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BodyLine
By Daniel K. Robinson
(2011)
To all our die hard cricket fans out there the title of this article, Body Line, doesnot refer to the controversial bowling tactic used by the English during the Ashestour of 1932–33. Instead this piece is going to focus on the topic of posture;more correctly referred to as Body Alignment.There are few things in singing more fundamental than body alignment. Evenbreath management, while fundamental to phonation, plays the game of ‘chicken and egg’ with body alignment because both technical aspects are sointricately connected. Daniel Zanger Borch (2005) writes, “Good postureimproves your ability to control your breathing and is the basis of good vocaltechnique…The muscles that we use to control our breathing demand that thebody is balanced from top to toe” (p. 16).The development of positive postural alignment theory first commenced with thework of Francis Matthias Alexander (1869 – 1955), an Australian actor/reciter.Known as the Alexander Technique, this discipline encourages the developmentand awareness of body mechanics. Since its inception, other methodologistshave developed the ideas of body mechanics further with Feldenkrais(movement re-education) and William Conable’s Body Mapping being among themore prominent. In
What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body
,MaryJean Allen (2009) provides the following definitions of Body Mappingstating:
The body map is your mental representation of your body’s size, structure, andfunction. The body map is of enormous importance to singers because theintegrity of any movement depends on the integrity of the body map thatgoverns it. When you correct and refine your body map, your movementsimprove, resulting in better singing.
Kinaesthesia is the sixth (often forgotten) sense, the perception of your body inmotion. Singers who learn how to perceive their bodies kinaesthetically willclearly discern movement size, position, and quality, which is vital for beautiful,communicative and healthy singing.
Inclusive awareness is conscious, simultaneous organised awareness of yourinner and outer experience. Inclusive awareness includes kinaesthesia. (p. 2)
Developing a buoyant body state through heightened awareness is challengingand takes time for the student singer to master. It has been my experience inobserving singing students that bodies often do the most unusual things in orderto ‘support’ the voice. And herein lays the trick. Your body is the voice! Forinstance the thrusting forward of the head and neck is a classic example of aninstrument that is working too hard. When asked about neck protrusion during
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