Robert Lunte's "Lift Up Pull Back" siren exercise

Today I want to share a very cool video by my friend, founder of "The Modern Vocalist.com", rock vocal coach Robert Lunte. In this video, he shares his passagio-bridging (vocal register mixing) siren exercise:

Watch video here.

While it can be illustrated in many ways, correct vocal technique is, well, correct vocal technique! This siren exercise goes right along with rock voice teacher Jamie Vendera's "inhalation sensation" and my suggestion to back off breath pressure, pulling and NOT pushing, even to the point where it feels like you're breathing in reverse. Notice how Robert seems to be pulling the siren instead of pushing it... to awesome effect. Try it, it works!

Kudos to Robert for demonstrating this... let us know how it works for you!

Vocal Warm Ups: Two Vital Reasons To Do Them

I believe there are two reasons to warm up your voice.

1. To coordinate your body/mind/voice... practicing and developing the muscle memory that enables the basic vocal technique triangle of breath/throat/communication synergy.
   
2. To give your voice a physical workout... get blood flowing through the tissues, interstitial fluid pumped out, and muscle stamina increased.

To accomplish these two things, "form is everything". Doing vocal exercises wrong, just like other physical exercise, will not help and can harm your voice. You can do ANY vocal exercise incorrectly. If your voice doesn't feel BETTER after your vocal workout, stop doing it!

Train your voice, yes, but train it correctly. Make sure your vocal teacher shows you not only what to do, but how to do it.

For information on Power Path & Performance cd vocal training products, go here.
The third cd of my 6-cd course is completely on the subject of HOW to do my vocal exercises.

For more info on my personal lessons, go here.

Taming Tongue Tension

A question about tongue tension was asked at The Modern Vocalist this month. I thought I'd share my answer and elaborate it with you, dear reader of this blog, because it is a very common problem. Tongue tension equals soft palate tension, equals... throat tension!!

Tongue tension happens when you use the wrong end of the tongue too much! The tongue is said by some to be the strongest muscle in the body for it's size. It is literally connected by the hyoid bone to the top of your larynx. Tensing the root of your tongue raises the larynx uncomfortably. NOT GOOD. You need to be able to keep the mighty base (or root) of the tongue relaxed while you use the tip and front sides of the tongue to articulate.

Some things I suggest that have helped my students loosen tongue tension:

1. Wake up the face and do tongue tanglers, trying for clarity and not allowing the voice to "fall into the gravel" at the ends of phrases. Act like you are speaking to deaf people... make your lyric show in your face. This gets it out of the back of the throat and stiff jaw.

2. Speak or sing with the jaw moving in sort of a slight chewing motion. Tongue tension and jaw stiffness go together.

3. Put your knuckle inbetween your molars (not the front of your mouth) and sing. It will sound weird, like trying to speak with the dentist's hand in your mouth, but your jaw and tongue will experience having to relax.

4. Sing only on the vowels for a while, again allowing the back of the mouth and throat to fall open. This is harder than you think, you have to concentrate on NOT forming consonants. Then allow yourself to slightly let the consonants sneak back in, but keeping the back of the tongue feeling the same and letting the jaw relax flexibly.

5. Put two fingers under your chin. You are feeling the base of your tongue. Speak or sing, telling yourself not to tense there (bunch the muscle up).

6. DO NOT OVER-WORK the tongue in specific vocal exercises. Sometimes I find that exercises designed to stretch out and loosen the tongue can have the opposite effect. If you do these, be sure and note how they actually affect your tongue root's ability to relax.

By the way... some people can do tongue trills and some people can do lip trills and some people can do both. Just like rolling the tongue, forming French or German syllables, for some people it is easy and some hard, because there is a learning curve that makes it easier in childhood, and I believe, subtle muscle coordination differences in people. It doesn't matter if you can do these things or not. The main thing is to get your articulation out of the back of your throat, and there is more than one way to accomplish this goal.

Let me know what works for you!

Power, Path & Performance vocal training: The difference is real.