Control vs Force

   For those of you who don't know me I am a bit of a control freak. The secret is out! Those of you who do know me won't be a bit surprised by this admission, except maybe for the fact that I'm advertising it. To me, control is like:

   This becomes a bit of a problem for me, because one of the things that the Bristow Method condemns is control in all its forms and manipulations.  In many ways I agree with this but this is one of the areas that I have tweaked the Bristow Method. Instead of condemning "Control", I condemn "Force."
   Yes. The two words are different. I feel they need to be clarified. My definition of Control is when you want to know what you're doing, and make sure you're doing it right. I don't see anything wrong with that, do you? Ok, there still are times when it is either inappropriate or merely an illusion because there are many things you either shouldn't or can't control. But we are talking about voice here; and in that field I see nothing wrong with control.
  Force is very different than control. In my method, Force is the enemy of a healthy voice (and a lot of other things that seep  into your personal life, too.) Force is what you do when you're trying to manipulate your sound. It is a pitfall. Even the word sounds tense so what do you think your muscles are doing? You end up tensing muscles you didn't even know you had! Getting those muscles to relax is a process. Sometimes that tension can become chronic.
  How do you know when you are implementing force? Here are some physical signs I have noticed:

• Tense Jaw. Can you open your mouth all the way without pain or difficulty?
• Do you grind your teeth?
• Can you dance while singing without interrupting or ruining your sound?
• Can you move your head while singing high notes or does your head raise and chin jut out?
• Do you have pain while singing?
• Do you sing monotone?
• Do you allow your voice to crack?
• Do you save your breath in a phrase (or in exercising, for that matter)?
• Are your high or lower notes much louder than your middle comfortable notes?
• Can you slide like a slide whistle, or are your tones more distinct?

And many, many more! As you see, force sneaks stealthily into our voices. Force inhibits our ability to perform the way we should, and it destroys our confidence!
   So then, how do we fight force? My method is by Control. We control our tendency to force ourselves. We become aware of what our body is doing, then we check ourselves and relax the forced agents. We allow our bodies to function in their way, because our bodies know how to work much better when we keep our noses out of their business. It may not take effort to sing, but it does take concentration to do it correctly at first. Once we learn to conquer our fears that lead us to take the reigns when we shouldn't, our singing will come much more naturally and effortlessly.
  So to sum up, to avoid force we must learn to control our fears. We control the environment of our voice and our emotional reaction to our voice. We learn to check for signs from our body that our voice is comfortable and healthy, and then we let go and let our voices soar.