Bodacious: ‘unrestrained by convention or propriety.’ Bold, open and straight body alignment allows your singing voice to flow easily through your body – your vocal instrument. It also makes you much more attractive and healthy.

The following is an excerpt from the body alignment chapter of my book Sing Like You Speak™: Morganix Method.

Sound Production

The vocal instrument is a complex, interdependent system involving the coordination of brain and body. The brain sends messages through the nervous system – the spine – to all components of the vocal apparatus. Any compromise of spinal alignment has repercussions on vocal function.

An aligned spine is natural and is the quickest route to good vocal production. Any alteration such as slouching, turtle necking, chin thrust out and up, et cetera, crushes your instrument and alters the breath path. Seem a bit dramatic? Not really. Refer back to the Vocal Apparatus Sketch in the Appendix. Look at the relation of the spine to the breath path and consider the strain put on the instrument by any of the above postures.
A guitar player never uses a guitar with a bent neck – can’t tune, can’t play. Vocalists must take the same approach to their instrument alignment. Look at yourself in a full-length mirror to assess your body alignment in order to avoid common pitfalls.

Slouching caves the sternum, raises the shoulders, throws the head forward of the body and turtles the neck. The inhale of a sloucher raises the shoulders to make room for breath, filling only the upper part of the lungs, not the lower where the diaphragm can do its job. Therefore the exhale has no choice but to cave the sternum even further as you vocalize to move the breath though. As the sternum caves, the head moves even more forward of the body putting additional strain on the vocal folds…audible strain.

A shallow breath, as described above, cannot sustain pitch. Besides the vocal folds being crushed, the lack of muscular support from the diaphragm and abdominals causes the breath to follow a much lower path, eliminating overtone, and thus, the pitch drops. The breath cannot flow efficiently, so you will feel as though you are running out of breath way too soon.

Superhero Posture
Picture a superhero – Superman, Wonder Woman, Mighty Mouse. Chest held high, hands on hips, piercing eyes looking right at you, personally powerful and confident, displaying a physical presence that exudes competence and assurance.

Superhero Posture saves the day for vocalists! A straight and flexible spine removes many of the constrictions that interfere with vocal production. The simplest path to beautiful body alignment – another one of the essentials of good vocal production – is Superhero Posture. It’s a bit goofy, lots of fun and very effective.

The crucial secret of superhero posture is that it achieved by going down into the body to get grounded. Core muscle then takes over to align the body and raise the sternum. Your first instinct will be to use your back muscles to pull up. Resist. Push down into the hips and stretch up with the core muscles. This will release the back muscles, which in turn will allow your shoulder blades to slide down the back into original position, releasing the shoulders over the torso.

Once you have accomplished a raised sternum, widen the collarbones, then your head will drift back on top of the body. Head on top of the body, chin level to the floor. Release the lower back muscles and stretch your tailbone toward the floor. Breathe!

This is not a rigidly held military posture but one that is constantly stretching and continual awareness and practice. A strong, open posture gives you the flexibility necessary for the vocal instrument to respond to musical cues, alterations of character and emotion, and most importantly, it frees the voice to function naturally.

So, your mom was right after all. Stand up straight! For more essential singing information and instruction, visit SingLikeYouSpeak.com

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About the author

Sally Morgan is a professional vocal trainer with over 30 years of experience. Sally is also the creator and author of SingLikeYouSpeak(TM)!

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