[allthumbs]

A small lesson I wrote. Sharing tips from my voice teacher. They helped me a lot. I hope Some of the beginning singers here will also find them useful.
A Mini Voice Lesson. Let's sing about talking.

[Stratrat]

Great post, AT.....thanks! I can use all the help I can get when it comes to singing!

[cshude]

Good stuff. One thing to add in there in regards to breathing- make sure that you are breathing with the diaphragm. Your chest should not expand very much when you breathe in- your belly should. To know how to properly breath, a good exercise is to push out all the breath that you can, then take a deep breath triggered by pushing out your belly. The diaphragm will act like a bellows and will pull in a surprising amount of air. By the way, this is a good breathing exercise for fitness purposes as well.

[carol m]

Originally Posted by Nutty

I'm also reading "Singing for Dummies" so, they have some interesting tips as well that I can add on if anyone is interested.
Nutty

Me too! I sing along with the excercises on the CD.....well, correction - that is my plan but I keep forgetting to do it.

Originally Posted by solidwalnut

but women don't have adam's apples. What do they do??

Yes we do have Adam's apples. It's the cartilage around the vocal chords at the top of the windpipe. It's just less noticeable in women.

[carol m]

Great lesson AT and thanks johnnydoxx for the demo - an example is worth a thousand words.

[solidwalnut]

Originally Posted by carol m

...Yes we do have Adam's apples. It's the cartilage around the vocal chords at the top of the windpipe. It's just less noticeable in women.

Thanks for the clarification!

[starsailor]

Great information here guys, thanks for the lesson johnnydoxx could we have this put up in the lessons forum? I didn't know Women had Adams' Apples obviously not paying enough attention to my Wife mind you the Beard she's grown is worrying me a bit

[carol m]

Originally Posted by starsailor

I didn't know Women had Adams' Apples obviously not paying enough attention to my Wife mind you the Beard she's grown is worrying me a bit

It's not your fault for not noticing Starsailor, it's because us women folk are such delicate flowers - our vocal chords (plus adam's apples) are so dainty that anyone might miss them

[Noodler]

Tried the stuff you've said (also had singing lessons before).

That "swollowing an egg" thing is a great tip to get your chest voice going well. Noice.

Just a couple of questions about head voice:

1. If your voice wavers when you sing with your head voice (like vibrato, but not on purpose), how can you stop it?

2. What if you like your chest voice, but hate your head voice? Is there anything you can do to change it?

3. What if your head voice is "wimpy?" I'm 32 and male, but when I use my head voice (properly) I sound "angelic" like a choir-boy. Not cool. It sounds kind of thin, too. Any way to "fatten it up?"

Thanks.

[starsailor]

Hi Noodler your head voice really covers the higher range, so you probably need to practice going deeper using your chest and get more control over your head voice, not too sure about the quivering that could be a lack of power or hesitance if a person is doing it unintentionally, check this link out, there is loads of information here and check out Passagio which is used in regard to note transitions, you're vocal coach may have mentioned this already


Voice Registers: Chest, head and other voices at Vocalist.org.uk

[Noodler]

Thanks for the link. I'll read through that site generally.

I stopped going to lessons for two reasons:
1. My teacher was a "Mrs Robinson" as in from "The Graduate." Lessons were at her house. She'd keep me late and then when my wife would call she'd delight in the jealousy.

and

2. Once she'd showed me that it's the sinuses that resonate to produce a head voice, I tried it and didn't like my head voice. I figured it's like a guitar, you know. Some are Matons and some a little ukeleles bought from the supermarket. I just figured that my sinuses were usually always blocked (which I'd never noticed before because I could breathe through my nose still). So I never get a good tone unless I've just had hot tea or whatever. It's like trying to get a good sound out of guitar half-full of water. I just feel pressure behind the cheeks.

Apparently professionals get their sinuses scraped out of gunk and polyps, but I asked my Dr and he said it just comes back.

Yeah we did passagio. Apparently it gets smoother as you go over it again and again. Fun thing is that with a teacher you laugh at yourself when it sounds like your voice is breaking again.

I'll have to take singing up with a different teacher. She was a good teacher, just, um, flirty. I never realised how many songs had sexual overtones before!

[starsailor]

She sounds like a bit of a vamp Noodler, good that you told her that wasn't the kind of sweet music you had in mind. she sounds like trouble.
She sounds like a good teacher though just easily distracted unfortunately unless you're single of course
Don't think I'd fancy having my sinuses scraped sounds quite painful, I have trouble singing lower, I'm getting better with practice but there isn't as much power as when I'm singing higher and I do miss a note or two or three so that's what I work on more, I enjoy singing as much as playing the guitar.
That site's full of good information, I found it by chance so I got lucky there, it is worth taking lessons if you can and want to reach your full potential but maybe a less amorous teacher may be advisable My Wife would have rearranged her vocal chords she's a sweet girl

[Noodler]

It just occurred to me that most of singing lessons is going up by semitones singing the same thing. You know the one. I think it's 1,3,5,6,8,6,5,3,1. Should save some money and practice that!

C,E,G,A,C,A,G,E,C. Up a semitone and repeat whole step pattern.

That, and singing semitones. A, A#. A#, B. B, C. C,C#.

Is that universal?

[JimAnc]

Some thoughts.. as with any instrument there are different views / opinions on what is the right technique/method. As far as I understand it there's basically two, the classical "lower your adam's apple, push from your stomach and belt it out" approach, where these position of the adam's apple is designed to help you not hurt your voice. This is the realm of opera/classical singers, Musicals and Town Choirs etc. Then there are more modern "speech level" methods which focus on developing the voice naturally by training it through various exercises, which also help to protect the voice. African men who seem to be able to sing so naturally without much effort are most likely using these "speech level" methods. Unfortunately when looking for good singing advice for myself, the teachers of each method claim that following the other method will hurt your voice. Perhaps a balance between the two is where the truth is to be found, whatever works. But you find the same thing with any instrument.

So here's a more "speech level" method I found that focusses more on right technique and control and breathing.
Search for the Arceneaux Approach on youtube, and website is:
The Arceneaux Approach - Sing With Power and Freedom

I disagree on one point in these singing tips given here - opera singers are not fat because they use their diaphragm lol, there are many thin opera singers around. Two of the "three tenors" were not so big and fat like Pavarotti. I'm a brass player and trumpeters and any brass player use the diaphram as well, and don't all have fat bellies. The main reason why there are big bellied opera singers and brass players is because of all the beer drinking after a session and not getting enough exercise. Not because of using their diaphragm. If anything their stomach muscles should be tight and toned from using it, not fat. It depends not so much on how much air is being pushed through but how much air pressure is formed behind the note i.e. breath control is important and this is what these "speech level" approaches help with. With proper technique actually less air is required not more, "less is more" as they say. If you can sing well and with power and control with less air, that's a real advantage.