Awareness of our expression, and the ongoing re-connection with our body, our stillness, and our gentleness, is vitally important. Here are two practical examples.
EVERYONE IS BORN WITH A BEAUTIFUL VOICE
A medical specialist friend referred a client to me for a private session . She has been deaf since birth, and was now 68 years old and her dyspnoea ( shortness of breath ) was enough to warrant ongoing medical attention and was compounded by significant grief and frustration. Her throat was closing literally through lack of expression, and she was choking with anger and grief. The client expressed how she had some speech therapy when she was a child but since then nothing. In fact she said deaf people were actively discouraged from using their voices. I told her that I have taught many professional singers and that they also felt, as she did, the restriction in her throat. And that I taught them also how to make very gentle sounds, called toning.
We did some toning together... It was VERY interesting, as witnessed by the interpreter, that many of the sounds or tones she did (for the first 5 tones,) matched my note perfectly. She was eventually able to feel the vibration of the sound in her hands, then in my chest (with her hands) and eventually in her own chest and body. Then it started to make sense to her what we were doing. I then said to her that even professional singers had to learn how to breath and tone gently, and we went through the process of learning about the gentle breath. She expressed (out loud and joyfully,) that she felt that she understood and felt this.
She now understands that when she becomes frustrated or stressed to return to the gentleness in her breath , and when she feels her throat tighten , to make a very gentle sound on the out breath. She feels that she will now use her voice a lot more, and she expressed how she felt very much better at the end of the session. The interpreter and client expressed that it would be good for me to hold a workshop at the Deaf Institute. When the client left she was joy-fully singing “twinkle twinkle little star.” :-)
A VOCAL ADVENTURE IN SCHOOLS
The week before I left on the last tour to Europe in February, we presented the Vocal Adventure for Schools workshop to over 1100 kids in Victoria and NSW in Australia. I have also presented them in Europe. These are SO much fun. They help children discover their natural voice and self expression joyfully. Usually the groups are around 200-300 at a time and the sessions 30-45 minutes long. At one school the teachers commented that even the more ‘challenging’ children who could never concentrate for more than 5 minutes were focused for the session. These events happen usually by parents approaching the schools.
Jenny has prepared a great presentation pack for this purpose. You can contact her ([email protected]) if you would like us to bring this course to a school in your area.
with Love
Chris
Sounds Wonderful Pty. Ltd., PO Box 4219, Goonellabah, NSW 2480. AUSTRALIA
TEL. +61 (0)2 66283308 email - [email protected]
