I’m excited to embark on a new blog series about how the Alexander Technique can help choral musicians – both singers and conductors – rehearse and perform with ease, sing with healthy, free voices, reduce mental and physical strain, and in the end, make sounds that are more versatile and rich than ever!
The Indianapolis Women’s Chorus in concert. Photo Credit: Karl Zemlin, zemlinphoto.com.
Here are a few of the topics that I plan to explore:
- How can the Alexander Technique help singers?
- Easy, powerful breath energy
- Using your arms – for both singers and conductors
- Standing and singing
- Sitting and singing
- Creating your ideal choral sound without strain
- Performance anxiety
- Ways to incorporate the power of mind-body education into your rehearsal, while exquisitely preparing your music for performance!
Singers, remember: You are your instrument. All of you!
Your thoughts, muscles, bones, emotions, breath, and the way you use them – that’s your instrument. The Alexander Technique is, in my experience, uniquely qualified to help you unlearn the tension that may be keeping you from singing at your best, and to allow you to release into your full potential.
Conductors: You are also your instrument.
Every movement you make, every word you say in rehearsal has a direct effect on the sound your chorus creates. The Alexander Technique can help you learn to integrate your conducting gesture into your whole-body coordination, which gives you both power and precision and bring more awareness to all of your senses. It also helps you learn to conduct free from pain and strain, allowing you to release into your full potential.
I recently had a couple of conversations on these topics with Robert Rickover, an Alexander Technique teacher and host of the Body Learning podcast. Take a listen to our first conversation, about the Alexander Technique and Choral Conductors, at http://bodylearning.buzzsprout.com/382/409798-how-the-alexander-technique-can-help-choral-conductors, and stay tuned for the next conversation about Alexander Technique and Choral Singers by watching this page or subscribing to the podcast.
Do you wonder how the Alexander Technique can help you or your chorus? Do you have topics you’d like to read about in my blog series? Contact me! I would love to talk with you, and would be happy to create a custom workshop for your ensemble or conducting class.