a

right that is as basic and natural as using your

hands, skipping, or breathing.

This is a very good example of what F.M.

Alexander meant when he said the way we think of

a thing influences how we use it. In this case, a

child being led to believe he cannot sing influences

his ability to sing. On the other hand, the way I was

taught to think about children being born to sing

enabled me to help them overcome the obstacles

that prevented them from singing.

When we come to the training of singers, we see

that almost every singing teacher thinks of the

voice in a somewhat different way. These various

ways of thinking result in just as many

"techniques" or "methods" as there are teachers,

each one attempting to produce a good sound.

These "methods" are then reflected in the physical

use of the singer as he attempts to put them into

practice. Some approaches to singing are clear and

trouble free, resulting in a generally

well-coordinated use of the body. Others could not

be more difficult, resulting in heavy muscular

effort, gasping for breath, and unease.

Despite such varied approaches to singing, it is

clear that the end result most singing teachers are

looking for is usually the same. A true story

illustrates this point: A fine young singer gave a

recital at an International Conference of Singing

Teachers. At the end of her recital all the singing

teachers gave her a standing ovation and most of

them said: "Of course she uses my method."!

The only way to cut through so many different

approaches is to understand what the voice is and

how it works. I think the most important first step

to good use of the voice is a desire to

communicate. In the introduction to their book

called, Singing: The Physical Nature of the Vocal

Organ, by Professor Frederick Husler and Yvonne

Rodd-Marling, Rodd-Marling says, "Singing is a

highly physical happening, a unique form of

communication produced by muscle-movements set

in motion by a fundamentally emotive desire to

express beauty." Everyone communicates their

thoughts and feelings each time they speak--day in

and day out. Rarely does anyone think of vocal

technique when they do so. They want to say

something and do so. Some find communication an

easier task than others, but we can safely say we

know how to do it. Our survival more or less

depends on it. However, that singing is a "unique

form of communication" should be examined.

What does Rodd-Marling mean by unique? The

communication level required by anyone who

wants to sing well needs to be on a very large scale

and to be overtly emotional. It is this exaggerated

level of communication of feeling that actually sets

in motion and coordinates the vast, complex

muscle structures of the singing instrument. This

puts a very great physical demand on a professional

singer---as great a demand as that of any top

athlete.

At this point let us see how Rodd-Marling's

definition of singing might change our approach to

singing or speaking. Her idea rests on wanting to

communicate something and on the desire to

express beauty. Sing a song. Any song you know

well. Or take a piece of prose or poetry and read it

aloud. Are you aware that as you began to sing or

recite, you lose some sense of communication?

Perhaps not, but, if you do, then try the following:

Have the desire to communicate the mood or

feeling of a song/poem to someone else. Keep the

desire to communicate the feeling uppermost in

your mind. If a friend is working with you,

communicate it to her. Otherwise, try looking into

your own eyes in a mirror. (Notice that it is your

eyes that begin the expression, the feeling. When

you smile,the eyes smile first and lead the lips. To

begin with, check to see that your eyes are friendly,

humorous, warm and welcoming. You can add

other emotions later, as you wish.)

Play with this idea for a while and repeat it until

you are satisfied you have really communicated

some feeling. Now, repeat what you sang, and

make sure you want the sound you are making to

be as beautiful as possible. Has anything changed?

Was it different? Was it easier? Did you begin to

get the feeling that somehow "the right thing did

itself," as Alexander would say? Did you have a

sense that the whole thing was somehow deeper,

more complete, more intense? I think you will find

that keeping the thought of wanting to

communicate and express something beautifully

will help make vital changes in your general

coordination and will bring about a different and

easier use of your body and improve the quality of

the sound you are making.

I'm sure Alexander must have had a strong sense of

communication and most likely did it

automatically. He was after all, an actor, a

performer. Performers want to communicate at this

strong level, and do so. It's what motivates them

and should motivate anyone working with singers

and actors.

It is easy to lose sight of this important aspect of

vocal work when concentrating so heavily on

learning new skills, either as a singer practicing

vocal exercises or an Alexander teacher absorbed

in refining balance and coordination. The

temptation to become involved internally with what

is going on is very great when so much emphasis is

placed on inhibiting old responses and learning any

new skill. Therefore it is important that the student

maintain a strong connection with the world

outside himself. A desire to communicate is a good

way to establish this connection. As Rodd-Marling

says in her definition of singing, the vocal and

breathing mechanism is set in motion by the desire

to express oneself and to communicate. Therefore,

including communication in vocal work is

absolutely essential to the functioning of the

instrument as a whole. Otherwise, singing can

become all too difficult and mechanical. During a

performance it is impossible to control consciously

each of the many parts of the whole singing

instrument, all of which need to work at the same

time in a highly coordinated way. During practice,

however conscious control wants to be directed at

maintaining the poise and direction of the body to

allow the voice to emerge by itself while working

separately on the various parts of the singing

instrument to wake them up and bring them into

play so that the whole instrument is ready to work.

Both these aspects make up a good practice or

training session and they need to be repeated

(grooved, in tennis terms) until they work

automatically during the performance. Maintaining

good Alexander directions is by far the best way of

ensuring easy access to the various parts of the

breathing and vocal mechanism. As I have said so

many times, standing well enhances a performance

but must never become the performance itself.

Without the desire to express something, the vocal

organ cannot cooperate and then, if you want to

sing, you will have to "do" it. Using the thought

that the whole mechanism is set in motion by the

desire to communicate helps the singer avoid

"doing" and prevents voice work from dwindling

into a series of mechanical movements. Why this is

so and what that mechanism is in its entirety will

become clearer when we have looked at the

anatomy.

What, then, is this vast vocal organ? Of what is it

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