Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method is a body-based method of vocal training which draws from many disciplines. It is based upon voice science and medicine as well as traditional classical vocal training, complementary modalities such as yoga, movement, dance, acting, and speech training, and various bodywork approaches. Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method is meant to unselfconsciously draw the mind of the singer into the physical process of making sound.
Bodywork is anything that works on the body itself and helps a person become more able to perceive through the five senses . Bodywork allows the singer to release physical tensions, move more freely, feel more fully, and breathe more deeply, and also increases one's awareness of sensations. It amplifies one's trust of the body and its reponses. Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method is a way of working on all aspects of the voice so that the singer (or speaker) may increase awareness of sound-making as a physical process. The singer becomes more able to sense the throat and effect changes without manipulation and increases intuition about vocal choices. Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method is influenced by the principles of Alexander Technique™, Feldenkrais Method™, Swedish massage, shiatsu, acupuncture, Rolfing™, Bioenergetics™, and Therapeutic Touch™, as well as other healing disciplines.
Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method allows the voice and body to be partners with the mind, whether it be for song or speech. It allows the instrument to handle a variety of tasks with greater ease and less effort.
In addition to all of the above, Somatic Voicework™ is unique in that all of the vocal exercises are focused on function. It is based upon what the voice is doing, not just how the voice sounds.
Most vocal training relies on a set of exercises that do a certain thing to the voice or ask for a specific kind of sound from the singer. The exercises are seen as being either magical ("Just sing like me on the syllables Che la vieri son muori sola in a descending scale everyday for 10 years and you will be able to sing opera"), or as having inherent qualities of their own ("Sing staccato on "AH" on an arpeggio up and down from low to high and you will even out your range"). You will always hear voice teachers ask each other for "specific exercises" to clear up vocal problems, but what they mean is: What syllables on what musical notes do I ask my singers to do in order to create perfection? Since there is a very finite number of possibilities here, most singing teachers then resort to the breathing for more help. ("If the problem isn't solved in the exercises, the answer must be in the BREATHING!!!!!") The less people know about vocal function, the more they rely on breathing exercises as a cure-all.
Essentially, the breathing for singing should be relatively easy. It requires good posture, an open rib cage, and strong set of belly muscles and coordination. It features a specific way of moving the ribs and abs during inhalation and exhalation that is learned over time and must be connected to voiced sound-making in order to be useful but there are a number of scientifically validated approaches to both inhalation and exhalation that work efficiently. If sophisticated breathing was all that was necessary to being a good singer, every athlete and every wind and brass player, every yogi, every underwater diver -- anyone who has learned some kind of control of their own breathing -- would automatically sound like Luciano Pavarotti or Barbra Streisand!
Breathing problems cannot be dismissed lightly but they are often not the source of vocal problems.
Somatic Voicework™ can use a simple exercise, such as a triad on "AH" on staccato to help wake up head register, to coordinate breath and body, to help clear up a breathy tone, to increase musical virtuosity, and in several other ways. Almost any exercise can be done to ellicit any function. Certain exercises lend themselves to certain responses, but nothing is guaranteed.
Everything depends upon the intention of the teacher and singer to agree upon a certain goal before the exercise begins. The intention of the exercises must be clear in the mind of the teacher in order for it to do what it is supposed to do in the throat of the student/singer.
Teachers must, therefore, understand that different responses are possible from one exercise, one set of pitches and one level of volume. Even in well produced, free voices, functions can and do adjust depending upon the intention or goal of the exercise or music.
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