7 December

One of the things that fascinates me about singing is how great singers (and it can take enormous practice) are those who don’t sing with their voice. They sing with their whole body. Singing just with your voice will normally ruin your voice, your ‘voice’ is a sound made by your entire body, not just your throat. Using the whole body frees a singer up for creative expression. Think I’ve suggested before that all of our activities in daily life can be like that. Many of us stop allowing our bodies to learn how to do everyday things better. Our walking and sitting and running and use of our hands are stuck at an immature level of development. We’re tight and effortful, everything is held, including our breath and thoughts. You can tell when that’s happened when ‘parts’ of you start to seem to go bad. You get a ‘bad back’ or ‘sore knee’. Your shoulders ache, your hip hurts. There’s likely nothing wrong with your back or knee or shoulders or hip, they’re the victims of a not properly integrated activity. As good singing teachers sometimes say, your speaking voice (the voice you use in everyday, integrated activity) is the root of your singing voice, if you lose that foundation in your singing, your singing (and throat) will suffer. You lose full body integration. (And much as I loved Freddie Mercury, he butchered his throat. It’s terrible to suggest a few lessons could have helped him sing for longer and without damage, but I think it’s true. On those last tours the voice was often shot.)