My teacher insists that I stand with “good posture” when I sing. What is good posture for singing?
Answer: Well, I am pleased that you have a teacher who is careful to insist that you sing with good posture. But, obviously, if you do not know what constitutes good posture, then you ask an appropriate question. While I will answer this in some detail, you should not be afraid to ask your own teacher the same. He or she may isolate specific things that apply to you that are only generally covered below.
I have saved writing about the benefits of good posture for another post – and begin immediately by describing what good posture should look (and feel) like.
Your feet should be comfortably apart. You do not need to stand like a soldier at attention with your heels together. Your feet should be comfortably apart and one foot slightly in front of the other. This will allow you to move some while standing in place without feeling as if you might lose your balance. If you have broad shoulders, you may not need to spread your feet quite that far apart. In general, the weight of your body should rest more on the “balls of the feet” (toward the front) and not on the heels, and your body weight should be evenly distributed between both feet.
If you were being viewed from the side, the imaginary line from your feet to your pelvis to your head should appear straight and perpendicular to the floor.
Your knees should be flexible, never locked back. You should find that you can flex your knees alternately quickly without affecting your upright stance. Locking your knees back drastically slows the blood flow upward from the legs to the brain and is the cause of many young amateur choral singers fainting in concerts!
Now, the pelvis should be straight up in line vertically – and should be slightly swiveled forward. This is not always easy to describe . . . so let me do it this way. While God did not make us with a straight spine, the lower-back (small of the back) should nevertheless not be allowed to curve drastically so that the buttocks sticks out. You should, instead, imagine that you are going to “straighten the small of the back.” If you stand with your back against a wall, with your heels, buttocks and shoulder-blades touching the wall, you may find that you can fit your hand between the small of your back and the wall. Now remove your hand from there and “attempt to straighten” the small of your back so that your hand cannot fit in that space. Another way to accomplish this is by squeezing or tightening the buttocks-cheek muscles. What this accomplishes is the slight pulling in of the lower-abdominal muscles – which helps the breath support process.
I am identifying the “abdomen” as that portion of the body between the rib cage and the pelvis. The “lower abdomen” is the area between the navel and the pelvis, and the upper abdomen is the area immediately below the rib cage to the waist line (or navel, or belly-button area).
Hips should appear level. A postural fault is standing with weight on one leg and one hip sticking out.
As I say, the lower abdomen then should feel slightly tucked in (without undue tension). The upper abdomen needs to be free to move, expanding and contracting with the breathing process.
The chest should be comfortably high and feel buoyant but never rigid. This allows the lungs to be used to their full capacity. The lower half of the lung space has about 80 percent of the volume capacity – so it should be kept open and high.
Shoulders find their correct place when first raised, pulled back and then dropped in place. They should appear level. This also helps the chest to feel high and floating. Arms should normally dangle loosely at the sides without any tension in them or the hands. Some singers find it comfortable to hold their hands at waist height, and can do so as long as there is no unnecessary tension involved.
The neck and head should look and feel centered on the shoulders and straight up, not tilted to one side or another. Many young people who have grown up using microphones for amplification form the habit of craning their head forward with their chin sticking out. I call this the “vulture look.” While the head and neck position does not need to feel rigid, this position more than any other should have the appearance of a soldier or a king in court. In this way the jaw is free to move and the air passages, throat and larynx are put in their most open and appropriate position for singing.
Now, having given a limited description of good posture for singing, there may be concepts that help the process. A student may find that thoughts like “stand tall” “stand like dignified royalty” or, “imagine that once you have achieved tall posture there is a thin string attached from top of your head to the ceiling tightly strung. If you lose good posture it will break the string. You must keep it from breaking.” Other similar concepts help to achieve good posture.
Also, we are aware that what I have described is what should be normal. There are occasions and situations in musical theatre and opera that require a singer to move and adopt body positions as they appear in real life that briefly compromise good posture. But these are the exception, not the rule.
At the point where you find you need more detail, feel free to leave your question in the “Contact me” box on the blog navigation bar on the left, and I will answer it specifically. If you have the use of a full-length mirror, use it to check your own standing posture. Best wishes.