healthy | Bee Music Studios

Speech level singing can get a bad rap these days.

For me, having my first lesson with a SLS instructor over 10 years ago, was true validation. Two main things happened for me:

1. I finally had a coach who was working my entire range at one time. Two and a half octave scales, going up or down by semi-tones, had me singing through five passagios in one exercise! I heard and felt improvement in my voice within the first day.

2. I finally found a teacher who encouraged vowels that didn’t sound classical.

Now, I’m not saying that forming classical-sounding vowels is a bad thing, I’m simply stating that I am not a classical singer, and had never encountered a teacher who allowed me to sound this way. I had been taught belting, and that just felt wrong. I now know that belting doesn’t need to be shouting. Healthy belting is done by mixing your registers.

Times have changed, and they are going to continue to change for singers. This is a great thing! Singers now have a choice!

Gone are the days when there was one, and only one, way to train the voice. There was traditional voice training, and there was traditional voice training! You could go to university and develop a beautifully resonant head voice that soared through arias. Or, you could go to a private teacher, who either learned the same way, or taught what worked for them.

Traditional voice training was developed for traditional European music (where a singer had to be heard at the back of the concert hall with no microphone), but this type of projection was not what rock’n rollers and contemporary singers needed to help them sing better. Most traditional voice teachers considered these modern types of singing (which was predominantly a thick fold/chest voice coordination) wrong and damaging to the voice.

We now know this isn’t the case. Certainly there are limits to what the voice can do (in any coordination), but making unique and different sounds other than traditional classical, choir-like sounds is not always damaging to the vocal cords.

Seth Riggs was a pioneer in developing a vocal technique that strengthened the bridges in the voice and encouraged transitioning through the registers. No more vocal breaks. Hallelujah! This technique balanced the singer’s voice so they could sing whatever genre of music they wished.

Some teachers are now helping singers who want to make even more extreme sounds. Resonance and bridging is fundamental in these music genres to ensure the singer maintains a healthy larynx.

Singers, what do you think? Have you found freedom and balance in your voice, while at the same time you’re able to make sounds you are happy with?

Tag Archives: healthy

I love the idea of “speech level” and “allow”

Singers, you have a choice!