Posture is Key to Good Singing, part 1

Posture is key to healthy living, yet many of my students come for lessons with tight shoulders tensed all the way up around the chin.  Good singing requires proper posture in order for the singer to use their breath support. In this world of iPhones, iPads, and Video Games my students are having more chronic posture issues than ever before.  Most of the problems are due to hunching forward looking down at phones, laptops, or even textbooks. Leaning over these devices causes the front shoulder muscles to tighten and the upper back muscles to over stretch.  These muscles lock, knot up, and tighten causing pain and even injury. I have had my own issues with correcting this part of my posture, after a car crash last year.

Emotionally students do not want to stand up straight.  They instinctively know that "curling up" or "hiding" protects them from peers' criticism.  If they walked around with tall, healthy posture, this body language would tell everyone that they are confident about themselves, and only make them a target for taunts, gossip, and criticism. I address this emotional aspect of posture as well. (There is a great Ted Talk on "Power Poses" that all singers should watch). I tell my students about body language and demonstrate different postures for them to see how they read my body language.  Now they can make informed choices regarding their posture. Once their ego and maturity level can handle standing up strong and straight, most students will comply.  Occasionally they will need reminders to practice good posture as posture is the result of all our habits. (I should note that Elementary students who commit to a sport or athletics, have fewer posture issues.  The problems arise in Middle School as the students become more self aware and drop out of sports and athletics).

I work with the students and help them to understand how their posture is a culmination of all the movements that they do, or don’t do.  I use a combination of simple yoga practices with physical therapy exercises to begin to correct the student's poor posture. The easiest way is to have the student lie on their back with the arms in a cactus or goal post position, and the knees bent with the feet on the floor.  If this doesn't work, the student may need more help to stretch the front upper torso muscles.  In that case I have a semi round foam device, which I put under the students torso.  Then they lie back onto the device opening the arms into a "Y" and "T" formation for 60 seconds each, alternating 5 times each. (knees can be elevated  with feet on the floor to make this easier and to stabilize the body.) A rolled up beach towel can be used in place of a half round device.

Another simple shoulder exercise is in the next illustration. Stand slightly in front of a doorway and with arms in a goal post position, put your arms on the doorframe and lean onto the stretch for 60 seconds repeating 5 times. Then slide the arms up toward the corners. Lean into this stretch and for 60 seconds and repeat 5 times.

Developing an exercise program that involves walking for 10-30 minutes daily will help keep the back loose, flexible, and in better alignment. Pay attention to your posture as you walk rolling your shoulders down and back, and keeping the core of your body strong.  If your shoulder blades tend to stick out rather than lie down flat, imagine bringing your shoulder blades together on your back. Yoga has a great pose to reinforce good shoulder position. It’s called “mountain pose” or tadasana. See photo of woman in tadasana pose below.

Beginning a lesson with 5-10 minutes of yoga, qigong, physical therapy exercises, or singing aerobics (more about this later) is a great transition from the intellectual learning of school to the body awareness and body intelligence required for good singing.  When the student connects to the body through movement and awareness, their stress level is instantly lowered. Its as if they breathe a collective sigh of relief. I have witnessed this change in my students since I began my own yoga journey 4 years ago, and brought it into the voice studio.