Speaking or singing?

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

Let’s talk about your speaking voice for a moment? Do you like the sound of your speaking voice? I bet you don’t think much about it. However, your speaking habits can easily affect your singing ability.

The ability to access your head voice resonance is a key factor to singing high pitches. For some people, this coordination hasn’t been used since they were a child.

Go ahead and try it. Can you make a woo woo sound like a little kid imitating a choo choo train? What about a fire truck siren? Do it lightly and not too loud to ensure it’s your high voice making the sound. If it’s difficult or you feel strain in your throat, then try to focus on your rib cage and abdominal area and see if that makes it easier.

Instead of thinking about singing high pitches, why not think about speaking high pitches. Imitating cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny can sometimes engage the head voice and its resonance. Or, you could try meowing like a small kitty, or doing a puppy dog whimper. All these sounds are helpful to engage the coordination necessary to sing high notes.

It’s very much a feeling of less voice, or a sensation of losing oneself. Singing high notes is all about leaving the speaking voice behind and entering this new unchartered territory. At first, it may feel strained or breathy, or wrong. However, if you relax and allow the voice to visit this coordination everyday, it will eventually get easier and familiar.

Take your time, and do it everyday! Once you know how to access your head voice, then you can work on mixing the chest voice with it to create a strong middle voice. This is where all the action is!

The “Carrie Underwood” / “Kelly Clarkson” type of voice

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I wanted to talk about this type of voice, because the configuration to get it isn’t what most people think.

When I have a student trying to sing in this style, I quite often hear a lot pf chest register being yelled at a high pitch that usually sounds dull, painful and, to say the least, quite unpleasant.

It isn’t uncommon for singers to try and duplicate this type of sound with their chest voice…it is however, the wrong approach.

Instead, the singer needs the practise “twang” in the head register. (Try quacking like a duck, or sounding nasty like a witch). You should be able to do this easily without any constriction or tightening in the throat. What usually happens is the head voice is not able to twang easily, and the student will over-compensate with throat muscles. Sometimes the singer will “flip” into falcetto mode.

Both Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have a superb ability to twang in their head register. This gives the listener the illusion of a powerful chest register volume, when in fact, they are not using much chest register at all. They are, in fact, in a middle voice/head register configuration with a lot of twang.

Secondly, the vocal cords are under a great deal of breath pressure. In other words, the singer is able to hold back a lot of breath without flipping to falcetto. This ability allows for great mouth and head resonance and again gives the listener the illusion of great power and volume.

Two singers that come to mind that do sing too high in their chest register at times are Adele and Christine Aguilera. Even though they both sing very differently, they both sing very loud and very high in their low register. Christine Aguilera has only had trouble with this as she has gotten older. Her ability to sing in a loud chest, middle and head voice mode through her entire range when she was younger made her a superstar. She is still a superb singer, but as she gets older her cords have probably thickened from singing so hard in her chest register. Thick folds can make it hard for a singer to ascend into their head register and keep control of their voice.

Do you have any questions or comments? Please leave them here.

Preparing for Sunday morning worship

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

If you are like me, you love to wake up Sunday morning to go to church and praise God with your singing voice! However, it’s not always easy to sing in the mornings, so here are a few things you can do to help get your voice ready for worship.

Starting off with a hot shower will help clear the sinuses. I usually hum in the shower, usually from my top voice down. I keep it very light and connected. Zzzzzz’s in your high voice done lightly are great, as well as sirens from your top voice down. I like exercises that get my head register resonating first. The chest voice will get it’s warm-up when I start telling the kids to hurry up!

Then in the car on the way to service, the kids and I will do some arpegio exercises in a light mix. Again, I prefer top down for my voice, because most of our music is sung in the lower part of the voice register (ie around A below middle C up to high C for a female. An octave lower for a male). Therefore, it’s really important to have the “gears” in place for an easy transition to head register when singing.

Comments?

The mixed voice

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I’ve talked about the “mixed voice” and how to find your “mixed voice” before. This is a term created by Maestro Seth Riggs in his Speech Level Singing method years ago. It is also used by Brett Manning, Roger Love, Dave Brooks, and countless other top-quality singing coaches from around the world.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding this term in the singing community. Some singing teachers from around the world cringe when they hear the term “mixed voice”. I believe this stems from the fact that we physically do not actually have a “mixed voice,” and the fact that many singers do not actually know what it is, what it should feel like, or how to get it.

However, I believe all singing teachers will agree that we do have a chest register (or chest voice as referred to by SLS), and a head register (head voice as referred to by SLS). These are two terms that have been around for hundreds of years, and are commonplace in a singer’s vocabulary.

I tell my students that a mixed voice is simply the ability of a singer to ascend or descend in pitch between their chest register and their head register without constriction, and with the appropriate balance of both registers. Every singer knows about those whacky areas of their voice where singing gets a little tricker. This area, called the bridge or passagio, is where the larnyx and the body need to make careful adjustments in order to sing higher without constriction. In SLS, coaches do this with carefully selected scale combinations of vowel (resonance), consonant (cord closure), and volume (air flow).

I, frankly, like the term mixed voice for myself and for my students. For myself, it is a balanced sensation (or state) that I exercise daily with scales to keep my voice healthy, strong, and flexible. I don’t use the same blend of mixed voice when I perform because I prefer to sing harder at my gigs. That is a choice I make. I am self aware of my vocal limitations, and trust me, we all have them!

Do you have questions or comments. Please leave them below! Thanks.

Jackie Evancho … Opera singer or child who mimics

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I recently read some very disturbing opinions about Jackie Evancho, the young 11 year old opera singer, and her “modified” voice on the internet.

I feel very bad for this little girl and her family, and I hope they never have to read what I just did.

When I hear this little girl sing I get goosebumps. Yes, I analyse her voice, and yes, I see her jaw wobble, but this is an angel who sings from her heart and soul.

There will always be children who learn to mimic what they hear and/or see very well. This is not anything new. However, now, in the 21st century when most people have access to the internet, children are learning more and developing faster than ever before. We will continue to be amazed by children on the internet who can do things that we never thought possible.

Is it really so amazing? In my opinion, no, not really. The internet has opened windows of opportunity for these children and young people to be seen and loved. The internet has given them not only the opportunity to view the best in the world, but to mimic the best in the world.

I believe we will continue to be amazed.

Classical versus contemporary voice lessons

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again. I’m thankful I never took classical singing lessons when I was young.

I did sing in choirs up until about the age of 15. I respected my choir directors very much. I sang alto and learned great things about posture, head voice, reading music, tone, dynamics, and blending with the other singers. It was great fun.

At the same time I was jamming with my sister in a local dance band. I sang everything from the Carpenters to Helen Reddy to Bill Haley and the Comets. This, too, was great fun. I was not using my “choir” voice in the dance band. I definitely had two very different voices as a young singer.

Eventually, I stopped singing in the choir but continued singing contemporary rock, pop and country music. My “choir” voice went away. I was happy to replace it with my “band” voice.

I tell you this story to make you aware of the many different sounds any singer can make. They are not made the same way, and any classical teacher who tells you they can teach you how to sing pop, rock or country better be able to prove it.

There are some teachers who can teach these two very different voices, but many cannot. So, be clear what you want and how you should get it.

If you have any questions, let me know. I’d be glad to point you in the right direction!

Enjoy the journey……

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

Learning to sing better doesn’t happen overnight. Once you make the decision to improve your voice, it’s very much like commiting to go to the gym regularly. Except you commit to vocalise regularly. How and what you vocalize is important. There is lots of free information online to help you, if you know what you’re doing. However, one of the biggest mistakes singers make is singing “too big” too soon. In other words, singers need to learn to not push to make the sounds they want, but instead get very familiar with their head voice and the coordinations that are necessary to increase power and strength in the correct way. This isn’t the path that the amateur singer is naturally inclined to take. Most singers want to work their voice from the bottom and go up, instead of from the top and go down. This can cause problems if you do not know how to bridge through your 1st passagio. However, in saying that, there are some singers who have opposite problems, and in fact need to work from the bottom and go up.

So, take the time to learn about your unique voice and the proper ways to train your unique vocal habits. Learn what your passagio is, (there is more than one, but let’s start with the 1st one!), where it is, what it feels like, and why it causes so many singers such havoc! Then, figure out how to get through it correctly to make some fabulous sounds!

I appreciate your comments. Please leave me a message!

The tongue

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

Do you know that the tongue is a muscle? It is the only muscle that is attached at one end and open on the other.

The tongue is interesting. It can get in the way of great singing. Most of the time it should simply relax and touch the tip of your bottom teeth.

It has to move around to help you form consonants like t, th, k, g, c, d, and more. Then it needs to get out of the way so you can make a nice tone with your singing voice. It needs to relax and stay out of the way so the vowels can form properly and create a nice tone.

Next time you’re singing, think about what your tongue is doing? Is it getting in the way?

Where to learn contemporary singing techniques?

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

We all want our kids to get a superb education and university is, of course, the only way to get a “degree” in voice.

This post is simply to make singers aware of the changes happening very fast in the music business. If singing is your passion, and you want to work with your voice for your life, then university for voice may or may not be a good idea.

A lot of singers dream of working on Broadway. Are you aware that auditions now on Broadway require not only a legit voice, but a voice that sing rock and pop. Are you able to sing in both styles?

Today’s singer needs to be versatile. Today’s singer on Broadway needs to be able to sing many styles. Sopranos need to know how to access their chest voice and be able to sing in a speech-like quality. Some teachers do not teach this.

Singers, beware. Know what you want. Then go find it.

Your GPS to a better singing voice

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

There are no short cuts to having the voice you always dreamed of. However, with a good singing coach you should notice improvements in the first lesson and continue to learn and grow. With a good singing coach you should see a plan of action that will take you to a better voice one exercise at a time.

Knowing your vocal habits, good and bad, is a huge step towards better singing. A good coach should be able to tell you the issues standing in your way at the first lesson.

Not all coaches will have the same suggestions and exercises for improvement. Some will focus on breathing exercises, or abdominal muscles and posture. Some will focus on your song material. This is where you, the singer will need to decide if this coach is for you.

When you come to my studio, you learn about your “mix” or “middle voice” first, and what your singing habits are. Sure your breathing and posture are important, but these coordinations will take hold nicely as you learn how to transition through your passagio without strain or a break in register. We will start with a focus on cord closure, air flow and vowel formation.

From there I will map out an exercise plan for you one week at a time. You are included in the plan. You get to know your voice and what it can do, and you learn what needs the most work.

In no time at all you will understand what makes you “tick” as a singer. You will learn how to engage your body for strength and endurance without undue strain.

Learning to sing to your maximum potential is a balancing act. In my studio, you, the singer, are involved in the process. You will know exactly why I have picked certain exercises for you, and you will understand how and why as your voice unfolds.