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

Legato

Sorry it's taken so long to post, but I had some time off for Spring Break and my birthday, and just haven't gotten to it!

The ability to sing a legato line is something that seems to be slowly falling by the wayside for many singers today. A legato line is a smooth vocal line with no bumps, breaks or "h's". One of the most effective ways to get a smooth vocal line into a song is to practice the line on a gentle "edge" type of sound, usually on an "M" or an "NG." Recording oneself and listening to the playback while practicing in this fashion is usually quite revealing. A singer should work on the line for as long as needed until the melody is as smooth as "oil on glass."

The next step would be to practice the melody with the text of the song or aria (recording the practice session again, of course). The singer is usually surprised at the degree of choppiness the words have brought back into the legato line previously established. If this is the case, another very old but effective technique is to remove all the consonants from the text and sing the line from vowel to vowel of each word. Then the consonants are added back into the words bit by bit without disturbing the silky smooth line.

Obviously, if the singer has not gotten to the place in their technique where a relaxed speech-level posture can be maintained while working in the manners described above, than these techniques are too advanced for the time being. They should instead work on establishing a strong vocal technique using speech-level exercises and return to the legato processes at a later time.

More later

Guy

Guy Babusek
http://www.voice-lessons.com
http://www.vocal-products.com

Coloratura and Riffs

I get so many emails asking how to develop the ability to sing riffs and other quick and florid types of passages. In classical vocal music this florid singing is known as coloratura. Any type of quick singing obviously requires flexibility in the vocal instrument. The only way to develop the ability to sing quickly and dramatically is to first train the voice to remain in a --you guessed it-- relaxed speech-level posture throughout the range. Once some degree of proficiency in basic technique has been gained, then flexibility can be practiced.

In all styles of singing, the quick riffs should sound natural and spontaneous. The only way to develop this sound is to practice the passages at more moderate speeds, note by note, and gradually increase the tempo. The goal is to maintain your speech-level posture, feel no strain or excess breath pressure beneath the cords, and feel as though the passage is connected from bottom to top (rather than flipping into a disconnected, falsetto type of production in the higher ranges).

Once the flexibility and balance are established, the singer can then begin to "lean into" the passages a bit more and invite more air resistance at the cords (being very careful not to lose the relaxed floating speech-level posture, or invite any outer muscle involvement).

It's perfectly reasonable to expect to practice certain difficult fast runs and trills for quite some time before they are performance ready. Once they have been perfected they will sound very natural and spontaneous. Each style of music has certain patterns that seem to be repeated with slight variations. Therefore as these certain patterns have been mastered they can be used in many different song applications and in improvisations.

More soon.

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

Dynamics

One of the oldest tests of vocal technique is called the "Messa di Voce." In English the translation would literally be "placing the voice." Basically, the Messa di Voce is performed as follows: a tone is begun at pianissimo (very soft) and then slowly and smoothly swelled to fortissimo (very loud) and then diminished slowly and smoothly back to a pianissimo.

With the Speech-Level-Singing technique, a singer never places their voice at all; they allow the voice place itself. When a singer is first training and developing their technique, it is suggested that they vocalize at a medium (mezzo forte) volume. Once the larynx has been stabilized, and the bridges have been balanced they can find dynamics in singing. When a singer is performing any dynamic changes they don't physically try to "do" anything. They maintain a comfortable speech-level posture and then intend to sing at a particular volume and allow the voice to swell or diminish accordingly.

The intention of the singer to sing louder sends a signal from the brain which causes a symbiotic increase of air pressure and equal increase in resistance to the air pressure from the vocal folds; this results in a stronger sound wave (louder tone). Obviously, the intention to decrease volume would cause a decrease in air pressure and cord resistance and a softer tone. The muscles that cause changes in volume are involuntary. The singer's job is not to create volume, their job is to maintain a speech-level posture, and resist the temptation to assist the tone in any way. Beyond this, the intention to get louder or softer is all that is required. Some signs that a speech-level posture has not been maintained during a change in dynamics are: the tone becomes unsteady, vibrato is absent (or the rate of vibrato changes), the pitch falters, the vowel widens, the larynx rises, too much air pressure begins to build up under the cords, or the tone breaks into falsetto.

More tomorrow!
Guy Babusek

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