Improve your vocal range?

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 04:22 PM

KIMc ,made an excellent point.I use an exercise that is used by masters of yoga to improve the tone of their voice.
this is a breathing exercise,take a deep breath,then exhale slowly,take another deep breath and exhale quickly[pah].check that you are breathing your diaphragm.

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: Genie
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 05:04 PM

Funny line, that, Foolestroupe!   LOL

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: Pioden
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 07:29 PM

Hi, I just joined this evening, and am scanning some of the forums, this caught my eye.
I've seen people mention 'singing from your diaphragm' several times, just wondering if everyone knows how to tell if they are? I've run into many folks who don't, and have questions, myself.

Best way I know to figure out how deep breathing feels, is to lie on my back and breath - the stomach/belly raises and falls, that means breath is getting all the way down, and the diaphragm is dropping, creating a vacuum, pulling air to the bottom of the lungs.

The thing I have a question about is the location of 'tension' (maybe not the best word) for support. For years, I think I was supporting too far down, and never had a choir director tell me differently. They never put a hand on my stomach/ low chest to feel it. Now, years later, I think I've finally got it right, and would like some confirmation.

It seems the support comes from right behind the bottom point of the sternum, just where the ribs curve up and meet in the middle, where it's still hard. Does that sound right? I've been told that note changes should come from the diaphragm, not the throat, but always had trouble, because I thought the support was supposed to come from more the belly area. Changing the support to just below the ribcage seems to make it work. Comments?
Pioden

Oh - one more thing, on upper register singing freedom - I remember at a sectional for HS choir (long ago), watching a professional singer from the American Boychoir's summer camp (he came from our town and was back visiting) giving the guys advise - his device for allowing them to use their upper ranges more freely, without choking up, was to imagine throwing a football at the beginning of a down-sliding scale, it feels like raising the soft palate to allow more room for echoing. He would have them make the throwing motion with their arm while singing/sliding high to low (not even a specific scale). Don't sing too hard at first.
Thought it might help someone.
Pioden

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 03:04 AM

Any half-decent theatre company will have a system for for helping all aspects of voice training.
When MacColl set up The Critics Group he produced a regimé of exercises which had been part of his work in Theatre Workshop. These were for improving pitch, tone, range, relaxation, breathing, projection, vocal dexterity, articulation etc - all essential elements of singing.
They took a short time to learn, but once you had them, they never left you. Then, as he often said, you could get on with the real point of of singing, "enjoying the song".
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 07:33 AM

Actually, according to oriental Martial Arts and related health stuff, you should breath from your 'dan tien' - which is below the diaphragm. Consult some appropriate expert/training for this - Tai Chai is relatively widely affable nowadays - and will teach yo physical balance as well... :-)

I was told by a rock climber that the 'dan tien' is easily located. The spot that you ensure the rope comes out of to support your weight is almost exactly this spot - funnily enough, it is sort of the 'neutral spot' where your centre of body mass is - they rope this way because it allows them to have the weight supported directly, and allow them to stay right way up (rope too low down and you fall upside down!) - rope too high and you are not as much in control!

The 'breath' is supposed to go in down to the dan tien, then right down, and cycle back up thru the spine, then exhale, then breathe in again. This is 'circular breathing' - not the type you need to play a didge or pipes, but philosophical 'circular breathing'. It's just a mental trick, like when you move, you should move (in Martial Arts) as if you are a puppet, suspended by strings from your wrists, knees, and most importantly, from the top of your head.

I say 'most important' - because this way, you hold your spine correctly upright, and your head starts to feel 'weightless', and the breathing thing just happens easier too!. Just a 'mental trick', but it really works! like the breathing thing too!

:-)

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: leeneia
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 04:06 PM

Join a regular choral group. Good for the voice and for the social life.

Somebody mentioned Danny Boy as a difficult song. I am sure that that tune was written for an instrument - harp or violin, probably - not the voice.

Don't worry yourself or hurt your voice trying to do tunes which were never intended to be sung.

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: GUEST,Sue Allan
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 04:42 PM

Foolestroupe, what you say on breathing and posture sounds good, and is also akin to Alexander Technique teaching: it's also good for singers and musicians. Like many things a lot of singing comes down to 'mental tricks' (such as 'thinking' the voice in the top of your head, or end of your nose for higher notes), and it's a case of finding what works best for you. I can't recommend too highly finding a good singing teacher.

A good tutor book, with lots of exercises and the reasons why, is George Dodds' 'Voice Place & Training Exercises' published by Oxford University Press. It comes in two versions for different vocal ranges: Soprano & Tenor and Alto & Bass. It's quite an old book, although still in print, but very sound. It's possible to work through on your own, although it is undoubtedly best with a teacher.

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 08:30 PM

Well Sue,

I attended an Alexander workshop over several weeks, and found it covered most of the ground already covered in Martial Arts (and theatre) I have done.

To perform well as a 'fighter' you actually have to be relaxed, not tense, and the more relaxed the muscles are, the more control and speed you have.

The various Martial Arts stuff was just a fun side thing - but I was involved with SCA Heavy Fighting for some years.

One of the 'easy' things about being an Interdisciplinarian, is that you keep on covering much of the same ground from different angles and emphasis. Just like being a Multiinstrumentalist.... :-)

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 10:43 AM

I've seen a few references in this thread and previous ones about avoiding milk being good for the voice.

Although I like milk, I'd be happy to not drink milk at all if it would benefit my voice, except that I understood it was important to have the calcium in milk. What do people recommend as an alternative source of calcium, if you avoid milk?(lumps of chalk perhaps? :-))

Orr is it bollocks, and you don't really need the calcium? Any nutritionists out there?

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: Snuffy
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 01:50 PM

It's OK to drink milk AFTER singing, but not too soon before

Subject: RE: Improve your vocal range?
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 02:19 PM

No problem with milk or milk products in general. Just give them a rest for several hours before you sing.

Don Firth