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Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
Prompted by a comment from Jason Wethington in another post I'd thought I'd see if any of you can help.
I took singing lessons across the course of a year and had some minor improvement in my singing. I've stopped for now since I've been so busy at work (difficult to schedule an arranged time with an instructor). However, I still practise at home and have not made the progress I would have liked. Can anyone help? I am nominally a Baritone. Here are my problems: 1. I am generally unable to sing falsetto. It should be possible for me to sing falsetto since I have been known to do this on about 1 day a year (so it's in me somewhere). I just crack as soon as go outside the normal range. My friends who are not interested in singing can do falsetto with ease (eg. impersonating a girl speaking) which REALLY frustrates me! 2. Lack of consistency of airflow and support. My notes waver a lot (especially the lower ones). I've been told a lot about the use of the diaphragm but I mentally try to do things to get the diaphragm working properly but this just ends up with me putting tension into my body (which is useless). 3. I have a lack of clarity in my voice. Once every blue moon I get a nice "ring" to my voice so, again, I know it's in there somewhere. The rest of the time my voice seems dull. To try and paint the right picture here, when I hum the sound is dull and quite rattley in the nasal cavity. At a Christmas choir that I sing in for fun, as a warm-up exercise we do some humming. After doing this I am unable to sing with any kind of clarity at all. In fact, I'm worse than I would had been if I hadn't warmed up at all! This is all very frustrating to me because some people have said that I have a good voice (bearable at least) but this has been on the odd occasion where it has come together to some degree. The other 99% of the time it's hopeless. And I love singing! I intend to pay for a proper vocal coach (rather than singing teacher) at some point, as soon as I can schedule it in. For now, my friends, I'd appreciate any directions you could give me. I'm particularly interested in "exercises" that will activate the right kind of bodily responses. I await in anticipation. Oh, another point. I took Alexander Technique lessons to make sure that my basic posture was correct. This actually improved things slightly but I think that's only part of the jigsaw puzzle solved. Laaaaaaa!!!! |
Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
Beetroot,
Re: the 'ringing quality' to your voice. A few years ago, I started getting sore throats when I performed. After panicking about an exciting range of health issues , I went to have some voice coaching to recover my lost good use. Here are some of the things I learnt, now encapsulated in my pre-show voice warm-up: i) I relax my neck, shoulders, arms, and jaw, as body tension inevitably finds its way into the voice. This can be done systematically. Firstly, I shake my hands very loosely, then hands and arm, whilst visualising the tension leaving me. Then I rotate my shoulders, one at a time, first in one direction then the other. Then, while keeping the rest of my body upright, I bend my neck, so that my ear approaches my shoulder, done to both sides, pausing in the middle between each stretch. Then I stretch upwards, and do a big yawn, releasing any remaining tension as I lower my arms. ii) Next, I work on opening and relaxing my throat - this, for me, is the thing that recovered the 'ring'. I do this by laughing (!) - seriously, laughing and crying are the two things that really open your throat. Laughing is more pleasant. So, I let myself go for a couple of minutes and laugh my head off. Not trying to force things, but not nervously tittering, either. iii) Next, I work on 'voice quality' and efficient breath use. I count from 80 to 88, then from 800 to 811, concentrating on keeping the initial cosonants clean, and clear of breath - Eight Hundred And Eleven - emphasising the capital letters, but not making them too hard and edgy - kind of like the stroke a violin bow. This helps to get rid of that breathy quality that can creep in. iv) Then I do some 'sirening', i.e. singing (on each of the vowels) low to high to low - like a siren. Keeping the sound clean, and the 'join' invisible. N.B. 'sirening' does not mean wailing - sing naturally. v) Then I recite a poem or two observing the voice closely. vi) Then I relax my upper body again, and am ready to go. I found the relaxing and giggling started improving things for me very quickly. After a week or so, to my great surprise, the 'ringing' tone returned to my spoken voice - I hadn't even notice it leave. You might find working on 'voice quality' - keeping the breathiness out of your voice - will help with your breath support. All that air, that leaks out when you sound breathy, has to be replaced, which is how you can end up gasping - it's also not so good for your vocal cords as your forcing more air through than you need because they're not working efficiently. If you DO have a breathy voice, then the 'Counting 80' exercise will help - suddenly you find yourself comfortably singing/talking far longer than you thought possible on one breath. These exercises can be done walking, also, which also encourages you to relax, and promotes good breath support. Also, it might help if you apply the body observational skills you may have learnt with the Alexander Technique to your voice use. Observe how you use your voice. When does it start to crack? Are there situations or moments in a performance when you need to concentrate more on keeping things clear and your body relaxed? How is your voice changing with your exercises? Even ask yourself, and this is VERY illuminating, are there people whose mere presence can induce a crackly voice in you? And so on. Hope this helps, Beetroot. Be patient with the exercises - practise twice daily if you can, and listen out for the changes. Please let us know how you get on. Regards, Caleb Strange. P.S. Incidentally, anyone trying the arm shaking, please remember exactly how you visualize tension leaving your body. In a few days, in this very thread, I shall astound you all with my finely honed mental powers .
-- QCiC --
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Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
Wow. Thanks for the detailed response Caleb - it's very much appreciated. I'll do as you say and see how I get on.
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Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
I have to go out to the garage to do my laughing as I'm too embarrased to do it in the house with my wife. The neighbours are probably scared now.
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Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
Beetroot,
You're very welcome . The laughing/giggling IS a bit alarming when people don't know what you're doing. And imagine the fun you will have trying to do this warm-up before that exclusive corporate gig. (Actually, I've found that this isn't too much of a problem.) One more tip to loosen that jaw: chew gum on the way to a gig, and any time you feel yourself gripping. This helps to relax many of those vocal muscles that we tense without noticing. Regards, Caleb Strange.
-- QCiC --
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ChrisZampese Veteran user Hamilton, NZ 341 Posts |
Caleb,
As always, a true wealth of knowledge! Thanks for the tips, I have my first 'big solo' in a local theatre's production of 'Fiddler on the Roof' and I will be using some of your ideas along the way, Many thanks! Chris
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are
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Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
For anyone who relaxed the hand and arm whilst visualising the tension leaving the body:
Mercury. You saw beads of mercury dripping to the floor. Caleb Strange.
-- QCiC --
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KerryJK Special user Northampton UK 621 Posts |
1) and 2) are linked, completely. Let me tell you something about the instrument your trying to work with.
Lots of people talk glibly about "singing from the diaphragm" but when challenged turn out to be incredibly vague about how to do it. They may come up with confused explanations involving trampolines, or point to their sternum. Fact is, it's a waste of time trying to focus directly on your diaphragm, you can't feel it. There are no major nerve endings on that muscle, instead what you should do is focus on the muscles that support it, particularly your interior front abdominals. Do this: 1) Place your middle fingers over your belly button. In the moves that follow, do not physically push with these, they're just an aid to focus on that point. 2) Blow out firmly, contracting your front abdominal muscles in so doing, pulling your navel back towards your spine. What you're actually doing in contracting these muscles is pushing the diaphragm up which in turn squeezes out the lungs like a washing up liquid bottle. 3) When these muscles are fully contracted, relax and you'll feel them snap back into their original position; this pulls the diaphragm back down and creates a vacuum in the lungs which will suck in air without you even realising it. This action is called the recoil, and with practice you can make the muscles snap back quicker by giving them a little push, resulting in short, efficient breaths. 4) Repeat. This will hurt, by the way; even if you do a hundred sit-ups every day, you do not normally use these muscles and you'll need to practice to build them up. Once you get used to it (you need to keep checking yourself and practice until it's second nature) you'll never breath another way, and you'll notice the difference in everything you do, be it singing, sports, relaxation and all sorts of other things. Many different disciplines have used these muscles as a source of power to supercharge the breathing (martial arts guys hate me saying this because it goes against the "ancient wisdom" ideas they're trained into but the chi as a source of power in martial arts is very much connected with this science). As for how it connects with the voice, the whole idea is to vibrate the larynx (think of it like a saxophone reed), and if there isn't enough power going over it to make it vibrate properly you won't get a good sound. Definitely see a good vocal coach/singing teacher, but in the meantime a book I strongly reccomend is "Singing and the actor" by Gillyanne Kayes . It's sold on Amazon and isn't particularly expensive, but I keep referring to it all the time. Also, show interest in anything that mentions Jo Estill's "Voicecraft" works. |
Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
Thanks Helen! I ordered the book straight away (they only had 4 copies left at the time).
I'll let you all know how I get on. Caleb - I've been working long hours so the gaffawing has only been possible every now and then. I've got a long weekend now so I can laugh my head off to my heart's content. Cheers, Beetroot |
Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
Book has arrived. Read the first 6 chapters in bed this morning. Looks very good. Extremely detailed and gives the physical explanations of the whys and why nots.
Looking forward to practising the exercises. A lot of items have rang true with me - particularly the one regarding constriction. More anon. |
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