ABSTRACT
The south Indian singer and voice-guru, Sivasankaram Pannikar, recalls his own training in voice as a young man. His guru used to take the students to a fast flowing river early in the morning. The students had to stand in the river, up to their chests, facing upstream so that the current was exercising a strong pressure on their abdomens. They then had to sing long steady notes, resisting the strong current with their abdominal muscles. Over months and years this produced enormous strength in the voice support.
