Category Archives: Singing Instruction

Singing

The root of the tongue

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Learning how to sing better means knowing about your voice, and all the elements that can affect your sound. The tongue can be a major player in sound production. It can help you make beautiful sounding tones, or it can cause your voice lots of grief.

The root of the tongue starts in the same area as the vocal cords in your throat. Most untrained singers don’t even realize the tongue is causing problems with their singing. Usually this creates a tightened or strained sound, and sometime it causes a nasal sounding singing voice. What is happening is the tongue is actually backing up and “covering” the vocal cords, instead of coming forward, staying relaxed, and allowing the throat to be open.

You can check this by singing your favorite chorus with your tongue lying out over your bottom teeth and lower lip. You don’t have to force it out, because again you would be creating tension in the tongue. Is your jaw and tongue relaxed enough so that your entire throat feels free? Now sing your chorus.

It is difficult to pronounce words this way, but the purpose of this exercise is to notice the open throat and tongue release.

This is a great way for rock singers and singers who are learning to belt to get in touch with the physical effort necessary in their body for optimum breath support for their mixed voice. Notice you may need to decrease your volume to maintain the balance of cord closure to allow the voice to mix in the upper register.

If your sound is breathy, then that is a key indicator that your vocal cords and breath support can be engaged better with proper coordinations. You have taken the tongue out of the equation so you can focus on your “cry” to get cord closure.

Do this everyday with the tongue out and experience an open throat with good vocal closure. Use sounds like “uh-uh” (as in “us”) and sing up and down through your register break. Don’t force your sound. Your voice will eventually start to become less breathy and you will start to hear and feel the edges of your cords touching. This is a great way to get in touch with “vocal fry” too.

Questions? Comments? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a message a below.

Ladies: Your Money Notes

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Getting fit as a singer means learning how to sing through all your vocal breaks–your entire vocal register. Ladies, the average range for you is approximately F or G below middle C (C4) to G above high C (C5). This is the average…..good female singers may sing through to high high C (C6) and even through the next passagio to G above C6. And yes, some singers–(men included) can easily make sounds higher than that. Just listen to Brett Manning from Singing Success on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx-BpQFbLrg

Most genres of music in the 21st century are written with certain pitches “money notes” in mind.  These notes usually fall within the 1st and 2nd passagio, and for women, that’s between B flat (below C5) to E flat (above C5). A range of about 4 or 5 tones. This is an important area of your voice called the middle voice.

This is the belting range. This is the area of a female voice that is most difficult to manage.

Here at 21st Century Singers we work this area in both directions to get fit. Top-down exercises will create the muscle memory of using your head voice in the middle pitches. Bottom-up exercises will create muscle memory of establishing a strong chest voice as you transition into your head voice register through the middle pitches.

This is how you mix. This is singing in a mix….in other words….your middle voice.

Book an online singing lesson with me and learn how to strengthen your middle voice. Whether you are classically trained, or have no training whatsoever, this area is key to learning how to belt and sing with power. Lessons are only $50 for 45 minutes.  Get started with learning how to sing better today. All you need is a webcam and a desire to sing better than you ever thought possible!

Questions? Comments? Please leave me a message below!! Thanks.

 

 

Are you finding your “mix”?

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I get many emails and audio files from singers asking how they know if they are mixing. They want to know how to sing in a mixed voice.

The #1 tell-tale sign that you are NOT mixing well is if your larynx is rising too high and you feel like you have hit a ceiling. This usually makes your throat very uncomfortable. You should feel no tension, no pain, and no choking in your throat when singing high notes. You will feel movement, however, as the larynx tilts and moves gently up and down to allow the vocal cords to stretch.

A great way to get in touch with the sensations in your larynx is to put your finger on your voice box as you make sounds. Notice, if you imitate an opera singer it will go down. If you imitate a whiny baby crying, it will go up. The challenge comes when singing high notes, to maintain the balance of a flexible larynx that easily moves and easily tilts. This is necessary for optimal control of your voice.

Here are some helpful hints to keep your larynx neutral and flexible, and help you stay in a good mix:

1. Decrease your volume. You will instantly notice an ease when you sing the chorus of your song at a decreased volume. You may not like your sound….it may be breathy. This means you need to practise at this level working on your laryngeal tilt. Stop shouting.

2.  Add a “cry” to your voice. What does this mean? This is a sensation that will help with vocal cord closure. This is a sensation of a sob or moan in your face and body. Some singers have a lot of trouble getting in touch with this coordination. It may appear to be a feminine trait, but it will give instant results for better cord closure. It helps keep the larynx neutral. You will notice also, that you immediately sing less loud using this coordination.

3. Work on your breathing exercises. See my previous posts. Practise your song with these body sensations in mind.

4. Narrow your vowels. Some words will automatically get you in trouble on the high notes. You must try to remember what the sensation feels like on vowels that are easy to mix, such as “oo” as in “cool,” and “oo” as in “book”. Sing your entire chorus with these vowels. Add the consonant “n” to get that sob/moan sensation…”noo” as in “nook”.

5.  Be careful of your word formation. Watch out for challenging vowels and consonant. Practise forming all words with the sensations you felt in #4. Staying in touch with these sensations will show you the challenges of singing words like “girl” and “get” in your high register. Do not allow these difficult words to throw off your coordination. Instead, alter the word and keep your sound “in the mix”.

6. Have fun and ALLOW these suggestions to help. Stop listening to the sound of your voice, and start focusing on how your voice feels. Good luck!! If you have any questions, or you want me to listen to your voice, send me an email at beemusic@bell.net.

 

Putting it together (Part 4)

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Now that you have learned what good breathing technique should feel like in your body, it’s time to actually sing.

I suggest practising on easy notes within your range. As you sing higher, the effort and the amount of air you take in, will need to increase down yonder…..so start easy and focus on the sensations in your stomach, ribs, back and lower abdomen….not the sound of your voice!

When you inhale, practise taking the air in like a ” quick sip”, almost like through a straw…but not such a small straw that you feel like you can’t get in enough air….but just big enough that you feel “satisfied” and can sense your belly expanded, and your umbrella engaged.

***IMPORTANT NOTE Most singers take in WAY TOO MUCH air. This is why you need to practise everything on a small scale first.

Now, this will happen continuous and fast because you will automatically feel the instinct to inhale after singing on an exhale. Don’t hold your breath…but rather “grip” that sensation, or “hold” that sensation with your ribs and abdominal muscles (the umbrella!) while at the same time, steadily and firmly controlling the sound of your note (which is your breath!).

Try this.

Inhale and expand while counting to 2, suspend and hold the umbrella for a brief second, and then sing a comfortable note with this gripped energy/effort mentioned in the last post. (This energy will feel like a downward push into your groin area). Sing that controlled note for a few counts…do not let your neck, throat and shoulders engage. Your belly should be coming in (you are engaged and pulling it in) as you are singing…very much like an accordian is pushed in to make sound, or like a fireplace bellow is squeeze to push air out.

Yes, it can be uncomfortable in your abdominal area as you are running out of breath! Breath support is VERY PHYSICAL. But it is the muscles around your abdomen, back and ribs that you need to focus on. This is the physical feeling you want to engage…the controlled release of your breath.

You will notice you will automatically recoil into your next breath intake because you have exhausted yourself in the last cycle. Your body will automatically want to breath again, and it will likely want to take in more air, especially if you held your note for a long time. Be careful, do not raise your shoulders and upper chest! Relax….do everything again and repetitively on a smaller scale to find the momentum where you can control the cycle and stay focused on the abdomen.

The goal here isn’t to make you lightheaded or dizzy….but that may happen at first until you find how much air you can manage at this point in time. On the other hand, learning how to control your exhale means that you will get that sensation of running out of air…and it will feel good! Yes, good breath control means you enjoy and relish the sensation of running out of breath! It will not be a sense of desperation, like when you can’t breath, but simply a sensation that the abdomen is squeezing out all the air that is inside, and you will know you soon need to refill.

You may notice your tone production is light and breathy. That can happen at first, especially if you have had a habit of gripping and over-compressing at the vocal cord level. A great visualization to help with this is to imagine you are inhaling while you are actually exhaling! I know that may seem bizzare but try it. Imagine your voice is actually going backwards down your throat or out the back of your head as you sing a note. This will help you control the air being released through the vocal cords, and make your sound less breathy.

Some final tips:

1. Find the balance that you can manage right now.

2. Maintain a sense of the start of a yawn in the back of your throat.

3. Recognize that there is a sensation of engagement or lock down in the groin and lower abdomen and back area. This downward pressure is very apparent. It’s basically like the sensation you have just before you sneeze.

4.  Recognize that your abdomen, ribs and back (your umbrella) will lock down too. This is what controlling your breath feels like. Your stomach will feel like it is pushing in as you are locking down…you can visualize your belly button going through to your back in an engaged and controlled sensation.

Well, that’s about it. There are other ways of visualizing the process, but hopefully my take on it helps put things into perspective for you. Why not let me know what you think. Please leave a message below or shoot me an email.

 

 

The Open Umbrella Sensation (Part 3)

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So now that you are “belly breathing” we need to take you into the sensation of breath support. This is a biggy.

What is actually happening is the muscles all around your body (back, ribs, stomach) are engaging to “hold back”,  “suspend” and control your breath. Again, this can be very tricky because I don’t want you to totally hold your breath, and in fact, that may cause a lot of wrong tension in the throat and neck area. Remember you should feel relaxed from the shoulders and up. The effort and energy is felt below. This is where visualizations will help you find the correct sensation.

Remember you are breathing from the bottom up now.

Now imagine there is an open umbrella (or parachute?) sitting in your belly. The bottom part (the handle) is at the groin area and this can represent the straw sensation as you are breathing in. Imagine the air you breath in is coming up under your ribs and upper stomach area and expanding the umbrella. Now, remember the umbrella is not rigid and non-flexible like a real umbrella that would lock into being fully open. But, rather your “belly” umbrella is more like a strong, flexible, thick, moving, flowing, and engaging umbrella that expands to its fullest under your ribs and around your back when you inhale for singing, and then relaxes a bit when you exhale….but NEVER collapses. It is always there when you are breathing….while you are talking….and while you are simply existing! This open, moving umbrella sensation is now an everyday part of your new sense of breathing. This umbrella does not need to be huge. If you feel imbalance or get lightheaded, then you are over-doing these sensations. Regroup, relax, and start over. It should start to feel normal in small, manageable steps.

Stay tuned as put these sensations into the correct coordination for singing.

 

The Intake of air (the inhale – part 2)

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Most of you have heard of “sing from the diaphragm” or diaphragmatic breathing during the singing. Basically this simply means that the ideal way to control your breath is to engage the diaphragm more fully. Well, we can’t simply tell our diaphragms to work harder, or better, or more efficiently. This usually just causes the singer take in way too much breath and creates tension in all the wrong places.

So, back-up and realize that your diaphragm is already doing its’ job. It is simply moving down when you breath in and coming back up when you breath out. This happens automatically.

A great way to engage and exercise this process for better singing is with the help of visualizations. This can be tricky because what works for one, may not work for another.

Step #1 – Check out your habit of breathing now when you sing the chorus of your favourite song. (It’s a good idea to sing in front of a friend or family member to get an honest opinion of what your body looks like when you are singing). Did your shoulders and upper chest rise? Are you taking in a huge amount of breath? Do you feel “something” in your neck and throat area? If any of this rings true, then understanding your breath and taking the time to focus “down yonder” is very important.

Start by lying down on the floor on your back in a relaxed state…..just as you would before you fall asleep. Notice your stomach moving up and down. If you don’t see this just slow down and take the time to “feel” this. It can be a very small sensation. You may be tense and don’t even realize it. Singing can cause an effort or energy level to exist high up in our chest area, so it may take a moment for your relax enough to connect with your abdominal area. It will happen….slow down and be aware.

I’m going to call this belly breathing…but obviously you are not breathing from your belly. A visual that may help you with this is that your belly is a small balloon (SMALL to start), and you are filling it up from your groin area. (I know this may be seem ridiculous so bear with me).

Tap into this groin and lower abdominal sensation as your breath. Now can expand or “enhance” this sensation? Can you make your belly expand further with the intake? Imagine your inhale and exhale is narrow as it would be when you drink through a straw (again you are filling from the bottom up). If you get lightheaded or feel out of balance, that is normal. Just regroup and do it again. You will eventually find a rhythmic balance where you can manage the inhale and exhale of your breath, as if through a straw, and filling your body from the groin area.

OK, now you need to stand up and get that sensation again. Yes, it is more challenging so slow down and take your time. These small awareness steps are huge in the path to better singing.

Breathing is a natural act, so this should never feel forced or tense. Instead teach yourself to relax and “allow” these sensations. Tap into your awareness by using the above visualizations.

Now go have dinner….but with the same breathing sensations. This is a breathing awareness you need to visit all day long.

Breath Support (Part 1)

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Breath support is such an interesting feeling. When you tap into the exactness of this coordination with your body, your ability to sing better can explode. The ability to control your voice is what we are talking about here. The ability to manage volume changes, vibrato variations, and change tonal colors are under this umbrella of control that you can achieve from great breath support. Oh and yes, of course….sing high notes with power! We all want to do that!

There are tons of books and you tube videos about breathing and breath control during singing, so check out as much as you can.

The process needs to be broken down into 3 parts; the intake of air, the support of the air you just breathed in, and the output of the air (your singing)! These three steps must work together for optimum breath control. If one is out of sync, the entire process is unbalanced. That’s why you must TAKE YOUR TIME and be aware of the sensations in your body. I will try and describe what I feel through this process. Again, you need to take a step back, get in touch with your body, and stop focusing on the “sound” you want to make.  Focus on the feelings in your body.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and great breath control won’t instantly happen either. So be patient. When you learn what your body needs to do (and feel) to help you sing better, you can better your journey through this awareness.

 

 

Are you “over-singing”?

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When you understand what is going on in the larynx and at the vocal cords, then it’s much easier to make changes and get the results you are looking for.

Knowing what your vocal cords are doing when you speak is a great place to start. I have a somewhat breathy, but resonant speaking voice, and I know it’s breathier now than when I was younger….probably due to over-blowing and stretching my cords too much while singing in bar bands night after night without adequate breath support.

What does this mean to me as a singer? Well, for one thing I have to give extra focus now to my breath support, including my inhale and exhale process. If I don’t have this coordination in good check, then I over-sing to get loudness, and I can easily run out of breath before finishing long phrases. This can negatively affect my pitch, my vibrato, and overall control. It definitely makes it challenging to stay in a good “mix” of head and chest resonance.

It’s not easy to explain to singers exactly how to achieve maximum breath control. Everyone’s body and experiences are different. However, if you are still having trouble finding your mix, or maintaining your mix, then putting your focus on your breath is a great next step.

I will elaborate more on many pieces of the puzzle in the next few posts. But for today, get in touch with your breathing……feel it, know it, and control it.

 

 

How do you “sing with emotion”?

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Why is it that “your” music stirs up such a strong “sense” within you, but not necessarily in the person beside you. Is it the lyrics? Is it the beat? Is it the volume and speed? Is it the singer? Why is it that what rocks one person’s music world doesn’t do the same for another?

We are all unique and special. We come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and different eras. However, the one thing that is for sure, music stirs emotions within us.

Rock music is typically raw, edgy, loud and speech-like. There is usually no vibrato.  If you sing rock music, the risk is that you may create these conditions incorrectly within the larynx causing the cords to over-compress in your low register, and not thin out or stretch as you sing higher. This can decrease your ability to express emotion.

Singers who “mix” their voice in both registers, can usually express their emotions in more distinct ways. The dynamics are more varied. They can easily add vibrato once in a while if desired. They can move with flexibility throughout their entire range with good pitch control, and easy production of consonants and vowels to form their words.

All these qualities are signs of good vocal technique. And let’s not forget that the body, head and neck is working very efficiently along with the vocal cords to hold back breath.

This is when the emotions you are feeling can actually be heard or “felt” by others. This is how you sing with emotion.

Questions? Comments? Please leave a message below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Heart, Voice and Body meet

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Why do we love to sing and listen to ourselves in the shower? There are a number of reasons. The echo reverberation generated by the hard surfaces is reason enough. We hear our voice as big, loud and “easy”. And, we are completely naked! We have no inhibitions! No one is watching, and no one is judging. Our body is engaged in the sheer release of energy and enjoyment of the sounds we are producing. And what about our heart? Well, we are so engulfed and connected to the freedom of expression that we sing with ultimate passion. There is no tension to be heard, nor felt.

Try it. Did it work for you?