'I think where I am not, and I am not where I think…………' (Lacan)



Keeping it simple…..singing technique…………Keywords……….




If singing works for you, then don't read this.  If you feel there is something missing in your singing, or that there is more to know, here are some ideas.

Support…..the most difficult idea in the whole of singing. Easy to say, difficult to do.
It is another word for……..

Connection…….this is the point of learning to sing, and is the difference between amateur and professional singing. It is about joining with a movement in the body, best described as a wave, that connects your muscles, your out-breath and your sound all together.

Joining……..is what singing does for us. It joins us with the audience, with each other and inside ourselves. The diaphragm, breathing,  works beyond volition, doing what the body feels rather than what the mind thinks. Catharsis works because the performer takes the audience on a journey despite themselves. The cleansing, the cathartic release can only happen because the audience has joined the performer on his journey and goes where he goes physically whatever they may be thinking.  This goes on independent of will and trying.                   

Allowing………this is about the recognition that the major physical functions which constitute life, happen independently of conscious control. The most important and obvious of these is breathing. As a singer, it is your job to join with the natural movement of breathing without getting in the way. Imposing what you think it ought to be on top of what you do anyway is the fast track to vocal death. The only thing you can consciously do to breathing is to mess it up. The only way to make it better is to let go of it more, to de-control it, to agree to let it take its course. This is the principal of allowing. It is about setting free the unconscious movement that enables us to sing. Your job is to find where and what it is and connect with it.

Making………this is a problem word in singing. It is about your relationship with the process of doing it. Too much and you get in the way, too little and nothing happens.
Think of a car. You turn on the engine and trust it will just work. You don't have to 'make' it work. You drive by means of co-operation with vehicle. The same in singing. It should be noted that just because you know how an engine works does not mean you are a good driver. They are different skills.