The 9 Biggest Lies About Singing
- By Brett Manning
- Published 02/28/2007
- The Music
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Rating:
Big Lie #9 - To sing with power, especially up high, you need to exert a great deal of physical effort.
Truth - Your power does NOT come from more force applied. It comes from utilizing frequencies and airflow in the most efficient way.
Archimedes said "give me a long enough lever and I can move the earth itself."
To get vocal power, one uses a figurative form of leverage.
When you produce tones in the upper registers the way your voice was designed, you will use LESS airflow and less force than you do on lower notes!
There are some simple exercises that automatically train your vocal cords to stop stretching and straining and start "zipping up" for the high notes. Then you will necessarily use less air to produce tone.
WHY? Because the little half inch space through which all the air flows when speaking and singing actually get's even smaller! So if the cords close off half their vibrating length, you should expect to use only half the air to produce tone.
The cords actually will close off even more length and shift into "whistle range" (like Mariah Carey's signature sounds).
So with only half the airflow going through the cords, it should be even easier to sing a high note than lower notes.
So why does it feel so difficult? Because many a singer tries to get 2nd gear results by staying in 1st gear!
If you don't train your cords to "zip up," you only have one other alternative to reaching higher notes--and that's stretching the vocal cord muscles tighter!
Now,
what do you do to produce more power?
Once you have learned to easily move into the higher notes, you can apply more airflow as needed to produce more volume. It will feel like "leaning into the note." The key is to regularly do some exercises that keep you from venturing back in to the "try harder to get louder" mindset.
And there's another way to increase the "size" of your sound!
It's called "formant." This is a lost vocal art that's coming back. It involves experimenting with the shape of the mouth and throat until you find a "resonating frequency" that causes the sound waves to actually double and sometimes triple ONE ANOTHER!
To illustrate, the next time you are in the shower, you can find the shower's "resonating frequency" by starting to sing "ooooh" down low and sliding up in pitch until you reach a pitch that makes the shower seem to "fill" with the sound.
Stop there and sing that pitch and you'll notice that the entire shower becomes part of your voice!
If you could change the dimensions of the shower, you could eventually get the same effect on all notes! Fortunately, you CAN change the shape of the inside of your mouth and throat and find THEIR "resonating frequency." This can cause a doubling of your vocal volume without any extra push whatsoever.
I hope you've learned a lot from this series. Be looking for your "Vocal Tips" newsletter from time to time, and don't forget to go check out what's new at www.singingsuccess.com
Truth - Your power does NOT come from more force applied. It comes from utilizing frequencies and airflow in the most efficient way.
Archimedes said "give me a long enough lever and I can move the earth itself."
To get vocal power, one uses a figurative form of leverage.
When you produce tones in the upper registers the way your voice was designed, you will use LESS airflow and less force than you do on lower notes!
There are some simple exercises that automatically train your vocal cords to stop stretching and straining and start "zipping up" for the high notes. Then you will necessarily use less air to produce tone.
WHY? Because the little half inch space through which all the air flows when speaking and singing actually get's even smaller! So if the cords close off half their vibrating length, you should expect to use only half the air to produce tone.
The cords actually will close off even more length and shift into "whistle range" (like Mariah Carey's signature sounds).
So with only half the airflow going through the cords, it should be even easier to sing a high note than lower notes.
So why does it feel so difficult? Because many a singer tries to get 2nd gear results by staying in 1st gear!
If you don't train your cords to "zip up," you only have one other alternative to reaching higher notes--and that's stretching the vocal cord muscles tighter!
Now,
Once you have learned to easily move into the higher notes, you can apply more airflow as needed to produce more volume. It will feel like "leaning into the note." The key is to regularly do some exercises that keep you from venturing back in to the "try harder to get louder" mindset.
And there's another way to increase the "size" of your sound!
It's called "formant." This is a lost vocal art that's coming back. It involves experimenting with the shape of the mouth and throat until you find a "resonating frequency" that causes the sound waves to actually double and sometimes triple ONE ANOTHER!
To illustrate, the next time you are in the shower, you can find the shower's "resonating frequency" by starting to sing "ooooh" down low and sliding up in pitch until you reach a pitch that makes the shower seem to "fill" with the sound.
Stop there and sing that pitch and you'll notice that the entire shower becomes part of your voice!
If you could change the dimensions of the shower, you could eventually get the same effect on all notes! Fortunately, you CAN change the shape of the inside of your mouth and throat and find THEIR "resonating frequency." This can cause a doubling of your vocal volume without any extra push whatsoever.
I hope you've learned a lot from this series. Be looking for your "Vocal Tips" newsletter from time to time, and don't forget to go check out what's new at www.singingsuccess.com