We can all sing, and we can all sing well. Some of us require a bit more time to understand how this is possible given that we may have bought into a belief system that has gripped us for most of our lives-yet I stand by my statement. For fifteen years, in every single voice lesson I have taught, within thirty minutes of someone walking into my studio, I have seen the shining light bulb of delight.

After singing for the past thirty-seven years and teaching voice for the last fifteen, I have discovered-and helped banish with a few simple musculature adjustments-something that has kept innumerable people from the belief that they can sing, our Americanized English language.

So how does English prove to be so problematic, and why is it that none of our teachers or parents seem to understand that our challenge around opening our mouth and letting out our voice is cultural-via our language-rather than personal?

Most of us separate speech from singing. Many of us think that singers are special, somehow imbued with God-given talents that some of us just didn't get in our DNA. Singing in front of others is right next to public speaking in eliciting panic for most of us. So many of the students I encounter have been told: "shut up," "stop singing," "you're flat," "just move your mouth without making any sound," and other unkind directives that have led to beliefs that they can't sing.

Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones: My parents paid for numerous voice lessons and put me through a college where I was able to make singing my major. For four years after graduating with my B.A., I dedicated myself to post-graduate work in bel canto, an Italian singing technique designed for a particular genre of operatic work requiring vocal agility and speed. This intensive study led me to the discovery that has sparked a journey toward assisting others to sing with ease, often allowing my students to break through emotional issues within one session.

I discovered the Americanized English barrier through a very analytical journey to my own voice through the Italian pure vowels. As you might have witnessed in someone you know or in a personal encounter, Italians are incredibly passionate and animated. In this case, a stereotype comes from a degree of truth: Chances are that if you think of an Italian, you will see in your mind a picture of someone who speaks with a high degree of energy-and if you smile and talk without dropping a similar bright, forward feeling, you will start to experience your voice behaving differently.

The Italian language doesn't have diphthongs in its construct. A diphthong-essentially, our A, I, and O-has two parts to the sound, and if you say E and U, you will notice that even though they aren't officially part of the diphthong club, we say them with two distinct sounds that drop or close energetically. A pure vowel is like the first half of a diphthong, and it will feel unfinished to an American speaker. When these pure vowels are laid over our language like a template, the voice almost immediately feels ease with singing.

The definition of singing is "elongated vowels," so if you say ah and hold it for two or three seconds, you will notice that the sound now has a pitch or tone. If you don't evaluate whether it sounds good or bad at this point, you will get to hear that just for a moment, you sang!

Now to make the sound pretty or soothing to our ears, there are additional pieces of the puzzle-pieces found in our musculature-that are important. There are, however, some "cheating" ways to get there fast. Of course, the next challenge is that these muscular adjustments directly confront our comfort zone, because the first thing I will ask a student to do is smile.

I grew up in relatively reserved Connecticut, and it wasn't until I lived in Hawai'i for a number of years that I was able to smile with ease. The lifting of the cheeks into that position not only helps formulate the Italian vowels, but in addition, smiling allows the voice to be directed right to the spot where the sound itself will stabilize. I call this the frontal lift.

Another lift occurs in the back of the throat, and Renee Fleming speaks of this inner smile in her book The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer. This Cheshire cat grin, which we can feel by putting the endpoints of the smile in either ear and extending a stretch across the back of the throat, helps lift the soft palate and creates a mini amphitheater in our mouths.

The awareness of musculature doesn't stop there. If we look carefully at our how our bodies are constructed, we will discover that we're built like a stereo speaker. Woofers, mids, and tweeters exist in our lungs, throat, and sinuses respectively. Sound resonates in these open areas, and once we've felt our voices vibrate in our bodies properly, we will experience a greater volume of sound.

The combination of proper vowel production, musculature awareness, and breath support through increased energy and expansion in the ribcage lead us to become instruments that will resonate and vibrate in a balanced and beautiful way. My job as an instructor is to assist singers to feel their voice within themselves, recognizing that the voice is already there. Once the musculature is lifted and out of the way, the voice will make an appearance that is typically nothing short of amazing.

Pitch, breathing, and self-confidence can be dealt with as the singer identifies some of the residual emotional baggage that is inevitably left from the scarring of uneducated and unconscious comments that have been made in the past. This is where my practice of Reiki healing energy comes into play. Sometimes the release of the emotions is the biggest blockage to singing with ease, and because Reiki bypasses the mind, healing can occur-in many cases, instantaneously-in the student.

So you think you can't sing? What if you're wrong? What if the song lies waiting within you to be sung? Isn't it worth trying, even if it is a little scary?

Next time you're moved to sing along with the radio, make yourself go to the mirror. With your mouth, form a mischievous little smile, and leave it there while you sing along with the words. When you see your mouth want to open really wide or shut down to close off a sound, fight against the urge and stay with that "fake" feeling that occurs when we bare our teeth.

You just might find out that you can sing, and with a little effort, you will have access to one of the greatest joys we can experience: the ability to release our own voice in song! Visit debralynnvocalcoach at YouTube.com, where you can experience some of my vocal warm-ups and listen to me share more about these principles. I believe that you can sing, and after all these years of singing myself, I know just how good it is for the soul.

By Debra Lynn

Called the "Mary Poppins of Vocal Coaches", Debra Lynn has taught students of all ages to find their own unique sound, while developing habits for healthy vocal production, in a fun and empowering environment. Using her understanding of Italian vocal production and the challenges that the English language creates, she effectively leads her clients from a place of "I can't" to "I can" in as little as one session.

Principal soprano soloist with the Maui Symphony and Maui Pops Orchestra from 1998 to 2009, Debra was founder of Maui Civic Light Opera, as well as the producer of Broadway and Operatic convention events throughout the state of Hawai'i. She has her B.A. Degree in Voice Performance and four years of post-graduate studies with a master teacher of bel canto.

Debra wrote and recorded Heaven in Your Heart, a CD that was one of six finalists for a Na Hoku Hanohano Award in Hawai'i for Spiritual Album of the Year in 2009.

Her book, So You Think You Can't Sing, is due out in 2010, to assist people who have suffered from emotional issues associated with singing, helping them to discover and release their true voice with ease.

Currently in residence with Maiden Vermont, a 45-woman barbershop chorus based out of Middlebury, Vermont, this accomplished singer and coach is available for individual consultations via the Internet on Skype. She can be contacted at debralynn.vocalcoaching@gmail.com. Experience her coaching style at debralynnvocalcoach on YouTube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_JeyK-6Wc and visit her website at www.debralynnmusic.com.

Comments(1):

1. Brava Debra

   Great article!!! Aren't nerves funny things? I could stand up in a room of 6000 people and give a speech, but ask me to stand up alone and sing in front of 6 people, yeah. Not happening!

   Friday, March 05, 2010 Gretchen