Practical Methods for Aging Female Voices in Choirs, PART II
Dr. Anat Baniel, author of Move Into Life, draws connections in her psychology practice among brain health, emotional stability and movement. There are powerful biological connections between hormonal changes that alter the role of reproductive hormones in cis-gender females and almost every facet of their physical bodies and outer lives. Beginning the choral rehearsal with mindful movement is the foundation for freer music-making: It becomes especially important for all singers as they move through their midlife biological phases and aging.
By the way, these two biological processes are different, but eventually overlap.
As I mentioned in Part I, rehearsals for the womens’ community choruses I conducted began with a one-half hour voice class, followed by a one-hour rehearsal. Each class included physical exercises involving releasing, then activating large and small muscle groups of the body. I reminded singers to modify all movements as needed, and to pay attention to their bodies. All exercises could be done in a seated position.
The Exercises
Combing through a used book store many years ago, I came across an old gem-of-a-book called Dance of the Self: Movements for Body, Mind and Spirit, by Blanche Howard. The illustrations are joyful and captured my attention far more than many digital movement classes. Here are three examples from that book that encourage body awareness:
For the 7 cervical vertebrae and neck/shoulder muscles: Explain where these vertebrae are. Not only in the length of the spine, but in the center of the body, like an apple around a core.
Work with this exercise yourself and model standing with “body bright,” so you can show them by your example. (“Body Bright” is a phrase I learned from my yoga teacher.) Count backwards moderately slowly, 7-6-5-4-3-2-1, and with each count slightly turn the neck to the left, imagining gently allowing each vertebrae to move as you start to look behind you. Allow it to feel comfortable-no pain. Work as minutely as you need to. Finish that side with very slightly twisting the torso to the left, and end with one more slight neck turn.
Repeat on the right, then repeat on both sides again. Lovely whole-spine stretch!
Stretch your right arm straight up, and try to move it as close to your right ear as possible while relaxing the right shoulder down. Stretch through your finger tips. While continuing with this stretch, stretch the left arm down and straight back, palm facing back. Count to 6 slowly and continue to breathe. Lovely stretch through torso. Switch sides. Repeat.
Punch the air, like you are punching a punching bag, 25-50 times depending on fitness level. Good aerobic activity, fun, and gets anger or sadness out.
FORGET ‘PROPER’ BREATHING for a minute and focus on what breathing in and out FEELS like.
The purpose of the following exercises is to help regulate the central nervous system. These days we have to work at not being constantly stuck in “fight or flight” response, which makes singing rigid with no air flow. Don’t try to teach them to ‘inhale a certain way and support a certain way’ with these exercises, The purpose is to help calm the parasympathetic nervous system. This is especially important for women moving through the years hormonal recalibration or possible thyroid imbalances of peri-menopause and beyond.
1. A. Ask them to feel for their lower side ribs. (Find them on yourself first and look up a correct visual image of where the ribs are in the chest cavity. Instrumentalists who conduct choirs, this means you, too! Have them put their hands on their “bra lines.’ (The men love this…) Invite them to first exhale fully, and then breathe sideways into the ribs where their hands are. Invite them to allow for experiencing this movement as a release of pressure systems, not as a “tanking up.” Note: The shoulders will subtly move but not heave. (I know you know that already. Just giving you some language to consider!)
B. Then ask them to exhale on the “raspberries” sound (brrrrrr) while continuing to pull their abdominals in to push their chests up. This is a breath flow/muscle coordination that can be adjusted, added to and adapted. Please understand that it isn’t how a conditioned body sings well. But many of the senior singers I’ve worked experienced a great loss of muscle tone and coordination. (For women who are taking care of themselves, loss of estrogen—even while on HT—can contribute to this loss of muscle tone and coordination.)
Once again, this is about breath activation and air flow and not how to sing. Use your judgement on all of this.
2. Inhale fully into ribs to a count of 4, hold the breath for a count of 5, exhale for a count of 6. Repeat 2-4 times. Tell people to rest if is too much at first or just they breathe easier or rest if they get dizzy. This is another way to help the parasympathetic nervous system, and therefore, mental focus. This exercise is magic—afterwards, stillness descends upon the room. Being their attention to the stillness and sit with it for 30 seconds.
3. Work constantly and happily to inspire your singers’ reflexes throughout the whole rehearsal, which means you have to embody the work yourself. With seniors, gently insist on simple alignment cues all the time. Remind them with specifics, ALL THE TIME. See how many ways you can say the same thing and sprinkle those things throughout the rehearsal. CONSTANTLY, JOYFUL and ALL THE TIME!
4. Teach singers to hold music by helping them developing the relationship among their arms, Thoracic spine #12 and their shoulder blades. This is a slow developmental process that is very important because it is related to body alignment and laryngeal freedom in general. And helps getting their eyes up!
5. If seniors can not get their eyes up because they are afraid of losing visual tracking of the music, show them how to occasionally use the pointer finger of one hand to track the music to be able to glance up. Also, if they constantly have sour looks on their face, make sure they are not mirroring you! :)
6. The pacing and arch of the rehearsal can be done with a “therapeutic” approach; Sense when to work hard, when to laugh and when to take a silent break or easy stretch. Encourage hydration and those water bottles. Refer singers to the information in our book, which may be an eye opener to you as well as them. In academia, Choral and Vocal Pedagogy studies rarely, if ever, include information on the evolving menopausal voice. My long-time friend, Dr. Kathy Price, who conducted the largest study of the female menopausal singing voice so far, includes this information in her Vocal Pedagogy class at Westminster Choir College/Ryder University. She says choral conducting students often attend the session and then tell her how completely blown away they are to learn about hormones and the cis-female voice.
PART III contains vocal exercises for working with choirs of middle-age to aging female singers. These exercises are useless without having PART I and PART II concepts in place.
