Hello!

This is my very first blog entry ever! I’m very excited about starting a conversation with my students, clients, singers and speakers everywhere! Please consider this a forum for discussion of all things vocal.

This entry was sparked by a comment made by a voice student yesterday.

“Sally, your technique makes singing so simple, it’s cry-worthy!” (as the tears well up)

RaY RaY Pine, singer/songwriter

And why not? Why shouldn’t singing be simple? If I could answer that, I could retire! Here are the obvious factors:

       Body tension

       Poor body alignment

       Pre-conceived notions of how you should sound

       The thought that physical effort will “help” the sound come out

Plus many other factors that are all rooted in physiology and the resulting psychology.

The human body, barring congenital defect or system-altering accident, is a perfect vocal instrument from the moment of birth. The universal sign that birth has been achieved is that loud cry of protest from the newest occupant of the planet, boldly announcing her arrival.

So if this is a perfect instrument, why do we need to study how to use it well? Because we learn from others who have bad habits, then life begins to burden us, and when we don’t hear the result we want from our voice, we begin to manipulate and push and grab to make a sound.

So take the pressure off yourself, get your body back into alignment and begin speaking on pitch, speaking with meaning and your body’s brilliant, natural responses will begin to take over.

Much more on this discussion in my next blog entry.

To watch some videos on this subject and others, please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/sallymmorgan and feel free to contact me with comments!

Breathe,

Sally