Thursday, December 27, 2007

Another Singing Myth Debunked!

I have never heard the following phrase anywhere but here. It was not used by any teachers I had from 1967 on. It was not used by Seth Riggs, Debra Bonner, Greg Enriquez, Kelly Connelly, or any other teacher I had from W.Va, Las Vegas, Los Angeles nor in Philadelphia.

“Use your pee muscles to help support your sound”.

What?! This phrase is related to a couple of others that sound equally as insane and as Freudian which speak of other body parts in the same general region of our anatomy. I question this “pee muscle” theory because I have had several students who were taught this phrase and seemed to have accepted it as if it had some truth in it. It wreaks of “charlatan-ism” and “guru-ism”. From everything I can find regarding anatomy and several universities’ and hospitals’ websites dealing with voice disorders, this is the most bogus, ridiculous and disgusting phrase I have heard.

I have some books by Richard Miller, who is one of the first singing teachers in our country to seriously pay attention to anatomy and medical science. He doesn’t mention “pee muscles”. And by the way, they are not the same on males and females in case you might be interested; this brings up another point. Fortunately everyone does not know this phrase.

What would a physician (such as a laryngologist or pulmonary specialist) have to say about the connection between “pee muscles” and singing? Have any pee muscle proponents bothered to ask even a general practitioner about this?

Learn to evaluate the information you receive…in fact, question what you hear. Take the steps necessary to protect your “instrument”, which in a singer’s world is YOUR voice!

In my next blog, you will learn what kind of sources to trust and where to find accurate information, about your voice.