Should you bridge early or not??

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

If your goal is to have a thick (chestier) sound in your upper range, then bridging early isn’t going to get you there.

Bridging early will help balance your voice, and achieve good cord closure through your entire register. Bridging later will give you the advantage of more mouth and throat resonance with a tilted cartilage and narrowing of the aryepiglottic sphincter.

For example, I can sing high C with two different co-ordinations. One sound is more legit with great head resonance and cord closure. This is when I bridge around G above middle C. The second co-ordination is a thicker and chestier sound with stiffer cords. Because my thyroid is tilted and the AES tube is narrowed, the resonance doesn’t split the same as it does when bridging earlier. This gives the listener the impression of a thicker, chestier sound.

Focusing on sounds……not singing

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

Have you found your mix? Ladies who can siren or sing from middle C up to high C without strain or flipping….you are mixing. Men, if you can “mum, mum, mum” (from the bottom up) from F# below middle C up to F# above middle C…you are mixing.

Now let’s work the mix!! Let’s get that thyroid cartilage tilting and your aryepiglottic sphincter narrowing! Let’s get control and variation in that mix.

The “nay, nay, nay” exercise (always from bottom up), will help you narrow the sphincter (tube). This is not intended to sound pretty. It will be whiny, brassy, and annoying! The more annoying the better! Make sure you work this through the bridge….using the note range above. If the sound is breathy, then decrease your volume and work the “sound”.

The thyroid cartilage rotates when you do the puppy dog whimper. Try to think of a sob or crying (in your high voice) as you do this sound. This helps to get the cords to close. This is a sweet sound. Think the vowel “oo” as in “cool” underneath the whimper.

Now….if you can join the “nasty” with the “sweet,” you have got a great thing going. Remember, you need to practise at the same volume on the bottom notes as the top notes.

BEWARE, if your larynx is “choking” you. These sounds should be made with a neutral larynx…..in other words, at the same height that you use when you speak.

When doing this coordination correctly, it may appear as though you are singing with thicker cords (chest voice). In fact, you are stretching and thinning the cords as you ascend in pitch. Current research suggests the cords may actually stay closed longer when vibrating, thereby giving the illusion of a “thicker” sound.

Comments? Questions? Please leave them below.

Sounds that make a difference

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

There are many sounds you can practise that will help your singing improve.

One great sound is “neighing” like a horse. You want to make the sound a bit witchy or nasty. The problem is, if you force the sound, you are actually causing constriction, which is not going to help at all. This is a sound you can practise everyday that should feel relaxed. It is not a loud sound. You want to practise this at a speech-level volume with thin folds (your head voice).

Some singers will be able to do this easily, others will not. If you have trouble singing in your high voice, then this may be difficult so go slowly. Simply do it everyday, as often as you can, and it will gradually start to become brighter, louder, edgier, and less breathy. This can’t be forced…it must be “experienced” regularly. This is a fabulous head voice workout.

If you are doing it correctly then you will be working the aryepiglottic sphincter muscles in your larynx. When the AES is narrowed, the voice becomes more intense and more resonant at certain frequencies. AES narrowing is also called twang.

Check me out here at www.soundcloud.com for an example.