Coming home. . . .

Well, I'm on the Bolt Bus ($10) back from Boston, feeling exhausted but eager to try out my new skills  in the coming week on whoever of you is interested! It's pouring down rain, as it has been for the past 48 hours.  (Even my hotel room was not impervious to the weather; I jumped out of bed this morning onto a soggy carpet.  Ewwww.)

By the final day of this course, as is typical for these 3- to 4-day classes, I was feeling a bit over-sated with new knowledge, as well as tired of sitting in a chair for so long (not in my normal mode of living, thank goodness!) and breathing recycled hotel air. Luckily, I had enough time before my bus departed to swim a few laps in the hotel pool—a welcome bit of energetic movement before being restricted once again for 4 1/2 hours to a seat.

Now I'm sitting in that very seat, where, thanks to the miracle of in-bus wifi, I am writing this blog entry.  (It was a little creepy when I walked back from the bathroom in the back (creepy also) to see a laptop or smartphone glowing at almost every seat.  Have we become so addicted to our connectivity?  (He asks while typing on his prized Apple while hurtling at 80 mph down the highway.))

I am planning to spend most of my trip back to NYC consolidating the notes I took over the past 3 very rich days of learning, but I wanted to share with you one inspiring fact that the instructor mentioned during her lecture.  It has to do with one of the positive side-effects of the kind of bodywork I do, that I developed into Voice-Enhancing Bodywork.  Specifically, it has to do with the power of this work to wake up your proprioception.

Your proprioceptive sense (or senses—I'll have to blog about this fascinating topic sometime) is what lets your body know 1) where it is in space and 2) if and how it is moving.  When something in your body—a nerve, for example—is restricted from moving freely, your brain experiences a reduction in the amount of proprioceptive information it gets from any structures affected by that restricted nerve.  Imagine the effect on your singing if your laryngeal muscles are among those affected structures.  Or your diaphragm.

Singers have to be able to make very fine judgments about subtle movements of many of their parts.  Anything like Voice-Enhancing Bodywork that improves the proprioception of all these parts will give the singer greater control over the voice.

I can attest, after my experience being worked on by my classmates these past 3 days, that it feels wonderful too!  I feel expansive and open, and, most excitingly, a 20-year-old misalignment of my right leg undid itself and left me standing much more symmetrically.  Thank you, lab partner Diane!