Subject: Vocal techniques
From:
Alice
Date: 23 Aug 98 - 03:16 PM
We have several threads going that have similar questions and information about singing, so I thought I would bring them together under the subject title "Vocal techniques". To find the other thread discussions, they are titled:
Amplification--starting trouble
Vocal strain prevention
Help!My singing voice is dying!
and a discussion of singing in: Can anyone learn to sing
Alot of the techniques used in keeping your voice healthy and in using it to your optimum ability are difficult to explain without demonstrating in person, which is why it is best to find a GOOD teacher if you want to maximize the use of your singing voice.
Alot of advice emphasizes breathing, but to really get the idea, a teacher can demonstrate and coach you on how to use the muscles correctly and what exercises develop supportive breathing. I have sometimes explained it in terms of thinking how a bagpipe works. Visualize that your lungs are like the bag that fills with air, then your vocal chords are the "holes" that make the noise when the air goes through. Learning how to use the muscles in your lower abdomen and around your waist to pull open the largest space possible, you can then fill your lungs to capacity and also use those muscles to CONTROL the flow of the air back out through your vocal chords. An added skill is to consciously expand the rib bones outward when you need an extra amount of air for a long note or passage of music. After the air passes through your vocal chords, the placement of your tongue, the space you create inside your mouth, the tension or relaxation of your face, neck, head, shoulders, body, etc. all affect the kind of sound you are creating. The label "head" and "chest" voice really just describe higher and lower registers of sound. When you sing, you are resonating sound in all of the spaces, including your mouth, not just in the sinus cavities or throat. You could not stop the sound from resonating in all the spaces of your mouth, throat, and nasal cavity, but you can change the type of resonating made in those spaces. If you lift the soft palate at the back roof of your mouth, you develop the ability to create a larger space back there, which improves the sound. If you listen to the way sounds change when you sing an open vowel (like 'ah') compared to a closed consonant (like 'n' or 'l') you can hear how easily English words become nasal sounding. Italian has alot of open vowel words, so it is easier to sing with a clear sound than in English, which stops the sound and pushes it to the roof of the mouth or the nose, when singing so many consonants. You can 're-phonate' the pronunciation of words by singing mostly on the vowel and then lightly add the consonant ending of the word. One obvious pitfall for nasal singing is hanging on to an 'r' at the end of a word. Another bad habit is starting a word with too much breath and making an 'h' sound, like 'hhI' instead of 'I'. Listen closely to singers on the radio, and you will hear bad habits like breaking in the middle of a word to take a breath, breathing in the middle of a phrase, singing with the sound pushed into the roof of the mouth or the nose, etc. Sometimes a unique personality and approach of a singer breaks all the rules and the results are great, like Louis Armstrong, but to have the stamina to sing long and loud without a microphone or to have a clear voice rather than a nasal voice, it is really helpful to know what the techniques and exercises are to achieve your desired results. Mastering those techniques also builds alot of confidence to perform.
Getting the air up in your nasal space after it leaves your vocal chords helps to add a 'brightness' to the resonance. This is different than the nasal quality that sound like you are singing with a clothespin on your nose. The higher resonance is kind of a humming or buzzing vibration in your forehead, as if the focus of the sound is between your eyes. Humming and singing quietly while you focus on creating this sensation in the high sinus cavities will help you find this 'colour' to your voice. The difference of the high resonance is like comparing the quality of sound of a pennywhistle, compared to a cello (low resonance). You can develop more resonance of the 'bright' sound in your entire range by practicing exercises. If you walk or hike, try humming long, high notes while you walk, controlling the breathing with your lower ab muscles, and see if you can feel differences in your sinus cavities. Eventually as you develop this skill, your voice will have more resonance and sound more full.
The throat, mouth, and some sympathetic upper parts of the chest are the real amplification chambers for lower resonance. They vibrate with more space than the high sinus cavities, so they add a bigger sound. You can hum on your lowest notes and develop the low, big resonance, to carry up into your range to broaden and make higher notes have a 'bigger' sound. Hum your lowest note until you feel your upper chest vibrating, then open your mouth to change from a hum to 'ah', then sing the next few notes up a scale on 'ah'.
alice in montana
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sj
