AmSAT Annual Conference and General Meeting

Name: Meeting the Stimulus of Singing through the Principles of Alexander Technique
Start: 2026-06-25T10:00:00-0400
End: 2026-06-25T11:30:00-0400

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Meeting the Stimulus of Singing through the Principles of Alexander Technique

LIMITED

Thursday June 25, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am EDT

Limited Capacity seats available

The stimulus of singing calls upon one of the most complex co-ordinations in which a human being can engage, involving a “kaleidoscopic array of neuro-muscular responses,” according to London neurologist Barry Wyke. The constructs of singing are pitch, intensity, vowel, duration, and timbre, each a tool for intervening and affecting vocal use.

Among the constructs of singing, it is duration that takes the utterances of speech into the realm of song. Speech prolonged¬–singing–makes celebrated demands upon the breath of a singer. A singer is a professional breather.
A prolonged string of vowels and consonants over a musical phrase makes extraordinary demands upon the breath. In meeting those demands, the Alexander Technique is justly recognized as being of particular importance. One of its signature procedures is whispered “ah.” It has a profound effect upon the body and the vocal tract, the internal cathedral of music making.

It is important to look at that vowel through the eyes of a phonetician. We will see that the vowel “ah” is classified according to the position of the tongue as low back, as opposed to the vowel ee, high front. As a class we note, practice, and discern the difference between the tongue’s resting freely in its low back position as opposed to lingual stiffness and depression that occludes the vocal tract, an important intelligence for teacher and singer. We will look at the directive “smile behind the eyes” and its beneficial effect on the vocal tract, lips of the glottis to lips of the mouth.

Among the variables of singing, again, pitch, intensity, vowel, duration, and timbre none is more ripe for intervention than duration. Remove the necessity of duration and we effect the preparatory set, the structure of our habit.
Staccato demands that exhalation be artfully and skillfully opposed. It can be as expansive and joyful as laughter. We laugh together, sing together, and cultivate staccato, even staccatissimo. We learn to outline a phrase in staccatissimo and bypass our habits of prolongation.

Another means to positively affect our singing is to deprive it of yet another stimulus, that of intensity. “Building on the soft” is a vital concept in the history of vocal pedagogy. In best practice it retains the vitality of our full sound. Classically described by an Italian master, the third voice is “like unto the spell of a magic echo, wafted from afar.” The third voice in practice cancels habit and promotes vocal health. As a class we combine the third voice and staccatissimo and create a vocal structure devoid of habit.

Lastly, and this may be easier for Alexander learners than for others, we practice singing on an unfolding series of upbeats. Upbeats demand that we go forward and up, never musically downward. Upbeats are the foundation of an interpretive theory. Upbeats teach singing and living “in the along,” as poet Gwendolyn Brooks urges us. We individually and collectively practice what has been learned.

Speakers

Alan Bowers

Alan Bowers is a music educator. Faculty recitals at California State University Northridge, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Simpson College attest to the breadth of his experience. Organizers of recent workshops he conducted in Alexander Technique for the pianists of Florida... Read More →

Thursday June 25, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am EDT
W1

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AmSAT Annual Conference and General Meeting

Alan Bowers

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AmSAT Annual Conference and General Meeting

Alan Bowers

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