11 Things You Don't Think Your Voice Can Do (It Can!)

I have the most wonderful job. I get to hear miracles take place with people's voices. These breakthroughs happen because of the team of teacher and student.  It takes both, as any good teacher knows. Just this week a happy Power, Path & Performance vocal student told me she wished everyone knew what was possible. So I told her I'd do a blogpost on it.

Here are 13 of the many surprising things your voice could do:

1. You can learn to sing without vocal strain. This blows some people away to realize.

2. You can learn to sing on pitch. Most of the time it's not even your ear that's the problem, but if it is, it's amazing what a little pitch practice can do.

3. You have more vocal range than you imagine. You can sing higher in chest voice, without strain, when you learn to use mixed or middle voice to do it. You can also sing lower than you think. You enable low notes just like you do high notes... by stretching, not crunching.

4. Your voice is capable of richer, more interesting tone than you think is natural to you. You find your full resonance by learning to open your 'voice cave' so that the vibrations from your larynx can reach all your resonators.

5. You can learn new vocal licks, and learn to use them appropriately to reach the heart of your audience instead of sounding fake. There are tricks good vocal teachers know to help you.

6. Even if you have breathing issues, you can have enough breath to sing. It doesn't take much when you do it right.You can sing long notes without running out of breath. The answer is to balance breath support and control.

7. Your voice can get better with age. As long as your physical health is good, you can find even more resonance and ability, not less, as you get older.

8. You can learn to sing in the studio with the magic you get in live performance. You can also learn to sing live as well as you record, if you are a veteran session singer. Performance coaches can do wonders!

9. You have all the voice you need to deliver a message in any style except classical, if you just know how to "play your instrument". (Don't you know a singer whose technique is lacking but whose voice moves you?)

10. You can sing "ee" and "oo" vowels (and all other ones, too) on high pitches without getting tight. You learn to modify the vowels more openly and vertically and no more squeaky highs!

10. You can get a handle on numbness and stage anxiety when you learn the psychological and body language secrets of making your performance about your audience, not you.

11. You can learn to speak more effectively...without vocal fatigue or strain. The lack of strain in the speaking voice can be life-changing for public speakers and teachers, but benefits your singing voice as well.

12. You can mend frustrating vocal breaks. I used to have the worst "break" I'd ever heard of. I conquered it and now I know how to help others do the same.

13. You can afford to train your voice. Even one Power, Path and Performance vocal lesson can help you. You can get PPP training materials online and have a vocal lesson every day if you want!

So... I'd like to hear from you. What do you think your voice can't do?

Pitch Problems: Tips To Fix Them

Pitch problems can be frustrating... especially subtle ones that are not quite a half-step off. Here are my thoughts on the matter.

I often find pitch issues to be directly related to physical tension. This unnecessary tension can act like someone tugging on the arm of a person playing a fretless instrument. There would be no way to hit the notes perfectly in tune with that kind of outside interference. I've had a lot of fun double-teaming a few of my students with Ethan Kind, who guest-posted on the Alexander Technique previously on this blog.

Another source of inaccurate pitch is physical tightness in your throat channel when you sing. Your throat should open in three directions... up (soft palate and nasal membrane), down (jaw and tongue positions) and back (head balanced, tension-free, on tailbone instead of in front).

Problem-causing physical tension can originate from what I like to call "tense thinking"... psychological anxiety, causing physical guarding, collapsing the "scaffolding" from which the voice works most accurately. Here's where my post on the vocal magic of intention and expectation could help you.

Pitch problems can also stem from wrong vocal technique habits, such as powering your voice from too high in the body. Move your feeling of where power comes from lower... at the pelvic floor... (squeeze your butt for power, not your neck, chest or shoulders) and get taller, lengthening your spine when you sing instead of compressing it and make sure your head is not forward.

An action that can help get pitch right is to make sure you've warmed your voice up throughout your whole range. When the muscles controlling your head and chest voice are equally strong, aiming at pitch becomes much easier. Important: don't just do vocal exercises... find out how to do them CORRECTLY!

Another positive action is to focus your listening to an acoustic instrument in the track or band, instead of swimmy things or low instruments whose overtones tend not to be accurate and will through your pitch off.

To summarize, here are 6 big tips to help increase your pitch accuracy:

1. POSTURE... stand or sit tall and confidently, head balanced on tailbone.
2. WARM UP... your voice correctly throughout your whole range, mixing it.
3. LISTEN ...to the music, especially acoustic instruments such as piano and guitar.
   
4. DON'T LISTEN... to swimmy instruments or bass to get your pitch center.
   
5. AIM ...at the pitch... intend to hit a specific note.
6. CONFIDENCE... expect to hit it!
7. PRACTICE PERFECTLY... don't allow yourself to be content with pitchiness. Practice hitting the note you're aiming for, instead of allowing yourself to sing "pitchy". You'll train your ear to be much more accurate when you practice accuracy.
   

Let me know this works for you... and anything else you'd like to add!
To book a pitch fixing lesson in person or by phone, contact me here.