Competency 1: Getting to neutral

Neutrality, the vocal tract uniformly open along its length, lips of the glottis to the lips of the mouth, cancels habit. It is the beginning to which we all long to return, the sound of the body itself expressed in the neutral vowel, schwa. It is an inarticulate longing for expression, the sound of labor, of pleasure and pain. Like the more advanced sounds of singing, it involves the whole body. It is the primal sound, core, pure and unrefined, upon which our emotions play. Finding it, claiming it, is the first step in the liberation of your voice.