For the first 4 years of my singing, I didn’t think the body mattered. The body is just the bit that makes air, right? Then on my travels I witnessed what felt to me like a succession of singing miracles. Firstly a man helped into his body with some massage, and his voice going from thin and reedy to comfortable and full.

Next was the most transformative event:

I worked with an Alexander Technique teacher who I heard singing once in an operatic style. She sang with complete freedom and ease. When I asked her had she taken lessons she said no, she had never taken any singing lessons…

Yet the control and freedom that she exhibited was comparable to the professional operatic masters. I became convinced at that moment that singing is a natural extension to the human body and that singing well was

a result of good and free alignment. I was 22 at this point and spent the next 4 year frantically and voraciously devouring material and knowledge that would support and point me to this. I saw also that another Alexander technique teacher I knew (who was a singing teacher) also sang with incredible freedom and ease and I questioned her on this topic and found she agreed with me.

HOWEVER… though I now saw the end point I couldn't really see the deeper mechanics. I didn't understand WHY a free body led to a free voice. AND, because I wanted to perform, I was all-too-aware that I didn’t always have a free body and that it took many years to develop this. Though I was on the path, I didn’t understand what, along the path, contributed to free and easy singing. (Beyond the big picture of “oh, just free your head, neck and spine” etc, etc. When it came to performing, I wasn’t always free and well in my body. So I floundered for another four years or so until I came upon MDH which explained in such physiological depth and detail the singing mechanism in such a way that I had never heard before. It was holistic, logical, and created dramatic impact on my singing when I went to an MDH teacher. That's when my singing really started to take off because then I could diagnose particular issues with more certainty and I could see how to return to an optimal state.