Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Question from Blog reader:
Chris, I am having a voice problem and need your input. I’ve been using your training CD’s for a few years now and they have helped me a lot. But, here’s my problem: When I first start a song I feel short of breath. My voice feels unstable. After a few words it gets better, but I still have a problem with my voice breaking or quivering. It’s not solid, or stable. Is this a throat problem, breathing or ??? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
Vocal Coach Answer:
When a voice is unstable, wavering, tentative or breaks and quivers there are several possible causes. Here are some likely ones and some solutions
1. Anxiety. When you are mentally or emotionally unsure about what is going to come out when you open your mouth it can interfere with breathing, posture, diction, tone, expression . . . everything. The solution will be found in being more mechanically solid than you are anxious. In other words, having such secure technique in the posture, breathing, tone and diction that nothing can interfere. Solid muscle memory, of right techniques will be your friend every time.
2. Posture. If your posture is bent or broken it will interfere with breathing, tone and self-confidence and how the listener perceives your confidence. By lifting your arms straight up over your head you will discover your balanced posture. As you slowly bring your arms back down be sure to maintain the upright alignment. The shoulders should be completely relaxed, not pulled up or back. The feeling is one of being “athletically alert,” with a comfortably upright chest. Feel like you have a long back of neck and a shorter front of the neck. The head is back, over the shoulders, with the eyes looking straight ahead. Don’t let the chin lift for high notes or fall for low notes. Keep the head position neutral. Once you can sing your songs comfortably in this position you can look anywhere you want. Just don’t move the head to help you hit a note; it won’t.
3. Breathing. Securing good breath management will help you sing through the nervous times. The muscles will just continue to get you the right amount of breath. Not too much; not too little. Good breathing starts with good posture. A good first exercise is to get on your back, on the floor and feel what parts of the body are naturally engaged when you breathe in, and out. Then start sipping the breath in through an imaginary straw, and out on a SSSSSSS sound. After you have memorized where the breathing is naturally felt, stand, check your posture and repeat the exercise with a still chest and ribs.
4. Tone. Getting your posture and breathing more secure opens the possibility for your best vocal sound, or tone quality. The physical sensations of good tone are a relaxed throat, and lots of buzzing resonance (harmonics and overtones) vibrating through the face, mouth, sinuses and nasal passages. These are all sensations that you can physically feel, memorize and reproduce. A gentle hum will begin the sensation. Adding a chewing motion to the humming will keep the face and jaw more relaxed. And, don’t be afraid of all the vibrating you feel in the face. That’s a good sign, and means you are allowing the voice to work and not forcing it. These are aspects of your vocal sound you can “feel,” and that means you can reproduce them using muscle memory.
5. Diction. Another important area is diction, pronunciation or enunciation. It just means that the listener gets the message, not just the music. The other bonus of clear diction is this: As your own ears hear clear words coming out they tell the brain to tell the larynx to just relax and keep giving the pitch. If, on the other hand, your ears hear mumbled words they often tell the brain, and the brain (for some unknown reason) gets the larynx involved. That just leads to useless tension in the throat since the larynx can’t help diction. So, when in doubt, over-pronounce a bit so that even the least attentive listener hears your message.
So, there you have it. A systematic approach, to freeing up an unstable voice by paying attention to your POSTURE, BREATHING, TONE and DICTION. Needless to say, there’s a lot more to be said on all these topics. If you want to go deeper, with principles and exercises just go to the main site at vocalcoach.com and look for the Vocal Coach Singer package, or individual subjects by title.
If you have thoughts or comments leave them in the space below. Thanks.
Tags: breathing technique for singers, chris beatty, chris beatty vocalcoach.com, larynx, performance training, Singer, singing lessons, vocalcoach.com, voice lessons, voice training
Posted in Ask the Coach, Breathing, Choir Directors, Diction, Duets to Groups, From the Coach, Performance, Posture, Singing Subjects, Tone, Voice Fatigue and Strain, Worship Team | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
“When something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it becomes kind of magical.” I recently heard that statement in an online demonstration of the Apple iPad. It occurred to me that the same descriptive applies to the human voice.
Here’s what I mean: Aren’t there times when you hear a singer that just amazes you? One who can do things with their voice that you can only imagine doing, but never actually do? That’s the “magical” aspect of the voice. The part that defies analysis, or duplication by the average listener, and even the average singer.
But, what if you really, really, really want to at least come close to delivering that kind of magical performance. And, what if you are willing to invest the time, effort and resources to take the voice as far as you possibly can. What are the steps?
In truth, it’s no different than choosing to absolutely maximize your athletic performance, or your intellectual performance. It takes sacrifice at all levels. Sacrifice that most of us, frankly, aren’t willing or able to make. Sacrifice that would make having a normal family life and job almost impossible. Like being an Olympic athlete in training. It takes all that you are, often at the expense of normalcy.
Discouraged? Don’t be! No one is asking you to give up family and friends to compete for “World’s Best Singer. But, there is sacrifice and investment involved in becoming a better, more consistent singer. And, it starts with constant, non-stop awareness of your daily posture, and the way you manage your breathing in speaking and singing.
You see, many people compromise their posture throughout the day, and that leads to poor breathing. Then, they “get straight” for singing and wonder why it feels so stiff and unnatural. The key is being upright and aligned every waking hour. I don’t mean standing at attention. I just mean being upright, like any two-year-old. It’s natural, and how we were designed to function. And, it’s one of the first things to go if we don’t get daily reminders. For years I would go so far as to put reminders in my calendar to check my posture and breathing. Seem extreme? Not if you’re really serious about being your best.
When it comes to breathing it’s a matter of management, not power or push. Untrained, three-week-old babies do fine with sharing their vocal messages to the entire household with no formal training whatsoever.
Tags: breathing technique for singers, chris beatty, vocal coach, vocal training, voice lessons, voice training
Posted in Breathing, Posture, Singing Subjects | 2 Comments »