Ways to mend a pesky vocal break - part 3

OK, this will be the last in this series of posts on vocal breaks. Truth be told, I could write a book on this subject, but you all gave me so many other great requests about which to write! So, I'm going to wrap this subject up by letting you in on one of the core secrets of my teaching.

Before I developed the concepts of the Power, Path & Performance, I had the worst and most un-mendable (or so I thought) vocal break I've ever heard in anyone. My brilliant Nashville vocal coach Gerald Arthur helped me get my voice back after it was damaged by an endotracheal tube (I spent some time hooked to a ventilator many years ago). I still had that pesky break, though with Gerald's help I learned to mask it well and continue on with my vocal career as a session singer, and then a recording artist. Thank you, Gerald, from my heart and soul!

Not too long after I began teaching voice I was given a book by a student who asked me to explain it to him. The author was vocal coach Jeffrey Allen of California. In his book Mr. Allen suggested holding a mental picture of a question-mark shaped path that the voice should take. That imagery opened up a whole world for me.

I began experimenting with what that path meant to me and how I could use it with my students. Long story short... this is what mends vocal breaks every day in my office:

Use your power- your compressed breath power located in your pelvic floor- to lift you into the balcony above and behind you. NOT STRAIGHT UP. You have to lift a little to the back, bending your upper spine to do so. DO NOT LIFT YOUR CHIN. This action should cause you to raise your eyebrows and look like you're about to say "I don't THINK so" very sarcastically.

Then... use the word (articulated with meaning) to PULL sound from the balcony to your audience. DO NOT MOVE YOUR HEAD FORWARD. Notice, you don't pull with your head, your neck or your jaw... you just pronounce the word and direct it to the listener.

In summary...Your voice should come from the pelvic floor, lift to the balcony above and behind you, then travel to the audience. This path is complicated, often frustrating when first trying to learn it, but it works. If you've been pushing your voice through your break, this will feel like learning to walk all over again. But every one of my students will tell you - it's well worth the effort. Why?

• It causes gives you access to great breath support and control.
• It enables vibration from your larynx to resonate in the open spaces of the nose, sinuses, pharynx, mouth, and possibly even trachea -resulting in rich tone colors and expanded range.
• It causes the vocal cords to freely change length and width, and allows the larynx to tilt freely according to the pitch.
• It makes your voice feel GREAT! You will have NO vocal strain.
• And...it erases the break. Every time, in everybody, if done correctly.

To this day, if I don't pull my voice in this path, I will find myself back with my old break. But I know how to erase the pesky thing! And I can do it any time I want! Yeah!!

Thanks to Jeffrey Allen for graciously allowing me to use his imagery in my method. You can find his book "Secrets Of Singing" at http://www.vocalsuccess.com . And of course, you can find my PPP cds at http://www.judyrodman.com/power-path-performance.htm .

Loosening a tight jaw: two specific tips

I wanted to add this information today for Nav's benefit - Two specific tips for loosening the jaw:

1. Let the jaw open like a monkey wrench, not like pliers. Put your knuckle between your molars on one side and try to sing like that until the jaw loosens.

2. Let the jaw move SLOWLY and SLIGHTLY to the side while singing "ee" and "oo" vowels to loosen the lockdown.

Ways to mend a pesky vocal break - part 2

This is a continuation of my post series on the subject of vocal breaks. I had a great question emailed (thanks, Nav!) to me today about the jaw's function in singing. Oddly enough, incorrect jaw actions are among the things that will cause and/or exacerbate a vocal break.

Vocal register breaks, as indicated in my previous post, are caused and made worse by whatever interferes with allowing changes in length, tension and mass of the vocal cords as the singer moves through different pitches. Top 5 causes I see...

1. Locking the jaw
2. Tightening the base of the tongue (which goes along with locking the jaw)
3. Freezing the spinal position
4. Tensing shoulders
5. Numb facial expression or eye movement
6. Choosing to sing or talk too high or too low, causing chronic tension and strain.

Why do we do these vocally dysfunctional things? Top 4 reasons I see:

1. To try to keep the voice FROM breaking (unaware that guarding and over-controlling to try and eliminate the problem inadvertently makes it worse)
2. To try and hit notes that are difficult (again, a bit of a catch-22)
3. Because of some erroneous vocal training that says to keep the jaw or any of the other body parts I just mentioned perfectly still, (Run, don't walk, from this kind of teaching)
4. Bad habit - talking too low (constantly "hitting gravel"), trying to sing in keys that are too high or low for the current capabilities of the voice, not realizing the locking up this is causing.

What can we do to change our habits?

1. First become aware of what you are actually doing. Watch yourself perform a song in front of a mirror. Do you see any of those actions I just listed?
2. Record yourself talking. Do you hear tension, monotone, gravel, lack of breath? Try talking with much more animation and "life" and record it again until your body, spine, face, tongue, jaw are loose and flexible.
3. Do corrective wall and mirror work. In front of a mirror, stand with your back against the wall... back of the head and heel against the wall. Now slowly try to loosen those areas I named on purpose - while you are watching. Notice the effects.
4. Out of the pressure of public performance, privately practice doing things a different way. At first it may get worse before it gets better - like it would be if we were learning to walk with a different stride. Relax, relax, relax and trust the process.
5. If you have my vocal training course, just listen over and over to the first two Cd's to let the insights sink in.

Comments are always welcome as you try my suggestions. Next post, I'll give amazingly effective tips to open the throat channel at the break point. Yes, this will be about the correct vocal "Path".

Ways to mend a pesky vocal break - part 1

Pesky, dreaded, dratted vocal breaks. At one point, I had one of the worst. Here is the problem as defined by Wikipedea,

...The frequency of vibration of the vocal folds is determined by their length,
tension, and mass. As pitch rises, the vocal folds are lengthened, tension increases, and their thickness decreases. In other words, all three of these factors are in a state of flux in the transition from the lowest to the highest tones.

If a singer holds any of these factors constant and interferes with their progressive state of change, his laryngeal function tends to become static and
eventually breaks occur, with obvious changes of tone quality. These
break are often identified as register boundaries or as transition areas between
registers. The distinct change or break between registers is called a passaggio or a ponticello.

Vocal pedagogists teach that with study a singer can move effortlessly from one register to the other with ease and consistent tone. [Judy says, absolutely!] Registers can even overlap while singing. Teachers who like to use this theory of "blending registers" usually help students through the "passage" from one register to another by hiding their "lift" (where the voice changes). However, many pedagogists disagree with this distinction of boundaries blaming such breaks on vocal problems which have been created by a static laryngeal adjustment that does not permit the necessary changes to take place...

Symantics aside, however you define vocal registers, boundaries and breaks, the important thing is how to blend your voice to get rid of the cracks. Added bonus... eliminating vocal breaks also adds to the tone quality of the voice through out the whole range, helps to relax the voice into a fuller range and adds to vocal control. Whew! It's pretty clear we want this.

I have been able both to get rid of my own vocal break and to help every student I've worked with eliminate theirs with the teachings of Power, Path & Performance personal lessons and cd course. That's how I know it works. This next series of blog posts, will be my first response to my dear reader's list of subjects. I will be addressing every "All Things Vocal" subject you name, so ... keep sending me your subject requests for this blog and be sure to subscribe for updates!

... mending vocal breaks to be continued...

Pop Quiz... Got vocal issues?

Time...
It's time for me to do an inventory on my focus in this blog. It takes time to write each post and time for you to read it. To keep it worth our time, I'd like to increase its usefulness to you. And I'd like to ask you to take a few moments of your time to help me get you the information you need and want.

If you could ask your most urgent, puzzling, frustrating or curious question about anything relating to the voice (fitting for a subject to explore on "All Things Vocal") what would it be? Got multiple vocal issues or questions? List as many as you can.

To begin your thinking process, look at these random vocal issues and let me know which one(s) you'd like to see me add to "our" grand list (if you want, tell me what you're NOT interested in as well):

1. You have uncontrolled, excessive or missing vibrato issues.
2. You consistently sing either sharp or flat.
3. You want to know how to make money with your voice.
4. You need info about your speaking voice.
5. Your voice is tired and strained.
6. Your voice is thin, weak, lifeless, nasal or edgy.
7. You want to increase your range.
8. You have some strange, mysterious problem that occurs when you speak or sing.
9. You don't know what style you should sing.
10. You have a frustrating vocal break.
11. You feel numb or fake in performance.
12. You can't get the magic in your studio vocals that you get in live performance.
13. You want to know how to correctly sing and play an instrument simultaneously.
14. You want to know how to choose great vocal training.
15. You want to protect yourself from getting ripped off in the music business.
16. You want to learn and keep up with how the music business news.
17. You'd like to learn how use breath more efficiently when speaking or singing.
18. You want to learn to read music or the Nashville number system.
19. You want to know how to fire up your creativity.
20. You want to know what "Power, Path & Performance" vocal training can do for you.
21. You are interested in ideas to keep the voice healthy.
22. You want to know how to co-write.

OK... your turn... just click the comment link at the bottom of this post and list numbers of issues of interest to you. Then add your own. And thank you for joining the conversation!

Chronic breathiness or hoarseness? Suspect vocal damage!

I was eating lunch when my one of my new students' mother called. "Hello", I said. "Well, you were right", she said. Sadly, I had guessed I would be right. It wasn't the first time I'd correctly suspected vocal damage.

She had taken her little actress daughter to the doctor after my suggestion at her last voice lesson to get her vocal cords inspected. Her doctor found lesions on both vocal cords. He told them she should not talk for a week and that it will be a long, long time before she should attempt to sing. She had been scheduled to audition for two productions... one a movie... and it's all on hold for now.

I knew something was wrong because I had way too much trouble getting this little girl to be able to sing in her head voice. When I did gently coax a head tone out of her, nothing I suggested could help her sing very far up the scale, and those notes were very breathy. She tried her best to follow my directions, but she could not focus her spread tone into a healthy, clear, bell-like sound. The breathiness in both her chest and head voices and her limited range cautioned me to stop the vocal training until she could get checked out. And thank God her mother took the initiative and the discovery of vocal injury was made.

Anything which keeps your vocal cords from closing properly, such as a bump of tissue caused by injury, swelling, any kind of lesion or other obstruction, will cause problems such as breathiness, hoarseness, fatigue, vocal cracks and other limitations in your speaking and singing voice such as an inability to sing in head voice. Fortunately, these symptoms are a cry for help... which needs to be heeded.

It is imperative to get a correct diagnosis as to the type of vocal lesion present, because some injuries respond quite well to rest and corrective vocal training, and some require surgery. And sometimes the lesion is malignant. Don't fool around with chronic breathiness or hoarseness. Get to the bottom of the problem. For a "symptom tree", see: http://voiceproblem.org/disorders/vflesions/index.asp . If you suspect a problem, make an appointment with a doctor who can inspect your cords and who knows about singers' voices (get references).

You can actually click a link and hear examples of some types of vocal damage at: http://www.gbmc.org/voice/disorders.cfm .

Here's a wake up... you can cause your vocal cords to hemorrhage (bleed) from just ONE episode of traumatic vocal abuse. A jingle singer I worked with in Memphis named Janie Fricke was diagnosed with this many years ago. Good news... with rest, she did fully recover - and she became a highly lauded country singer with a major hit career. I myself had vocal damage from the insertion of an endotracheal tube (I was on a ventilator for a while many years ago). With the help of my vocal teacher Gerald Arthur, I fully recovered and then went on to my own career at MTM records.

This mother had been told for years that her daughter's breathy sound was natural for her... that there was "nothing wrong - that's just the way her voice sounds". Therefore, her daughter has been re-injuring her vocal cords constantly. Hopefully, this talented and precious little girl's voice will mend with time. When her injury sufficiently heals, she will need vocal training to fully recover.

Read into this post your own cautionary tale. Sometimes you may wish to make a breathy sound for a momentary "effect", but don't fool around with chronic breathiness that you can't focus into clear tone. If you think you have a problem, get checked out with a good voice teacher and/or a doctor who specializes in voices.

Balancing strength in vocal muscle sets

If you, like so many popular genre singers, have trouble straining in your upper chest voice, you may find the following insight helpful.

I know a young artist friend who studied with a $400 dollar an hour voice teacher out in LA (I don't remember his name. She had problems with pitch, control and range. She has developed a very natural, controlled voice and to get a major pop recording contract. I asked what her vocal teacher did to help her.

He told her that there are two different sets of muscles controlling head voice or "falsetto" voice (falsetto differs from head voice in that just the edges, instead of more area, of the vocal cords vibrate), and the chest, or lower vocal register. She was told the head voice is controlled by crycothyroid muscles and the chest by the arytenoid muscles. I think in the following website illustration, she must mean the head voice is controlled by the cricoarytenoid muscles and the chest voice by the interarytenoid muscles. The vocal cords themselves are really the two thyroarytenoid muscles. http://www.evmsent.org/larynx.asp

He told her that her problems lay in the uneven strength she had present between these two controlling sets of muscles. His training centered on strengthening the weak set (that controlled her head voice) to match the strength in the strong set (her chest voice).

Muscle naming aside... This makes all the sense in the world to me. I have been working with people instinctively this way, (using exercises to strengthen head voice especially with people who strain in chest voice) without knowing the specific anatomical reasons, and now have even more reason to use this insight with my students. And big plus... this balance will also help you with your PITCH accuracy!

Here's my suggestion to you:

• If you tend to strain at the upper end of your chest voice:

.... practice singing in your head voice. Do exercises that take you up far higher that you'd sing songs, but be sure you're not leaning or pushing to do so. (You can even push in head voice!) Just go as high as you are able to without strain. Keep doing this on a regular basis and you will strengthen the muscles that control your upper register. I believe you'll find that your head voice will begin to influence your chest voice and you will be able to reach notes that were previously difficult to sing without pushing.

• If you have been classically trained and find it hard to keep from bringing your head voice too low when doing contemporary (non-classical) songs,

.... practice singing in your chest voice. Sing songs and do exercises that take you up into middle voice, but keep it "talking" voice. Important... while using this voice, DON'T PUSH. This should help, over time, strengthen the lower voice muscle set. If you're not sure what voice you're in, find a good voice teacher who can help you.

If you are a student of my "Power, Path & Performance" method, and have the cds, check out the exercises I call "Blending Steps". If you know what voice you are singing in, and can change the voice, you should find great benefit from doing this. Also remember the difference between what I call "pushing" and "pulling" words. One of the best things you can do for your voice is to learn to pull it out of your resonation spaces instead of push it in any way, with any muscles you want to name!

How to get work as a background singer

I got another question I thought you readers might be interested in from my website today.

The question:
"How does one go about getting started if they are interested in singing bgv's (background vocals)? Thanks!"

My answer: To sing background vocals you need-

1. vocal training to be able to perform the feats of what I call a "stunt singer". It takes more stamina and control to be a great background singer than to be a lead singer, because you will have to trace and blend with another voice perfectly, taking on the lead voice's tone, personality, rhythm, phrasing and accent, or adding whatever different texture of voice the producer wants to offset the lead singer's voice.
2. to be able to change your voice at the producer's request.
3. to be able to hear and create harmony parts.
4. experience singing background parts with live performers and/or backing vocals in a recording studio. No matter what kind of training you have, there's no substitute for actual experience. It's a catch-22; you need experience to get experience, so take whatever opportunity you can possibly find or afford to get in front of a stage or recording studio mic.
5. a demonstration (demo) recording of your voice. This can be a simple guitar or piano/vocal, a karaoke track with your voice recorded over it, or can be full instrumental tracks created just for you. Just make sure that your vocal performance is the most important thing you record. Don't spend money on tracks without budgeting enough time for great vocals. duh.
6. referrals from people you've sung with and sung for.
7. networking, networking, networking. This takes time and persistance; people skills are very necessary. Go to writers nights and to concerts, hang out with musicians and songwriters you know. If you know any session singers, you might ask them to sing with you and assess how well they think you do.
8. to realize that you may need to keep your day job. Background work is very competitive and usually has a great deal to do with being at the right place at the right time. Sometimes when someone else can't make a session, an untried singer will get a chance. However, it is important to be generous of spirit, to support and recommend other singers trying to get work as well. Undercutting your fellow session singer will come back to bite you. It usually takes years to break in to regular session work. Make sure you build the right reputation.

Background singers tend to be hired for the following qualities:

1. They sound great with the lead singer.
2. They learn their parts fast.
3. They can do "head charts" (just come up with the parts in their heads), read the Nashville number system (if in Nashville), and they can read written music (traditional notes). You can get hired without being able to do all three, but you are considered a much more versitile singer if you can work whatever way the producer, artist or group leader wants.
4. They have positive, professional attitudes and work well with others.
5. They can be depended upon to show up on time, every time.
6. They are nice people. The music business is a small world, and it gets to be community where where you like to work with friends and good hearted people.

Some of my best friends in the world are background singers. Good luck... and let me know about any work you get so I can share it in my newsletter!

The beauty of backing off vocal pressure

I just wrote with a wonderful new pop artist, Skye Dyer, today. She was suffering from an allergy attack, with the resulting swelling of the vocal cords. As I watched her sing our song for a worktape cd we made, I noticed something she did to accomplish a good vocal in spite of her compromised vocal condition.

She backed off the pressure. As she "went for" the highest part of the song, I inwardly cringed as I played the keyboard, expecting her to do what I see far too many singers doing... applying force to reach that note. And she didn't. And it came out with an unexpected clarity and openness.

Backing off air pressure is a master vocal technique. Fear can make it almost impossible without the confidence that it will indeed work. My suggestion for you:

Get out your hardest song. At the place you have the most trouble, try applying so little air pressure that it seems you're breathing the note in instead of out. Spin it, weightlessly, using pelvic floor support and having your head in line with your tailbone.

Let me know how it works for you. And look for Skye Dyer songs and concerts on the horizon. She's great.

Pitch problems in the recording studio

I recently received an emailed question about pitch problems while recording vocals that I'd like to share here.

The question:

Dear Judy,
I've just started recording some songs and have run into a problem. When I sing my vocals, I am off pitch. I play in a band and have for a few years and we seem to be very popular locally. I sing lead for roughly 1/3 of our songs and have never had anyone tell me my singing was bad or that I couldn't sing. I have read about headphone mixes, etc. and am wondering about this and the recording process. We are recording with headphones , mic, drum machine, into a Korg d3200. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

My answer:

When an artist is really good in live performance, there is quite often a curious thing that happens when that artist goes into the studio. The person ceases to move, ceases to "communicate" with the body, the hands and the face. The weight of the mic is missing, so the singer subcounciously leans forward with the head, causing the chest to cave in a bit. This causes breathing problems, affecting both breath support and breath control. This may very well be the source of your pitch problems.

To fix this, try moving your feet farther in towards the mic, causing you to subconsciously have your head farther back (or you'll hit the mic with your mouth) and your chest will open, stretching the ribcage and diaphragm out, enabling you to get both better inhale and better control of that breath when you sing.

Also, try using your hands, like in live performance. Don't grab the "cans" with your hands, because this tends to put subtle weight on your ribcage, closing it. Another thing I frequently have people do is put fingertips together in front (I call this "studio hands"). When you "go" for a note, you'll press your fingertips into each other, causing your chest to open and your head to go back. Be sure you're not lifting your chin, keep it level and floating and just let your neck be flexible and your spine will take your head back.

Another thing you need to watch is that you need to be very present with the pitch in some kind of acoustic instrument in the track. Don't "listen" for pitch from the bass, because overtones can throw you off. Try taking some of the instruments (especially swimmy instruments or busy instruments) out of your headphone mix.

Also, watch how much reverb you are using in the mix. Too much or not enough, and you won't do as well. Just enough to make you feel "live", but not enough to get lost.

Lastly, I recommend having one headphone half-off one ear. That grounds you in the vocal booth... And gives you more of an accurate sense of the pitch you're using. Not everyone does better this way, but most do (I certainly do).

If anyone has any feedback after using suggestions I've made, I'd love to hear from you (click comment link below this post). Thanks!

Teachers: Does Your Speaking Voice Communicate?

This post is to all teachers everywhere.

I talked to a young friend, Laura Cambell, at church today who had home for the weekend from college. I asked her how her studies were going and she made a common complaint that got me thinking. She said that many of this semester's teachers she had did not talk clearly during lectures. One of them actually spoke to the blackboard during the whole class, never once looking at the students. My friend therefore was having trouble learning in these classes.

If you are a teacher, may I first thank you for your service. It is a tough, trying business, and you are to be commended for your willingness to share your expertise. But may I respectfully also suggest that you think about how your communicate your lessons.
Do you-

• Look at your students when you speak?
• Enunciate clearly so that even a student with hearing problems can understand you, or even read your lips?
• Use varied pitches in your voice- instead of a monotone delivery?
  Look for response (or the lack thereof) in your students' faces, indicating that you have engaged their interest?
• Take time between phrases to 1) get a good breath and 2) let your last phrase sink in?
• Adjust your words if you are not getting through, possibly re-stating your information another way?
• Articulate with energy and animation, but not with intimidation or harsh tone?

If you really want to go up a level in your spoken communication skills, you may wish to join a Toastmaster Club. Or, possibly get a group of teachers together and observe each others' classes, giving and getting feedback on your delivery.
Here is a web page from the University of Oklahoma, which offers a "Teach Test" and gives some suggestions for doing well on the test. http://gradweb.ou.edu/eap/teach.htm . Check it out for great tips.
And thanks again for caring for your charges. They desperately need your information; give them your best shot at being able to receive what you have to give!

A tip for feeling correct breath support and control

I'm always looking for simplified ways to quickly help you experience correct vocal technique. Sometimes the mind understands but the body feels spastic!

The "feeling" of correct breath support and breath control can be elusive. You must at the same time apply the power of the breath AND control that power. If you are familiar with my teaching, you know that support must be applied from the pelvic floor, and that you enable control by keeping the bottom of your ribcage wide.

Here's a tip you can try:

Put your hand on your UPPER (not lower) chest- right below your neck. Place the back of your other hand on your tailbone. Now press your two hands in. You should experience your posture stretching tall, with the bottom of your ribcage widening and your low abs moving in towards your tailbone. Now, do it again as you sound a note. Do you feel the controlled breath power in that action?

This may help your muscles memorize the correct feeling of applying controlled breath to your voice. Then you can recreate the action without actually using your hands to press these areas. The object is to become aware of the sensation and be able to do it without thinking.

Let me know any feedback you have. Oh... and I apologize for posting so infrequently lately, but I'll give you a hint as to my excuse:

I'm moving the office again in January... this time my husband and I are buying a house in Nashville where I can have my office and not have to drive 45 minutes to get home! You're gonna love it, dear students... details to come...

Performance body language- anything but stiff!

Body language is important for vocal communication. If you've taken lessons from me or have read many of my post on All Things Vocal, you know how I stress this. Here's the thing: different styles of music, different personalities of vocalists, and different venue settings require different degrees of OUTSIDE body movement. The important thing is to stay flexible, no matter what.

Examples of the wide range of effective body language would be in performances of Mick Jagger and Jennifer Nettles vs the more subtle movement you see in performances by Allison Krauss and Andrea Bocelli. A Rolling Stones concert would find Mick Jagger all over the stage, with wild facial, hand and leg movements. Nettles definitely communicates with external expression. Allison Krauss and Andrea Bocelli seem to quietly float - ALMOST motionlessly- in place as they sing.

In the case of Jagger and Nettles, the external movement adds to the internal flexibility of breath and throat areas. There is control and purpose to their movements, however. A rock singer can kill the voice by squeezing in the wrong places (throat, ribcage) while trying to be TOO externally physical. Any time you see the head pushing forward and the ribcage caving in, you'll also hear the strain and possibly find concerts cancelled due to voice problems.

In the case of Krauss and Bocelli, oh how effortlessly they seem to ply their craft- but they are also subtly moving. Notice the slight facial movements- especially the freedom of the mouth and the movement in the eyebrows. They also are subtly purposeful in the slight use of arms- even if it's just the hand holding the mic that is helping them keep their ribcages open. Notice they also have controlled power, enabling the incredible smoothness of their sustains (notes held out).

I watched Bocelli on PBS the other night and renewed my awe of his subtle use of body language. I believe he is possibly the greatest pure vocalist of all time. At least for me.

Also on PBS, I also watched the incredible boys choir group "Libera" and was very happy to notice that someone has allowed them to move their faces and, though they stand in place, subtly sway their bodies. They are not stiff! Oh, how I wish choir directors all over the world would take notice and let their choral members get of their body braces and float in place! (One of my soapbox issues, for sure).

My advice: Consider your personality, the venue you're in, the expectations for your music genre. Then choose to communicate with a body language flexibility which is comfortable to you that will both connect with your audience AND free your voice!

PS... if you want to get a great Christmas present for someone (or yourself!) I recommend Andrea Bocelli's cd "Sogno". Effortless resonance personified.

Performance is not a vocal exercise

OK, I'm going back to my novice training in golf (bless my poor husband) to bring out yet another golf/vocal parallel: There is an important difference between vocal exercises and performance. A singer must make this distinction clear to turn a performance into a heart-moving event.

Vocal exercises, like other athletic skills training, do two things:

1. They nurture the vocal musculature, strengthening it, warming the instrument with increased blood flow and enabling greater flexibility.
2. They create muscle memory.

With the flexible and strong instrument at your disposal, and with muscle memory causing an automatic connection to take place between your mind/body/vocal apparatus, you're then and only then ready for a great vocal performance.

Points to ponder:

• Don't think about technique like you do when you are trying to learn a vocal exercise correctly. The time for that is BEFORE you perform.
• Do your vocal training exercises regularly so it's just what you do naturally when you perform.
• Learn how to connect with the audience through the song. That should trigger all the right reflexes, if you've trained your muscle memory correctly.
• Don't worry about being perfect!! I've found that if you just commit to communication (after you've trained your instincts), you can do things in performance even better than in a mechanical vocal exercise.

Consider this: When you are doing vocal exercises, you have to be focused on yourself and on how you're working your voice. This is not, I repeat NOT communication. When you are performing, the truly effective performance moment happens when you are delivering a message. If you scatter your mental focus with too much thought, you'll miss the ball (sorry- golf again- ask me how I know >: )

Bottom line... you have to do both: Exercise and Perform. Just keep them separate in your mind. Voice teacher Jeffrey Allen says the Italians used to suggest taking your technique onstage with you in your little finger". Meaning... that's how much awareness they gave to training when actually performing. It's a paradox that you must also practice performing... make it a regular habit to sing to someone (even a cat or dog will do).

Trust your trained voice and it will reward you with performance magic!

Phone Vocal Lessons - Do they work?

I have had people ask me if taking vocal lessons by phone really worked, so I thought I'd post my answer here for others of you who may be curious.

When you can't get in for a vocal lesson - you're out of town, on the road, scheduled to the hilt - phone lessons can indeed work. I can't speak for other teachers and their methods, of course, but here's how it works with me:

First of all, it helps tremendously if you have been to at least one vocal lesson physically present with me. I can hear what you're doing even if you haven't taken a lesson, but of course you can't see me demonstrate or feel me touch you on the phone. It's not a requirement, but it does help if you have the Power, Path & Performance cd course to study between lessons.

I am presently teaching several students in different states on a regular basis - once every or every other week. They get in to see me on infrequent trips to Nashville, but have been able to make great progress just from their phone lessons, and that is how I know it works. People on the road or going into the recording studio can also get vocal warmups and checkups this way.

How to prepare:
If at all possible, try to call from a phone you can put on speaker, so you can have your hands free. Also, remember to have a cd player near so you can put your tracks on if you want to go over songs (it's not important for me to hear the tracks clearly, just your voice, and yes, I can hear by cellphone).

Fees:
My phone lessons are almost always 1/2 hr lessons at $50. If you are a regular student taking multiple lessons, you get a discounted fee of $40 for 1/2 hr.

Times: To see about scheduling availability, call my office 615-834-4747.

Question for you: Have you ever taken a phone lesson? How did it work for you?

How to articulate without tensing up

Articulation. Diction. These words don't sound very emotional, do they? Yet if you don't define the words you speak or sing, nobody will know the emotion you want to cause them to feel. In this culture of short attention spans, rather than try to figure out what you're almost saying, your audience may direct attention elsewhere. So, ya gotta do it. Articulate, that is.

BUT... and it's a big but here... you need to define your words a certain way so as not to tense up at the jaw and facial muscles, which causes a lot of vocal technique to go dreadfully wrong.

The answer is to define your words with the FRONT part of your articulators... tip of the tongue, not the base; flexible lips, not overtightened; hard palate right behind your front teeth, not back in your mouth.

A couple of exercises:

• Try forming the word "Ya". Do it slowly. Are you creating the "y" in the back of your mouth, tensing your jaw? If so, you'll notice numb eyes and a tenseness in the base of your tongue. Instead, try creating the "y" with a more frontal part of the tongue up nearer your incisor teeth - not back at the molars. If you're doing this correctly, you'll notice it tends to cause your nose to flare and your eyes to open expressively.
• Try putting your little finger in your mouth at your molars, and then try to articulate words. It will teach you not to form them at the back, leaving that space open for resonation. Or a turkey bone. Just don't swallow the thing. :)

How'd you do with this? Let me know by clicking the "comment" link below this post.

Happy Thanksgiving, by the way! Counting you among my blessings...

Top 5 bad vocal habits

Here's my vote for the top 5 bad vocal habits I see in my work:

1. Jutting the chin forward on high or loud notes
Doing this tightens the throat, compromises pitch and range, limits expression to a painful one

2. Crushing the chest (even a little bit) to squeeze out power
Doing this plows too much breath into the vocal cords, limiting ability to control the voice, also affecting tone, pith and range. The inhale is even affected because it's taken too high in the chest since that's where the squeeze is going to come from.

3. Not communicating lyrics clearly
This drives me nuts... especially if the music makes me want to actually know what the song is about. You lose your audience quickly since you're not communicating anything they can understand.

4. Dead eyes with no expression
Eyes are very important to subtle lifting and opening in the throat. Dead eyes mean dead tone, limiting range and ability to communicate.

5. Entertaining with no artistry (singing at the crowd without the slightest indication you know what the lyrics mean)
The best singers are artists first, entertainers second. It's a subtle thing, but you can tell the difference by whether or not the singer moves the heart.

Sooooo.... what's the worst vocal habit you've seen (or have !)?

Overpowering Vocals

Overpowering vocals is bad vocal technique because it communicates a kind of power that is counterproductive on several levels, including:

• Yelling is not persuasive communication that invites listening. So if you want me to listen to you, don't yell at me.
• Screaming your melody to the top of your lungs may make me monentarily go "Wow, the singer is certainly trying to be great", but it won't make me go buy your album.
• Over-blowing your vocal cords hurts them. If you value your instrument, you must take care of it unless you intend it to only work badly for a short season.

Watching the Country Music Awards Show last night (just like every other genre of music award show where energy and emotions are high), I saw overpowering in several performances. If you've never done these kinds of shows, they tend to be events where it's hard to hear well. You have a lot of ambient sound swirling round and it's easy to get disoriented, disconnected to your voice. Then, oh my gosh, you have to make such an impact so you give it all you've got.

Mistake.

Giving it all you've got translates to pushing 100% of the breath pressure you have available through your vocal cords- and 100% is TOO MUCH PRESSURE! Doing this always results in a lack of control. Lack of control makes you pitchy, makes your vibrato flutter irregularly or unnaturally, makes you unable to execute vocal embellishments (licks or ad libs) well. It also causes your tone to be too thin or harsh, because it tightens your throat.

You need to do what great sparring partners do... learn to pull your punches. Control what you are giving out and it will be much more effective (not to mention, it won't hurt them or you!). Back off the forward breath pressure until your power seems to be balanced at your tailbone. Then you can actually give more communicative life to your performance.

Here's the magic equation for best vocal performance:
Back off the pressure and add passion.

Country artists who habitually balance pressure and passion just right include Reba (the queen of balanced vocals), LeAnn Rimes, Faith, Trisha, Jennifer Nettles, Clay Walker, Brad Paisley, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks and sometimes Keith Urban (he began pushing too hard at the end of his performance). Notice again... these all give quite empassioned performances. Martina and Gary of Rascal Flatts can also be great and balanced but were, I thought, pushing just a little too hard last night.

Did you catch the CMA's last night? Do you agree with my assessments? What did I miss?

Intention and Expectation - vocal magic

Just as in any athletic endeavor (and yes, using your voice optimally IS an athletic endeavor), it makes all the difference to get your thinking right. If you intend to do it, and then expect to be able to do it, you are going to be a lot closer to actually DOING IT.

If you want to:

• Center your pitch perfectly - intend that pitch and expect to hit it.
• Hit a certain note like a bull's eye- intend that note and expect to hit it.
• Cause someone to feel an emotion- intend that emotion and expect to be heard.
• Breathe and control your breath more fully- intend to communicate the phrase and expect to have the right amount of breath, and it's almost automatic.
• Deliver a phrase with a certain color of resonance that communicates- intend the 'between the lines' communication you want to relay
• Feel relaxed and focused as you deliver your vocal message- intend to be relaxed and focused, expect to encounter no tension.
• Blend your voice other voice(s)- intend and expect that your voice WILL blend in with the same tone and rhythm of the other voice(s).
• Get the rhythm of the music in your phrasing- intend to immerse your muscles in the feel of the music
• Lose any anxiety or nervousness- Intend to make it about them instead of you, and expect to encounter no nervousness as you do.

If you intend to do so, you will find that you set yourself up more correctly for the vocal chore.

If you expect to do so, your follow-through will predict success much better than 'dropping the ball' (dropping the end of your phrase/breath/focus or/nerve).

Let me know how this change in thinking affects your next performance. Do you have any other special thought preparation that helps you?

Lift Before You Sound your voice

To 'lift before you sound' your voice is the only way to find your vocal 'sweet spot' where you experience full resonance without strain.

You may know that comedians have to learn to time their quips to be successful. Well, so do singers. But what I'm talking about is something that should happen before you make a sound. A vocalist needs to lift the ribcage and the inside of the throat and mask (which includes the nasal passages behind the eyes) before pulling sound through the vocal instrument to the audience. Actually, you should experience feel flexibly tall and ready to communicate something. This way, you inhale almost effortlessly and you experience the open - not tight - throat when you use correctly compressed breath to sound your instrument.

The voice path imagery I recommend is one originally suggested by voice teacher Jeffrey Allen. It's a hook- or question mark- shaped path that begins in the pelvic floor (POWER), goes back to a spot above and behind your head (PATH), and then connects to the audience (PERFORMANCE) by the articulation of the word. This feels like you're pulling the word, not pushing it, no matter how hard or long you need to sound the note. I guess it's obvious how this relates to my teaching method Power, Path & Performance.

At a vocal lesson with former boxing champ Memphis Cole, I suggested he think of this as leading with the LIFT (instead of the left). He gets it very, very well indeed, as his blooming career is showing. However you think of it to make it natural for you, it's non-negotiable for great singing.

Vocal techniques for lifting the soft palate and opening the throat

I recently received this question: "...What can I do to lift my soft palate, as well as expand my throat so it can remain effortless throughout my singing?" Here are some suggestions:

• First of all, you can use the 'inner smile', a time-tested technique which feels like the beginning of the yawn. This is not to be confused with the tight, horizontal external smile. Think Mona Lisa.
• Imagine a ping pong ball on the back of your tongue. This will cause the soft palate to lift, as well as loosen the jaw and relax the base of the tongue.
• Get your eyes and nose into the act: Remember that the back of the nasal membrane goes on back behind the eyes and continues above the soft palate. Soft palate and nasal membrane (nasal pharynx) should lift simultaneously towards the top back of your head in order to open the channels of the throat. Flare your nose at the same time you raise the back edges of your eyebrows and notice what it does for this lift.
• Get your spine into the act: Move your head flexibly back a bit, causing the top vertebrae (C-1) to open the throat channel from behind.
• Do what I call the 6-way inside stretch (eyes, nose, jaw, both ears & scalp) as you sing. The center of the stretch should seem to be in the back of your head.
• Do some 'wall work' : sing with your heel and head against the wall (chin flexibly level), which will help keep your head back and your breath supported and controlled.
• Back off the pressure! Remember that vocal volume comes from resonation, not excessive air pressure. Back off and your throat will be able to open.

Try these things and let me know how they work for you. As always, your questions are invaluable, and the answers will benefit others as well... just click 'comments' below and join the conversation!

Singing and golf

I had never played golf in my life. My husband, an avid golfer, decided this week it was time to teach me. To my surprise, I found it to be like ... singing! I truly didn't know one end of the putter from the other, but with his patience and skill I learned a great deal (at least in my head!) of what I must master to be allowed on a real golf course (shaking his head, he says maybe sometime next year!) Here's what I learned:

• Golf... It's an athletic discipline, requiring strength, control and balance.

Singing... Ditto!

• Golf...For the best swing, you absolutely have to relax your grip on the club and loosen tension in your body.

Singing... For a the best sound, you absolutely have to relax the grip in your throat and loosen tension in your body.

• Golf... You must never confuse power with brute force... swing with no more than 80% of your strength and you'll be able to control the swing.

Singing... You must never confuse power with brute force... sing with no more than 85% of your air pressure and you'll be able to control your voice

• Golf... For best results, aim at the target before you swing!

Singing... For best results, aim at the pitch before you sing!

• Golf... Practice, practice, practice with correct techniqe so that your swing becomes natural without having to over-think (and right now it's about as un-natural a feeling as when I learned my first Shaolin block in Kung Fu years ago >:)

Singing... Practice, practice, practice with correct technique so that correct singing becomes natural without having to over think.

• Golf... It's not good to try to whack the ball. For best results, the ball gets hit just by getting in the way of the (correct) swing.

Singing... For maximum performance impact, the audience gets moved just by being in the presence of the meaning of the song being authentically delivered by the singer. You don't get best effect by your goal being to "win the contest".

• Golf... A positive attitude is essential. If you think you can hit the ball in that little hole, you'll be a lot more likely to do so.

Singing... A positive attitude is essential. If you think you can hit that note on pitch without straining, you'll be a lot more likely to do so.

• Golf... Anyone serious about golf... including and especially professional players... has a coach watching over them.

Singing... well, I think you get the idea!

OK... How bout it, fellow golfers? Any more parallels you notice?? Any suggestions for my golf game??? (My husband will thank you!)

The "two-fingers-at-larynx" vocal recording trick

I had an interesting studio trick occur to me tonight. I had a late background vocal session and I am TIRED. I had a phrase that I needed to sing in a high "middle" voice (head voice wouldn't have been the right blend). Normally that's no problem if I use "studio hands", but tonight I found it difficult to do without raising my larynx because my support was lagging (interpret...my butt was dragging!)

So I tried something- I very lightly touched two fingers to the front of my larynx (Adam's apple) to remind my larynx that it didn't have to lift to hit those high notes.

Darned if it didn't work! Just this slight suggestion to my automatic nervous system was all the reminder my voice needed, and I dropped the tension trying to build in my voice. I first heard of it from Boston vocal coach Jeannie Deva, who uses it in exercises to remind the larynx not to lift. It's a bit of an advanced technique for the recording studio, but it can come in very handy if you learn to use it in such situations.

Let me know if you try it, or want to learn it.

Lastly... sorry for the blog post about that MTM video again.. I was doing some experimenting with sending YouTube videos to my blog. I thought it was just a draft... I didn't know it would publish automatically. Duh. I deleted from my blog, but you'll have to delete from your email box. Please pardon.

Vocal training - Who needs it?

How do you know if you need vocal training? To help you decide, I put the following questions together:

1. Breath - can you get enough breath in; can you control that breath when it is directed at your vocal cords?
2. Open throat - Do you EVER experience throat tightness resulting in a feeling of vocal strain?
3. Articulation - Does your audience have trouble understanding you? Could a deaf contingent in your audience read your lips and face and understand you? (They should be able to.)
4. Emotional connection - can you line up your performance focus and make somebody feel what you're trying to communicate?
5. Range - do you have enough vocal range to sing your songs without strain?
6. Mix - can you sing in a constantly changing mix of head and chest so that your voice doesn't "break"?
7. Volume - can you control your levels so that you don't yell in places and then disappear in other places? (A nightmare for your listener or the recording engineer)
8. Pitch - Do you have pitch problems?
9. Tone - Is your voice harsh or weak, tinny or "hooty", limited in "colors" with which you can communicate different emotions, missing richness and resonance?
10. Miscellaneous vocal problems - Are you needing to recover from vocal damage or dysfunction? Do you have trouble with uncontrolled "flutter" when you sing? Is your voice too breathy anywhere in your range? Does your voice hurt in any way when you sing? (Note... if you sing properly you will get PHYSICALLY tired, but should not get vocally tired ("fried").
11. Level of vocal ability - Do you want to increase what your voice can do in any way?

I hope this helps you with your decision, and if you are studying voice, I also hope this helps you figure out whether or not your training is working! (If you are my student, use this list as a checklist for further goals you wish to reach - and lets discuss them at your next lesson) Read this blog for continuing free vocal info, and be sure to share your questions, concerns and comments. I want to know what YOU want to know - Thanks!

Vocal importance of Spinal position and movement

The position and movement of the spine makes an enormous difference in the breath support and breath control issues of a vocalist, as well as resulting tone, pitch, range and degree of vocal strain.

• The position of the spine:

1. If a habit of slouching or being a guarded postural stance (chest closed in) is changed to a flexible, tall, open stance -- improvement in vocal ability is instant.
2. You can try singing while standing at the wall with your head and heel flush against the wall to ensure you are not slouching.

• The movement of the spine:

The LOWER (lumbar) spine should be stable and rather straight... avoiding the "swayback" shape is very important. There is a curve, but the spine here should feel like a very sturdy "base of operations". You will find it important to keep a slight bend in the knees to keep the back from bending in the swayback shape.

The diaphragm also has a "root" of fibers that attach to the lumbar spine. Stretching the lumbar spine out helps stabilize the diaphragm's movements. Looks like Elvis might have known more than he realized!

1. Movement to the "dance of the groove"-- even slight movement -- helps to keep the knees from locking and the lumbar spine from swaying back too much.
2. Performance coach Diane Kimbro uses some creative imagery to help with this: She suggests that you think of your hips as a bucket. Simply don't "spill the water" at the front! You'll find yourself tipping your pelvis back a bit and your lumbar spine feeling much better.
3. Another thing you can try is to stand in such a way that you can't be pushed over. To stabilize yourself, you'll find yourself assuming a stable lower spine.

The UPPER spine should be much more flexible than the lumbar area. Think of a tree -- the trunk is somewhat straight and less flexible, the branches are bending with the wind.

1. There is a point in your upper spine right below your shoulder blades that where you should bend in such a way as to open the chest. Try putting your hand in the "uncle" position, then pressing forward so the chest opens. You'll find yourself inhaling automatically.
2. Students of Power, Path & Performance will recognize this point (I poke you there, don't I?). It is where you can affect the diaphragm by giving it more space when the ribcage is opened, enabling a good inhale AND a controlled exhale.

Watch other great vocalists with control and beautiful tone... you'll see these points in their posture and in the movement of their spine. Try it... you'll like it!

Voice lessons... How many should you take?

So you decide to take voice lessons . How many should you take?

The short answer: as many as it takes to get you where you want to be.

The longer answer: it depends:

1. If you are looking for a vocal assessment as to how you are singing right now: One. At this assessment lesson (one or two hours is recommended), you should get a professional opinion as to how well you're singing right now, and what it might take to get your voice ready for where you want to go. You should also get help with your weakest area(s) AT THE FIRST LESSON... so no matter what, you will get real, and immediate, benefit for whatever money you spend on vocal training.
2. If you have vocal problems such as straining, weakness, breathing issues and/or performance communication disconnect, you should take as many as you need to conquer those problems. At the first lesson, major problems the teacher notices should be spelled out for you.
3. If you have limited funds, you should be honest with the teacher and seek options such as longer intervals between regular lessons (once every other week or even less), supplemented with vocal training on media (such as my Power, Path & Performance cds)
4. If you