When I ask a new vocal student to show me how they do a semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercise like a lip bubble or tongue trill, 99.99% of the time, they do it by pushing, or they can barely do it at all. When I show them how to pull instead of push that same exercise, they experience an instant relaxing of vocal tension, and more open sound. They also tend to do the exercise with more vocal range, because going higher and lower is all of a sudden easier! Want to try this yourself? Stay with me. By the end of this episode, you will!
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First, let’s define our topic.
What ARE SOVT Exercises?
They are vocal exercises done with the vocal tract narrowed at some point, which creates back pressure as the air is held back from the partial obstruction. For a detailed description of what happens, click to download an article by Marci D. Rosenberg, MS CCC and also read an article from Dr. Ingo Titze, leading proponent of SOVT exercises.
Why Should We Do Semi Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises (SOVTE’s)?
In a nutshell, these exercises help us balance breath support and breath control.
Inhale
First, of course, we have to inhale. Move your head back over your tailbone so that your whole ribcage lifts and opens. Now take a low inhale… it should feel as though you’re inhaling into your low back and pelvic floor. The bottom of the ribcage is the top of your air tank. The ribcage is expanded and the diaphragm is stretched wide, so that when the diaphragm contracts and pulls down, a good, quality breath just falls in.
Breath Support
When it’s time to make a sound, we need enough breath to confidently vibrate vocal cords (folds). The breath is moved upwards two ways… the diaphragm relaxes and presses up on the floor of the lungs, expelling air. And a squeeze from the pelvic floor moves abdominal contents upwards, supporting where the diaphragm wants to go.
Breath Control
However, all that air freely flowing through the vocal cords can blow them open, stressing and dehydrating them, causing chronic tight or breathy tone, vocal fatigue, strain and damage. We need to balance our breath support with… breath CONTROL.
This is where semi occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises come in. They sound the voice AND (if done properly) they protect it and enhance your vocal ability. They do this by providing back-pressure that opens the throat tract and evens out the pressure at the vocal cords, allowing them to vibrate confidently without being blown too wide open.
Fauquier ENT has a great video demonstration here of what happens when you use the straw to do SOVT exercises.
What are some examples SOVT exercises?
While there are all kinds, the SOVT exercises most commonly used are:
- Lip Bubbles
- Tongue Trills
- Rasberries
- The Straw
- The Balloon
Now we get to the meat of this episode:
HOW to Do SOVT Exercises
Short answer: PULL, don’t ever PUSH, them. Create sound by pulling open your ribcage and throat instead of pushing them tight, which would move too much air through a tight throat channel.
The goal is to create slow, not fast, ripples in the bubbles and trills, and smoothly open instead of glitchy, tight vocal sound coming through the straw and the balloon. The better you can do this, the better your balance of breath support and control.
Demonstrations of SOVT Exercises
Now that I’ve hopefully raised your interest, let me demonstrate (and you can follow along).
To keep your throat open, be sure to use eye language, keep a loose jaw, and keep your head balanced over your tailbone or heels.
[VIDEO ONLY] First let me show you pushing and pulling children’s bubbles. [demonstrate]
[AUDIO ONLY] First, if you’d like to SEE these instead of just hear the differences, look in the podcast notes for the video link.
- Lip Bubbles – Don’t cross your chest with your arm to put fingers in your cheeks. Press your cheeks with fingers from both hands and make sure your elbows are a little out from your sides so you don’t squeeze your ribcage, sabotaging your breath control.
- Tongue Trills – Try to keep from doing these with a tight tongue and jaw.
- Raspberries – Put your hand in front of your mouth, just because😊
- The Straw – Keep your jaw moving up and down, keep your head balanced over your tailbone and use eye language.
- The Balloon – The same tips apply as those I gave for the straw. For more on how to do balloon exercises, check out this post I did with fellow coach Mark Thress on balloon phonation.
You can even sing a melody with these exercises, though you can’t form lyrics.
If you need some help, book a lesson with me, or get my packaged vocal training course, which you can find at my website.
What about you?
OK if you try these, I would truly love to know your experience. What did you notice about pulling instead of pushing these amazing vocal exercises?
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