OVS Blog

What if the way that you thought about and used your body entirely changed your sound? Because...it very often does! I'm starting a series that will come every few months about a different part of the body that I believe to have a huge effect on our singing (and so much more). The first area we are focusing on is our feet!

Not only are your feet the literal foundation of your body, but they physically connect all the way up to your tongue through a fascial connection called the Deep Front Line (DFL) This essentially begins under your big toe, moves up the leg, the hip, up your spine, connecting through your diaphragm and lungs and finally the tongue. It directly influences the breathing wave of the diaphragm, and stabilizes the chest while allowing breathing to happen among other things. 

In addition to this true physical connection, much of our internal idea of support comes through how our body meets the ground, and for most of us that comes through the feet. If there is an idea or belief about our feet and how they meet the earth that differs from our true design, that is going to change the way that they are supporting our bodies and therefore our instruments. (We explore a bit with some of these thoughts in the exclusive video!) 

To give an example of this, think of the shape that your leg and foot together make. Did you just think of an "L?" Many of us think of our leg and foot making an "L" shape, but if you look at a skeleton or picture online, you'll see that there's a part of the foot that goes behind our leg (i.e. our heel). This is very common - we have a visual in mind and that's how we wear our body in our subconscious mind, and it affects the way that we do things including singing. What happens if you simply walk around or even sing with the idea of this extra bump in the back that gives additional stability by not being directly underneath your leg? It's a cool thing to experiment with, and even if you didn't have that "L" idea, try it on to see how it changes your body and your sound.

I'll say this again: we wear our thinking and our beliefs about our body, and it affects how we move, how we live, and how we sing. And...we can change those thoughts to more closely align with our body's design to help everything function more efficiently.