The Voice of the Earth School
The Voice is located between the Heart and the Mind, there, in such a sensitive and fragile place... establishing the bridge between Reason and Emotion... perhaps that is why it is so Revealing! Maybe that's why I feel like my voice is like a Guide for me.
I often say that singing should be part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article XXXI - All human beings have the right to sing. I say this firstly, because I recognize the importance of singing in expressing each person's freedom and identity, and secondly, because the overwhelming majority of people are ashamed, afraid or don't like their own singing voice! Someone once told them: be quiet, you sing badly! People actually believe this, and believe that singing is only intended for a few lucky people, stars of the media, television programs and the like. Because of this idea, I observe how nervous people get when it is their turn to sing in my workshops. Your legs shake, your heart races... you lose control over yourself. That phrase remained in our body's memory and took hold of us throughout our lives.
If we go back to our Ancestry, when we gathered around a fire to tell stories and sing, I highly doubt there would be this kind of cruel judgment: shut up, you sing badly! Intuitively, it is known that stopping someone from singing is the same as taking away their soul.
Everyone knows the roars of the Indians and their songs that seem to call the tactus of the earth to the body. This expression of the voice arises and is cultivated with a purpose! The Sound of our Voice, its Vibration in the Body, is a way to get in touch with our Life Force, ours and that of Planet Earth! I believe that in our Life Force lies the Source of our Joy! That's why popular wisdom tells us so much: He who sings his evils scares away!
Joy is a natural quality of human beings. One day someone tells us that we are ugly, that we sing badly, that we are fat, that they don't like us... these words resonate within us with tremendous force, creating a memory in the mind and body that will condition us throughout our lives entire!
To recognize these wounds requires intense work of self-knowledge, which many people are not willing to do, because it is painful and sometimes even unbearable! It takes a lot of love to touch wounds with due care, and we need to know how to access the antidote to fear, we need to know how to access our source of joy!
In the dozens of educational concerts for children, which I performed in the North and Center of the country as part of the Ópera no Património project, I always ask them to make me a promise: I will never say to anyone again, shut up, you sing badly! And look how hundreds of children have already promised me! I explain to them the reason for this promise, immediately giving them a mini singing lesson, so they can have the foundations to develop their (En)Singing Voice! Whenever I open a parenthesis to talk about emotional issues, absolute silence sets in and their eyes go wide and look at me! And I tell you: taking away someone's right to express themselves through singing is the same as taking away their right to be happy! The chant is like a Source of Pure Water, as pure as possible, and it is within me, I have direct access to it! If you tell me to shut up you are drying up my source, you are preventing me from recognizing it and accessing it! I lived extraordinary moments with people who, upon experiencing their own sound in an unexpected way, burst into liberating tears! People's faces are transfigured when they feel their voice resonating and when they hear their sound opening up and becoming Beautiful! One moment his legs were shaking, his face showed all kinds of insecurities, and the next, total admiration for himself! This came out of me!? These moments are precious and I keep them inside me like pearls! I feel that no art so easily and quickly lays bare the inside of someone as the art of singing...no art has the power to transform someone so suddenly as singing! I had 7 singing teachers! I started taking singing lessons when I was 17 years old. I studied 2 years at the Porto Conservatory of Music, 4 years at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo and 4 years at the University of the Arts in Berlin! After finishing my studies, I continued searching for my sound, my own sound, which took a while to show itself in its entirety!
Singing is the Expression of who I Am! In which worlds do I want to express myself? In my case, the desire to connect with Planet Earth through music leads me to explore my voice in various ways. I want to feel Mozart's excellent music, but I also want to feel the vibration of my primordial sound with an open cry, and feel the freedom and beauty of improvising and singing the melodies that come straight from my own heart when I'm by the sea! I want to feel the strength of African rhythms and their melodies, and be able to convey all that strength in my voice! The song, according to what I feel and according to my vision, is revealed first and foremost through Timbre! Timbre himself!
To do this, it is necessary to dissect, study in the smallest detail everything that happens when I emit a sound, it is necessary to Feel the Body and its Sensations! You need to meditate on what you feel, dedicate time to that small detail in that vowel or that, you need to feel the sound in this space and that, and cultivate each sensation. All this is done very objectively, looking through a magnifying glass!
In the beginning was the Word - the Sound. A trace that is drawn to give shape to a form of Existence - what is the origin of this trace? What is the first point? If we meditate on the vowel O... The Circle... if we produce that sound and observe its effect within us, we will be following a path to that point of Origin...
Through singing I can access the timeless, the dimension of my sensitivity! And so much is revealed here! And even more is revealed when I combine my sound with someone else's, when I sing together with someone! If I really pay attention to what happens when I sing in harmony with someone, I will understand the power of singing, the power it has to spread balance, peace and love!
May no one remain indifferent to your Singing Voice! Let no one deny themselves the possibility of finding Full Joy! May each Child dream, release and show their Voice and their Song!