Be An Asset Tip No.3 "Isolate!"

Isolation Exercise: Isolating the Mid-Section

(You should have read Tip No. 2 'Be conscious' for you to really understand this particular post.)

*Ok, this is not an AB Crunch Instruction. The image is just to attract you. :)) Seriously, this is Part 3 of my "Be An Asset Series" for choral singers. :)

Our purpose is to maximize and maintain the breadth of our (human) sounding board (to produce a free and ringing voice very conducive to choral singing) without stiffening in all other areas. For the inexperienced, when you expand your ribcage and attempt to hold it while you continue breathing and singing, you may find it hard to relax on some other areas as the chest, neck, face, scalp, arms, even legs. It may be very evident in the chest and neck, but if you become very sensitive to it, you may be surprised to find that even the scalp and facial muscles can be under undue stress. Facial tic, headache, during or after singing, anyone?

For the process to be all-natural, our body needs to be used to the routine. MHM! Muscles have memory. Yes, they do. So, our best shot is to train them. How? By employing the Muscle Isolation Technique. Upon mastery, the next time you stand up to sing, your body would automatically shift to 'singing mode' meaning every body part will synch to provide you, the singer, with the state of the art sounding board, so to speak.

In the gym or at the exercise corner in your home you learned to isolate certain muscle or body part from the rest of the body to maximize the full benefit of certain exercises. E. g. as you do arm curls with a dumbbell, you learned to keep your upper arm (bicep) glued to your sides, never allowing it to swing in front of your profile. That way your biceps really get worked out to the core. You may find every tiny string of muscle tingling with the stress. You do not let your arms 'cheat' so as to really benefit from the exercise. That's the point. Isolate.

So, let's try it. Stand or sit erect (do not sit back), keep your alignments as if you have a string attached at the center top of your head to the ceiling. Breathe in three large amounts of air without exhaling in between. As your lungs fill up, you may also feel your muscles grow taut and stiff; the chest, neck, upper arm, and facial muscles to mention some. Hopefully you also feel your back ribs while doing this routine. If you reached this point, you are doing fine. Now start to relax all the previously mentioned muscles while maintaining the wide midsection. Keep doing it until what is left un-relaxed is your ribcage and abdominals (I prefer to combine the two and call it midsection). Once you enter this point, REMEMBER the feeling. Relax everything afterwards.

Now, do it again but do so by springing back directly to the REMEMBERED feeling; i.e. a wide and taut midsection minus any contraction anywhere else. Now, 'open the masque' i.e. defy the gravity's pull from your facial muscles. Put a sparkle in your eyes and keep a pleasant countenance. There.

Remember that people will never notice what you just did. So don't worry that you would look like a cadet trainee on attention when you need to do it before singing. What they would see is a person exuding calm and confidence.

Keep that 'hollow' feeling in the midsection, never allowing the ribcage to sag through the entire length of the song; remember what I said about those 3rd and 4th images here. There is always the right way to sing. Keep growing in your singing knowledge. Till next time.

Oh Dear Choir!

"Underdevelopments"

The previous year's 4th quarter developments (or whatever you may want to call it) in the choir put me in a reality-check of sorts. I realized that my Adults choir is terribly out of shape after many singers opted  out of the Christmas choral events.

 

Covenant Signing

Prior to this, I merged my Youth and Adults choirs for the Christmas season. I even printed  a poster covenant to let people sign in. Sad part is: a considerable number of trained singers have "resigned" halfway through. Then I realized that I am left with mostly newbies in the singing ministry.

 

Christmas Events

And to cut a sad story short, when a shopping mall invited us to grace their Christmas events, I had to shrug my shoulders and not accept the invite. My consolation is that my Kids Choir was also invited and for the second time around, they sang Carols at this mall.

 

Re-Auditions Coming Up

I have decided to re-audition everybody so that 1: I could examine every new singer and design a plan for them to be equipped with the best training I can give them; and 2: so that I can monitor my regular singers and see where each of them stand. But how do I-pray tell me-reject people who cannot really sing but want to really be a part of this group. I know you have quick witted remarks in your heads, but I say it's easier said than done.

 

Sense of Accountability

I also saw that I need to address the lack of dedication among them. And the growing lack of enthusiasm  in the  ministry they are in. What made me really think was when those who aren't well-trained exhibit the lack of sense of accountability. Well, there are those who behaved well; they kept a set of the Christmas pieces which they bring home to review. Sadly, about 75% were happy-go-lucky types. I failed to notice earlier that they have not heeded my instruction to get their own individual set of copies.

 

The Price Paid

Too late for me when I noticed that they search for copies as we rehearse week after week. It's my fault, I grew very relaxed when it comes to behavior. "Laging nasa huli ang pagsisisi." (Regrets always comes at the end), so goes a famous Filipino saying.

 

Resolution?

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. I'd rather not, for many resolutions do not succeed. But this is my resolve-refurbish this choir.  We'll see what we can do.

 

Cartoon on top courtesy of http://www.reverendfun.com/

 

Shifting Winds

"Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

Changes. Ah, so much has been written about it. Nothing is permanent but change. When you change, you grow. When you refuse to, you die. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Wise folks shared all these wisdom and we were indoctrinated enough. But why is it that every time change looms on our dashboards our tendency is to hit the breaks? Sad fact is, even if we had pumped them brakes, the bleak horizon continues to travel towards us and inevitably envelope us like a massive column of sandstorm.

We shun change. We don't look forward to it, at least for most of us.

And what seems to be most undesired is the change of heart. Signs of it rearing its ugly head may slowly fade in. Yet more often than not, it comes without any notice. Sending gloomy chill upon the scenery, it causes throbs and twinges to the bones.

Being the social beings that we are, whenever the idea of separating from someone enters our mind, we are helplessly gripped with the cold blanket of sadness. Inside, we feel like some part of our being is being yanked away from us; we freeze and wince in pain in spite of the effort to conceal it.

It is hard to accept that a friend or a loved one will hardly be on call the next time you need them because this person is moving on to a new place. But the feeling is heavier should you find you have been mutually drifting on the opposite directions for some time.

Well, there are times you can feel the poignant shifting of the wind. The familiar lull is with you at the moment and you know what that means. Things are about to change. And you may be losing something dear or someone treasured.

That's life. Deal with it. But in the end, who knows who or what you might be finding. If that would be of any consolation.

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

the photo above this post "atlantic_splash_1" which I personally call "A Sad Man's Profile" is courtesy of dreimendoza;

http://dreimendoza.multiply.com/photos/album/21/Splash_at_Atlantic_Ocean