How to Relax to Sing
I love what I do every day! Last week I had the joy of teaching a Live Online Sing Like You Speak Class. 
We had singers from all over the world – Hong Kong, Rome, Geneva, and all around the US. Singing is the universal language. Such a thrill!
One of the questions asked during the class was, “How can you ensure you are correctly relaxed to sing, both doing exercises and singing?”
Good question. The answer I gave begins with an explanation of this instrument you sing with. It’s your body. It’s the only instrument that’s alive so it has emotions and moods and illness. In other words it’s constantly changing.
A thought such as, this song is hard, translates into muscular tension in the instrument – your body. So to begin with a relaxed instrument, begin with the thought that singing feels _________ (you fill in the blank with a positive word. Amazing, sensual, powerful, free, cool, awesome, divine, etc.)
Use a simple opening inhale that opens your instrument from your eyes down to your bottom. Opening your body opens the path that breath and sound must follow when you phonate and activates the powerful lower abdominal and lower back muscles that are the powerhouse under your voice.
If you associate your opening inhale with peace, life, freedom, etc then your brain is with the program and sending your body signals to be peaceful, lively, free.
When I’m teaching private students we begin every lesson with a meditative breathing exercise. Doing this guided meditation calms the body and mind and switches the focus from external chaos to interior calm. The voice is mastered inside the body and therefore that’s where you keep your focus.
Meditative breathing exercises are in CD form with my book, Sing Like You Speak™ and available for members of SingLikeYouSpeak.com along with other practice tracks.
Whatever you use to calm and open your instrument, it all begins with a thought.
“If I cannot fly, let me sing.” ~ Stephen Sondheim
BIO
Singer-songwriter, musical theater singer, pop singer, or shower singer, this post has the keys you need to become a better singer.
Sally Morgan, NYC voice teacher, wrote the book on contemporary vocal technique — literally. Sing Like You Speak™ is specifically designed to restore the effortless vocal production that is natural to the human instrument making your singing powerful, joyful and free. Sally has been successfully teaching people how to sing for more than 30 years.
You can see and hear some of Sally’s clients on Broadway stages, Off-Broadway, in Musical Theater – Regional, on Major Label Recordings, the Conan O’Brian show, A Prairie Home Companion and in Federal Courts, the PA House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.
Sally teaches singing voice lessons in NYC and worldwide on Skype. Online voice lessons http://SingLikeYouSpeak.com
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