BUT, Can You MOVE?

The expectation of the voice is different depending on the genre. In opera, you generally aren’t mic’d and must create your own amplification, and in theatre, you have a mic. Having the mic, or not, still demands a physicality in the development of the technique.

But, can you move?

Are you able to move your body while you sing? Again, I don’t mean pirouetting or doing the splits or running stairs or swinging from chandeliers (although, some DO!). I am talking about simply walking and moving and gesturing while inhabiting a character and honoring the text and the music.

Are you able to find what your vocal physicality needs, in order to allow your body to fully gesture on stage? Have you figured out how to separate in order to integrate?

Voice needs physicality no matter the genre - from singing to speaking. The body needs its physicality as well. One cannot truly exist without the other, especially if we need both.

There are no absolutes. No one has a monopoly on truth. We all need to discover for ourselves. As I have said before, there isn’t an exact science. The beauty of science is that it is constant discovery and the ability to change and morph with that discovery. No one person has all the answers. Some do it all “wrong” and it works.

All of us who work with the voice, and the artist, need to recognize the science, and stay curious about any particular physicality and psyche before us in order to adjust and make modifications for that particular body and psyche.

We need to learn how to meet the mindset as much as the instrument itself, and challenge the artist to recognize it and face it too.

We need to learn and know our lane. We all have a place, but creating a community of professionals that know their lane and their expertise to draw from is crucial for all of us, including the artist.

Perhaps, the most powerful thing I can tell a singer is “I don’t know, but I know someone who will so let me get back to you about that.”

I love having a community that I can share with singers and artists, in order for them to have access to professionals and specialists for details and personal recommendations.

This why we have coaches for musical & genre details; language coaches; dialect coaches; This is why we have laryngologists; speech pathologists; muscle-centric specialists; dance specialists; pelvic floor specialists; breath specialists; performance psychologists; acupuncturists; massage therapists; physical and manual therapists; And the list goes on as we need.

We can work from the micro to the macro. We can use from the macro to the micro. It all depends what an individual singer needs.

Ultimately the goal is integration to move from macro to micro and back again seamlessly - voice, breath and body. This isn’t a quick fix. Nothing real is a quick fix. It’s not a trick. It is developing the possibility of behavior. It is about exploring and remaining curious and asking questions.

It is learning how to integrate, and then learning how to release and separate in order to adjust and fine tune again.

Why do we do that? Longevity and ease and honesty of instrument.

So what should we be asking? Again, there are a million things depending on what you are focused on. What do you expect of your voice teacher? Is it realistic? What does your voice teacher expect of YOU? is that realistic?

Do you have other specialists in your community or access to those specialists when you need it? Who do you feel is priceless and why?

And can you MOVE? What do I mean?

Can you release and engage the body while you work the breath? Can you gesture? Can you breathe through phrases with the body without making sound? Can you walk, bend, sit, stand, balance while you release your breath?

Can you release and find the engagement of the voice while you aren’t moving? What does it require of you vocally and physically?

And then, can you MOVE? Can you gesture while singing with the intensity determined by the genre and style? Can you release phrases easily? Can you walk and bend and sit and stand and balance without becoming a pretzel while singing and while releasing your breath? Do you recognize the micro and the macro?

Can you move your attention from macro to micro seamlessly?

Yes, a voice teacher can help you, but they aren’t all things to all people. Do you have the specialists in place to access those macros and micros of each detail you need as a performer? And can you keep that balance consistent?

Is your physicality informing your voice? Is your voice informing your physicality? Is your mindset elevating the integration or fighting it?

“Oh you just sing” is a dismissive statement by those who do not know what we do.

Isolate as long as you need until the behaviors of all these details become second nature and then allow them to dance together. Can you move and sing? Can you move and breathe? Can you move and gesture in the physical understanding of the character? Can you allow your mindset to enhance all of this in order to integrate it all?

This is what we work toward: to become conscious of none. To move as we are motivated to do the action; to be moved to gesture and follow through with breath and physicality; to be to move through phrases without panic; and to move an audience by the commitment of creating a character through the body, breath and sound, as well as texture of language and story telling in tone and text.

Just sing? Hardly. But don’t be afraid to seek out specifics and find the people who are experts in their lanes so they can give you more knowledge, more tools and more empowered knowledge so YOUR lane has your mark on it.

And if you can’t move yet, it’s okay. One step at a time. One detail at a time. One piece of knowledge at a time. Learn, discover, get curious, make choices, finesse, and integrate.

That’s when you create and curate the sweet spot of everything aligning as it should.

with fondness & fierceness,