from themodernvocalist discussion forum: “In my opinion many singers use disproportionately much time on correcting the posture. I very seldom find that singing problems are caused by incorrect posture but are more often due to incorrect technique. My experience tells me that you achieve much faster results by working directly with the technical aspects than correcting the posture.”
John Wooden, possibly the greatest sports coach, did not believe in his players’ repetitively practicing. He said (?) if a flaw exists in the technique, all that repetitively practicing does is reinforce the flaw.
In singing, the entire vocal apparatus can adjust for flaws in its parts, but at a cost, and the adjusted will never be as good as singing without the flaw.
Taking basketball analogy further, if one has an knee flaw, it is possible to shoot well without jumping and be a good basketball player. But, if the knee is healed, one can do jump shots and be a great basketball player.
Likewise, one can be a high pitched singer and sing well for all his life by practicing. He may be high pitched because his flawed “tense back spine” consciously or unconsciously prevents him from using his diaphragm properly to gain more power for bass. Imagine the new singing “jump shots” and “new heights” he would achieve if he fixed his tense back spine, so that his diaphragm gives him the full bass.
Taking the analogy further, supposing that shooting energetically’s natural form is a jump shot–that is, adding the leg force into the shooting. The non-jumping shooter can also shoot energetically using primarily his arms, its cost are it would be harder and awkward.
By analogy, the tenor with the back tension problem– he can also learn to “shoot” energetically using his high notes skills, but always awkwardly and requiring more effort.
What John Wooden taught were fundamentals. Instead of teaching skyhooks, he first taught top-rated, skillful basketball players how to tie their shoe laces. Why, because blisters would stop even the best players. Yes, a tiny, annoyance in the foot can handicap a master basketball player’s shooting arms.
Same in singing, your posture even to your foot basically will determine your singing potential. The foot imbalance imbalances your spine that imbalances your head; all of which imbalances the vocal tract.
Yes you can sing and shoot with bad posture. And just as the esteemed teacher’s quote above says, you’ll sing and shoot better faster by working on areas other than your posture (which takes time to fix). If the tenor had a posture problem all his life, yes, he can make quick changes to his technique to make incremental improvements.
Solving the cause takes more time. The back-tension has to be “detensed”. The entire head and spine are now differently aligned, and the singer has to adjust the sounds. His voice then has new range of motions and reach new soaring highs (heights).
So how do you know if you have good or bad posture affecting the vocal tract? Vocalposture is saying that bad posture automatically affect the vocal tract, and its sounds effects, though at times distinctive, are always less than optimal. So anyone with a slouch is such a candidate. Anyone whose head is not balanced on his neck and throat properly, similar to Alexander Technique concepts. These are the vast majority of people.
You can achieve your potential with good posture. Your high jumps will soar and your range of accuracy will increase.
Please don’t mistake what VocalPosture is saying with with the idea of “Change the posture results in better singing”. What VocalPosture is saying are change the body’s tension patterns and its structural alignments will result in better posture which further reduces tension patterns. These tension pattern reduction will in themselves significantly improve singing. The better posture further stretches and detenses the tension and better aligns the vocal tract. When the vocal tract is aligned and its surrounding muscles in tone, better singing naturally results.
Singing and posture--see Categories, About, Launch 4-2014 
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