KAIKILLE AVOIN
Feldenkrais-viikonloppu 15 – 16.9.2012
la 13 -17.30, su 10-15.30
François Combeaun 30 vuoden kokemus feldenkrais®opettajana on tehnyt hänestä kysytyimpiä feldenkrais®opettajia ja -valmentajia maailmassa. Combeaun viikottaiset, kaikille avoimet Awareness Through Movement® (ATM- eli ryhmätunti) tunnit Ranskassa ovat hyvin suosittuja, kuten myös monet hänen pitämänsä seminaarit ja teemasarjat Pariisissa, muualla Euroopassa ja Yhdysvalloissa. Näihin osallistuvat erityisesti taiteen, urheilun, liikunnan ja terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset.
Combeau antaa myös yksityistunteja. Yksityistuntien aikana työstetään oppilaiden henkilökohtaisia teemoja heidän elämänlaatuaansa parantamaan.
Ennen kuin Combeau aloitti feldenkrais-koulutuksensa 1984 (M Pfeffer, G Yaron, Ch Chelav, R Alon, A Baniel, J Kazren), hän harrasti tanssia, pantomiimia sekä erilaisia rentoutusmenetelmiä. Combeau on suorittanut perusopinnot kiinalaisesta lääketieteestä, Tao-joogasta, Zen-meditaatiosta ja kamppailulajeista.
”Liike ja ääni” –teema on kiinnostanut Combeauta yli 30 vuotta. Hänellä on klassisen laulun sekä myös ääni- ja puheterapian koulutus, erikoisalana neuropsykologia. Hän on toiminut kuntouttajana yhdessä Pariisin kuuluisimmista aivovammoihin erikoistuneessa sairaalassa, missä hän edelleen toimii konsulttina. Combeau avasi 16 vuotta sitten oman vastaanottonsa Pariisissa, ”Somatic Education”.
Lisää Francois Combeausta www.feldenkrais-au-present.com
The head, a periscope to sense the outside world (keeping head and neck free and mobile)
When true verticality returns, the head, which bears the sensory organs, recovers total freedom of movement, broader visual and auditory fields and the perception of contrast. And Human being considerably expanded his field of observation and action.
This new orientation relative to gravity led to the development of the front of the brain and gave access to the higher functions of the central nervous system.
We will explore that very important part of our spine, C7/T1, as it relates to the upper cervical spine, atlas, axis and the head. It swivels on the seventh cervical vertebra, which provides the unstable stability² for it to remain upright without having to be held up by the neck muscles. That vertebra (C7) is also the link between the shoulder area and the spine, therefore it´s mobility is very important for a free, efficient and functional use of the arms and hands.
When the larynx dropped under the effect of gravity, its suspenders developed while the voice widened its range, became more mobile, and the pharyngeal crossroads opened. The tongue moved back, making room for increasingly differentiated language in terms of phonetics as well as colours (movements of the soft palate, pharynx ...) and intonations etc.
In other words all these functions depend on the balance of the head and the freedom of each cervical vertebra. With constantly renewed curiosity and creative attention to his own way of proceeding, each student will feel movement become easier, greater freedom in day-to-day activities and a true and open relationship with the outside world.
François Combeau
"The speaking and singing voice is
basically a gesture, in other words a movement
of the body to express a thought or feeling."
(Tarneaud)
The vocal
gesture is an all-embracing action involving the
entire self, both physical and mental. The voice
radiates from our innermost self. From the first cry
at birth, the symbol of life, to the last breath
taken on our deathbed, the voice (closely tied to
the breath) is the lifeline bearing our emotions,
hopes and fears. As the first vocal expression of
the new born baby, the cry is according to Guy
Cornut "a fundamental means of liberation tension".
It is indeed the expression of a tension, discomfort
connected with hunger, pain... It is an instinctive
action bringing into play all muscular groups. Just
watch the face, hands and feet of a crying baby. The
unity of action linking its breathing, tonicity and
sound is very striking.
The vocal
gesture is a global muscular action
In an adult, a cry is
an irrational sound expressing anguish, a call, a
prayer, torture or pain; it is the voice in its pure
state, over which our conscious mind has no control.
But the baby, as it becomes aware of its
surroundings and its dependance on them, starts to
use its voice as a language of exchange. However
inarticulate, the sounds it makes become the
expression of feelings that any attentive mother
knows how to interpret. Gradually the vocal sounds
become differentiated into gurgles of satisfaction,
cries of displeasure, howls of anger, moans...
The voice
is an emotional bridge between the self and
others
From the age of two to
three months, a second component of the human voice
starts to develop its extraordinary wealth and
variety of possibilities. This is when the baby
babbles. As it discovers its own body, its movements
and its surroundings it emits sounds and noises and
plays with them. Babbling is an extraodinarily rich
and varied set of vocalisations that are pleasing to
babies and that they love to repeat without giving
them any special meaning... Noises made by the
tongue, the lips, sound frequencies from the larynx
appear at random as the baby plays, and constitute
practice towards articulation and phonation.
The human
voice is blessed with an endless wealth of
colours, tones and sounds
The child then begins
to attune its vocalizing system to what it is able
to hear. It begins to imitate and to give a
more precise meaning to the sounds it makes... The
idea of vocal play gradually fades away. The sounds
produced become poorer, and very soon the
spontaneity and globality of the baby's prattle are
forgotten. Timbre, tone and sound intensity are
evened out, and the conscious mind increasingly
takes control. The voice, breath and muscular
activity are no longer intimately linked ; slowly
but surely vocalization and gesture move further
apart.
The first signs of
language appear. The child's language becomes
standardized, acquires structure and becomes
codified. It integrates a cultural system and
the voice will accordingly develop in a specific
limited direction.
The aesthetic criteria,
habits, living conditions and pace of life,
languages and oral tradtions in every culture and
civilisation channel the use of Man's vocal
potential. Our voice is often the outcome of a
lengthy process of subconscious learning.
However, the voice
continues to be a communication channel directly
connected to one's affect and emotions. To
speak is to give oneself away, to betray
oneself. When fear or surprise sets in, the
sound itself is stifled: "I wanted to speak but I
lost my voice ; it took my breath away; the feeling
left me speechless..." The voice reveals us by
amplifying our physical and mental, psychological
and cosmic beings, it sticks to our skin while
mirroring us. That is its duality.
Through
the voice, the inner being is expressed
The testimony of a
blind girl, Paula Arbel ("Sorcière" journal on the
voice) is extremely revealing in this respect. She
wrote: "for the past two years I have been living in
the dark night of blindness... The experience has
made me realize that in the same way as faces, each
voice is an intriguing phenomenon, a mystery, an
adventure... For me it no longer represents an
accessory but the person as a whole... The voice
expresses sensuousness and is addressed to my own
sensuousness. The essential, which cannot be seen
with the eyes, without doubt is conveyed by the
voice... The being springs out through its voice,
thereby offering a spectacle that can be watched
eyes closed."
We are all capable of
making sound movements of incredible complexity, and
the discovery of one's own voice is the start of an
exciting dialogue both with oneself and with the
universe. The mystery of the voice forms part of the
mystery of life.
"Beyond
music and language, the voice is a permanent
emanation of life, a proof of our
existence." (Betsy Jolas, Voix et musique)
There is no such thing
as a good or bad voice. There are only voices
waiting to be discovered. In our work, we try to
restore the natural vocal gesture, its incorporation
in the body, its capacity to convey our feelings,
our sensuousness, and to meet our intentions.
Instead of talking about placing the
voice, I had rather talk about awaking the voice.
The voice
is sound energy, communication energy...
It connects the person to his or her
surroundings and inner being through resonance.
This energy once drawn
and captured during the intake of breath is then
turned into sound energy in the larynx and loaded
with an affective message articulated and developed
at the level of the resonators and organs of
articulation. It is restored during phonic
expiration and carried to the ear of the
listener. That is its dynamics.
The larynx merely acts
as a transformer and not, as too many singers
believe, a generator of sound. Its physiological
structure does not allow it to create sound energy
(consider the power displayed by certain singers,
how could the two tiny vocal chords generate such a
phenomenon?). Using the vocal apparatus in this way
would very soon inevitably lead to exhaustion, vocal
fatigue... singing from the throat... pushing
sound...
For the energy stored
during the intake of breath to become sound, it must
be able to circulate freely through the body,
without being held up at any point through
tension. This is an essential stage in our
work.
Rediscovering
the
natural gesture, the dynamics of voice
projection
requirements for it to
travel all the way. In his study on the various
vocal techniques and their relationship with voice
compass, Helmut Lips gives us very useful
information in this connection.
Just as the tree rises
towards the light from its strongly anchored roots,
ensuring stability and strength, the singer finds
the body balance and power of projection by
anchoring himself to the ground. The spine, fully
extended (fight against distortions) participates in
:
- the full intake of
breath (free movement of the diaphragm, opening of
the chest, mobility of the ribs...) ;
- the toning up of
expiration, hence breath control (through free and
efficient use of the abdominal muscles) ;
- the relaxation of the
neck, shoulder and face muscles, on which the
flexibiity and mobility of the vocal apparatus,
articulation and the opening of the resonators
depend.
The voice
must radiate from the person's entire body and
mind.
It is a gesture, an
action, and in these dynamics the entire body is
active from head to toes. This is how we will
rediscover the spontaneous action of the baby's
crying or singing.
TO LIVE EN FREEDOM,
BREATHE IN FREEDOM !
«Go beyond what is
breathing, there you will find breath» (Shri Aurobindo)
"Breathing with a capital
B" is a universal, dynamic process in which man is
included. It manifests itself in us through
respiration, apparent as inhalation and exhalation.
This is indeed a two-way flow between the inner and
outer worlds, a gateway to All. This dynamic process
does not belong to us. It is a cycle triggered
without any intervention of the mind and sustained
beyond our control. Yet we can intervene through
voluntary muscles which shrink or expand spaces and
impose shapes.
This duality can be
difficult to accept at times. What I mean to say is
that all our work on breathing, the changes we are
seeking and the control we are striring to acquire
should never relegate breathing to a possession -
under the ownership of the Ego - or a creation of
the mind. When breathing loses its natural rhythm
and spontaneous dynamism, it loses its linking
function and rapidly becomes an ill-adapted response
to our needs "here and now".
«A man's life is
nothing but a concentration of breath.” (Lao Tseu)
Deep breathing is not
confined to the chest or diaphragm movements. It
involves the entire body. Unicity and balance are
the features of healthy breathing. For all parts of
the body to live and breathe fully, the chest must
be stripped of its armour, the face must allow the
passages (nostrils, pharynx, glottis...) to loosen,
and the spine must recover its wholeness and
flexibility, so as to track the wave of breath as it
wells up from the abdomen, travels right through the
body and unfurls across the face.
Most of the time the
respiratory function proceeds unconsciously under
the control of the nervous system in the rachis.
Unbeknown to us, it adjusts to all physical,
emotional and environmental situations (activity,
posture...).
It does so by alterning
in:
- Rhythm (e.g. slowing
during sleep and the vegetative states, speeding up
during physical activity, becoming steady or uneven,
or even temporarily suspended as in swallowing) ;
- Location (thoracic,
latero-costal, clavicular, costal-abdominal, dorsal
or pelvic breathing, depending on the relationship
and orientation of the movements involved) ;
- Range, to match the
expiratory requirements at any one time as well as
the function to be accompanied.
And so on...
Breathing espouses a
pattern connected with our condition, past history
and memory : this is what is termed tangible breath.
Behind thus, however, there is intangible breath.
By embodying universal
breath in us, breathing indeed provides a two-way
flow between the inner and outer worlds.
Consequently, if nothing is there to impede this
dynamic process, it can remain free and adapt to the
reality of both worlds while meeting our needs,
intentions, activities, emotional states and
relationships. It faithfully shadows our physical
life as well as the subtle changes in our emotional
life.
A person's breathing
patterns cannot therefore evolve by means of any
conditioned learning or by imposing a system but by:
- Recovering freedom of
the physical support and actualization site of our
bodies and body movements;
- Returning the nervous
system's capacity to receive information’s from both
inner and outer worlds
- Producing an
appropriate response by controlling the opening-up
processes and developments leading to its
expression.
To achieve this,
breathing must be cleared of the fixed ways acquired
unconsciously in the cause of our lives, and of its
emotional ruts or habits learned through some
technique or other (... the "proper way" to breathe
! For whom ? But why ?..).
Who knows only one way
to breathe, soon becomes a truly disabled breather.
It is simply a matter
of feeding the nervous system with all kinds of
experiences to enable it to select here and now,
without involving the ego or the mind.
Any conditioning of
respiratory pattern, site or rhythm freezes
breathing and hence activity, affect and thoughts.
If you want to generate
movement from breath, do not begin by setting the
breathing pattern.
There are no bad ways
of breathing but only inappropriate respiratory
responses to the accompanied function or to the
state we unexpectedly (with raising of the
shoulders) might be harmful to the speaker or
singer's voice (because of the effect on laryngeal
tension), it is a fully appropriate response for the
survival of an asthmatic or someone drowning. As for
abdominal breathing, which is quiet and deep, it is
hardly liable to convey even gentle feeling let
alone passion.
As a teacher, I see my
role as a guide in re-exploration rather than the
possessor of knowledge who would set a model to be
imitated or decide what is suitable for others. Who
am I to know what is right for another person or
what he might really need ? I only feel capable of
observing - without always understanding - what is
holding back that person, what in that physical
support for breath to manifest itself, might freeze
and set constraints, or what is ruled by habit,
conditioning and set ideas...
My role then consists
in suggesting to each concerned a variety of
suitable contexts and environments (situations,
postures, activities) for him or her to be able to
explore further possibilities, as well as
differentiated responses to be memorized.
This also serves to
enhance the self-image, filling it out with more
clearly perceived spaces and shapes, and the
mobility of the parts of the body producing the
dynamic process (ribs, sternum, spine, shoulder
blades, abdominal wall, nostrils...) is
re-discovered. Finally, awareness and
differentiation games can be suggested so that the
person can feel more clearly his or her basic need
and unconsciously adjust respiratory response,
renewed at every moment and recreated to suit every
requirement.
SENSORIMOTOR
DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE,
OR THE ADVENTURE
OF THE HUMAN RACE
And man stood
upright...
This is perhaps one of
the most extraordinary episodes in the history of
the human race, with man risking unsteadiness on two
feet in order to further extend his field of
observation and action, and his area of influence.
Thus having discovered how to stand upright and
having completely revised the relationship of his
head to the rest of his body, the way was now open
for man to produce articulate language, to develop
his singing voice and to increase its range. No
longer would man's language be restricted to making
sounds or grunts to show his mood, or even his
presence.
It would now become a
highly complex tool used to establish connections
between objects and events, to determine his
relationships with other humans, to determine other
humans' relationship to them, to make relationships
with others more sophisticated, to become organised,
to communicate with each other, to become
individuals.
One of the brain's
functions is to produce language. Language is
therefore closely linked to the workings of the
brain, but in order to produce language and
meaningful speech the brain needs an instrument, or
rather a particular organ, namely the vocal
apparatus, or glottis. It is here that the brain's
messages concerning sound and intonation are
articulated. In order to develop language the brain
must therefore have at its disposal an organ capable
of responding to commands concerning phonation and
articulation.
Can any parallel be
seen between man's ability to stand upright and the
development of the anatomical features necessary for
the production of articulate speech ?
Attempts to teach
chimpanzees to talk have proved futile. Admittedly
after many experiments the chimps managed to
understand that "cup" meant a bowl containing drink,
and they could express this with gestures.
Nevertheless it was still impossible for them to
pronounce even such a simple word. They thus
revealed themselves to be incapable of producing
anything more than grunting noises. Therefore it is
not an issue of the brain's abilities, since by
their gestures the chimps showed that they could
understand. Rather it is a question of the
unsuitability of the vocal apparatus, the
instrument, and its inability to produce
distinguishable sounds.
In monkeys the vocal
apparatus is not designed to produce a range of
articulate sounds. This is not because the glottis
is absent, but because it is positioned too high up
in the throat. There is not enough space above the
larynx to allow freedom of movement and
articulation, restricting language to a series of
inarticulate grunts or shrieks. The cervical
vertebrae are either posteriorly convex, or very
flat. The larynx and the hyoid bone (which enables
us to locate the larynx) are situated very high up
in the throat. The head is anterior to the central
axis of the body. As a result of this very highly
placed larynx, the monkey and Neanderthal man were
able to simultaneously breathe through their noses
and swallow, a feat impossible for modern man.
The position of the
hyoid bone in relation to the spinal column and to
the lower jawbone at the base of the brain
determines freedom of movement for both the larynx
and the tongue, and therefore determines the ability
both to speak and to develop the higher functions of
the brain. Numberous studies seem to show that
although Neanderthal man's brain was larger than
ours, modern man's brain is capable of far more.
Even if Neanderthal man apparently had a wealth of
facial expressions, gestures and technical
abilities, he was incapable of producing articulate
language. Hence it was only with great difficulty
that he could make new logical deductions, devise
new schemes, and communicate his thoughts and ideas.
Therefore it is indeed
the lowering of the vocal apparatus in the throat
and the opening up of a large supralaryngeal space,
as well as the evolution of the brain, which have
made possible the articulation of sounds and the
development of human language as we know it today.
This new head position and the formation of the
anteriorly convex cervical curve came about when man
stood erect, in other words it was owing to an
optimum organisation of the skeleton in the
gravitational field, an organisation which offered
the least resistance to gravity and freed lower and
upper limbs, making the arms independent and agile,
opening up man's field of vision and
heightening his sensory perception of the space in
which he lived and moved.
Thus, in the
relatively flat savannahs he inhabited, his new
speed and ease of movement, together with his wide
field of vision and the fact that he now looked
straight ahead (another consequence of the head's
new position and the fact that he walked upright)
gave him a distinct advantage over the animals
around him (who moved slowly and were only aware of
what was in their immediate vicinity) enabling him
to follow a bird of prey's flight path so that he
could reach the spot where the prey dropped before
any other animal. He could then dismember it and
carry off chunks of meat (the birds of prey being
unable to feast on prey until its skin softened).
However the ability to
stand upright also made man genuinely unsteady on
his feet, forcing him to make permanent reajustments
to his balance. He had to develop sensorial and
kinaesthetic sensors able to send messages to the
brain at all times, including during activity,
concerning the way movements are performed and the
environment in which they occur. Man's alertness and
awareness level also increased as the central
nervous system became highly flexible in order to
adapt quickly to new situations, and to create motor
responses which gave equal consideration to the
reason for performing the action, the environment in
which it occurred and the underlying emotions
involved.
Modern man's brain has
therefore moved towards a sensorimotor means of
functioning, with differentiation and
neuroplasticity being the principal determining
factors in the adaptation process.
Let us return for a
moment to the head's new position and how it is
connected to the development of articulate speech.
In the big apes, as in
the human infant, the cervical curve is posteriorly
convex. A very flat inferior surface and a hyoid
bone placed very high up in the throat eliminate
virtually all supralaryngeal space and put the
larynx in direct contact with the back of the nasal
passages, separating the respiratory airways and the
alimentary canal. This arrangement of the organs,
which ensures that food cannot go down the wrong
way, enables the animal or young child to eat and
breathe at the same time. When the human race took
this last step towards standing upright the head was
pushed backwards and raised and the cervical curve
was altered. This led to the larynx dropping to
below the level of the chin, thus opening up the
supralaryngeal area (forming the pharynx, a
crossroads between the oral, nasal, and laryngeal
passages) and creating suspensors for this vocal
instrument which continued, in a more supple and
elastic way than previously, to be linked to the
lower jawbone, to the base of the brain, to the
cervical column, to the collarbone and to the
sternum. These suspensors made it very flexible,
enabling it to be rased and lowered, and allowing
the vocal cords to be stretched quite significantly
(thus giving the voice range and intonation). This
suppleness also enabled man to modify the
supralaryngeal space and the pharynx, allowing him
in particular to produce sounds with ever more
distinctive timbres and colours capable of
expressing a whole range of emotions.
Similarly it can be
seen that just like the larynx, the tongue, which
inserts on to the hyoid bone and the epiglottis,
moved further back into the mouth. The fact that the
tongue's base was now in the throat also helped in
opening up the pharyngeal space, which eventually
became an area of free movement. This is what made
it possible for the first back phonemes, produced
using the base and the back of the tongue, and
predominantly found in the so-called "primitive"
languages, to be produced.
Each new experience
enriched the central nervous system with further
possibilities for coordinating movement. The range
of articulate sounds increased, particularly since
once man was capable of moving a particular muscle
he was also capable of holding it still. Thus the
suppler the back of the tongue became, the more it
could be used as a support for movement elsewhere,
firstly in the middle of the tongue, with the
appearance of mid phonemes, and then similarly at
the tip of the tongue with front phonemes, which are
so commonplace in modern day language. This tongue
previously only been capable of backward and forward
movements (which normally occurred when the head
moved), was now able to move diagonally upwards and
horizontally with increasing precision, thus laying
the foundation for language, namely an increasingly
controlled use of the tongue enabling it to produce
distinguishable sounds.
So it can be said that
the development of the tongue was a result of the
head's upright position and the alteration in the
shape of the cervical curve.
What is happening in
infants ?
We have seen that in
the human infant the shape of the cervical curve and
the position of the head are very similar to that
found in the big apes, hence the high positioning of
the larynx in the throat, and the ability to
simultaneously eat and breathe. The cervical curve
becomes anteriorly convex during the child's first
year of life. The larynx then moves to the position
it will occupy for the rest of the baby's life, and
the tongue moves slightly further back in the mouth
uncovering the gums at the mouth's opening and
developing freedom of movement at its base, thus
facilitating free swallowing. It can be seen that in
the infant too these developements only occur once
he is upright, so there is clearly a parallel, a
cause and effect relationship, between the ability
to stand erect and the production of articulate
language.
The human baby is born
into the world with a brain which is already
advanced and rich with the experience of the
species, and yet he is totally dependent on others
and physically very restricted. Therefore in order
to be able to stand upright he has to develop his
central nervous system through experience and
sensorimotor learning. He follows a long process of
motor development which, upon close examination,
bears a remarkable resemblance to that followed by
the human race, from its aquatic origins to modern
day man. Starting with the use of flexors he
produces his first cries, moves the head and the
pelvis closer together and puts the vocal cords in
place. Then he uses the extensors to support eye
movement and to open the mouth by lowering the lower
jaw, thus freeing the soft palate. Next the child
learns to turn round and to grasp objects, to make
uncoordinated feet movements (with his ankles and
toes) and to move his lips backwards and forwards
(in relation to gravity). After this he combines all
the different ways of crawling and starts to move
his tongue mostly in response to movements in the
cervical vertebrae, the limbs, and the pelvis. Thus
his crawling becomes ever faster, freeing the head
and widening this field of observation and movement,
releasing the jaw and making the cervical and lumbar
curves more pronounced as they are subjected to
gravitational forces, bringing movement to the hip
area and preparing for the time when the child will
stand upright. This process continues until the
often eagerly awaited moment when the child stands
on two feet, awkwardly at first, stumbling clumsily
with undifferentiated movements, then gradually
improving until he achieves the simultaneously heavy
and light balance of a man standing upright, or the
"stable instability" of a head ready to use all its
sensorial abilities.
In order to fully
develop his nervous system the infant must go
through all these stages. And the way in which he
experiences them will condition his development.
These first sensorimotor experiences and the
transition period while the central nervous system
goes through the stages of maturity, which are
related to the ancient evolutionary pattern, will
determine how the child realises his potential. On
the basis of these experiences the child, and later
the adult, will organise his behaviour, his way of
acting and reacting, and more particularly the way
he moves from intention to action.
These first experiences
will form the bases of a person's self-image. As
Moshe Feldenkrais said "Each person acts and
regulates his physical and psychological conduct
according to his self-image" (conscious and
unconscious image in his motor cortex). It is the
image of his body, its contours, the relationship
between different body parts, temporal and spatial
relationships, spaces which will become areas of
respiration, sound and movement. A person's
self-image is also a representation of their
feelings and thoughts, of their relationship to the
space around them, to others, to the environment and
to gravity.
When a child or adult
is referred to you with some sort of disorder or
limitation, the first thing to establish is the way
he makes the transition from the intention to act
and the actual performance of the action, in other
words how the intention or thought materialises in a
physical organ into "body and movement". Indeed
every human function involves a physical organ and
it would be foolish to think we could improve a
function or alter a behaviour pattern without the
organ being free, functional and differentiated in
its movements.
From a pedagogical
viewpoint
The way a pupil or
patient moves (in other words their vocal,
respiratory and articulatory behaviour for example)
is always by definition the most appropriate way he
has found within himself to react to a given
stimulus and situation. It is dependent on a
person's self-image. It is therefore not for me to
say whether it is correct or incorrect but rather to
hear, see and feel whether this function is in line
with the singer's intention (in terms of producing
the expression, colour of note and articulation
desired) and whether this intention, whatever it may
be, is clear.
If it is not, I examine
how the different body parts and functions
interrelate in order to determine where and why the
limitation is taking place, causing the movement to
be unsuccessful. What we can see as observers is
often only the final result of a long string of
uncoordinated processes which must be performed
again if they are to be eliminated.
We then become guides
in an experiment, in an adventure in a moving body,
a nervous system, a mind, a voice. The work becomes
an exchange of information between the pupil (who
provides information through his behaviour and his
outward appearance) and the teacher who, according
to what he sees and hears, then also provides
information at the right moment and in as clear a
manner as possible. This occasions a new response, a
fresh sensation...
Thus a richer and more
complete self-image is created, enabling the pupil
to more effectively and more expressively use his
voice and body, and to make the most of his
inexhaustible potential.
Let us also look at how
to deal with a respiratory limitation
Firstly we must
observe, without necessarily understanding, what is
restricting the person, what it is in the physical
organ where breath is produced which is stiffening
and thus showing signs of constraint, what can be
put down to habit, conditioning, and preconceived
ideas... Then it is our job to suggest contexts and
environments to him (situations, postures,
activities) and to restore free movement to the body
parts which form part of the respiratory system
(ribs, sternum, spinal column, shoulder blades,
abdominal wall, nasal passages...). Finally
awareness and differentiation games will enable the
person to see their basic needs more clearly and to
unconsciously modify their respiratory response - a
response which is continuously being reinvented and
recreated to correspond to his needs, intentions,
activities and emotional state.
You can not therefore
develop a person's respiratory system by
conditioning it to act in a particular way, but
rather by :
- restoring freedom to
the physical organ, and specifically to our body and
its movements,
- return the nervous
system to a state where it is ready to receive
information from inside and outside the body,
- giving an appropriate
response to the restriction. This can be achieved by
controlling those movements which are responsible
for it.
In order to do this the
respiratory system must be cleared of set habits
which each person unconsciously acquires during the
course of his lifetime, and also of emotional
fixations and techniques learnt (such as the
"correct" way to breathe, without considering that
the respiratory system functions differently in
different people and in different situations).
How can we get rid of
limitations, redevelop muscle sense and restore
flexibility to the nervous system ?
We have seen that in
order to make his central nervous system reach a
degree of maturity which will enable him to stand
upright and to articulate, the infant uses movement
as part of a development process similar to that of
the human race. Therefore in order to eliminate a
habit and the limitations of a self-image which has
been restricted and damaged by a person's life
experiences, we will use these movements, these
ancient evolutionary patterns, these principles of
somatic learning and education - reawakening a
person's interest and curiosity in his own body and
giving him the freedom to coordinate his movements.
During each session a movement and its many
variations will be suggested as ways of
differentiating attention, restoring choice,
allowing a person to rediscover what freedom of
movement, presence and sensorimotor coordination
mean.
The human race's
extraordinary adventure is an ever present wealth
within us carrying freedom, choice and enthusiasm.
1)THE
SINGING BEING
We are not dealing here with good or bad techniques,
but with the notion of vocal, corporeal or breathing
behaviour each of which is either adapted or
unadapted to a given expression, a literary text, an
acoustical context, a related situation, an
intention, or even the spontaneity of the moment.
The different vocal techniques used throughout the
world often correspond to a specific situation or
context whether it be social, cultural,
professional, religious or linked to habitat or
climate. These techniques are then transmitted by
oral tradition, initiation, learned transmission, or
are an improvised attempt to adapt to circumstances,
to a space, to a "here and now" creation.
A society is partially represented by its music
(music of the language, the musical quality of the
voice, music of the social, emotional and relational
life). Music is an expression on many levels, of the
characteristics of the group who create it : its
morphology, geographic locality, its type of
activity, the relationship with the animal and
vegetable world and with the natural elements of
water, earth, air and fire. It is also the
expression of the type of relationship between
individuals and of course the relationship between
man and the supernaturel, i.e. religious feeling.
The freedom of a well-adjusted and genuine response
Singing is always the expression of these ethnic
specificities. Primitive societies in which
collective work is predominant (agriculture,
hunting, fishing) and where social life flourishes,
have developed collective singing, their activity
expressed by the movements and rythms of the body,
and linked to the environment and times of day.
During these songs, every voice blends into the
collective harmony.
Social evolution entailed the development of
individuality and the development of representation
and exchange between human groups. Singing followed
this evolution and by branching out from the
collective form of expression became more
individual. Thus singing became representational,
was used as a form of communication, a means of
social and religious message.
The movement of the body and its projection in
space, and from the surrounding environment. Song is
now often inspired by emotion, or by a more cerebral
aspect where voice becomes a permanent expression of
what "I am", "me" as distinct, individual, needing
to be attended to and taken care of. This is the
expression or my person, its dilatations,
retractions, limits and habits ; "singing" and "my
voice" search for each other, upset each other, lose
each other in their search of a "technique", a
reassuring prop, a delimitation.
Never as today has the search for voice been so
prevalent, as if it belonged to the intangible, to
the realm of the unexpressed, as if it were a
reality to be lived out at the instant of its
existence, in the coherence of its production, in
its truth as an adapted and authentic response to an
external or exterior stimulus.
It is a question of finding out whether my body, my
thoughts, my breathing are free to respond in an
authentic and adapted way. It is not a question of
trying to determine what is good or bad for my
voice, of drawing up and endless list of things
imperative or forbidden. For in many cases, the
study of the different vocal techniques used
throughout the world will only jeopardize the
certainty as to the soundness of such and such a
demarcated idea or concept.
I shall quote a few examples :
- the glottal catch used in many vocal traditions,
such as in Northern Africa.
- The yodel of mountain folk with that fully
attested passing of the voice from head to chest.
- The throat singing found in those countries where
space must be crossed, as that of the singing of the
Basque shepherds or of the Berbers.
- The strong tremolo in the singing of Korean women,
which, under strong pressure, releases the larynx
dynamically.
- The open throat of the Fado women singers, their
faces like figureheads and their hands nervously
fingering the traditional black shawl.
- The nasal singing of Southern Italian popular
singers.
- The extreme depth of the voice in the Japanese
tradition.
The singer in touch with its being
Each specific type of aesthetics conditions the art
of singing and the manner in which it is used. A
series of rules are subsequently set down according
to which the singer develops and concentrates on
certain aspects of the voice, often exclusively
concerned with the resonance of the voice, its
support, its muscular tone, and articulation.
If we take as an example the heritage of classical
singing of the 19th century which if often claimed
to have expressed the correct and healthy
utilisation of the vocal organ and if pneumophonic
dynamics, we can see that the specifications of
classical singing might lead the singer to
indulge in the exageration of a particular kind of
muscular development, of specific bodily
organisation and breathing dynamics, and to a use of
resonance in its own right.
In my opinion this specificity is linked to :
- a search for homogeneity of timbre throughout the
voice's tessitura, a point where many other sets of
aesthetics would favour a change of register along
with the development and expansion of harmonic areas
chosen according to pitch.
- The possibility of performing a crescendo or a
diminuendo on any note of the tessitura.
- The capacity to sing with equal roundedness and
homogeneity all vowels on each note ; most vocal
traditions choose certain vowels specifically for
vocalizing, vowels whose openness and impact on the
vocal chords are favourable for the production of
sound thus allowing an acoustic realisation of the
phenomenon.
The acquisition of any given technique within any
given set of aesthetics, includes the true awareness
of the body which is singing, the body ("my" body)
used as an instrument with its structure, its
mechanisms and its biodynamics. It also includes an
awareness of the body's possibilities and
limitations due to the configuration of the
skeleton, which enables its movement, and finally of
the functioning of the cerebral cortex (which
governs the muscles).
There is also the discovery by sensation of the laws
of physics (the field of mechanical gravitation of
solids and fluids - the air column -) and of
acoustic laws (the propagation of sounds, the
development of harmonics...) characteristic of the
environment in which one evolves and expresses
oneself.
Self image
As Moshe Feldenkrais says in his work on "Conscious
Awareness through Movement" : «each person regulates
his behaviour, physically and mentally according to
the image he has of himself» (conscious image and
unconscious representation for the cortex). This
image of the self is a corporeal image, with
contours, with the relation between limbs and other
areas of the body (relations of time and space), and
with notions of spaces (which will become the
breathing an resonance areas). This image is also an
image of feeling, emotion and thought. The formation
of the image comes about according to the evolution,
education and personal history of the individual.
When striking an attitude, adopting a posture,
bursting out in an expression of oneself, in vocal
dynamics, each person presents a totally personal
configuration which is felt to be the easiest, the
most natural ; it is often felt as an impression of
doing nothing in particular ("I'm not doing anything
special", the student often says, "for me this is
natural").
The usual configurations are therefore deeply
imprinted in the nervous system which reacts to
external stimuli with a ready answer, an attitude or
habit, and is so often incapable of providing
another answer in order to correspond to external
reality, in other words, incapable of adapting to a
given context, situation, acoustic, expression or
intention.
It is a question of releasing the nervous system of
its compulsive configurations by means of the
dynamic change we are considering, and thus to allow
for a mode of action and reaction dictated not by
habit but a given situation.
There is no ideal jaw position
Let us take a concrete example to illustrate this
theory : the position of the jaw and its dynamics
for the "singer". Each individual presents an
apparent, specific and usual morphology often
criticised by the teacher ("don't clench your
teeth", "don't open the jaw to that extent", "you're
bringing the jaw too far forward and it is upsetting
the voice", etc...). The jaw's position is linked to
the state of relaxation, retraction of the muscles
which attach the lower jaw to the neighbouring areas
(upper jaw, clavicle, and sternum, the cervical
region of the spine...).
This attitude can be a reaction (that is to say, a
response of the moment to a relational and
contextual situation i.e. a feeling of agression,
the expression of anxiety), usual (corresponding to
an image of the self brought about by the
individual's history) or acquired (a particular
configuration demanded by a specific technique after
training where often there is imitation or
modelling, or which is the fruit of learning).
If one considers on the one hand the acoustic laws
which determine the development of harmonics and the
propagation of sound, and on the other, the
functional relation between the lower jaw and the
larynx (that is to say, the source of vibration), it
is obvious that there exists no ideal position of
the jaw.
The position will be found to vary according to
pitch, intensity, to the vowel sound pronounced and
to the desired vocal colour. The lower jaw must at
all times, and in every vocal situation, in its
relation to the upper jaw, the larynx and the
cervical region of the spine, define an equilibrium,
adapted, harmonious and free.
This means that the nervous system in its capacity
as the commanding organ, must be able to program a
response adapted to the acoustic situation of the
moment, to command the necessary muscular effort.
In order to do this, it must be freed of compulsive
and habit-formed configurations, and relaxes (that
is to say, free from syncinetic commands,
unconscious and involuntary tension) and able to
carry out a morphologically specific configuration.
This presupposes an experimentation and
memory-integration of a vast number of possibilities
which can subsequently be associated in different
ways thus enabling an adapted response to external
stimuli. The richer one is in possibilities, the
more chances we have of finding within oneself the
required response. If one knows only one
configuration, wether good or bad, habitual or
acquired, the response will in most cases be
unadapted, unharmonious and limited. It is only
adapted behaviour, with minimum effort that will
allow free expression, a harmonic richness of sound
and the perfect definition of the vowel in clear and
precise articulation.
Trying out an array of possibilities and listing out
for the differences
If a student when singing has a physical attitude
(for instance, the position of the jaw) which
obviously impedes the emission of sound and of the
harmonic quality of the vowel, I do not suggest some
external model, another position of the jaw (a
so-called "good position", a mould which he would
have to train himself into in front of a mirror) ;
but rather, try out with him a large number of
possibilities for the position of his jaw and its
relation to other areas of the body, all this while
listening to the modification of his sound due to
these morphological changes(including the unadapted
attitudes which limit or impede), he can thus
register the difference himself.
I would like to quote en Chinese proverb : "It is by
exhausting every manner of walking crookedly that a
man will end up by walking straight" ("straight" not
in relation to an outside model, but in relation to
himself at any given moment). This experimentation
with no prior choices is the characteristic of a
child's apprenticeship which leads him to maturity ;
similarly, the student can rid his nervous system of
fixed habits and create a new image of himself (in
every area), a richer image, clearer and more
complete. As we have already said, this image will
then regulate behaviour until it becomes
increasingly adapted and harmonious.
To develop the kinaesthetic sense
This preliminary work will also develop (an
essential point) the kinaesthetic sense, in other
words, the sense that a singer will have of what he
is doing. The feedback of this information will
enable him to regulate and modify his vocal and
breathing activity at all times almost unconsciously
; thus he will be able to seek a new form of
adaptation, a more effective equilibrium ; one more
coherent as regards the requirements of the desired
aesthetic goal.
The development of the kinaesthetic sense, the
knowledge and comprehension, in practice, of its
mechanisms, of all that the morphological and
cerebral structure of man implies, including all
that is the individual (habits, attitudes, all
psycho-somatic reactions to environment and to other
individuals) will lead the singer to greater
autonomy in his evolution. The discovery of specific
mechanisms linked to different aesthetics will
provide him with greater espressivity and a clearer
response to a clear intention. The readiness thus
acquired leads to a greater adaptation at every
moment for each vocal situation, which then leads
the singer to a true authenticity of expression.
Exchange of information
Finally, from an educational point of view, the
response of the student (i.e. his vocal behaviour,
breathing and circulation) will always be the most
adapted that he has found within himself when
confronted with a stimulus or a suggested situation
(according, as we have mentioned above, to the image
the student has of himself). It is not a question of
judging the response good or bad, but rather of
listening, looking and sensing if this realisation
is coherent according to the singer's intention
(style, expression, colour and articulation), if the
intention is clear, whatever it may be. If the
coherence is lacking, I observe the relation between
the different areas of the body and their
functioning in order to try and determine where the
trouble lies which leads him to failure. What we
observe from the outside is often merely the end
result of a series of disharmonius processes which
must be unravelled in order to be discarded.
Teaching becomes a guide for experiment, for
adventure into the body, the nervous system, the
voice. Work becomes an exchange of information
between the student (the information he gives by
watching his own behaviour, his body) and the
teacher who, according to all he has observed and
heard, will in turn give information (the clearest
information, at the "right" time) which will then
motivate a new response, a new set of sensations...
Thus an image of the self is constructed, rich and
full which will allow the singer to put to better
use those wonderful instruments : the body and the
voice.