In order to sing well your body must be properly aligned, toned (I don’t like the term relaxed as singing is a very physical activity), open and with certain muscles engaged. Breath flows in and out better through a properly aligned body. To sing well demands a lot from both our brains and bodies.
When you stand make sure your ears, shoulders, hips and heels are on one line that runs vertical to the ground, with weight slightly forward, a gentle bend in the knees and feet hip width apart. Your shoulders should be back and down. Feel the floor firmly with the entire surface area of your feet and make sure each part is carrying an equally distributed amount of weight. Your chin should be as if resting on a horizontal line and the back of the neck should feel like you are slightly reaching towards the ceiling, (as if somebody is pulling you up by the top of your head – Do not allow this to make you reach up with your shoulders.)
If you are seated make sure you can feel your seat bones on the chair, feet flat on the floor, ears, shoulders and hips on the vertical line and sit forward, – no leaning back – sitting back on the chair is fine as long as the alignment is there. I personally like to sit when singing as it provides a more stable base for the pelvis and the pelvis in turn affects the pelvic floor and stomach muscles which are to be used for breath support.
Correct posture also makes you feel and look better and thus you will sing better.
The jaw must be relaxed, vowels are formulated with the tongue and lips and with very little jaw activity. The tongue must be very quick and very flexible for correct articulation of the words. The audience need to hear the words to get the meaning of the song across.
Exercise
Focus on where your tongue is in your mouth at any given time- Do you feel it flat at the bottom? – floating in the middle of your mouth or up at the roof of your mouth? Where do you think it should be for singing? What do you notice when you put your tongue in the different positions? (it should be at the roof of your mouth)
