TRAINING IN THE TOMATIS AUDIO-VOCAL EXERCISES

The aim of audio-psycho-phonology

Alfred Tomatis teaching the listening posture

The ultimate aim of the discipline created by Professor Tomatis is to accede to the listening posture.

This means knowing how to control the tensions of the stirrup and hammer muscles – the first controlling the tension within the inner ear and the second the tension of the ear drum.The former is the smallest muscle in the human body and the latest to appear in the line of extensors.  Tomatis believed that we all have to become athletes of this muscle.

To succeed it is essential to respect the stages Tomatis marked out in a powerful combination between sessions and audio-vocal exercises :

1) the audio-vocal sessions reinforce the work of the musculature of the middle ear. These sessions should be effected with analogue recordings and include “passive” sessions of music (Mozart and Gregorian) or a foreign language to be integrated as well as “active” sessions of reading aloud with a microphone to reinforce the audio-vocal loop of control of language and the voice by the right ear.

2) the practice of audio-vocal exercises regrouped under the heading of Accelerated Listening Training™ (ALT) because this is unmistakably a training.

Together the audio-vocal exercises prepare, and then accelerate and reinforce the effect of the sessions. They also take over from the machine using the subject’s own voice as a “dynamo” for the brain. Thus by talking or singing well one can at the same recharge oneself and one’s listener.

These exercises focus on :
– reading out loud
– vocalisation/vowels
– posture, the acquisition of verticality
– breathing adapted to the vocal output
– the placing of the spoken and singing voice (learning the emission of sounds through bone conduction)
– the listening posture

These exercises are taught initially before, during or after the programme of audio-vocal sessions  then more fully during the audio-vocal courses.

Audio-psycho-phonology does not limit itself, as is often believed and practised, to the audio-vocal sessions.  These are just a preparation for the audio-vocal exercises which will give each person independence from the machine, so as to become responsible, free and active in their progression towards better listening.

It is therefore essential that an increased number of people become familiar with these exercises and are able to teach them and all the more so in an age where we are bombarded with sounds of poor quality, which decharge and tire the organism and block progress.

It is a case of being prepared on a daily basis to practise gymnastics of the middle ear, just as a physio recommends walking and exercising one’s muscles each day. We thus become an athlete of our ears…

Training in the Tomatis Audio-Vocal exercises

From now on the Audio-Vocal Centre offers Audio-Vocal exercices, advice and Emotion Code sessions :
Research conducted by Tomatis emphasized and proved the neurological mechanisms and links between
audition / phonation and listening / reading.
Indeed, the same nerves innervate the muscles of the middle ear and the muscles of the face. Therefore, working on the muscles of the face through specific exercises helps to train the muscles of the middle ear. These exercises lead to the listening posture which constitutes a real physiological lifting. The audio-vocal exercices help anyone who would like to do audio-vocal sessions but hasn’t found the time to start yet as well as for anyone who has already done some sessions in any Centre.

This training is particularly designed for therapists and teachers, but is also open to everyone.

The Emotion Code from Dr Bradley Nelson :

The Emotion Code now enables Dominique Waddell, as Emotion Code certified practitioner to offer additional help to people through a simple and efficient method.

Indeed, from childhood and especially since we began speaking, we have been overtaken by thoughts, emotions, negative feelings coming from our family, our environment and often channelled through the media, our education and the social structure as a whole.

Freeing oneself from negative emotions also helps to consciously become aware of these emotions – and to learn to recognise, accept, respect them and ultimately transform them so as not to trap them anymore. 

Each personal session  dor audio-vocal exercices or Emotion Code lasts 30 mn either here in Morgins or by Skype and costs 28 Sfr.
( by bank transfer or cash )
For any further questions :  contact@centreaudiovocal.com

Dominique Waddell teaching vocalisation during an audio-vocal course in Tokyo

 

Testimony from Jean-François : December 2021

From the first session, one can feel the very positive effects on the voice and the body. Dominique Waddell who is an expert on the matter, tailors the training and helps you with much kindness to re-discover your voice in order to find your way again.

30mn weekly sessions, through Skype, is ideal and the daily exercises become a privileged time with oneself.
Better anchorage, dynamisation, better management of one’s emotions, reconnection to one’s body, are the remarkable results after only two sessions.

After this wonderful work on the spoken voice, I’m already looking forward to working on the sung voice !

I highly recommand this work to anyone !

With much gratitude,

Jean-François Sanchez