The Resonant Voice

A few weeks back, I was drawn to a workshop titled  **"The Resonant Voice -- accessing your deepest truth". The ad drew me in by its reference to three voices -- The Head Voice, The  Heart Voice and The Being Voice. Always curious about new and deeper ways of working with the Voice and connecting the Voice with the Depths of Our Being, I attended. So now I still find myself playing with the ideas presented in that workshop and feeling some remarkable and exciting effects of that work.

**This work is from the "Resonant Voice Practice" developed by Jane Lindsay and Sue Guttenstein of the ADIEWA CENTRE. They can be reached at info@adiewacentre.com.

 What I present here is my own experience and exploration of the work we did (as opposed to explaining the presentation of the facilitator) and this is likely coloured by the extensive vocal work and practice and learning that I have embarked upon in the past few years.

To briefly explain what we did, the facilitator offered us various sounds to use as we toned or sounded through the three voices. The sound emerged as expected -- head voice being a high pitched and narrow sound; heart voice (which aligns with the chest voice, which I have spoken about many times previously) was   deeper and fuller: being voice was again deeper with a feeling of more stability as we toned from the depths of our bellies. Each time, before making the vocal tone or sound, we would settle our awareness into the head, then into the heart and then into the belly. From each of those three places we would then allow the sound to emerge.

Root Chakra: Core of Our Being

Following the toning, we paired up and asked each other a question which we first answered from our head voice, then answered the same question from our heart (or chest) voice and then answered the same question from our being or belly voice. Each time, the answers came out significantly different. I was fascinated by that. Simply by settling our awareness into a different part of our body, we experienced the same question in very different ways. I observed, in myself and in my partner, that "head voice answers" tended to be constricted, perhaps fearful, anxious. As we settled into the heart, the answers were more open, the feeling more trusting and expanded. As we settled into our bellies, or "being voice" the answers came with a sense of deeper connection, more stability, more trust -- in general, more depth and power.

So as someone who is learning to sing and ultimately wants to sing from the depths and power of my being, I started thinking of the possibilities of incorporating this work into my vocal practice and into my songs. I began to explore the question of, "Instead of bringing the constriction and narrowness of my head voice down into my heart (chest) voice and into my belly or being voice, what if I could bring the stability and groundedness of my Being Voice up into my Heart and up into my Head?" One thing that struck me about that is how really difficult it is for many Human Beings to BE in their Being, as opposed to always doing and thinking and intellectualizing, which all happens in our head and gets expressed in our head voice. Imagine if we could bring the stability and power and deep knowing of our Root or Being all that way up through our Hearts and into our Head. It could revolutionize the way we think and the way we reason, to say nothing of the depth and power that we could express vocally and through our songs if our Head Voice and our Heart Voice were connected to the CORE OF OUR BEING. To me, that feels expansive and full of exciting possibilities.


That's my current vocal excitement and insight!

Until next time, I'll leave you with a lovely Vocal Affirmation:


Barbara

The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes

Recently my friend and fellow Beatles fan and I (who could be considered a Beatlemaniac -- at least in my teen-age years I certainly qualified! I may have moved on and expanded my musical horizons somewhat since then, but I continue to return to be re-inspired and newly amazed by the Fab Four and their music!) offered a cool evening of mostly early Beatles music. We sang a long to many of their earliest hits. We danced like teenagers to their music. Anyone remember the Monkey??!! That was a big dance back in the mid sixties and we revived it on our return to Beatlemania on June 8, 2012.

   We enjoyed  recorded music -- singing and dancing to the actual music of the Beatles. And thanks to a new friend who showed up with his guitar, we also got to sing some of their (the Beatles) incredible songs in our own unique style!

   Now, having had a chance to re-indulge my love of the early, simple days of "She Loves You" "I Want to Hold Your Hand" "Love Me Do"...... I find myself craving the imaginative, sometimes relaxing, sometimes wild and bizarre, always colourful music of their psychedelic phase. In fact, in a recent Shamanic Healing Circle I was in, I had asked for healing for my eyes. If you have read past posts of My Other Blog: Chakra Dancer, you will know that I have had many challenges with my eyesight, including losing my sight for a period of several months a few years back. Out of that time came incredible, imaginative, colourful Artwork and some really unique beings (which you can also see in past posts in My Other Blog: Chakra Dancer ). Several eye surgeries have left me with what I had previously thought of as distortions in my sight -- double vision where images float around each other. One thing that is sharper than it has ever been is my perception of colours. Colours are bright and vivid and alive. My visual field is drastically reduced so I can only take in a limited, but oh so concentrated, view of what is in front of me.  In the Shamanic Healing Circle, The Girl With Kaleidoscope  Eyes, (from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) the words and the image, kept coming to me. Finally I saw myself as that Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes. And I got the message -- all of this incredible visual journey I've been on has been to help me see the world through my New Kaleidoscope Eyes. It is a world that is beautiful and colourful and constantly shifting, images come and go, they float apart and come together, they move in and around each other.

   If you want to treat yourself to another visual reality, check out this great video of Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7F2X3rSSCU

   I think it is especially important these days to spend at least some time looking at the world through Kaleidoscope Eyes or through the power of Imagination. That's the gift that the Beatles psychedelic music has given us. Just listening to the music and listening to the vocals, can take us on a magical flight of fantasy through our imaginations. And our imaginations can open the door to previously untapped possibilities.    


Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
Albert Einstein
Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein_4.html#7yH5tPorEXHYy5c8.99 

Albert Einstein also said, "Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge".

Thank you Beatles, for helping to open the Door to Imagination, through your amazing music.


Here is to the healing power of music,


                               Barbara