Max’s Story*
Several months ago I had an email from Max.
He told me he was giving his dream of being able to sing one last chance. He’d had a few lessons many years ago but they hadn’t worked out for him. Since then his life had been very stressful and difficult to manage.
He told me he expected he would probably be useless.
I knew if Max could come just for an hour I’d be able to help him, so I persuaded him to book a single lesson to test the water.
At the studios where I teach Max found himself chatting to the manager while he waited for his therapeutic singing lesson. This calmed him down a little.
Once with me in the studio he began to relax even more and he told me a little about his life and why he thought singing might help.
Life Difficulties
Max had been in a front-line job, dealing with the public with a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders. However he’d had no power to change things for the better. He’d become very stressed and hadn’t been able to express himself or to turn the job around.
Things at home had become challenging too and, what with one thing and another, he’d found himself in hospital with a complete breakdown.
While in hospital he’d confided that he loved music and thought that singing might help him to express his feelings a bit better. Another patient had had a guitar with him, and he taught Max a few chords. Max hoped that one day he’d feel confident enough to play and sing along.
Several months later and out of hospital he’d bought himself a cheap second hand guitar and had tried to sing some old Elvis songs. He told me the result was terrible. He couldn’t hold a tune and it “just sounded rubbish”. He was really depressed by this.
Doctor recommends singing
However, on the recommendation of his doctor, he decided to give his voice a chance one last time. So here he was, pretty much sure he was a hopeless case and yet challenging me to prove him wrong.
Now regular students of mine will know that I love a challenge. By working a little on his breathing and on his core sound making, within that hour he had indeed begun to sing in tune.
I always tell students that 90% of singing problems are caused by muscle tension. If there is tightness or discomfort in the muscles we need for singing then it’s very hard to make a good noise. But there’s lots we can do. Even just an hour spent exercising the right muscles in the right way can produce tuneful singing.
Muscle tension is often caused by emotional stress, particularly in the neck, jaw and tummy. Sometimes we know what a problem is intellectually but we just can’t shift our emotional reactions no matter how hard we try. However, by freeing up our singing muscles we can direct the emotions into something really positive. We can make a great sound! What’s not to like?!
After his first lesson Max went home really happy and a bit tearful to be honest. The sound he was beginning to make was warm and tuneful and he’d felt safe singing.
*NB To safeguard privacy names and personal details have been changed.