Author: Lucia Cossu

In the last two days I published three videos on Instagram about a fundamental concept I am talking about with a student. It is an important point that in rehabilitative and performing field has been well stated by Gray Cook, he defines it “the movement versus motion paradox” and says “Movement often denotes the act of a functioning body as it changes position under its own power. Motion might represent the available range of flexibility within a single body segment or group of segments”. [Gray Cook Movement Functional Movement Systems]

What this has to do with us and vocal technique? The well known experience some singers report me or see in others when in improving or correcting a voice of the nothing happens or the quality sound improves but not the singing or even some singers lose the effectiveness they had before yet tells us that something of this paradox is in voice too. Also those who do not have a natural voice and has never experimented what a singing gesture truly is and remain stuck in the training and giving command to single functions (sustain, copertura, pronunciation, turn of the larynx, modification of the vowels to have a sound more forward) in an impossible sum of command. Those who had not a natural voice and they find how to unblock it with an exercise in a function and get convinced that voice is training and finding everything with that function.

What I wanted to precise is that we have to gain and give our students or singers perspective. Singing is a movement, it uses synergistic functions and many patterns into a movement and every kind of work we do on parts must maintain the perspective and the care of the movement.

Sometimes we have to deal with singers who see a great improvement into their sound by improving just one function and do not see the risk of loosing the entire movement, and we have to improve the culture of what singing is on a functional level so that they will follow our advices when we say that yes to improve but let the system integrate and then see if can absorb another quantity of this function.

Also we have to give trust and courage to those who found finally something in voice by working on one thing with the integration of knowledge from other fields who can better clarify why at a certain point we want them to make a step further into true singing movement.

Italian belcanto as all the others method born from it contains the movement and work on movement and that is why it is so renowned and balancing in the voices. It has the limit of being well balanced but not yet developed into how much we can develop the single functions before losing the movement or if you prefer getting dysfunctional. Train on the single functions, but do it smartly.

This is something truly important to me when working with artists, the productive confusion, that specific clarity behind a specific fog that can seem confusion.

A series of technical talks on vocal fundamentals.

I am a voice teacher specialised in technique and solutions for professional singers and future professionals.

I come from a soloist career in classical music interrupted by a long septicaemia. I relate to Italian belcanto technique and some exercises I invented to make a step forward in the possibility of working on voices. I had results also in vocal issues organic and functional, called by their doctor, https://luciacossu.com/cossu-method-program/

Something truly new I am very excited about.

– So what is it Cossu method?

– A tool to gain required physiology in a voice to train in a style, to gain the specific physiology to disclose the artistic not style-planned voices, to help those sent by their doctors to have back a voice and so an happier life.

Some more informations and results here

https://luciacossu.com/cossu-method-program/

– So what is it Cossu method?

– It creates the possibility of develop a voice, even if the starting point seems not favourable.

Some more informations and results here

https://luciacossu.com/cossu-method-program/

A student, professional and of great artistry write to me about a larynx position in singer. The colour is truly beautiful in this low larynx and her vocal folds seem not to suffer by this choice. We both agree that there is something lacking, and this is why I rarely leave so low larynx positions: she lacks of the moving, and quite often it happens with too low larynx that the emotional and vibrating part of the voice disappear completely. Italian Belcanto is not a special fan of low larynx for the same reason, that disappearing in nearly all of the special vibration that moves the others and called coloriti. In my experience few can not lack of this fundamental part and to me to choose the color and not the magic and the direct moving of the public is a feticism and not effective in terms of career improvement and that is why I generally not give a positive advice in choosing that. Go down if your vocal folds can allow it and you like it, when you see your emotional vibration disappear get back higher just as to have enough of it to be not monotonous. 🙃

How to train a true complex pattern with a vocalisation invented for a 9 years old boy with a short tongue frenulum and no option to cut it. So I found ways to gain mobility and functionality. In here I teach a complex pattern for her voice with a fun vocalisation not really difficult.

Sister I. was sent to me by her logopedists for an organic problem affecting her left chord after a tyroidectomy. The problem with #cossumethod was completely solved, she sings also as soloist and the stroboscopy shows a perfect movement as nothing happened. You find in the Cossu method page up the link with more information and medical certifications. Is it safe to use strength in this kind of retraining? Yes if the movement is correct and not disfunctional, at the end cossumethod works on functionality. As usual if the gesture is correct we can go safely to those high notes.