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Your Body as a Musical Instrument

What do you and a cello haven common?

A musical instrument’s ability to sound good depends on how it vibrates. The same is true of the human body. Our bones transmit sound and our tissues resonate, too, unless they’re blocked. Our voice isn’t limited to our larynx and vocal cords; it’s a whole-body phenomenon. Try putting your hands on your sternum and, next time you exhale, say “Aaah.” Do you feel the sound vibrating under your hands?

The body of a cello also looks a lot like the human body—after all, whether we call one a “resonance box” or “sound board,” they’re both bodies. The cello is a fascinating instrument with a rich variety of sound. You, too, have everything you need to produce a rich voice. When your body is open, supple, flexible, and you’re in a fairly good mood—not too tense, not too tired—it is an ideal resonance box for your voice.

Tune your instrument

In this chapter, I invite you to consider your whole body as an instrument capable of giving your voice space and making your words resound. This will eventually lead you to find harmony between your body and your mood. Sound is vibration, and vibration is movement. We’ll see what this means as we get moving: we’ll sound good and feel well tuned.

Movement—whether physical sports or mental exercise—helps us become one with our bofdies. Most sports encourage good circulation, metabolism, and muscle tone, and require breathing, flexibility, coordination, strength, and stamina—all of which are the foundation of a healthy voice. You’ve probably already experienced for yourself how physical exercise makes you feel good and boosts your mood. Since few of us have an hour each day for sports, yoga, or relaxation, I’ll share a few exercises you can easily incorporate into everyday life here and there, five minutes at a time. Even when they don’t directly involve your voice, these exercises will have a positive effect on it. Once you develop a good physical foundation, plus healthy movement and posture patterns you will speak better without even having to think about it.

Get in gear!

Sometimes we hear this phrase when inertia gets the best of us, or we’re figuratively stuck and can’t move forward. But let’s take it literally, as an invitation to get moving, and make it a motto in our everyday life! Taking every opportunity to walk or move, whenever and wherever, will boost your mood and lift your spirit. Thanks to a bit of physical activity, you’ll find that other areas of life come into motion, too. “Move a muscle, change a thought”: this maxim applies to brainstorming, problem solving, professional progress, and dealing with our fellow human beings.

Whether it’s riding a bike to work, going for a walk, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, even a tiny bit of exercise is good for your whole body and therefore also good for your voice.

When I stand, I stand. When I walk, I walk.

—from a Zen story

Good to your feet = light on your feet

If we want to make strides in everyday life and the long term, we’d best pay attention to our feet. Good, sure footing grounds us, laying the foundation for a healthy voice, and is important for our ability to take a stand, both literally and figuratively.

Whether you get a foot massage, roll a small ball under your bare foot while seated at your desk, or take the time to practice standing with good posture, all of this will help you feel better in body, voice, and mind.

Walk barefoot

Whenever possible, go barefoot: If you have a backyard, after getting up in the morning go for a barefoot stroll through the dewy grass or in the snow; do the same during your lunch break, and whenever you have some free time—for instance, on weekends and on vacation. It grounds you and has a beneficial effect on the whole body thanks to the many zones of sensation in the soles of your feet. To feel these zones plus the ground’s various textures, roll on your soles—from heel to arch to toe—bringing attention to your feet every step of the way.

There are musicians and singers who perform barefoot, precisely because it helps them connect even better with the space around them and its unique vibrations. A famous example is the virtuoso Scottish solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Almost entirely deaf since childhood, she feels sounds using her whole body—above all, through the contact between her feet and the ground.

Get swinging

Dangling and swinging motions have many positive effects: they open up our joints and make them more flexible, they stimulate good circulation and help boost rhythmic breathing, and they relax and tone our muscles. The following short exercises will help set you swinging and will activate your body and mind with good vibrations.

Rag doll and ringing bell

Stand with your legs apart, knees slightly bent and flexible. Bring your chin to your chest and slowly roll downward, from your neck to your waist, one vertebra at a time, until your upper body and arms are hanging near the floor. Just relax here for a few breaths and enjoy dangling like a rag doll. Then start swinging your upper body and arms like a ­pendulum—to the left, middle, right, and back again—steadily, like a swinging bell. Keep your knees elastic and your feet solidly rooted to the ground. Savor this swing, then let it gradually come to an end. Keep breathing and, starting with your lumbar vertebrae (in your lower back), slowly roll back up, unfurling the spine again, one vertebra at a time. Last, lift your head. In addition to loosening your body, this exercise also increases blood flow to the brain. Newly refreshed, you can now concentrate on getting back to work.

Leg swings

Stand upright with your right foot propped up on top of a step, or a sturdy footstool, or something similar. Use your right hand to brace yourself against a wall or the back of a chair. Now swing your free-hanging left leg back and forth. Do this for a few minutes, paying close attention to how the motion feels. Enjoy its effect on your body and breathing. Then switch sides and swing the other leg. This exercise relaxes and refreshes your legs, loosens your hip joints, and keeps your body mobile.

Hand fans

Fan your hands horizontally, as if you’ve just washed them and have to shake the water off. Feel the momentum spread from your wrist to your fingers and back up your whole arm, and relish the sensation. This little exercise relaxes your arms, hands, and wrists. By loosening your wrist joints, it also has a positive effect on your breathing.

“Dancing Queen”

You probably know this song by ABBA, or at least the title—it’s the epitome of someone completely letting themselves go, dancing and devoting everything to the music and its movement. You don’t have to hit a club to have this kind of experience, nor do you have to listen to disco. Put on some music of your choice: an upbeat, hard-rocking tune if you want to work out, something softer to help you relax and wind down, or both, back-to-back. Close your eyes, if possible (not while driving!), and let the sound and rhythm lead you. It’s not about specific dance moves—just have fun experimenting. Start with your hands, for example, and then let the movement spread through your arms, upper body, and so on. Take advantage of the fact that your body has so many moving parts, and play around. By the time the music is over you’ll be refreshed with a renewed degree of concentration and elated to return to your daily or after-work routine.

Learn to dance, dear lest the angels in heaven not know what to do with you.

—Saint Augustine

Sound body, sound mind

Our mental, psychological, and physical selves are deeply connected. When our body is in balance, our mind and mood are, too, and everything feels safe and sound. If, on the other hand, we’re out of balance or “beside ourselves” with any kind of negative emotion, it’s important that we find our way back—to center ourselves and reestablish balance in our lives. Our language has many idioms and images for this intertwining of body, mind, and soul. We’ll make the most of these connections in the following exercises, beginning with the body, experiencing how it affects the mind and psyche. Just as sailors use a sounding line—a rope with distance markers—to “sound out” the sea’s depth, we can sound our own depths to achieve a sound body and mind. Being in balance can also be expressed as being in harmony. When we’re solid on our feet, things have a way of sorting themselves out for the best.

Plumb line, all’s fine

Stand upright, feet about hip-width apart, knees flexible. Let your arms hang down beside your torso. Imagine a plumb line passing straight through your body from the crown of your head to the ground between your feet. Begin turning side to side, keeping your whole body soft and flexible, making small circles around the plumb line. Then shift to trace figure eights with your ­pelvis—the figure eights’ midpoint will center on your same plumb line. Let your breath flow as smoothly as possible. This movement doesn’t need to be a grand gesture—a simple version of this can even be done while waiting in a checkout line or at a bus stop.

Regal bearing

Stand up straight and, circumstances permitting, close your eyes for a moment. Imagine you’re a king or queen with a crown on your head and a magnificent mantle over your shoulders. Feel the powerful significance of your position. Do you feel yourself standing taller, both inside and out? Let your breath flow freely. Now stroll around the room, eyes open, with that same dignified attitude. You might not be a king or queen as in fairy tales or the few countries that still have monarchies, but you are the sovereign of your own life. Use this exercise over and over, whenever you need a gentle reminder of that!

Tightrope walker

Balancing requires and reinforces our ability to stand up straight, concentrate, stay toned, and be centered and at rest. Coordination and balance exercises also strengthen our intercostals—those often-­overlooked muscles between our ribs—which, in turn, play an important role in breathing and supporting our voice. Use anything and everything you need to practice balancing: a fallen tree trunk beside the path on your walk in the woods, a boundary line on the soccer field of your local park, the lines between sidewalk slabs, the curb, a rope lying on the ground. Take a look at children’s games or think back to how you yourself might’ve played on a pretend tightrope as a kid. You can also buy special balancing disks and rocker boards for use at home or in the office for short exercise sessions.

Water carrier

I’ve had a big picture hanging over my piano for several years now, and it still moves me every time I see it. It shows a group of Indian women carrying filled water jugs home atop their heads. They’re wearing colorful robes, and many hooped bangles adorn their arms. They carry their heavy burdens with such grace, dignity, and admirable posture that I marvel at the image every day as if I’d never seen it before. It seems to ask: How do we go through our daily lives? How do we deal with our burdens, our trials, and tribulations? Do we endure them with strength, grace, and dignity, standing upright? Even if the going gets rough, try rising to the challenge: Go through your everyday life like these water carriers. Experience how your body posture affects your inner (and outer!) attitude as well as your outer (and inner!) voice.