One of the most valuable helps for a singer is some form of feedback. Whether it is from a teachers’s suggestions, an audio recording of the voice or any other form of feedback, it is the feedback that is the primary way a singer learns to know how to create an acceptable sound. And that is learned because the feedback informs the singer of how they sound to the listener. Feedback can take many forms. ...
Some years ago one of the members on Vocalist asked for exercises to strengthen her “weak and lazy” diaphragm. The following is what I wrote to her and the members of Vocalist. It elicited a very strong response and has been included on a number of web sites that specialize in vocal music and singing. Below is the article. I have read some of the responses to your request for information about a “weak” diaphragm. There is a lot of misunderstanding about how the breathing system works and, within this, there is also confusion about the workings of the diaphragm. ...
Mathew, as a new reader, has asked a lot of questions about the Singers Formant and Formants in general. This has opened a lot of doors that require some explanations. I will try to answer as directly and concisely as possible but this will be a bit long. Since this is a response to his questions you might want to look at his Comments in the Comments section of this blog. ...
Humming through a folded handkerchief is an excellent method of teaching the correct way to balance vocal tone with breath pressure and it is simple to do. Place a folded handkerchief, folded four times, over your forefinger. Place the forefinger parallel with your mouth, gently close your lips over the finger so that they seal against the handkerchief and will not allow breath to pass by them. Breath into the cloth of the handkerchief. The warm breath passes through easily but it meets some resistance from the cloth. ...
Some additional thoughts about Lip Trills I have never found the lip trill to be very productive for most students even those that have no difficulty getting their lips to “flubber”. And the reasons for this is that lip trills encourages excessive air flow which is not the desired description of the well phonated vocal fold oscillation. The air flow needed is little more than what is produced when you moisten your glasses with your breath. ...
Vowel exercises that use semi-occluded lip positions. Here are some exercises that I have used to help students develop a vocal tone this is rich yet easy to produce. They are all based on the concept that good vocal tone is a combination of efficient and clear phonation assisted by resonance adjustments that compliment the phonation while simultaneously enhancing the tone through a balanced vowel resonance. They are not given in order of preference. All of these are most effective if used with a siren sound that takes the voice from the bottom of its range to as high as is comfortable. ...
Although aspirated fast notes are sometimes called for by the musical and dramatic demands of an aria, in general, aspirated singing has never been considered the proper way to achieve rapid note singing. The fast notes are meant to be connected without any kind of detachment. The rapidity of note change is achieved through proper coordination of breath with vocal fold adjustments but neither the breath nor the tone should be stopped and restarted such as in aspirated singing. ...
Is it necessary to be concerned about what vowels a singer must use to produce a Singer’s Formant? The Singer’s Formant has no relation to the effect of vowels on resonance. This is because the Singer’s Formant is produced in an area of the vocal mechanism that is removed from the critical vowel resonance area. Singer’s Formant is produced in the aryepiglottic area which is directly above the vocal folds and directly below the pharyngeal and buccal areas which produce the vowels. ...
A larger voice will of course be heard as a larger voice if it has Singer’s Formant. If it doesn’t have Singer’s Formant it would not be easily heard over a full orchestra regardless of how large a voice it is. Intensity or volume of production has little to do with the ability to be heard over an orchestras. All male singers produce fundamentals that are mostly within the loudest sounds of the orchestra which extends up to about the 500 KZ range. So, by definition their fundamentals are covered over by the orchestra, They are heard only because, and if, they are able to produce some sonic emphasis in the regions in which the orchestra is weaker and that is in the range of the Singer’ Formant. As listeners we are not aware of all of this but our ears send messages to our brain that correlates the Singer’s Formant to a fundamental and it translates that message such that we hear a loud fundamental as well as lower overtones and recognize not only the pitch but even the vocal quality. It is a wonder of how our minds make reality for us. ...
Squillo, which is sometimes defined “as that piercing resonance” has nothing to do with the Singer’s Formant. Singer’s Formant does not give the voice its brightness. For example, Bjorling’s voice has seldom been classified as being as bright as Corelli’s yet his voice has more Singer’s Formant than does Corelli, and Corelli’s is substantial. The Singer’s Formant is created in the aryepiglottic space immediately above the vocal folds before the phonated sound enters the primary resonance spaces of the pharynx and mouth. As such it is not affected by vowel changes. All vowels are created by resonance changes in the pharynx and mouth and the primary control of vowel identity is the position of the tongue within these spaces. ...