Low Notes

Do your low notes lack strength? Or beauty? Do you feel tension in the throat when you sing them?

Today I will describe for you an exercise with which you can access your low notes better

and at the same time improve the quality of sound and the ease in your throat.

Signs of healthy low notes are:

1) You can leap from high to low and low to high notes effortlessly

2) You can increase the volume (swell) on a low note with ease and go back to sing it softly (piano)

3) The sound is clear and rich (not raspy or loud but lacking in beauty).

When you are very calm and centered and your breathing is low your low notes will be easy to access. For this exercise to work you need to be focused and aware of your body,

Your breathing and the organs in your belly.

Here is what you do: Stand relaxed. Feet hip wide apart. Feel yourself rooting down into the earth from the waist down and feel yourself lifting up and lengthening from the waist up. The neck is long and the chin is level with the floor. Not too high and not too low. Stand like this and let your arms hang by your side. The fingers and wrists are relaxed. Take 5 deep and calming breathes. Breathe through the mouth right down to your pelvic floor. After that, place one of your palms just below the belly button with the thumb still having connection to the belly button. Place the other hand on top. It does not matter

which hand comes first. Now stand still for at least 5m. Here and there remind yourself to

grow from the waist up (keep the length) and to root from the waist down. All the while

you feel the warmth your hands are creating on your belly. Breathe right into this warmth.

Let the muscles of the abdominals relax and create big belly breaths.

Release, as always, any tension behind or around the eyes. Feel as if you can drop

the eyeballs through your open throat into the belly. Relax your chest and shoulders.

Now mentally draw all energy to where your hands are. In Tai Chi this is called the

dan tien or dan tian. While you stand still you keep working with your imagination.

Feel your feet growing roots and the top of your head touching the sky.

Feel the organs in your belly relaxing and "dropping' lower toward the hipshell.

As you stand there keep observing the breath and try to focus all your energy

down to the dan tien ( a few inches below the belly button). It should feel as if you

are a vacuum cleaner who draws in the energy and funnels it into your body

from the area right between your navel and your pubic bone.

Do this at least for 3-5m. You can have several sessions like this. Take rests in between.

After about 3 or 4 rounds of intense but relaxed focus on this area you should definitely feel and hear a difference in your voice. There are many more exercises to help with low notes but if you keep doing only that, for at least 3 consecutive days, you will feel a movement in the right direction.