Can you be “too” trained?

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In my humble opinion, yes. I’ve had teenagers and adults (mostly ladies) who have had years of previous training, come into my studio with very pretty voices.

They have perfect diction with clean smooth onsets, optimum posture and breath control. The problem: minimal chest voice and pharyngeal twang.

This is not a balanced voice to my ears. This is a classically-trained voice with a top-voice down approach through the bridges. Unfortunately, this type of training doesn’t set students up very well to sing other genres of music including opera and contemporary musical theater.

Comments or questions? Are you having trouble making the sounds you want? Do you have previous classical training?

 

 

Watch the faces of your favourite singers

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Maybe you think all that facial movement is just for show?

Careful. Don’t underestimate the value of having the ability to sing with your mouth wide open, or your cheeks lifted high.

Try it. Is it easy? It should be. You voice will feel like it’s out in front of your mouth or nose….not in your throat.

Now be careful again. Make sure you are not squeezing your sound (compressing the vocal cords together too much). You should be able to sing loud and soft in an open mouth and high cheek position with free movement of your jaw. This is the tell-tale sign to know if you are over-compressing. If your face sits back down and relaxes when you are singing soft and easy on low notes, then you are probably over-compressing your cords, and allowing your larynx to rise too high to sing high notes. Low notes and high notes should not feel any different in the facial, jaw and cheek area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nBU9VR2X5g  Check out Headley. He is a great example of a singer with freedom in the face and mouth.

You will be hard-pressed to find a famous recording artist who isn’t free in the face and mouth area. As an listener, we are instantly drawn to the raw and almost naked emotion of facial expression with singing. They go hand-in-hand. When a singer bares it all…..we are pulled in by the resonance and the bite of singing “out the face”.

Any questions or comments? Leave them below and I’ll be sure to address it.

When singers get sick……

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It’s been a tough month. I can’t really tell when one virus stopped and another one started. Needless to say, it’s been a roller coaster, and I’m still sick.

And what I mean by sick, is that I’m still coughing and I have lots of phlegm. Coughing and singing do not go hand in hand. I don’t think there is anything worse for the vocal cords.

I’m trying to do everything I can to get back to my “normal”. I’m resting extra, including not singing and not talking, I’m eating well, exercising some, and drinking lots of water. But, I know the virus has a hold on me because I’m exhausted. So tired, that I can hardly think.

My cords are swollen. I have “man voice”. Ladies, you know what I mean. That deep, froggy tone that sets in and you can’t change. I’m blowing my nose and clearing my throat constantly, especially in the morning.

But, the show must go on….correct?  Well, yes, and no. I can’t cancel my classes for weeks at a time, so I’m doing the best I can. I have cancelled a few singing bookings, but that leaves my clients in a bind to find someone else to fill my spot. So, I try not to cancel last minute to avoid letting others down.

Instead, I put one foot in front of the other, smile from ear to ear, and take on my day with careful attention. Here are a few details that help keep me going…..

I keep my throat free of tickles and dryness by sipping room temperature water continuously between songs. It’s quite embarrassing when you feel a tickle and a need to cough during a song). This is most easily avoided by paying special attention to how hard I am singing, and how well I am supporting my breath. I like to suck on Fisherman’s Friends cough drops. The menthol seems to help keep the phlegm from building up. (I think this is likely because the “candy” keeps me salivating and swallowing more frequently than I otherwise would be).

Another key ingredient to getting through my show is that I don’t sing songs that I know can cause me trouble. This is not a time to try and show off my chops. We all have songs in our repertoire that require that element of more “effort”. This effort translates into more air blowing through the vocal cords, and will definitely cause your throat to tickle and make you cough. I turn up my microphone a little bit more than usual, and let the amplification save my day!

This is a special time to enjoy the simple things about performing, and sharing music with the people I am with. This is not a time to perfect my tone, or showcase my new song. It is a great time to share the spotlight and let singers in the crowd have a chance to use the microphone. (Of course, there is the risk of spreading the virus, but that’s for another post). Involving the audience is a great way to enhance my show and save my voice at the same time.

And, hopefully I have saved it just enough to get me through to tomorrow’s show……..

How to build chest voice

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Before you start “building” your chest voice, be sure you are mixing. In other words, be sure you have a low, middle and a high voice that are working well together. This is the ideal first move in building up your voice.

If you are wanting to build “power” then you could be fooling yourself if you think building chest voice is the answer. Chest voice is your speaking voice. You can work on your chest voice simply by working on your speaking voice.

There is a small population that needs to build their chest voice, and they are mostly females. I divide this into two main categories.

1.  Ladies who have had previous voice training and sing only in their head voice to reach low notes.

2. Ladies with poor speaking habits. ie too much breath. This causes inadequate cord closure which causes inadequate onset of the sound.

It is rare to find men who don’t use their chest voice when they are speaking. I’m sure speech therapists do come across this, but I never have.

So if you think you want more chest voice, find out first what your chest voice is already like and ask a singing coach or teacher.

If you want more power in your voice with a deeper more bottom end sound, try lowering your larynx and working glottal onsets. Voila……….a beautiful deep rich tone.

Play Piano by Ear

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I teach a keyboard program called Music for Young Children. One of the building blocks of this program is the introduction of left hand (LH) harmony chord structures early on in training.  We teach the young student to listen for the “colors” of I, IV and V7 progressions in their music.

If young students aim to succeed in today’s music business, learning how to play freely with rhythmic patterns and chord structures on the piano is key. All styles of music including blues, jazz, country, rock, ragtime and contemporary pop use rhythmic patterns and harmonic chord structures in their music. Classical music, on the other hand, is the one style of music that doesn’t benefit as much from this type of learning because there is not nearly the same amount of repetition involved. Here, the musician relies heavily on sight-reading the composition for interpretation.

As a parent, I always wanted my children to learn freedom at the piano. Freedom to express themselves how they wish, with the knowledge of chord progressions and rhythmic patterns. This is how I learned as a young child from my grandmother. I took classical lessons where I learned how to sight-read, but it was my beloved grandma who taught me how to free myself from the sheet music and play by ear.

Rhythmic patterns will free the young student from the music book, and help lead the way to improvisation. In my studio, students learn how to read lead sheets and make their own  accompaniment to their favorite songs.

 

 

 

Copy, copy, copy

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There I said it. Now I’ll wait for all the criticism.

Oh yes, I’ve been criticized for telling you to copy from your favourite singers. I’m constantly thinking about the pros and cons of training and listening to your teacher, versus listening and copying as many different singers as you can.

My own teaching experience shows that anyone with a sense of musicality and self-awareness can learn so much by experimenting and copying other singers. Notice I said musicality. These are the singers who notice the subtleties in someone else’ voice as well as their own. These singers are able to recognize the definite connection in their own body with the efforts that make good and healthy sounds.

Too many singers put the emphasis on their teacher only to teach them how to sing. I suggest that you get out of your comfort zone and experiment! Read everything you can about how to sing better. There is loads of information online.

But, remember these rules: If it hurts, tickles, or scratches, then your body needs to figure out what is wrong. And, more likely than not, you are simply pushing. So back-up, relax, and do it again.

This is not the answer for everyone, but it surely is for many. Self-awareness is key to self-improvement.

 

Tongue out exercises

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Love ’em, love ’em, love ’em! And you should do ’em, do ’em, do ’em!

This is no easy task but it’s a sure fire way to find out if the back of your tongue is getting in the way of mixing from chest to head voice.

So, let your tongue hang out…not forced out like you would stick out your tongue at someone, but loose and lazy with a big mouth. You will notice that your jaw will drop and your larynx will automatically stay reasonably low and stable. Ideally you want your face to resemble the start of a nasty scream or a happy yell. Your cheeks and nasal area should raise, and your upper lip will spread  wide.

Now it’s time for making noises. Don’t try to sing. Making sounds with “g” like “gug” and “goo” in your middle to high register will challenge you to work your tongue high in the back of the throat. The tongue needs to touch your soft palate to make the ‘g’ sound, and yet in order to make these sounds in a mixed voice, your soft palate has to be high enough to allow the sound to resonate into the nasal area.

You should notice yourself making interesting facial expressions as you try to figure out how to get cord closure (so your sound isn’t breathy) into you high voice.

This is twanging in a mixed voice. Twanging is a term used in Estill Voice Technique, and Robert Lunte’s Four Pillars TVS program. For those of you working on Brett Manning’s Singing Success and Mastering Mix programs these are pharyngeal sounds. And by the way, all four of these are great invaluable programs with loads of insight into great singing.

Try it and let me know what you think. Can you do it? How high can you get without your cords allowing too much air to get through?

Oh, and the best place to do these exercises is in your car on your way to and from work:) The other drivers will love it!

Good singing is when you have control

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While I was studying SLS I had some interesting experiences while actually singing songs.

Before I explain, let me say that mixed voice and balancing the voice is the best way to gain control over your abilities to do other coordinations. It’s your baseline. It’s the place where you return when you get out of whack. (And, by the way, you can access these great scales at Vocalize U. These scales are an octave and a half and if you can get through the scales comfortably, then you are indeed mixing!)

Speech level singing lessons are great for training sound and safe voice technique, but they leave the artist out of the equation.

My experience was when I was singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the key of C. The first two notes are low C to high C. You go through your first passagio at about A (ladies). My coach wanted to change my mix at high C. He wanted a headier sound on high C. I was quickly able to change it for him, but it was at that moment that I realized there must be more.

And indeed, there is.

 

Pharyngeal “throat” sounds

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What I like about both SLS and Estille voice technique is that it takes the emphasis off of breathing as the front line for good singing technique, and it lets the singer focus on other co-ordinations first, that are just as important as breath control. There are other coaches that also do this: Ken Tamplin, Robert Lunte  (The IV Pillars), Roger Love, Singing Success (Brett Manning), Eric Arseneaux and Kevin Richards (Rock the Stage).

Focusing on cord closure, pharyngeal resonance, keeping the larynx stable, and yes, breath control, can instinctively get the singer to coordinate and sing better.

Let’s talk about the back of the throat. This spot above the vocal cords is a mysterious area of the vocal tract. We know that the ability to make certain sounds gets the larynx to tilt, (which in turn stretches and thins the cords), which then can help with efficient breath control, and allow for pharyngeal resonance (twang). Twang is an important coordination for genres like rock, pop, country, and any extreme kind of singing you may want to do.

Twang is a word originating from Estill Voice Technique. I think it is a term all singers should be familiar with. Robert Lunte uses this term it in his program The Four Pillars.

The ability to twang (make pharyngeal sounds) is important because the fundamental frequency creates harmonics (overtones) that are perceived as volume and brightness to the listener. Now, I am not going to even pretend to explain the science behind this coordination. It is your job as a singer to “feel” for these harmonics.  Yes, you CAN feel these harmonics as they resonate, echo and buzz through your head.

One of the best sounds for twanging is a duck quack. But remember, as you get higher you must quack with thinner cords (your head voice). This can be challenging but that is the point! Can you quack like a duck in your head voice?

p.s. without getting louder than you quack in your chest voice?

More on belting

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Healthy belting requires ultimate breath control to avoid damage to the cords.

First, no pushing. Simply allow. It requires a lot of energy and effort to belt safely. This effort and energy is felt in your abdomen, pelvis, ribs and back. You should feel no tension in the throat. The throat is very open and the tongue is high in the back of the throat. This doesn’t mean you will feeling nothing in the back of the throat. But, you should have no pain, strain, tickle or cough-like feelings.

Belting high notes should be done with thin cords (although it may sound like some singers are belting in the chest voice). The volume of a good belt sound is no louder than the volume of your loud speaking voice.

Try this.

With good cord closure (compression), allow some air to escape with your high note. In other words, belt “hey” while allowing the “h” to help you let some air leak through your cords.

Keep your jaw relaxed and your mouth wide open like biting into an apple, or just like the feeling before a yawn. Again, the tongue should be high in the back of the throat with the tip sitting behind the front bottom teeth, and the soft palate is lifted.

If you feel tension at the back of your tongue then you are straining. Start again with a relaxed high tongue and open mouth and throat.

Staccato exercises in your high voice (thinning of cords) are great for stopping the breath, gaining control, and prepping to belt and sing rock.

This means your breath is drawn down deep into your lungs, and your abdominal muscles, back muscles and rib cage muscles are engaged in the effort of controlling your breath.

And don’t forget, you should always warm up and warm down with lip rolls, sirens and tongue trills.