The Hoo-Hoo Connection

Dear Singers,

Lately, my students have been hearing a lot about what I call “the hoo-hoo connection” (it has a jingle, but you have to take a lesson to hear that!). Is this a sisterhood of some sort? Sort of – it has to do with the secret to breathing well for singing.

You may have heard that breath support is everything in singing. Or maybe you haven’t - but it IS. Breath management determines not only how long you can hold a note or phrase, but the healthy function of your larynx (or voice-box) and whether a sound is stage-worthy, loud or soft enough, exciting and hopefully beautiful.

What I call the “hoo-hoo connection” is the bottom line (pun intended) for coordinating our breath support:  it’s the engagement we use in the pelvic floor, which is a term for the muscles at the base of the pelvis which are essential to good/healthy/easy/transcendent singing. Anatomically, we’re talking about the pubococcygeus muscle, which runs like a sling from the pubic bone to the coccyx (tail bone).  This muscle is used for a lot of things, but the action for breathing/supporting is much more subtle than the downward push that happens in the “powder room”.  For singers, gently engaging this muscle helps to stabilize your breath support and get control of your air.  If you still can't picture where the muscle is, just google the term and believe me you will get a lot of information.

Link to Five Tips for Locating the Pelvic Floor in Singing

I was in denial for a long time that this PCG muscle was really important, possibly because as a young singer/teacher I didn’t want to touch on the topic, so to speak??!  Really, must the singing voice inhabit the same playpen with muscles of reproduction, sex and the excretory system?  Really!?  But it is so.  All the parts of the body we use for singing are adjacent (or in) vital systems and vital organs. 

My 13+ years as a voice teacher have made me a convert to the view that “the hoo-hoo connection” reigns supreme… 

I’ll paraphrase Kristen Chenoweth, the impeccable singer and “good witch” of musical theater. When asked how she could sing so well in an interview, she made a strong impression on my students when she said something to the effect of ‘Honey, you have to sing from your hoo-hoo!’ Likewise, I paraphrase the incomparable 20th century goddess of opera, Montserrat Caballe who famously responded to a similar question with:  ‘I sing deeper than most people like to talk about.’  Today, I actually think that how much singing gets us IN our bodies in a visceral if not uncomfortable way is the main reason that it is the most exciting and touching way humans can make music.  You can’t get away from your voice.  It’s all of you.

While I love teaching women, the power of this is not just for the fairer sex.  Darling baritones and tenors, you have pelvic floors too and can and will learn how to use them if you want to sing well!

Dr. Anthony Jahn is a respected, popular and well published laryngologist  (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor specializing in the larynx).  You might want to read his discussion of how the pelvic floor relates to breathing http://voicecouncil.com/support-your-voice-iii-breathing-again.  I think this article is full of excellent information. AND I am 100% sure that you cannot learn singing from printed material.  You have to take lessons. Then you have to practice…take more lessons…practice and PERFORM.  Repeat. 

To that end and to get you ready for fall auditions, tell me you read this article and you can have 20% off lessons you book with me for the following 4 weeks, including lessons packages. 

Keep singing!

Siobhan

siobhankolkervoicestudio@gmail.com

Kristen Chenoweth, hooked up:

 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/singing-out-loud-with-kristin-chenoweth/story-e6frf96f-1226619343000

Sing, MAMA, Sing! A Healthy Body-Mind Tip

Dear  Singers,  

Sunday, Mother's day, had me reflecting upon my singer Mom.

My mom, Beth - or Elizabeth Hart - is an accomplished classical singer and voice teacher— actually “Mother Says: A Momplicated Relationship” is our duo cabaret, performed at several mother’s days’ past and past due for a remount. On this Mother’s Day 2014, I reflect that need to stop letting life get in the way and do our show again….and also, wishing I could be sitting next to her, singing anything, side by side today.

A dear friend of mine lost his mother last week, and though she was 94, there’s nothing the same as losing your mother. He describes her as a dynamic woman, glamorous, giving and a speech teacher/actress, and I imagine she sang many, many a song with my friend, her talented musician and Broadway composer son, Barry Keating  (www.starmites.com).

My mother is alive, kicking and singing! And will be singing like a goddess for several more decades by the sound of her. She just did a concert last week, and her voice is better than ever. She is of course only “39” years old and I am “29” (her explanation? “I was a child bride!”) - and she looks it and sounds it. Gorgeous, healthy, full of life…. today I’m wondering, how much of it has to do with a life built through singing??

The Barbershop Harmony Society, an adorable looking, beneficent organization, has collected this page full of links to research on how singing creates well being and health, including boosting the immune system, mood and promoting relaxation. Well, any singer could tell you that. I know that the surest sign that I’m in a good mood is that I can’t stop singing. I also love to see my worn out/end of day students exit their lessons smiling and refreshed. http://barbershop.org/news-a-events-main/291-health-benefits-of-singing.html 

Most humans, though, would rather do anything than sing in front of people; the fear of singing or speaking publicly can cause the kind of intense anxiety one would think would be reserved for rappelling in the Rocky Mountains. So why is singing so powerful, one way or the other? 

The physical mechanism of the voice is wound up with our life saving bodily functions - really, the heart of us: our throat and windpipes, our belly, or breath - all the way down to the sex organs up through the vibrations and sensations we feel in our skulls, or brains, right behind our eyes. I mean, if there is something you don’t want to feel hidden in your body, singing will probably un-lodge it at some point. At some point I decided to stop running from those feelings and Dive Into It! I head into the Feelings, I head straight for the sounds, and I hope to get all of you to do the same. 

Mom, let’s sing old songs; let’s sing new songs; let’s laugh, let’s cry. Let’s teach our singers! Let’s get it together and do a concert… let’s go get ‘em.

 

Healthy Voice Tip #1: Nutrition Diva

So, what is this diva going to Do about her Big Tax Surprise alias humongous bill! of last month?  (Tax Time: I lose, You Win http://www.siobhankolker.com/siobhans-blog) 

I’m trimming some fat from my spending plan, doing with a little less of the material and focusing on what really matters to me, like music, singing, teaching and being of service to others, especially to my Tribe: SINGERS!

What am I Not going to do?  Stop taking care of my whole body by eating healthy food.  Singers are athletes, and don't let anyone who thinks it is easy to sing tell you differently. My instrument is me, so care of my body, mind and soul are all part of my Total Package. 

In my last entry I mentioned my friend Monica Reinagel, Nutrition Diva. Monica is a wonderful classical singer and a fabulous, credentialed nutritionist. I can tell you from experience (my messy twenties!) that you are safe doing whatever Monica suggests! After all, she’s a singer. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/nutrition-diva

In fact, you might be surprised and delighted by her article on hydration - apparently, while as my beloved teacher Dr. Thomas Houser used to say, we voice professionals should “sing wet, pee pale,” we can get our daily water intake from a variety of beverages.  And most of us don’t need to guzzle water like we live in the desert.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/healthy-eating/how-much-water-should-i-drink?page=1

Tax Time: I lose, you win!

Dear Singers,

things are going really well in "Siobhan's World" as my friend Monica Reinagel, alias The Nutrition Diva, likes to call my life.  I’m super grateful for all the lessons I got to teach and the things I got to film in 2013; it also meant the biggest tax bill of my life! Wow, Siobhan’s World is movin’ on up.   

This is good for YOU because I’m doing a Tax Man discount (yeahhh, he’s the….) from now until 5/15.  If you got a refund or you’ve been wanting to work on your voice but haven’t had the means to make a commitment, this might be our moment!

You or your friends/students/anybody you refer to me can buy these packages through through May 16th, 2014:

DECLARE THE PENNIES ON YOUR EYES - 4 lessons package for $240

My regular rate is $90  - the tax man takes 33%, so, a four lesson package, one a week, 33% off is $240. Or 1.33 lessons free.  This math is easier than taxes.  Yay!

IF YOU TAKE A WALK, WELL I'LL TAX YOUR FEET - 8 lesson package for $400, to be used weekly

Get your singing practice GOING:

It’s takes a voice lesson a week to get anywhere in the beginning. You can give your Voice and your Artist the gift 

of 8 lessons in two months.  $400

As always, if you refer a friend to me who takes a lesson, your next lesson is 50% of your regular rate.  AMDA and Montclair State gradS, ask about an Extra Extra special rate. Thanks for helping our voice studio grow.

ALSO, if you buy a package this month, I commit to finding you a 60’s pop tune for your book in the Fab Four’s honor!  I grew up dancing around to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel in Mom and Dad's music studio.  What could be more FUN?!!

Spring Sing

Singers and seekers,

Spring actually felt chillily here today! What beautiful light, especially toward the end of the day. I am getting excited.

On Sunday, I walked to Transmitter Park in Greenpoint which overlooks the East River and Manhattan -- an incredible view. I felt like singing. That pier is prime for a big Barbara Streisand film moment!   "With all there is, why settle for... just a piece of sky!"  "Hey Mr. Arnstein, here I am!!"  Those songs that positively pole-vault themselves into the final notes... Songs that get "abandon."

My teacher, the wildly talented and kind Meagan Miller, would sometimes ask me to just "shake it out" when vocalizing.  When trying to speed through coloratura runs and getting Stuck in more ways than one, she showed me that I could ask my body to hold the shape for my voice. Our entire bodies and our vocal mechanisms are indeed doing a dance: twist and shout! It is no chance choreography that has Ms. Streisand flinging her arms wide on the prow of a ship!  You sing better like that.

Get busy singing, sing to the forsythia and dogwood and use your arms, torso, feet, behinds... Move, shake it out. It's Spring!