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Expressions Of
The Self - Stage And Vocal Performance - With Steven Memel
By
Al Lee and Don
Campbell
IT'S EASY TO ASSUME that
successful veteran actors such as Lauren Bacall, Isabella
Rosellini and John Woods might not need additional help
developing and evolving their craft or pushing their
careers to a higher level.
But that's precisely why they
and many others seek the help of Steven Memel, |
a Los Angeles-based vocal and
acting coach who, for nearly 20 years has counseled
professional and aspiring performers with a philosophy of
reinforcing the purity of art as an expression of the
self, one that must come from deep within. "There is only
one art," he says. "And that is life. There are just
different channels through which we express ourselves."
Rooted in this philosophy are
his techniques for awakening, or reawakening, that artist
within. With acting, singing or speaking, Memel explains,
we are playing the body as an instrument. "You have to
have an activating energy and a vibrating mechanism," he
says in a rich and mellifluous voice. "With a cello it's a
bow and a string. With a drum, it's the stick and the
vibrating drum head. With your voice, it's your vocal
cords and your breath. The amazing thing about the breath
is that through our emotions, through our desire to
communicate -- and that's what singing and speaking are --
our breath plays an enormous and essential role. You can't
communicate all those nuances of despair, anger, love,
joy, without the breath. Every single one of these
emotional states correlates with some action of breath
that is common to all of us."
The breath, he says, is the
very foundation that enables us to express this art.
Without ballet's plie, he suggests, there is no leap.
Without the backswing of a baseball bat in baseball, there
can be no home run. Without the air -- without the breath
as the backswing, the preparation -- there is no sound.
"The role the breath plays is the essence of our life," he
says. "It is the fuel, the source that brings life to us.
Without it we cease to exist."
Voice is created via air
pressure being exerted against the closed vocal cords. In
the typical adult male, those cords are just under an inch
long, even less than that for women. "When you think of
all the pitches and all the dynamic levels you are able to
make, you are talking about octaves of notes being
produced on hardly any surface area whatsoever," Memel
says. "Those vocal chords have to change shapes for each
pitch. The body has to regulate a different amount of air
pressure for each note too. It's a match-up between the
air pressure and the vocal cord closure. When you start
putting together all the variables that happen on such a
tiny space -- the speed and accuracy at which we are able
to do that -- and get to the point where you are not even
consciously thinking about it, that is truly staggering."
As with anything, mastery
increases personal confidence and trust. It's a process
that takes practice. "Just discovering that there is a
another possibility of how to breath is sometimes a
completely revolutionary thought," he says. "You can
hardly speak to a person about letting go of the breath
when, due to stressful conditioning or all sorts of other
things, they don't have a clue what that means."
Conscious breathing brings
many benefits, beginning with overall body awareness.
"Being aware of my body and sensation puts me ahead of the
game in everything I do," Memel says. "I'm able to learn
physical things faster. I don't have to master the art of
letting go in the midst of a learning or crisis
situation."
In his late teens and early
20s, "People used to call me Mister Intense," he says.
"Now they say 'Steven, you are so laid back.' I attribute
an enormous amount of that to the ability to breathe the
way that I do. Just like in Aikido and other martial arts,
you must stay relaxed so that in your moment of necessity
for movement you can move in any direction. It's not a
dead, heavy laid-back. It's a laid-back that allows me to
act and react more quickly than if I wasn't in that
particular state."
With even rudimentary
conscious breathing skills comes balance in dealing with
emotions, physical pain, lovemaking, even listening. "You
are a better listener when you are in a balanced state,"
Memel offers. "It helps with stressful circumstances, and
certainly most importantly it helps in ways spiritually to
develop peace of mind and to loosen the grip in moments of
tension or panic, which we all have. The breath centers
you. When you hold your breath you are basically guarding
yourself against pain. When you breathe, you are leaving
yourself more sensitive and open."
Performers allow people to
"be voyeurs of our experience," Memel says. "Besides the
technical proficiency, it is really learning how to become
someone who comes from their heart and makes you truly
believe and feel what we are communicating through the
music or the acting." It is coming from a place of truth
and purity.
When you are focused on your
breathing, and not resisting it, you are much more alive,
aware and spontaneous. But to achieve that you have to
undergo an initial moment of letting go your grip,
breathing, and discovering that there is safety in it.
"From that place comes the greatest strength, the greatest
freedom, the greatest joy," Memel says. "That is the
hardest psychological and emotional place to get to.
Memel recounts the story of
jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, who, when asked what he
thought about before he launches into one of his elegant
and free-spirited solos, said, "What I think before I take
a solo is, here goes."
Says Memel, "It's a matter of
trust because of the fear of vulnerability, the fear that
nothing will be there if we let go, rather than
discovering the beautiful array of possibilities that are
alive within us at every moment."
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