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VOICEBOX
(VOCAL TRAINING EXERCISES)
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| 1. Make short vowel sounds.
As kids do – you know A instead of AY, EH instead of EE. Make them as short
and staccato as possible and repeat them i.e. A A A A A A A A . You'll
find yourself not breathing out as you say the vowels and you may well find
that your diaphragm is bulging out and solid. You can check this by pressing
on your solar plexus just below where the bottom of your ribcage meets.
To give you a guide as to the timing of this, the vowel should last for
about 0.2s and the gap between vowels should be about 0.8s. 2. Try increasing the volume of the As without lengthening them. See how loud you can do this. You should feel an increase in your bulging diaphragm and there should be no tension in your throat. (not even a tiny bit – although you may be more aware of your vocal chords as they will be vibrating more). 3. Do the same thing with all vowel sounds - even combinations like AW or AH. 4. Gradually lengthen the vowel and then see how long you can hold one for. Make sure you don't breathe out as you do this you shouldn't hear any breathy sound – only the pure note (it doesn't matter if you're a bit croaky but you shouldn't have air actually hissing out) 5. The key to this is that you shouldn't have a great volume of air rushing past the vocal chords. This has a damping effect and makes it impossible for the chords to vibrate so you get a reduction in loudness/amplitude/dB/volume. The less air flowing past your chords the freer they can vibrate and the wider the vibrations the louder the sound. If you've got a cold/croaky throat the temptation is to try and breathe out more as you sing but for reasons described above this won't work and you will strain your throat muscles as they will tense up and you will strain your vocal chords and die. (maybe!). 6. If you have got an excess of phlegm, sing using the method described and your throat will gradually clear itself but you cannot force it.. The phlegm will start to bubble up and you will be able to swallow it and your voice will become clearer and louder. Phlegm actually sticks to your chords which obviously has a damping effect and limits your volume – a bit like a limiter. If you have problem phlegm, your best bet is to relax and just let the sound that you can produce come out of its own accord but remember not to breathe out as you sing! Did you think Bruce Dickinson's lungs are that big? Did you think Bill Withers used a sampler? No! they just didn't breathe out and to be honest both guys are capable of holding a note for twice as long. |
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| I talked about conserving breath
in my previous article. This isn't just to enable you to hold a note for
longer. When you let go a load of air at the beginning of a word your voicebox
(larynx) gets pushed upwards and your vocal cords become restricted. One
method of preventing this is to alter the way you sing words. Consonant Conversion! Some letters, by their very nature, encourage a great burst of air. The letters that cause this are: C, F, H, K, P, S, T. There are other letters which, when sung, can be made to sound the same but without the loss of breath. The alternatives are as follows:- A hard C or K an be sung as G or "Ge" (Not "Je") an F can be sung as a V to avoid that "rush of steam" effect which is basically wasted breath. Drop the H altogether. You need to experiment with this to avoid sounding uncouth! P can be exchanged for B. Sing "Beoble" instead of "People". S can be swapped for a Z. "Zing" instead of "Sing". This is similar to F & V. You need to listen to what it sounds like and try not to make it too obvious. T can be sung as D. "Drouble" instead of "Trouble". If you get it right, no one will notice the difference. There are more examples where you can reduce the flow of air past your vocal cords such as combinations of letters to produce a sound. For example you can sing "Ch" instead of "Sh". That would give you "Chould" instead of "Should". Again, you have to be careful not to stress the new sound too much, but swapping the letters in this way will make you more aware of how you can control your breath when you sing. Sorry, "Zing"! |
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