So you've done your Surprised, Silent, Smiley breath.  
What happens next?
Hold your breath as though you're going to sing an "ng," (sing)  The back of your tongue pops up to say hello to your soft palate! Hold the ng as long as you dare and then, yes, "sing" a little siren!
Together with the Surprised, Silent, Smiley breath you've made an 'east-west' pull which gives you Retraction as demonstrated in my Voice Preparation Kit ebook  - exercise one. See my store if you are interested in learning further.
Sing along with me in my siren video to see how it's done. Stay tuned for the next step.

“Some individuals, through what flowed from them, have left a mark on their age lasting through generations and working for good.” Goethe.
Ah yes! This great gal was such an individual.

At the weekend I did my first choral workshop since silly old Covid. The place was packed with singers, mostly like me, “of an age,” trying to crank up their voices after the rust, the long Covid, or simply wear and tear that comes to our bodies (and voices therefore) over the years.
There had been a last minute venue switch and we ended up in the Flockhart Hall at MLC.

As those voices, collectively raised in song, raised the bar of clarity, tone and range, I felt a growing awareness of gratitude to Jo. Imagine the intake of breath when I shared with them the fact that all this tweaking which was going on, came from the research that great lady did against all the odds and that I encountered her in that very room way back in 1997!

It was such a special moment. The meeting of Jo herself, who was pretty elderly and very scary by that time, and the treasure of collective realisation right there, right then on that sunny Saturday afternoon.
Everything took off for me when I embraced and studied the findings of Jo’s vast research and gained confidence in what I was doing as a singer and teacher. So, yes, this morning I’m feeling so very grateful to that dogged pioneer and incredible human being, dear Jo Estill.
And thanks to Dianne Vale; MD - Joseph Hie and The Star Chorale for coming out to play with me and well yes, with Jo too.
​Love to all and have a wonderful week. Kxx

Those who know me well, also know that I'm a tragic rhymer! A sucker for a bit of doggerel and pithy verse...
And so it is that every now and then you'll see a poem pop up here. Be warned, I have 19 volumes. 🤣

​Last week as I started down this new road of "getting out" more, I bumped into some old anxiety issues about being across too many platforms and things falling through the cracks.                                    Secretly, carrier pigeon was better for our health! 
Hope this makes you smile as much as it did me to write it. Kxx

Scrolling and Grazing,
Lolling and lazing,
The meat of the matter mere pie in the sky,
All hither and thither,
Hey diddle-dither,
The corn nowhere near an elephant’s eye.

Screen time is mean time,
Scream time, between time,
But life is what happens when we are elsewhere,               Perfect image from Maxim IIyahov
Where real folk wander,                                                            https://unsplash.com/@glvrdru
The heart grows fonder,
With them we can smile and sing without care.

​KS February 2023

Well, yes that was a cliffhanger, but here I am as promised with a little video of the good ol’ SSS breath!
It’s how I start every singing activity including my own. And the beauty of it is that you can actually practice it anywhere, anytime; down the street, in the supermarket, in the office. So instead of allowing your voice to slump at those times, you can get those bits of anatomy wiggling away and ready to go. 
​I have suggested that it can lift your mood too, maybe?