Are you one of those people who always hides when group singing takes place, or claim that you have a sore throat, a cold, or are simply "tone-deaf"? Hide no more! Stephen Chun-Tao Cheng's insights mean that nearly anybody can produce sounds which, if not quite in the Pavarotti class, are good enough to join in carol singing, to say nothing of a boozy bellow.

Stephen Chun-Tao Cheng first went to Madrid in 1994 to introduce his revolutionary method of teaching voice production. Although in his adopted New York, he teaches singers as well as actors and others who use their voice on a professional basis, his method is not limited to perfectioning technique. Rather, it is a different way of looking at singing, which uses some of the ancient Chinese Tai Chi exercises and Taoist philosophy, and links them to a Western vocal culture.

Trained in the United States under some of the most outstanding teachers of singing, Cheng began to have doubts about whether Western singing was best served by Western teaching methods. Traditional methods of teaching present students with a difficult reconciliation of tension and relaxation, a balance which can take years to achieve. For example, the diaphragm has to be tightened, but this tightening should not produce tension. In an effort to short-cut the process, Cheng took inspiration from his native China, where Tai Chi gave a clue to a different resolution of the relationship between exercise, breathing, and relaxation. Also from China came the philosophy of Taoism, which has much in common with Tai Chi. It teaches that nothing should be forced, and that the strongest is the one who uses the energy inherent in the world, transforming rather than straining.

From this rather unlikely combination came Cheng's The Tao of Voice, a book which is the product of many years of teaching, and of his students' repeated requests for him to put down in written form what he had been practicing. In the book, he explores the relationship between breathing and harmony, in all senses of the word. It is a "holistic" approach, because according to Cheng, singing cannot be severed from other bodiless and mental functions. If you cannot sing, it is because part of you is not working properly; and if part of you is not working properly, your singing will suffer. His exercises, based on Tai Chi, are a way of bringing mind and body back into harmony.

Tai Chi is a form of slow, rhythmic exercise which is a kind of national pasttime in China. People of all ages can be seen in parks and public places taking part in what looks like a slow-motion form of martial arts. It develops correct breathing through controlled circular movements. The exercise is based on the idea that there is a force in the world, called Chi, which can be harnessed by individuals. It is the same force running through the body which acupuncture uses, opening and closing channels where necessary. Whether you believe this last part or not doesn't really matter. What matters is that the exercises develop your breathing and a sense of "togetherness" which is essential when it comes to singing.

These feelings are not at all secondary. The exercises have to be done "with a smiling heart", as Cheng says, for it is not only the mechanical actions of the body that are being trained. The process of visualization, or "psychokinesis", plays an important role in Cheng's method. The energy when singing is visualized as being drawn "in" on high and loud notes, rather than pushed out. The result is less strain and tension, both in your singing and your life in general.

Singing becomes not only an end in itself, but a means of achieving a better balance in your life and communicating it to others. It is a means both to make people feel more "together" and to bring them together. The Tao of Voice, is dedicated to the people who use the voice as a means of promoting peace and harmony throughout the world.

For more information, please see Stephen Cheng's web site.

Copyright 1994-2001, Guidepost Magazine, Madrid Spain
Used with permission, Musicstaff.com