Qigong for Vocalists
Qigong for Singing
Ch’i Kung for Vocalists
Ch’i Kung for Singing
Chi Kung for Vocalists
Chi Kung for Singing
 
 
For Vocalists
 
This exercise is an introduction to energy work/qigong. With it emotions are turned into sound.  Read it through a few times before you begin practicing it.
 
Stand, with the center of your lower abdomen, chest and head in a straight line. To do this  imagine a string pulling up from the crown of your head, as you gently tuck your tailbone down.
 
Your feet should be pointing forward--as if you were standing on railroad tracks. Knees should be slightly bent.
 
With feet firmly planted about shoulder width apart, circle your pelvis left-back, right-forward (like a 1960’s kid’s hula hoop). Then go the other way, right-back, left forward. Do each way five to ten times.
 
Rotate your head in gentle small circles. Roll your shoulders, first forwards then backwards. Go slowly and easily. This will open your chest and throat.
 
Bring your attention to the center of the lower abdomen, just about an inch and a half below your navel and about two inches behind.  Breath deeply sending the air/oxygen/energy there to that place. Breath out through your mouth. Imagine that you are filling and storing energy down into your lower belly.  Do this for approximately three minutes.
 
Now when you exhale open your mouth wide and yawn. Do it five to ten times.
 
Allow the yawns to become sighs. Do this five to ten times.
 
Now choose an emotion or feeling. (For suggestions you might use love, desire, happiness, joy, ecstasy, or sadness.) Positive feelings are the best to use.
 
 (In time you possibility could experiment with less positive emotions such as anger, lust, greed to allow for extended artistic expression.)
 
Take your chosen emotion and breathe it into your lower belly. Continue sighing on the out-breath. A minute or two of this should be enough.
 
Without any effort, inhibition, or restraint allow that emotion to rise up from the lower abdomen to your throat and become part of each sigh.  Each emotion filled sigh becomes a sound.
 
Don’t analyze. Don’t criticize.  Do not kill your cry of passion with critical thinking.
 
Just make sure that you don’t strain your vocal apparatus by being too loud. Go slowly and easily.  Other than that, simply allow the emotion-energy-sigh-singing to do whatever it wants to do.
 
Have fun with it for a few minutes.
 
With practice, the emotion-energy-sigh-singing will become fuller, more powerful, more truthful.
 
When you are totally comfortable doing this exercise invite a friend to listen. Just don’t tell them in advance what you are doing. Sing a few sounds naturally and normally; then pump an emotion into the lower abdomen and join its passion to your vocalizations.
 
Most likely they will be amazed and tell you how better you sounded when you did the emotion-energy-breathing.
 
 (I suggested that you invite someone to check you out because when you are doing Art-Energy you are in the zone and usually are not be aware of how much more powerful you sound.
 
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