Reduce Your Anxiety and Improve Your Overall Well Being with Yoga, Pilates, and Singing Part 3

 Our overall well-being is becoming more and more important through this pandemic we are living through.  We have spent much time talking about how Yoga can help us and applying it to our singing practice.  Now its time to explore Pilates and its affects!
  
What is the overall concept you think of when you hear the word 'Pilates'?  I think abdominal muscles and core work!  It is a focused intention no matter the area of the body, but strong abdominal muscles are one of its most efficient affects on our singing.    

But there is more: Pilates and Singing: Why and How Pilates Helps the Singing Voice

What are the main components of Pilates and how do they relate to the singing voice?

6 Essential Components of Pilates (from the BodyBook) (and Singing by Me)

1. Centering: Everything begins and ends with the center

Pilates:  All movements are energized and empowered by the strengthening of the core muscles

Singing: All breath flow starts with the direction of the core muscles and coordinates with the ribs and entire body to balance breath flow.  Breath flow is initiated and ends with the center core.

2. Concentration: Attention is on the intention of the movement or beginning of a phrase

Pilates: Attention is spent on the intention of movement before it begins and as it happens

Singing: Concentration on how our breath and sound is coordinated is the focus of much of our practice time until it becomes second nature.

3. Control:  Body and mind

Pilates and Singing: In both, we control and sync together the body and mind

4. Precision: Focus on each part being precise!

Pilates: Each movement is performed with precision and focus.  The details matter.

Singing:  Each start, duration, and end of musical phrases is performed with precision and focus.  The details matter to practice to make it seem flawless and effortless.

5. Breath:  Transformative

Pilates: Breath transforms the body and mind by working together

Singing:  The sycronization of the the breath with the body and mind makes singing such a unique art.  The mind slows to be in sync and the breath then does its job to provide the catalyst for our sound. 

6. Flow:  Breath, body, mind.

Pilates:  The goal is to flow from one exercise to the next gracefully.

Singing: The goal is to flow from one phrase to the next (coordinating our breath and muscles) gracefully.

One more thing which I find to be paramount to Pilates and Singing is that it works on improving and strengthening your posture.  Good posture is essential to good breath and therefore good singing.  Pilates work strengthens our core and posture which in turn improves singing and makes the motions of good singing more natural. 

Pilates work involves the coordination of body and mind.  Add some to your Yoga and Singing practices this week (start with some planks).

Reduce Your Anxiety and Improve Your Overall Well Being with Yoga, Pilates, and Singing Part 2

Yoga helps our singing (and mind) for many reasons.  It calms your breath, nerves and minds, opens up the body to breathe better, elongates your spine for better posture and therefore breath support, it centers our soul.  Yoga creates balance- the words are essentially synonyms for those who do yoga.  But how can yoga and other balance related activities help your singing? There are a myriad of benefits to the singer.  Lets look at the science as to why!

In Make Your Unstable Life Work for You, Claudia Friedlander describes the science of how the balance of yoga can really help your singing!  I was fascinated with how she described what I use often in my studio.  I highly recommend what she has to say!  Let me try to explain it with a few references to her words (in italics):

Stand up and find your balance on one foot, bringing your other foot up to your calf or above your knee, and raise your hands above your head (tree pose).  Feel how you find balance and how your leg, hip, ankle adjust to keep the balance.  It is a series of continuous, incremental adjustments.  Find a sustained phrase from your repertoire that is challenging and sing it while in this pose.  You may find that this passage is now much easier to sing.  WHY?  Finding this balance has put your neuromuscular system on high alert making all motor activity that you engage in benefit.  It cannot lock up like your knees might or stop and start as the breath might because everything is going in to you keeping your balance.  This makes total sense.

As Friedlander states, Singing, like balancing, is a continuous activity.  The more you think about locking up a part of your body to balance, the more possible it is for you to fall over.  The more you think about holding pitches rather than continuing the breath through them, the more difficult they are to sustain.  Find activities that promote stability through continuous movement such as tree pose, walking the phrase, or pretending to throw a baseball with a slow follow through.

Balance and stabilization can:

- Enhance body awareness (improve your mind/body connection to your voice)
- Promotes good posture (free larynx, improve resonance, coordinate better breathing)
- Make you more comfortable and graceful moving on stage
- Stabilize your joints so that you can safely exercise and maximize your stamina (cardio and strength training)
- Teaches your neuromuscular system to create stability through continuous movement that impacts all of your physical activities

Singers should have a workout regimen that includes stabilization training to balance their muscles. Challenging your ability to keep your balance and maintain good posture throughout a series of movements prepares your body and your nervous system to perform movements requiring greater strength and fine motor coordination.  (Fine motor coordination that is essential to quality singing).

How do you do this?

A variety of activities but specifically Yoga, stability ball activities, and functional strength activities (keeping your balance on one foot while manipulating small dumbbells in bicep curls) are a few ways to get started.  As you exercise in these ways, you are challenging your body and brain to stabilize through movement.  This works on the neuromuscular control necessary to develop stability both physically and in your singing.

While focusing on your neuromuscular control, you enhance your focus skills and start to feel better from the inside out!  Give the above suggestions a try and let me know how it goes!  Pilates work up next week!

Reduce Your Anxiety and Improve Your Overall Well-Being with Yoga, Pilates and Singing

Reduce Your Anxiety and Improve Your Overall Well-Being with Yoga, Pilates and Singing: 

It has been studied and reported for many years that yoga and music (specifically singing) can reduce anxiety, improve your overall mental health and just plain make you feel good!  NOW of all times is a good time to explore this concept!    We are all facing different challenges in this Pandemic of 2020.  Some from our work & school, others from family and friends and being responsible by staying home.  It introduces good things (more family time, time to explore hobbies, clean out the garage, get things done) and stressors (missing friends, performances being cancelled, time to enjoy our hobbies with others outside of our homes).  Both yoga and singing are said to help improve our mood and focus.  Now is a perfect time to explore the affects of Yoga, Pilates and Singing combined!

Yoga is a practice that  focuses and calms your mind, aligns your spine, improves posture, and strengthens your whole body which is all beneficial to singing.  Pilates takes mental focus in addition to strengthening your body from the inside out with much emphasis on ‘the core’ or abdominal muscles which are the powerhouse of a singer.  Both pilates and yoga are practices that help you to be more in tune with your body and pay attention to the needs and comfort of your body and mind.  Because your body is your instrument, it is essential to be in tune with it and take care of it as a singer.  It is clearly a good combination to work on your singing skills!

Singing itself releases endorphins that make us feel good.  We are seeing so many examples of how music is helping people cope and heal on social media today.  Because we all have added stresses and are adjusting to a temporary new 'normal', we can use a little extra help balancing ourselves using a combination of yoga, pilates, exercise in general and music to help our mental health.  

Lets take a moment and think about how yoga and pilates are helping our singing as well!  As a singer, your body is your instrument, so you should take care of it by exercising and eating well.  Both yoga and pilates help posture for singing.  Time is spent on body alignment, deep breathing, releasing tension within the body and mentally finding a better state of being.  Moving yourself to the mat with thy myriad of free programs available today will get you in a better frame of mind when anxiety creeps in.  Getting your body moving will calm your mind and the poses release physical tension while strengthening your muscles (and mind).  With regular practice, you will  have more control over your breath, be able to sing longer phrases, have more endurance, and feel better about yourself.   You will also be more in tune with your body and, just like an athlete, the more awareness you have over you body, the greater your success.

So, lets get moving. Try a few yoga poses to calm you brain and body.  A few of my suggestions are 

* Downward Dog and a few Sun Salutations will help you connect to your breath.  

* Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 poses to bring you empowerment and strength.  

* End with Tree to center you and lengthen the spine.  

 "Oommm" and relax and breathe.

And a few more Beginner Yoga Poses

Stay tuned for more on yoga next week!

You've Got This!! You Landed the Role, Now Keep It Healthy

You've Got This!!  You got the role of your dreams or one of the leads you thought you wanted in the show.  Your hard work paid off in the audition, now stay healthy so the hard work you are putting in through rehearsals can really be seen in the performances!  Don't throw away your shot by getting sick!

I know, so many rehearsals, lots of singing, dancing, acting, memorizing, all on top of the homework, work and life!  How do you find time to stay healthy with all of that?  Prioritize yourself and your physical and mental well-being and you will be so thankful!  Your body and mind work better and retain more information quickly if we are all around healthy!

Here are 6 things YOU can do to help yourself through the busy rehearsal schedule to make sure we all get to see YOUR BEST self in performance:

1. Sleep (8 hours a night is the goal)
2. Eat well (fruits, veggies, vitamins)
3. Drink lots of water (64 oz a day is a great goal)
4. Exercise (physical activity promotes a healthy mind and body) Yoga counts!
5. Limit interactions with those are sick and minimize our socialization if it interferes with 1-5
6. Practice (silent review of those lines, lyrics and choreography can actually go a long way)

 Pay attention to your body and mind, it knows what you need!   Now go out there and show them what you're made of!!

Summer Singing and Musical Theater Programs: Why Summer, what do YOU want, and Details on One Right Here that is PERSONALIZED for You or Your Child

                                                                 Summer Singing Programs and Musical Theater Programs

Why is summer the time to do an intensive Singing or Musical Theater program?  We often have unstructured time to fill in our summers.  Do something constructive that takes focus and concentration while having a fun time!  Sing, dance, and act and fine tune those skills to enhance your experiences throughout the year and increase your chances of getting cast in bigger roles, being given a solo, whatever your dream may be.

There are so many different options to choose from, how do you decide?  Take some time to analyze what you (or your child) need and want to get out of a program.  NOW is the time to address those things that need to be worked on or what you want to fine tune.

Do you need direction in what is the best repertoire for you to sing either in the musical theater genre or in general?  Do you need Vocal technique only?   Dance training?  Acting coaching? Vocal technique in combination with acting and dancing or work on all 3 simultaneously?  Confidence building?  Do you need a small setting for individual attention or a large setting where individual work is minimal?  Do you want a combination of all of the above?  Maybe you do 2 programs of different structures.  One can give you the individual attention you know you will thrive under and the other a larger stage experience.  If taken simultaneously or back to back you maximize your potential!  What is right for you or your child?

Here is an option to consider:

Summer Musical Theater Series:  

What is it?  Longer individual voice lessons over a span of a few weeks (5 lessons of 1 hour each over a 6 week period), an Acting a Song Masterclass and Dance Workshop.  This enables repertoire selected for each individual,  focus on learning 2 songs quickly, address vocal technique, text analysis, acting a song, and delivering musical theater repertoire in a performance.

Will this work with other summer programs?  This program is designed to work on all of these skill sets and enhance your skills in any other program you may be doing.  Commitment is 5 1 hour blocks of time over 5 1/2 weeks of Tuesday and Thursday teaching times.  You identify when you are available during teaching hours presented and which of 2 Workshops work for your schedule.  Focus on the INDIVIDUAL voice and how to add it to other performance aspirations.

When is it?  Tuesday/Thursday June 8-July 25, July 12 or 17 Masterclass and July 26 or August 1 Performance

How do I find out more?  Visit Susan Anders Brizick Website and Registration  Full Program Information and Registration page is found here.  You may also comment on this blog requesting information.   Happy Singing!!

What are the 2 most important things for you to do in the height of your intense Musical Theater rehearsal schedules? 1. Warm Up 2. Stay Healthy (and be disciplined about it)

What are the 2 most important things for you to do in the height of your intense Musical Theater rehearsal schedules?  1. Warm Up  2. Stay Healthy (and be disciplined about it)


Why is warming up on your own important?

Warming up is so essential to the health of your singing voice.  Everyone’s voice is different and needs different levels and amounts of warming up to perform well.  Think about athletes a minute.  Do all of them have the same routine of warming up before they go and play a game or a match?  No, they all may have similarities, but do different individual things to get themselves ready to go.  For example, one singer may only need 10 minutes to warm up and be ready to sing a full 2 hour rehearsal.  Another may need 15-20 minutes and start with a few yoga poses prior to that to make sure her body is in good alignment and her nerves are in check.  You never know how much time a director or teacher will give to warm ups or not.  If you know your voice is ready to go, you are in safe and productive territory.  Take the time to figure out what works best for you for warm up exercises both vocally and physically.  What did you do vocally in some of your best lessons or before a rehearsal?  What warm-ups do you like? What yoga postures help you get centered and focused?  You will feel good about what singing you are about to share.  Arm yourself with taking care of the muscles of your instrument to be the best singer you can be.

Why is staying healthy important? (or MORE likely HOW do I do it?)

We know it is important to stay healthy to sing and perform well, but HOW do you do it when you have so much on your plate with rehearsals, homework, work?  There are a few key things you can do:
1. Make sleep a priority 
2. Drink LOTS of water 
3. Add some extra vitamin c, orange juice
4. Wash your hands and use sanitizer 
5. Stay away from those who are sick

Believe it or not, your friends and family will understand if you explain you need to take care of yourself first and foremost, you are making sure you can be the best you can be for your performances.  Yes, you can say," I will talk to you later, need to stay healthy" OR" text me later, ok?".  You can put down the phone or ipad and focus on what ABSOLUTELY must get done so you get it done quicker and more efficiently.  Taking a little extra time for you and your vocal health by warming up ahead and health in general is going to put you in the best place!  I know its hard but you've got it.  Remember the old adage: "I can't, I've got rehearsal" and go do what you love!  Everyone will love YOU for it with the result (including you).

Belt is Legitimate Vocal Pedagogy and ALL Voice Training Should Develop Whole Voice in its Study

There is so much talk about 'belt' singing and all of the things that should go into developing a good 'belt' sound, many versions of 'belt' and many way ways to make sure it is healthy.  First and foremost, one must consider, "Are you using good technique and what is that technique?"

In an explosion of the may forms of popular vocal music, now termed CCM or Contemporary Commercial Music, there has been much study and development technique.  Sure, we are using the same instrument and muscles that we use for a more classical sound, but also using them slightly differently.  There is a different balance of how our muscles are used, but a balance nonetheless that is related to our more 'classical' voice.  For example, a lyric soprano has to be a lyric belter with thinner thyroarytenoid activity (TA) than a mezzo soprano/belter might use.

Let me back up and give a quick review of vocal muscles and how they work.  You have both thyroarytenoid muscles and cricothyroid muscles located in your larynx which with air help you to make sound or your vocal fold activity.  The thyroaryteniod muscles (TA) are responsible for shortening and thickening the vocal folds (a more chest voice sound) and the cricothyroid muscles (CT) are responsible for stretching and thinning the vocal folds (a more head voice or falsetto sound).  There are other helping muscles, but identifying these two will help you to understand how we create a more chest dominant sound versus head voice (falsetto in male).

When you are singing a lower chest/belt, your TA are more active and when you are singing in head voice/falsetto your CT are more active.  The opposing muscles are active to create a healthy and efficient sound.  It is keeping the TA-CT muscle interaction balanced which creates a healthy sound, whatever sound you are trying to create.

Vocal fold activity in combination with resonance create your overall phonation (what you sound like).  Your vocal folds are your sound source but do nothing without air.  Giving breath to your sound initiates it all and how your air resonates within the shape of your resonators (throat, mouth and nose) creates your unique sound and why no two voices are exactly alike.  When training singers, we teachers instruct you to think of taller, round vowels in classical singing and bright, narrow and more square vowels and often speech like sound in CCM singing.

"All voice training, Classical or CCM, should include the development of the entire vocal mechanism from the lowest TA- dominant sound to the highest CT-dominant sound, as well as he multitude of resonance options, so that the entire musculature gains strength, flexibility, coordination, and endurance"  Robert Edwin, Belt is Legit Journal of Singing November 2007

In other words, whatever area of singing you are working on, you should train your whole voice in that style, activating your CT dominant or TA dominant sound and its delicate balance.  Similar vocal exercises may be used to do this for both Classical and CCM, but with a belt voice versus a classical voice.  This concept of cross-training carries not only through your range, but through style transition, helps keep the voice healthy.  Imagine only ever using your quadracept muscles and not using your hamstrings.  Your legs would be out of balance.  Working both in balance, creates strong, sustainable legs.  Working both your TA and CT muscles in balance creates a solid and beautiful singing voice!

Stay tuned for more on Cross-Training the Voice!