Emily C., Points of Balance Experimentation, Malde, Ch.2

Points of Balance: Experimentation 2/10/14

• Slumping vs. balanced spine:
• Initially, I didn’t hear feel much of a difference when I slumped and when I stood up with better spinal alignment, but I tried it a second time and heard more of a difference; the sound was muffled then became clear when I stood correctly. My vibrato evened out a little more as well. 
• Back against a wall vs. free standing
• When I stood against the wall, it took way more effort than just normal standing. I had to weirdly even out the curve of my spine and engage muscles that I wasn’t used to feeling. My neck got tight and my knees sort of had to lock. Then I tried it against free standing, and my sound as well as my muscular release was significantly improved compared to before. 
• Incorrect postural muscles (front and back) vs. spinal support
• When I tried this exercise, my tone was a lot harsher (? I don’t know how to describe it) and has a straighter/flat feeling to it. When I allowed my spine to hold my body, I felt like the tone was fuller and rounder because I wasn’t over-stretching my back or front. 
• A-O joint/Head Balance exercise
• When I tilted my chin forward of my spine, I felt like not only did my head change locations, but I felt like my spine sort of curved a little more forward than necessary as well. When I put my head too far back, I felt like I had to rock back on my heels as well, which isn’t very good for maintaining my balance. When I went to the neutral place, I tried to make sure that not only my head rested easily on my neck, but that my lower spine had that same “neutral” sensation. Singing was easy and simple, and it didn’t require any unnecessary effort. 
• Balancing the head (pt. 2) 
• When I put my thumb on my chin and my other hand behind my head and tried to move my head around, it was slightly difficult to get my head to align. I did feel the neck tension that is mentioned when we try to balance the head and the jaw as one unit. Then I switched to placing the thumb on my top row of teeth instead, and to my surprise, my head was a lot easer to manipulate and move around on my neck. The jaw just hung loosely and it felt much looser and easier to do. 
• Thoracic Balance with the Lumbar Spine
• I tried lying down on the floor for a couple of minutes with books under my head, my arms beside my head, and with my knees bent. I then stood, trying to keep the sensation of alignment I had achieved with being on the floor. My back actually felt really good, and I realized that I had been tensing my mid back a lot. I also tried walking backward to get my thorax to balance before singing. I will say that I’m honestly not sure if there was a huge improvement to my sound, but I definitely felt better than before. 
• Hip joint balance and pelvic arch:
• To figure this one out, I just decided to do the sitting/“postural” (even though that’s a “bad word” to use) thing on a chair that we did in class. I think I’ve gotten slightly better at it, but I don’t know if I’ve quite figured out the right way to sit yet? My back still gets tired even when I think I’m sitting correctly after a few minutes. 
• Knee joint balance:
• I’ve discovered lately that my knees have a tendency to lock sometimes, and that’s probably because my everything else was out of balance. I found the correct place of balance for my knees, and I also decided that it’s easier to have this place of balance when I’m wearing shoes with arch support (and a lot of my shoes don’t, so I’m going to have to fix that). I typically don’t stand with bent knees because my legs aren’t strong enough to stay like that anyways. 
• Ankle joint balance:
• Next, I tried the exercise where I stood in front of a mirror and rocked back on my heels, then to the balls of my feet, then to a neutral standing position. Again, I didn’t really hear/feel a significant difference in my sound, but my breathing was greatly improved when I stood in a neutral way. When I was too far back on the balls of my feet, I felt like I was going to fall over, so my breath was naturally hesitant. When I was on the balls of my feet, my breath was really shallow, and when I stood neutrally, my breath came easier. 
• Arm/shoulder balance
• When I worked on getting my arms and shoulders to be in a neutral place, I found that what I previously thought was neutral was definitely having my shoulders curve in more than they should have. I thought about my posture for the rest of my body before working on my shoulders, and before I knew it, my arms were in a different “spot,” and it was easy. In my previous “bad posture,” my arms rested in a place that I thought was natural, but it was only natural for the bad posture that I was in. So, naturally, when I fixed my standing position, it fixed my arms as well.