PRIMAL SINGING (I) WHAT IS IT?

Primal Singing is about connecting with our emotions through voice, about liberating and giving voice to our inner being, about breaking through the barriers of self-consciousness and fear that alienate us from who we truly are. Let me tell you about my own journey.

In the beginning … Primal Singing as therapy

My first encounter with Primal Singing was in 2003, as accidental as it was serendipitously life-changing. Still emotionally fragile from the upheaval of a divorce, I recognised that I might benefit from therapy through this moment in my life. And so it was that, on the recommendation of a friend of mine, I began therapy sessions with gestalt psychologist Dr Carlos Velasco in Madrid.

It was through Carlos that I discovered Primal Singing, a therapeutic technique that he had been developing over many years and practising with patients since 1995, and which he summarised for me quite simply as “whatever comes to you ...”. Yet behind that deceptively simple statement lay years of theory and practice:

When in 1995 I dared to use with some of my patients this technique that I had begun to call Primal Singing and Dialogue I realised that it was a powerful tool by which we could reach deep into the emotions, to the unconscious, and could expand consciousness. The energies generated by the physical movement (movimientos energéticos) of vocalisation facilitated the discharge of tension, breaking through the barriers of the defences, better enabling the patient to talk about himself. ^1"

Carlos had got into Primal Singing in 1990, when he met a french psicologist, Michel Katzeff, who had been in North America with a group of Native Americans receiving the transmission of this ancestral techniques, the "internal singing". He sat on the floor with him, held his hands and helped him to sing for the first time in this way.

The potentialities and emotional impact of it, for a conservatory trained singer such as myself who had until that moment been singing only Opera and Lied in concert, were truly revelatory. Primal Singing was suggestive, meaningful, and promising … but I still needed to know how far could I take Carlos Velasco's insightful method into new directions.

I decided to give myself the opportunity to explore it more deeply, freed from the interferences of my classical training; and therefore didn't take any bookings for public performances for one year. I was to spend that year doing only Primal Singing in my home. That was my first year of training in Primal Singing! And far from being dull, it was to be a very intense and productive experience.

I had the chance to experiment with my voice with a completely different approach from that which, as a classically educated singer and music professional, I had been doing for many years before. This required an open mind and attitude, it required (and this was challenging for a trained musician) uncritically accepting the vocalisations that I was producing, observation of the mind and body as it happens, and the discovery of the immense potential it had.

It taught me that it can be simultaneously a method for developing vocal technique with conventional voice students, a way to do healing body/mind work through sounds, as well as aesthetic experience in and of itself. It proved to have the potential to help raise awareness of our own emotions and feelings towards people and situations. It was helpful in developing a deeper sense of non-judgement towards others, and I could even feel how it helped the body and the voice connect harmoniously together through the power of emotions.

I will offer a demonstration on Primal Singing on Thursday the 30th, at The Flying Dutchman, in the exhibition "Rainbows through the Lenses" organized by Four in Ten, LGBT service users asociation at the Maudsley Hospital. 156 Wells Way Camberwell, London SE5 7SY

1'Funciones del Canto Primal', http://www.psicoterapia-transpersonal.es/Taller%20Canto%20Primal.htm

"SINGING CALMS YOU DOWN"

It was some nice summer days out of Madrid and near the see, and an International Contemporary Music Festival. I enjoyed so much being there just for the mere closeness to the sea. But no time to go to the beach, as there was lots of work to do. I was commissioned to create the drama part of a new piece, to be premièred by a chamber orchestra, and was staying at home of my friend composer, so that we could make the best of our time.

But time was running over us, as some unexpected urgent work matters took my friend's attention

for some days, and the music was unfinished just a week before the concert. Not that it would be impossible to finish, but it would definitively require my attention for many hours every day.

My friend, was taken away during the day by emergencies at his work as a music consultant, so I was left alone during the day in the quiet of the neighbourhood, to work on my part of the music and write my notes... so that when the night comes and my friend was back, we could revise together the work that I have been doing, and then he would take the lead and continue with the music writing.

This situation lasted for some days... and the day of the première was getting closer. We had almost finished, but our main worry was to give the sheet music on time to the musicians. We had already delivered sheet music to the orchestra, but there was a soloist coming from France. As he was coming from a tour, he won’t be able to print any music if we gave it to him, so we had to go to his hotel as soon as he landed, meet him and give him the sheet music just on time for him to prepare it and have his first rehearsal with the orchestra.

That being said, I would add there are a series of musicians who play Contemporary music who do an amazing job and music reading and at being ready to perform at a very short notice, and fortunately he was one of them. Still, we were in a real rush this time.

We got in the car, and had to go to the other side of the city. I was really nervous, and didn't want to imagine what if we didn't make it on time that night. The clarinettist would have to leave to another meeting, we wouldn’t have the time to meet him and explain him about the piece... so even if I didn't want to think about it, I was thinking about it. All the time.

Jean was driving with a more unworried expression. Traffic was awful, and we had to cross the city from side to side to get to the Hotel.

- Remember that medieval song you sang to me last week? -said him – Can you sing it again?

So I sang it again, that medieval song that took me to Galice and when I was performing in long red robes, songs from Spanish trouvadours...

As soon as I finished... (traffick still being awful).

- That was nice. Can you sing another one?

So I went for another medieval tune... and another, and then for a melody from a Schumman's lied... and then for a popular tune in provençal... as for some years I had been almost exclusively doing medieval repertoire... before starting to learn sephardit songs. Oh, sephardit songs! How many and how much interesting melodies they have!

I went for “Yo m'enamori d'un aire, un aire d'una mujer; D'una mujer mui hermoza, linda de mi coracon.” (I fell in love with an air.. with the air of a woman/ of a very beautiful woman/ beauty of my heart) and that took me to Avrix Mi Galanica (Let me in, my love), another traditional sephardit, where the boy asks the girl to open the door for him and let him in... and she gives all possible excuses for not doing so: my mother is sewing, she will hear us, my brother is writing, he will hear us... I was loud enough, my body opening up and recreating in melismas.

So it was a bright night somewhere in Turkey, where this song was being sung, and in my mind it was summer too... I was really unaware of what was happening.

- You know what? -said Jean. -Singing calms you down. I always knew it.
- So that's why you have been asking me to sing one after another song! -I laughed, and noticed we where already close to the Hotel to deliver the music. I hadn't notice the jam for a long time.

We finally made it and it was very special to hear.
Still thankful for that.