Calm your infant or child by talking or singing to them cheek to cheek!

The voice is perceived by two of our senses, our aural sense and our sense of touch. Within the womb,  unborn children sense their mother’s voice as vibrations of soothing sound. When the mother vocalizes the child feels sound waves moving through the womb. Making the transition from sound as vibration to sound as an aural experience happens at birth, which is a startling experience. According to voice scientist Ingo Titze the director of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah, one of the best ways to calm or soothe a child is to speak or sing to them while putting your cheek on his or her cheek. After 9 months of experiencing sound as only sensation within the womb, the addition of physical vibration, as well as hearing the mother’s voice, is especially beneficial for the child. Why not try sounding on different parts of your child’s body?

Why do we stop perceiving sound as vibration as we get older? Look for the answer to this in my next blog posting.

Massage and stretching of the Quadratus Lumborum (QL) muscle is beneficial for singers.
“The QL originates via aponeurotic fibers into the iliolumbar ligament and the internal lip of the iliac crest for about 5 cm. It inserts from the lower border of the last rib for about half its length, and by four small tendons from the apices of the transverse processes of the upper four lumbar vertebrae. Occasionally a second portion of this muscle is found in front of the preceding. It arises from the upper borders of the transverse processes of the lower Read more →