A few years ago, I read the fascinating book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain. The premise of the book is that our nation values extroverts over introverts, gregariousness over contemplativeness and that the more dominant extrovert often is the one whose ideas are heard, even [...]
As a teacher that gives singing lessons to adults and children in Marin County and San Francisco, I often get puzzled looks when I say that I am also a teacher of the Alexander Technique. Often, prospective students have never heard of it, or they ask me if it is the same as the Feldenkrais [...]
What man calls beauty is the harmony of all he experiences...there is music in color, there is music in lines, there is music in the forest where there is a variety of trees and plants, in the way in which they correspond with each other...To the extent to which one sees more deeply into [...]
Practicing speaking, singing or any other musical instrument takes discipline and commitment. When you take voice lessons, it’s a given that you need to practice what you’ve absorbed in the lesson. That’s how our voices improve and grow. So, how does one create practice sessions that knit the need to practice technical concepts, which might [...]
How do we know when we've sung well? Aside from the kudos from audience members or the recording device, it's our senses that tell us. Singing is a multi-sensory experience - from aural and visual to, most important, kinesthetic. Many of our vocal technique “expressions” - head and chest voice or the voice being "forward" [...]
Vivien Mackie, an Alexander Technique teacher who as a young woman studied cello with the great Pablo Casals, quoted him as saying "we are elastic," that elasticity in the body is key to free movement. This applies to the singer too. Good singers and speakers know that "supporting" their voice with their abdominal muscles helps [...]
When I first started teaching, I abided by the dictum held by many traditional voice teachers that a child should not start voice lessons until their teens, after their vocal folds have developed, usually at around 13 years of age. It is thought that a child cannot truly learn vocal “technique” because of the vocal [...]
