Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Singing with Your Whole Self: A Singer's Guide to Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement

Product Description Singing with Your Whole Self: A Singer's Guide to Awareness through Movement teaches performers to use the Feldenkrais Method of neuromuscular education to ameliorate problems of tension, muscle strain, and illness in order to obtain optimal vocal performance. With new lessons and chapters on kinesthetic imagination and neuroplasticity, this second edition features unique, modularized Feldenkrais lessons designed specifically to liberate function in singers and other voice professionals. The first part of the book presents the theory behind the approach in an easy-to-understand and concrete fashion. The remaining chapters explore anatomy by area and explain usage and problems, as well as how both relate to singing. Finally, an appendix allows performers to find lessons that are most effective for a specific problem. As a valuable exercise guide, the second edition of Singing with Your Whole Self is an essential resource for singers at all levels and in all styles. Review The authors' specialized backgrounds allow them to masterfully apply the Feldenkrais Method to the physical needs of singers. Singing with Your Whole Self, therefore, acts as both textbook and workbook, providing information alongside exercises. It demonstrates that when science and practice merge, and when dedicated practitioners continue to explore, old practices can be enhanced by modern understandings.-- "Classical Singer Magazine" The second edition of Singing with Your Whole Self offers several elegant and effective updates. The ingenious presentation of Awareness Through Movement lessons in short modules is retained, and several new and imaginative lessons have been added. An exciting chapter on neuroplasticity and learning will help any singer harness this human superpower in service of beautiful and expressive singing. A resource to bring vocal pedagogy into the modern age!--MaryBeth Davidson Smith, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, The Feldenkrais Center of Houston About the Author SAMUEL H. NELSON is a graduate of the Toronto Professional Feldenkrais Training Program (1987). He has offered Awareness Through Movement classes to the public since 1985. He held a seminar on the Feldenkrais Method each semester at the Eastman School of Music for many years and has presented seminars at music schools in Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia. Nelson also presented workshops for musicians at several area high schools, as well as for physical therapists and equestrians. He has a private practice in Rochester, New York. ELIZABETH BLADES holds both doctor of Musical Arts and masters of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She is currently adjunct associate professor of Music at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. Previous appointments were at Heidelberg University (Tiffin, OH) where she served as associate professor of Music, coordinator of Vocal Studies and director of Opera; and as a visiting professor of Music at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY.