Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Power

Singing with more power is a goal of many new students in my studio. Commonly, students will come for lessons because they are trying to sing in "full voice" up in the higher ranges of their singing voice. The mistake that is usually made is that they try to drag their chest voices up past their first bridge and into where the mix should occur. This usually causes discomfort, hoarseness and ultimately damage over time. It is important to remember that when we are first building sound in the mix and head ranges, that the fullness and power that is desired is limited at best. This is because the necessary strength and coordination has not been attained that can manage larger amounts of air pressure that are required for the more powerful sounds.

Blasting a bunch of air through the voice is not the answer. It is necessary that a light, yet connected coordination be found first. This can be "leaned into" more and more over time provided that the larynx stays stable and relaxed, and that the vowels stay narrow through the bridges. The narrow vowels ensure that the resonance moves more and more behind the soft palate as the pitches ascend, rather than "splatting" out of the mouth resulting in a pulled, and strained sound and feeling.

More soon!

Guy Babusek
www.voice-lessons.com
www.vocal-products.com

3 comments:

Debs said...

You have made a very interesting site. I was reading up on Anastacia and it mentioned Speech Level Singing, which eventually led me to your site.
I love singing, I have a tendancy go into a mimic of the various singers as I'm not really sure what my voice is like. I have a deep voice and can hit notes clearly similarly to Karen Carpenter. My higher range is thin and broken, I was trying to find out how to strengthen the higher notes. I was hoping to come across some tips on the internet to help.
I have to say, you really sound like you know your stuff.
Debs

Guy Babusek said...

Thank you Debs. I have been so busy in my studio lately that my blog has been sorely neglected. I'll be back to regular posts very soon. I hope you check back.

Guy

Jean said...

I found you on SLS official website.
I live on MacArthur, @ Greenville. Your name came up when I searched for certified teachers.
I got really hooked when I first heard of Seth Riggs and SLS. I'm also having problems with my break.. Thanks so much for publishing this blog!!