WEEK TWO

Roger: So how do you feel about what we talked about and did last week?

Dave: Good. It's leading somewhere. I mean, I think I'm getting it, at least a little, but I'm fuzzy about some of it.

Roger: That's fine, I'll be repeating it from slightly different angles as we discuss each resonant cavity and so on. I glossed over our posture exercise a bit last time, so I want to go over that exercise slowly first off.

Dave: 'Kay.

Roger: We talk a lot about posture, and often pejoratively, in this culture, good posture, bad posture. But for a singer, and even for the rest of us, it's not the outward form of posture that matters, but the inward form. I mean, what matters is the muscles, and how efficiently and naturally we're using them, much more than how rigid, or how straight we are.

Dave: Not too much tension.

Roger: Right, there's little use forcing yourself into a "good posture". It might look all right, even if a bit stiff, but unless you're meeting the Queen, it's useless, even harmful to try to push your body into some position or other.

Dave: So I'm okay as is?

Roger: Unfortunately no. Few of us are. So we do want to leave room for change, and to experiment and shift around a bit to find a truly better posture. But it's not that easy. Like everything else, we rarely know exactly what's good for us.

Dave: Without trying a few things, anyway.

Roger: It's really important when you're dealing with any of this, but especially with posture, to be cautious, delicate - non-violent. The whole purpose is to become more natural in some sense, not less. It's true that for singing, as I said last time, some postures, no matter how efficient or natural, aren't going to work. We do want to use back muscles, and not stomach muscles, etc. But whatever posture we end up with has to be natural and very efficient too. So let's try a gentle posture changing exercise. Relax more, and get a bit sloppier.

Dave: (relaxing again) Hard not to straighten up a bit when someone's talking about posture.

Roger: Spend a couple moments, maybe as much as a couple of minutes standing just as you are, very still, without shifting, and becoming conscious of your body and your whole musculature; watch which muscles are straining even a little bit. When you think you sense a bit of strain, or a muscle or muscle group that's complaining a little even if it's not very much, straighten up a very small amount to reveal that, then stop still. Now wait another moment or two, or longer again paying the same sort of attention to any muscle strain or discomfort. Don't shift. Try to remain absolutely and perfectly still and just tune in to your body. Now when you sense some tension, some overused or slightly complaining muscles, again straighten up but only a small amount and go still again. So just keep this going, very slowly, take your time, don't do very much at once, just going in very small stages, paying a lot of attention and then straightening up just a little to feel a little better. The whole idea of this exercise is to be very gentle, and to find a really efficient posture that's good posture in the sense that it demands the least amount of effort for your muscles, which will be a more natural posture.

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