Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North – meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing…Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it. Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.
To a large extent, developing vocal technique consists of identifying areas of physical resistance and then resolving and releasing them. It's a process of unmasking areas of tension or rigidity that impede the flow of breath, muffle resonance, prevent the vocal folds from proximating cleanly, and/or inhibit vibrancy.
But the Resistance with a capital "R" that Steven Pressfield is talking about is psychological resistance.
For success in singing, resolving and releasing psychological resistance is at least as important as dealing with physical resistance.
Psychological resistance is insidious and difficult to detect. It sneaks up and steers you away from experiencing deeper levels of vulnerability, acknowledging your own weaknesses (or even your strengths), thwarts your taking that step to further your technique or advance your career. Any time you find yourself procrastinating or suspect that you're somehow sabotaging your own progress, psychological resistance is the likely culprit.
These two categories of resistance are intimately related. Any psychological resistance you harbor is likely to manifest as physical resistance to the functioning of your voice. The reverse is also true: anything that is physically impeding your ability to express yourself freely leaves you feeling mentally conflicted about expression.
The good news is that when you resolve resistance in one area it tends to impact the other, sometimes in spectacularly dramatic ways! Most singers I know can describe moments in their life when a breakthrough in their vocal technique closely preceded significant positive change in their relationships, careers, and other areas of their life that are not directly related to their singing. And of course anything that gives you greater equanimity and self-awareness makes it much easier to address any tensions in your voice with increased focus and diminished negative self-judgment.
If you want to deal effectively with resistance, you have to first become aware of how it's affecting you. The War of Art is an outstanding resource for identifying and resolving psychological resistance. My own expertise lies in identifying and contending with areas of physical resistance that impact the voice. I'll offer some observations and suggestions.
When you encounter resistance, vocal or otherwise, you have three basic options:
- Give up and turn back. If you've read this far already, chances are this isn't your style!
- Use physical strength or force of will to overcome it. Useful at key moments for some heroic endeavors but highly discouraged for singing technique.
- Find a way to dissolve or dismiss it. Obviously, this is the strategy that I endorse.
When meeting resistance from any obstacle, vocal or otherwise, most people respond with Option #2 and try to push past it. The process of using force to push past vocal resistance is frequently encouraged and cultivated in the name of "breath support".
It is very easy to understand why. If you're singing away and feel some stiffness or tightness that gives you concern that a high note won't speak, your voice isn't projecting well enough, or your vibrato has vanished, the swiftest way to deal with it would seem to be using your abdominal and/or intercostal muscles to push more air through your instrument.
It feels so instinctive and expedient to override vocal resistance in this way that you might not even be aware that you are doing it. And because it seems to work – for some singers, in some parts of their range, and for some dynamic levels – "supporting" the breath this way has become an integral part of the vocal pedagogy and terminology of many voice teachers.
I proposed that to a large extent, developing vocal technique consists of identifying areas of physical resistance and then resolving and releasing them. In order to do this, you must first notice that there is some resistance, and here is one excellent way to begin your investigation: Any time you feel like you have to push or "support" with your breath, you have uncovered some resistance.
If the resistance is due to chronic muscular tension or long-ingrained vocal habits, it may take some time, patience, and the assistance of a skilled voice teacher to detect where the resistance is coming from and create a strategy for resolving it.
But make no mistake: if you feel your abdominal muscles kicking in and your ribs squeezing shut, you're trying to push past some resistance.
Your progress and vocal freedom require that you resolve it instead.
Overcoming vocal resistance is only one of several reasons why some voice teachers recommend mobilizing the abdominal muscles to "support" the breath, but healthy breath management never requires pushing of any kind. This post describes the distinction in greater detail.
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