Michael Hanko's blog

Ever try writing (the old-fashioned way, with a pen or pencil) on a moving train?  If so, you know how extraneous movement interferes with fine motor coordination.  You might end up with a page of barely decipherable chicken-scratching.

Like the muscles in our hands that allow us to write clearly in a stationary environment, our vocal muscles—the tiny muscles that move and stretch our vocal cords in various subtle ways in singing—require a stable environment in order to respond precisely and delicately.  A turbulent environment throws them off, adding unwanted random "noise" to our sound, like the unwanted random jittering our pen makes on the paper when the train rattles along the tracks.

So how do you provide your vocal muscles with the stable environment they need to accomplish their delicate task well?  You maintain stability by not unnecessarily altering the shape of your internal resonance space when singing.  Does that sound complicated?  It's not, really: the configuration of your resonance space is largely determined by the vowel you sing.  If you maintain a consistent vowel, you stabilize the environment in which your vocal muscles are working.

For example, if you are singing a two-note interval on [ah], you must make sure not to change the [ah] when moving to the second pitch.  Often, we alter our vowels so automatically, that we are not even able to perceive the change.  It was months after my mentor Cornelius Reid first identified my habit of singing [ah-ah-ah-UH] as I went up the scale before I was able to note the difference myself.  I remember thinking (incorrectly, as it turned out) that he must have been imagining things; it sure sounded like [ah-ah-ah-ah] to me!

The effect of modifying our vowels is amplified for larger intervals.  You can try it for yourself by singing [ah] on a lowish note followed by the same note an octave higher.  If you change the vowel (for example, to [uh] or [oo] as in book or [a] as in cat), you will jostle the vocal muscles unnecessarily, interfering with their ability to respond with precision and ease.  If you maintain a consistent [ah], your musculature, as if by magic, will have the freedom to create just the right conditions for the second note.

It may take some time before this process works efficiently.  A lot depends on the current state of coordination in your vocal musculature and your ability to hear accurately what sounds you are producing.  Until things are working at their peak, it is very helpful to have a teacher's ear to analyze what is going on.

One of my primary goals in voice teaching is to lead my students to an ability to accurately discern the quality of their vowels so they eventually are able to maintain a stable resonance environment in their singing.

I consider it part of my responsibilities as a teacher to continue in my own learning process.  But don't feel sorry for me; there is nothing I enjoy more than learning new skills or refining old ones!  As I review my continuing education schedule for 2010, it seems I find myself in a particularly rich educational environment this year.

First off, I have my own weekly voice lessons with my superb teacher, Donna Reid, during which we not only work on my vocal technique, but also compare teaching notes.  Then, as always, I am studying Alexander Technique with a variety of teachers. Currently, my main Alexander mentors are Mio Morales, under whose guidance I am coming to understand more and more about ease, and Marie Stroud, whose expertise in using developmental movement patterns in teaching has transformed the way I teach the AT.  (One of these days I'll have to blog about that topic.)

In the world of bodywork, I am excited about three upcoming courses.  In March, I'll be taking my first course in Neural Manipulation, learning more about how to affect the health of the entire body by working directly on the nerves.  (I promise not to work your last one!)  In September, I'll be continuing in my craniosacral education with the second-level course in Somato-Emotional Release, which explores the connection between our emotions and how they manifest in our tissues.  And in November, I'll be taking the next level of Visceral Manipulation, which covers the organs of the thorax--basically all the body parts most intimately connected with singing!

I am looking forward to sharing with my students all the new skills and knowledge I'll be learning!

Probably the most Frequently Asked Question I get from prospective voice students is “What method do you teach?”  Sometimes when they hear my reply—that I don’t teach by ANY method at all—I get the impression that they are skeptical or disappointed.  But here are some thoughts on why I believe that no teaching method may actually be the best teaching method.

I’m going to define a “method” as a step-by-step system of learning to sing, maybe including a sequence of exercises designed to advance your technique.  Such an approach assumes that all voices are basically similar and that every singer’s technique can be improved by applying the same “one-size-fits-all” scheme.  Sadly, though, one size ends up fitting nobody very well.  Singing is simply not that simple.

My mentor Cornelius Reid used to comment that he had probably as many teaching methods as he had students.  He was not exaggerating.  He had hit on the truth that no two voices are the same; in fact no singer’s voice is the same from lesson to lesson (we hope!).  Because of significant differences in the physical make-up of the vocal cords and other organs, in temperament and attitude, in state of health, in level of training, in many factors, a teacher must at every lesson analyze and respond to what is actually going on in that student’s technique in that moment.

A method would not provide me a wide enough range of teaching options to meet these diverse conditions.  Often, faced with a student’s unique situation, I must at a lesson create a brand new exercise to address a vocal problem.  That same exercise might come in handy for another student at another time, but could be detrimental for a singer with different technical issues.  Every one of your lessons with me, therefore, will be custom-designed to help YOU advance to the next level of proficiency. 

Even though in my approach to teaching you will experience a perpetual state of experimentation and novelty, this does not mean that I am operating randomly.  I may not use a method, but my teaching is guided by adherence to PRINCIPLES.  Most of these principles were discovered hundreds of years ago during what was known as the first Golden Age of Singing, when bel canto (beautiful singing) was the goal.  You will become familiar with these principles—which mainly involve registers, resonance, and vowels—during your lessons with me.

My goal in teaching you (which was also the goal of the original bel canto teachers for their students) is to eliminate whatever is interfering with the reflex action of your vocal registers so that your singing can become truly free.  It would be simpler, but probably not nearly as interesting or satisfying, if I knew of a definitive path—a method—that would lead to this goal.  The more complex truth requires us to partner in a fascinating process that has a lot in common with scientific research, in which, guided by principle, our vocal experiments bring you closer and closer to your ideal voice.

The way we work together in your voice lessons is basically this:

I give you an exercise to sing.  You sing it, as spontaneously as possible, doing your best not to interfere with the reflex response of your voice.  I listen, evaluate the results, and carefully choose a next exercise to exploit any successes while correcting any problems.

In this process, we both have firmly differentiated roles, requiring dissimilar mindsets.  I need to be in an analytical mode, since I have to judge what is going right and wrong in your vocal coordination based on the sensory information coming to my ears and eyes. 

In order to sing with the freedom required in these exercises, you need to be as free as possible from judgment of the results of your singing.  Self-judgment stifles your spontaneity, making it more likely that you will gravitate towards the familiar, rather than the new and potentially better.  Only when you are not concerned about the result can you properly focus on the process you are undertaking to produce it.  (This is similar to that sought-after Zen state of being in the moment, focusing on means rather than ends.)

The upshot is that my way of vocally working with you requires one of us to be a judge and one of us to abstain from judgement.  If you tried to replicate this process on your own between lessons, you would have to simultaneously judge and abstain from judgement, clearly an impossibility! 

There are more productive uses of your practice time than to try in vain to be your own voice teacher.  I suggested some in another post yesterday.  If you want more ideas for self-study, feel free to ask me in your lessons.

Correct singing is effortless.  It leaves your whole body feeling energized and raises your spirits.

Whether or not you benefit from recording your lessons depends on how you plan to use the recordings.  I'll first describe what not to do with them and why, then I'll give some suggestions for making your time between lessons productive.

I don't recommend singing along with the recording or repeating the exercises on your own.  In fact, I don't recommend any technical practicing at all between your lessons.  (I myself practiced exercises at home for a long time, against the advice of my teacher Cornelius Reid, and noticed that I made much better progress after I stopped!)
Not practice exercises?  Does that sound shocking?  (But maybe just a bit liberating as well?)  Let’s look into why this advice is actually sound.

First, as hard as it may be to believe in this era of working-hard-to-achieve-your-goals, you don’t need to hammer away at a new coordination for your body to assimilate it.  In singing, we are working with micro-adjustments of very small muscles.  (We are not like weightlifters at the gym, engaged in building up muscle bulk.)  Vocal change, even when it seems huge, comes in tiny increments.  After each change, your body needs a chance to rest and to integrate the new coordination.  This requires time more than multiple reps.

Second, until you are at a quite advanced stage of your training, you will not be able to sing as well unsupervised as you do in your lessons.  You learn best by repeating successes and minimizing incorrect patterns.  “Practice makes permanent,” as Mr. Reid used to say.  You will move forward in your technique faster when your proportion of correct singing is higher.   A little correct singing in your lessons advances you further than lots of less-than-ideal repetitions in the practice room.  If you don’t practice, you won’t have a chance to sing incorrectly!

A third reason not to try to recreate your lessons at home is that my approach to teaching is not to have you mindlessly repeat formulaic sequences of stock exercises.   It is to respond to what I am hearing in your voice at each moment.   Because your signing differs from day to day, the exercises I propose will be different too, depending on what is going right and wrong in your vocal coordination at the time.  Today’s exercises might be completely inappropriate tomorrow.  At some point in your training, you will become attuned to your own voice in the way that I am in your lessons.  At that point, you will be able to design your own practice sessions at home.  Until then, it is better not to risk reinforcing an inappropriate vocal coordination by doing exercises on your own.

So what should you do between lessons. . .and what should you do with those lesson recordings?  Remember that much of vocal training involves developing your ear and strengthening the connection between your mental conception of a tone and your body’s reflexive response to that thought.  Listen to your lesson recordings as objectively as possible, noticing the changes in sound and paying attention to what thought processes brought about these changes.  See if you are able to detect in your recorded voice the qualities you hear me mention.  Let the recordings be a stimulus for thinking, rather than doing.

If you want to practice something, explore vowel sounds.  You can speak them or sing them, noticing what you do to form them, seeing if you can do less to form them, finding their nuances and colors, changing quickly or slowly from one to another.  Otherwise, study your music.  Memorize it, speak the lyrics, analyze it structurally at whatever level you are able.  Sing phrases of it in the shower or around your home, and notice what is changing in your technique.  A few minutes a day of carefree vocalizing will do no harm.  Let it be fun.

If you haven't visited my website in awhile, you are probably going to notice that I've made a lot of changes: a newly organized navigation menu on the right of the screen, new pages added, a new title for this blog, even a new URL for my new homepage dedicated to singing instruction:

ArtandScienceofSinging.com

The Art & Science of Singing is my name for a 3-in-1 approach to training singers I've developed.  This unique (as far as I know) combination of voice lessons, Alexander Technique, and Voice-Enhancing Bodywork brings together the three services I have been offering all along.   I've been noticing for months how my voice students were benefitting from including elements of Alexander Technique and bodywork in their lessons; their learning has been both deeper and faster using the combination.  Now I've made it "official" by formulating various 3-in-1 programs of vocal study, which you can read about on one of my new webpages.

In order to build interest in my new 3-in-1 approach, I will for the next few months be focusing on informing singers about the Art & Science of Singing.  This does not mean that I will be closing my doors to non-singers!  I will still be offering standard Alexander lessons and Tablework for the general public. 

This new shift in focus has really fired my enthusiasm lately.  I feel happy to have found a way to combine my passion for singing with my 3 professional passions into a "product" that I think will be highly beneficial to my clients.  The variety and challenge of switching among 3 related but highly different modes of working throughout each day of teaching will keep me engaged and intellectually stimulated.  I already love my work, but this new direction seems likely to bring me even greater satisfaction and joy.

May it also bring satisfaction and joy—and a free voice—to many singers!

Click on the image below to read the formatted brochure:

The Art & Science of Singing:
Voice lessons
Alexander Technique
Voice-Enhancing Bodywork
“My integrated 3-in-1 approach to vocal health & development will take you to a higher level of vocal mastery.”
The Art & Science of Singing Defined
The Art of Singing is the seemingly magical unleashing of your full creative potential that happens when your mind, body, and voice are truly free.
The Science of Singing is the process that leads to this desired state of freedom.  It demands of both teacher and student an open-minded state of objective observation coupled with a willingness to explore the unknown.
What this means for you
As a singer, you are your instrument: every aspect of your being affects the quality of your singing.  In order to reach your full artistic potential, you therefore must strive for the best possible conditions in every area: a healthy vocal technique, an easeful and dynamic physicality, an open and positive mental state.  My 3-in-1 approach to vocal health and development addresses all these areas, blending voice lessons, Alexander Technique, and my own Voice-Enhancing Bodywork into an integrated, ideologically consistent system of learning.  Every step of the process we undertake together reinforces your vocal technique.
Whether you are an established professional singer wishing to fine-tune an already polished technique or a beginner contemplating your first voice lesson, I invite you to sample my 3-in-1 approach.  You can schedule an introductory 30-minute voice lesson, Alexander Technique lesson, or Voice-Enhancing Bodywork session, or discover the power of the triple combination in a 90-minute sampler session in which you’ll experience all three.  Special new-client rates apply for all these introductory services, which take place in my conveniently located Chelsea studio.  Contact me by phone or email for pricing and scheduling information.
During the course of my own singing career, I have discovered that a  free technique, combined with a free body and a free mind, fosters true vocal health and happiness.  Now I’d like to share that possibility with you. 
Please read about the individual components of my approach on the next page. . . .
Michael Hanko is a gifted voice instructor, combining thorough technical knowledge with a keen ear for efficient and easeful singing.  His words and guidance are clear, and the effects of his precise work are immediate.  Alexis Martin, Soprano, Met Opera Nat’l Council Regional Winner
Thank you for helping me discover my big voice!  Each lesson is so much fun; also I am making such new and beautiful sounds. THANK YOU for giving me my voice back.  Leah Curney, Musical Theater Performer, former node sufferer
Since starting private Alexander work with Michael, I've gotten feedback from singing colleagues about the improvements in my vocal technique — working with him has helped me to correct problems with tension and over-breathing that were keeping me from moving to the next level. Michael has been able to guide me to a new kind of ease, balance, support, and freedom in singing.  Allison Atteberry, Soprano
I not only physically felt relief, I experienced a mental and emotional rejuvenation completely new to me.  Stephanie Fittro, Broadway Performer
Your bodywork turned out to be the perfect complement to my voice lessons.  In just two sessions, I've gained so much freedom in my voice and the high notes have opened up. The bodywork has made my voice click into place easily and naturally.  It's all starting to make sense kinesthetically.  Singing is just easier now.  I can sing for hours and hours - and still feel like singing!  Thank you.   Stephanie Harrison, Pop/Jazz Vocalist
My work with Michael has allowed me to sing with a level of ease and consistency I had never thought possible.  His teaching is clear, practical, and flexible.  I have greatly benefitted from working with this insightful and patient technician.  Noah Lethbridge, Tenor
1. Voice lessons
A course of lessons focused on improving the response of your vocal mechanism forms the core of my approach to voice teaching.
My way of working with singers is based on time-tested principles of the bel canto tradition.  But because every singer is unique in physical make-up, temperament, and experience,  I customize the particulars of each lesson to your individual needs.  By acutely listening to your voice, I am able to analyze from moment to moment what is going right and wrong in your technique and propose exercises likely to produce immediate improvements in the functioning of your vocal mechanism.  This way of working, in which the output of every exercise suggests the next direction for vocal experimentation, makes every lesson interesting and different.  You’ll learn to
Coordinate the action of your vocal registers for a healthy, free technique
Increase your vocal range & agility
Sing throughout your entire range with ease - at any volume
Cultivate your unique sound
Prevent / alleviate nodes and other vocal maladies
2. Alexander Technique
This mind-body awareness practice has so deeply influenced my own singing and learning that I have come to consider it an essential complement to voice lessons.
The Alexander Technique prepares you mentally and physically for the challenging business of refining the coordination of your vocal organs.  It will help you to release habits of posture, movement, and thinking that interfere with your best performance.  You will discover a new ease and efficiency in your singing and find a healthier, more natural way of using your body in all your activities. 
Here are some of the benefits of AT study for singers:
Achieve the most efficient postural support for your singing
Eliminate habits that produce unnecessary tension
Learn to breathe fully and freely
Refine your kinesthetic sense so that you can reliably recognize the subtle muscular adjustments involved in singing
Accustom yourself to getting out of your own way so that your body can respond to your intentions naturally, with freedom and precision
3. Bodywork
Sometimes, even when your technique is good, you may be held back from progressing vocally by tensions within your body that you have no control over.  Such tensions can have physical or emotional origins.  When this type of interference arises, it is crucial to have a voice teacher who recognizes that the source of the problem lies in your tissues, not in your technique.  And it’s certainly a bonus if that teacher can do something to help.
When in the course of your lessons we come up against restrictions that are interfering with your singing, we will schedule a session of my Voice-Enhancing Bodywork.  During the session, as you lie (fully clothed) on the table, I will gently guide your body into releasing the restrictions and returning to full health and functionality.  Along with the profound state of relaxation that generally results, you as a singer will appreciate an increased freedom in all the organs involved in singing, including
Jaw & tongue
Neck, shoulders, & back
Laryngeal musculature
Facial musculature
Diaphragm & lungs
About Michael Hanko
Michael graduated cum laude from Princeton University, earning a degree in Music/Pre-Med Studies.  His vocal training includes more than 10 years’ mentoring in technique and pedagogy with eminent singing teacher Cornelius Reid.  Michael is an AmSAT-certified Alexander Teacher and has served on the teaching faculty of the American Center for the Alexander Technique.  After training in several forms of bodywork at the Upledger Institute, where he is now on the teaching staff, he went on to develop his own therapeutic approach for singers called Voice-Enhancing Bodywork.  He has established a private practice in NYC and has taught classes at the Juilliard School, the Hoff-Barthelson Music School, and the Esper School [for actors].  Along with his work in helping other singers to reach their potential, Michael performs professionally as a classical baritone soloist.

Every action we undertake in life, no matter how mundane or momentous, begins as a thought, which the brain can implement by ordering muscles to contract.  We can choose to take control of this process of converting thought into action, but much of the time, it occurs beneath the level of our awareness.

The Alexander Technique provides such a framework.  It is a tool that allows us to organize our thinking.  Those who become skilled in using the A.T. learn to channel their energies along productive pathways, allowing them to avoid creating obstacles for themselves and to use their bodies in a healthier, more efficient way.

I am currently working with a pop singer, Jason (not his real name), who had the intention of breathing fully and deeply when he performed.  Before he came to me, however, this intention was diluted by other thoughts that diverted his energies into counter-productive channels:  His concept of  "good posture" required a great deal of effort, which actually interfered with the movement of his diaphragm in breathing.  Because of erroneous beliefs about how breathing works, he futilely attempted to breathe into his belly (which contains his intestines) rather than into his upper torso (which contains his lungs).  And, paradoxically, it was his very desire to sing well - without any thought as to how the state of his body influences his ability to sing well - that was interfering with his breathing by triggering tension and anxiety.

After some Alexander lessons, Jason has learned constructive thinking that he employs not only on stage, but all the time, to allow for his fullest, healthiest breathing to occur.  He is much more at ease when he performs and feels better on and off stage.

Outside of your lessons, it is up to you to employ your new thinking as often as possible and as consistently as possible in your life.  A single thought has a slight potential to effect lasting change, but the possibilities multiply when you think that same thought 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times. . . .
Consider how over the course  of many years, a slow drip of water can carve out a deep channel in solid rock.