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  • TMV World Team
    Preparing for a singing competition? Need some help? Here are some useful tips to ensure you show off your capabilities in your next competition.
    Before you even start preparing for your audition you need to research the company you are auditioning for, so you can understand exactly what they are looking for. Is the competition looking for the next big singing star? If so what age? What genre? An all round entertainer? Or a sob story?
    Spend some time on the Internet finding out as much as you can. It's also good idea to research the organisers of the competition too, so you can find out if the competition is credible, as unfortunately there are more and more competitions emerging that offer very little to the winners, other than the organisers making a lot of money.
    What to look for when researching:
    The organisers credentials Information on the judges - who are they? What do you win? What does it cost to apply? How do you apply? Is it an online competition or live audition? How many categories are there? What happened to the winners of previous competitions? Do you perform acapella, to backing track or do you bring a musician? What will you get out of entering? Experience, the chance to win? Exposure? So now you have researched the competition and have decided you are happy to enter, what next?
    You need to chose your song, and style of performance:
    Up-tempo; Ballad; Original song; and What aspect of your voice do you want to show off? The majority of singers are going to chose ballads, as it's the most obvious way of showing off your capabilities. But beware, a lot of singers will also chose to sing a ballad, so you need to look at something that you can do very well, or something you arrange slightly differently.
    What's the point of learning a song and then performing it just like the original artist? The judges have seen if all before, and really don't want to just see another 'imitation' singer. So what if you can sing like Michael Bubl, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Rhianna, Justin Timberlake, you may as well become a tribute act (which can offer you a worthy career though). Wouldn't you rather develop your musical 'identity'? So look for a song that shows off your strong points, and adapt it for you. Play around with it. Adjust the key, have it arranged differently. Make it your own.
    Don't be afraid to sing an up tempo song. Up tempo songs are a welcome break for judges, after listening to several versions of "Hero", "My Heart Will Go On", "I Will Always Love You", "When You Say Nothing at All" and "You Raise Me Up", they will be glad of the change. Why not look for a song that is really fun, to show you can entertain and allow and audience to have fun. Maybe a classic from the sixties, or something in the charts at the moment. Again, don't sing it just like the original. Make it your own.  
    This essay first published October 5, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    Take your acting to the next level by following this one simple directive:
    Move, then sing.
    That's it. Amateurs move on their phrases. Pros move before them.
    I teach Movement for Actors at the Stella Adler Studio, Los Angeles. There, we spend countless hours laboring over truth in performance. Truth is what your audience connects with--more than great vocal technique, more than powerful lyrics, more than personality. And the truth of human behavior is that we express ideas with our bodies before we express them with our words. To act the heck out of a song, your performance behavior must reflect the truth of natural human behavior.
    When you see someone struggling with an armful of packages, do you stand there and say, "Oh! My gosh, let me help you!" and then go running over to help them? No, you run over, and, while you're running, you say, "Oh, my gosh, let me help you!" After you pour someone a drink, do you say, "Here you go," and then offer them the glass? No, you offer the glass and then say, "Here you go." When you hear a loud noise behind you, do you say, "What was that?" and then spin around? No, you spin around and then say, "What was that?"
    Your performance will be more truthful, and therefore more compelling, if it expresses the same truth of human behavior illustrated in the examples above. The way to this truth is to allow yourself to get caught up in the ideas of the song before you sing the symbols (words) that express those ideas. Your body is only a manifestation of what you're thinking; it has no intelligence to move on its own. So, if you get caught up in the ideas, your body will naturally express those ideas before you make the choice to express them through symbols (words).
    Wanna see what I mean? Check out these two performances:
    The first is Steve Perry singing "Faithfully." Notice what happens at 1:09. He moves his right hand just before he sings, "Right down the line..." See how natural it looks? And it feels natural. Steve isn't just a great voice, he's a singer, an artist. He's connected to the truth of what he's saying, and his body expresses it before his words do.
    The second is Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Watch her eyes. They almost always move before her phrases. You can see she's thinking about the ideas, not just singing words, so her body expresses the same naturalness of human behavior that you experience every day. It's why that performance is so compelling! It's like she's just talking to you, the way she would to a friend who'd stopped by for some tea.
    For some reason, when amateurs sing, they move counterintuitively--on the phrase, instead of before it. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. Naturally, it's okay to do it if you have to dance during a song or when you're adding emphasis to a particular word, as Steve Perry does in "Faithfully" when he sings, "...you and me." And sometimes the song is so fast, it's tough to move before you sing. But don't let these become excuses for a lack of truth in your performance. Your audience came for the deeper truth that art can express. Move, then sing, and give 'em what they came (and paid) for!
    Paul Cuneo is the founder of NotToneDeaf.com and the author of Correcting Tone Deafness. This is the ONLY completely sensible approach I have ever encountered to resolving the problem and stigma of "Tone Deafness. -Jeannie Deva.
    Paul is also an actor and teaches Movement for Actors at the Stella Adler Studio, Los Angeles. He blogs on the topic of Performance and Movement for Actors at MovementalLA.com . This essay first published February 5, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

     
  • TMV World Team
    This is the first of a four part series focusing on the voice through four levels of our being:
    Part 1 - Physical/Mechanical
    Part 2 - Emotional/Physiological
    Part 3 - Mental/Psychological
    Part 4 - Spiritual/Energetic (includes integration)
    PART 1 - Physical/Mechanical
    Your voice is the ultimate instrument. Ever notice how when someone telephones you that you sometimes automatically know who it is by the sound of their voice? Even if you place a master impersonator next to the person they are imitating, you can hear the difference. The voice is the one thing that is unique to each and every individual. No two people sound exactly the same.
    A master musician learns to take care of his instrument because the entire body affects the voice on all levels.
    The nearest instrument to the voice is bagpipes. That instrument fills with air much like our lungs do upon inhale. The column of air created by our inhale then travels through the pipe structure (trachea, larynx, vocal folds and pharynx) until it reaches the cords. The cords control and compress the air for sound and pitch, which should then be coming out of the mouth at a steady rate of speed.
    In the human voice, the bones of the ear, nose and throat conduct the vibrational resonance throughout the entire structure. Our skeletal/muscular structure is of paramount importance. Posture and structural maintenance is essential for good singing. It's not possible to cover all body systems in depth in this series, but it is possible to give you a basic overview. In this first part, we'd like to take you on a very basic mechanical tour of the main organ structures essential for singing:
    Ear Nose/Airways Voice Mechanism All body systems play a large part in your voice and we will refer to these in the series. Let's begin with the ear:
    To produce sounds - speech and/or singing - You must first learn how to change your acoustical perception by learning how to listen to your voice as others hear you (from outside yourself) because of resonance. This resonance creates overtones that make the voice sound higher from the outside. If you continue to listen from the inside, you will be deceived because the sound is muffled. However, from the outside, the sound is free.
    The larynx can only emit sounds it can hear via the laryngeal nerve. We take in air through the nose and "down" to the body for circulation and life. We take in sound through the ear, which conducts the vibration and is transmitted through the rest of the body via the 8th (VIII) and 10th (X) cranial nerves. We vocalize by "pulling up" the air and sound through the larynx and shape it through the pharynx and mouth into our unique timbre.
    The primary function of the
    outer and middle ear chambers is the transmission of sound to the auditory receptors of the inner ear . Outer Ear
    Auricle (trumpet) ear canal ear drum (tympanic membrane) Middle Ear
    Tympanic cavity Auditory Ossicles (Hammer malleus, Anvil incus, Stirrup Stapes) The Eustachian/Auditory tube routes to and from this cavity. This controls and balances air pressure Inner Ear: The Hearing Mechanism
    The bony labyrinth called the cochlea because it is like a snail shape, also contains a membranous labyrinth with fluid inside it. It has an upper and lower chamber. The Organ of Corti (inside the cochlea) is the hearing sense organ that consists of cells, hairs and neurons, which conduct impulses to produce the sensation of hearing along a membrane (the Basilar membrane) that lies between the two chambers. Sound is created by vibration that occurs in air, fluid or solid material. Sound waves must be of sufficient amplitude to initiate movement of the tympanic membrane and have a frequency that is capable of stimulating the hair cells in the Organ of Corti at some point along the Basilar membrane. This is not the same width and thickness throughout its length. Due to this fact, different frequencies of sound cause it to vibrate and bulge upward at different places along its length. High frequency sound waves vibrate the narrow part and low frequencies vibrate the thicker, wider part. This means that specific groups of hair cells respond to specific frequencies of sound.
    Pitch is perceived by stimulation of the cilia (sensory projections) on the hair cells that are attached to the area that bulges upwards.
    Loudness is perceived when the upward bulge moves higher which further bends and stimulates the cilia. Fluid will move across this area to dampen the effect and protect the hearing mechanism.
    Therefore the ear and sound works like this:
    Vibration hits the eardrum, is passed along by the middle ear and into the inner ear where it becomes sound waves. Sound waves circulating around the cochlea, move the basilar membrane and cause the cilia to bend. This movement of hairs stimulates neurons to transmit electrochemical impulses into the brain and it is both the vibration of the Basilar membrane and the actions of the brain that determine our PERCEPTION of sound. Speech is composed of many frequencies mainly in the 400 - 500 Hz range. The ear can hear an incredible frequency range from around 20Hz to 20,000Hz. It is not equally sensitive to all frequencies though and the greatest sensitivity is in the range 1000 - 4000Hz. Pitch and volume issues can therefore be directly related to listening and hearing problems. The Airways
    Therefore in caring for our voice physically in singing, we must understand our airways to create a solid foundation on which to breathe so that the vocal cords can coordinate both the air and vocal sounds into songs. The quality and volume of air we take in will determine the efficiency of our ability to breathe correctly and sing to our fullest potential.
    The Voice Mechanism
    The larynx or voice box is a triangular shaped complex structure of cartilages, connected by ligaments and moved by various muscles. It is between the pharynx and trachea. Its largest part, thyroid cartilage manifests as the lump on the outside of our throats, which we call the "Adam's Apple".
    Larynx muscles are divided into two parts: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic means they originate in/on the larynx and extrinsic means they attach/insert into the larynx from another structure. Contraction of the extrinsic muscles can move or displace the larynx as a whole. Muscles in both groups assist in breathing, swallowing and vocalizing.
    It is the larynx that contains the elastic vocal cords/folds, and has two functions:
    to prevent food from entering the trachea: This happens by closing the glottis (the space between the vocal folds through which air passes) with the epiglottis (a thumb-like looking muscle attached to the back of the tongue). When swallowing, the tongue pushes the epiglottis back and down while the arytenoid cartilages squeeze the laryngeal inlet shut to prevent food from going into it. to produce sound: The opening and closing of the airways is vital in producing speech and sound. Sound is produced by the vibration of air as it passes through the vocal cords/folds. The two vocal cords/folds are membranes that run backwards inside the larynx. Normally they remain open and still during breathing. When air is expired through the glottis and the vocal cords/folds are drawn together with laryngeal contraction, also called adduction, the passage of air will make them vibrate and produce sounds. The posterior cricoarytenoid muscles (between the cricoid and arytenoid cartilages) open the glottis by adducting the true vocal cords/folds. The lateral cricoarytenoid muscles close the glottis by adducting the true vocal cords/folds.
    The faster the air passes through the vocal cords/folds the louder the sound. The closer the cords/folds are drawn together the higher the note.
    The looser the cord, the lower the note - much like a rubber band, the more the cords stretch for higher and higher pitches, the smaller the opening between them. The stretch of the cords is altered by the laryngeal muscles tilting the small, posterior laryngeal cartilages and arytenoid cartilage. (See diagrams above).
    The glottis can be varied in shape and size to produce different levels of pitch. The size and shape of the nose, mouth, pharynx and bony sinuses will determine the quality (timbre) of the voice. Changing the pharynx shape controls the production of vowel sounds.
    It is wise to note that for children the larynx changes shape as they grow so the quality of the voice also changes as they grow.
    Therefore "physical" voice production is a complex matter of co-coordinating sound through the ear/brain with the breathing muscles, the vocal cords/folds, the lips and the tongue. The laryngeal nerves connect the speech centre, in the cerebral cortex with the larynx. The ears transmit sound to the brain, the vocal cords produce a wide range of musical notes and the quality of sound depends on the larynx, the shape of the chest, mouth and sinuses for resonance.
    This essay first published June 28, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    I do a lot of rehab in my practice as a teacher, as well as fix severe pitch problems. One of the things I've found over the course of my years as a technique specialist is just how so many beginners, moderate, advanced, and even professional singers do not realize the importance of using the articulators (the lips, teeth, tongue, and palate) when pronouncing the consonants/ words of songs.
    Few singers realize that it is the articulators that become the propelling mechanism when singing songs, rather than the air and breath support when learning how to strengthen these things in exercise with vowel sounds alone.
    It can always be a stylistic choice to dig deeper, breathe in more heavily, add grit or rasp to the voice, etc. for sound and effects, but I believe these choices must be conscious ones. This may require the expertise of someone who has learned how to do this without injuring the mechanism: Preferably, a coach who specializes in this style of singing. When one of my students has a desire to learn how to scream, growl, and/or add rasp after they have a good foundation, all breaks bridged, a grasp of how to protect their instrument, preserve it, and how to correct a problem, I will make a referral. Effects like these are not in my field of expertise.
    Again the articulators are located in the mouth. They are the tongue, lips, teeth, and the palate. Consonants are not supposed to be pronounced from somewhere inside the neck with grabbing these muscles for a consonant like G, or from muscles contracting in the gut for one like M. If this is how you have been going after things, then you have probably felt quite a lot of discomfort while singing, especially when trying to reach the higher notes of songs. Grabbing results in cramming the cords so tightly together that no air can pass through them. This results in the forcing, or thrusting, up of all that air for sound, which causes the feeling of strain, especially when trying to reach the higher notes with strength and power. These are subconscious split second thoughts that occur in efforts to keep the air from escaping too fast or all at once.
    I graduated with a degree B.S. in Speech (no puns intended here), though not pathology. Nevertheless I learned a lot about what happens to a voice when consonants /words are not pronounced with the tongue, lips, teeth, and palate alone. You can't do this by using all these other unnecessary muscles and expect things to go well.
    Most of the time, after a singer has had an operation for polyps or cysts, the surgeon often tells them that they cannot speak (or sing) for the next six weeks to give the cords a chance to heal. After those first six weeks, they are instructed to start with speech therapy. In speech therapy they are taught how to use the articulators. Once learned, the speech therapist may often be schooled enough to also teach how to practically apply the same concepts to song.
    Having been a speech major, I know that learning how to use the articulators rather than the air, support and grabbing of all these other muscles for pronunciation for those pesky consonants can make all the difference in the world when seeking to sing with ease and freedom. But first it takes learning the art of breath support before moving on to training the articulators. Imagine being able to jump around on stage like a banshee because your body has been freed up enough to do so. Additionally, never have to worry about your voice anymore.
    Equally important is to remember and to come to know and accept that the task of un-doing a bad habit to re-train for a better way can be an arduous journey. It may take a few weeks of continued practice to change a habit if the habit has been a long-standing one. But, it's well worth the time and effort; because it becomes easy to sing -- even those high notes -- with the strength and power you seek.
    This essay was first published January 31, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    It has always been my understanding that correct support of the diaphragmatic region is a direct result of right breathing. In my experience I've noticed that most instruction has been about manipulating this region of the body in attempts to control the flow of air, unaware that the vocal cords are responsible for controlling the flow and compression. The vocal folds, and proper placement in the mask, have just as much to do with support of the singing mechanism as the diaphragm.
    Through extensive study and research over the last 15 years, I have discovered a little known secret. Proper use of the diaphragm is an automatic result of having learned how to inhale the air correctly.
    In my latest book, Vocal Strength and Power published and released by Hal Leonard Corp., I have included a glossary of the most commonly used words by instructors to describe how to employ and gain support with this region of the body. Frankly, when looking up some of these words, I was quite surprised myself by the true meanings. This forced me to change my own vernacular when instructing after realizing that all the faulty perception with regard to how to engage this region of the body properly came down to the true meaning of words.
    In my first two books, I purposely stayed away from instruction on the diaphragm and focused on how to get the other two support mechanisms (the cords and the mask) to work together. At the time, I still did not have the words to describe how to engage the diaphragm correctly. I only knew what was wrong: Singers were squeezing the neck and belly muscles, pushing up the belly muscles, and putting strain on the neck muscles.
    Squeezing of any kind only results in feeling like you must force and blow the air out for sound. This habit not only feels unnatural and strained, but after a few years of singing this way, many singers find themselves in doctor's offices trying to uncover the reasons why they are no longer able to sing like they once did. Unfortunately, some will require rehabilitation and in other cases, surgery.
    About the Inhale
    Air is already in the lungs and body from natural breathing and inhales. Because of this truth, it is a misconception that more is needed for singing. In fact, if you take in too much, the vocal folds will be unable to control the flow for sound and compression. There is an art to inhalation. Taking in heaps of air can be not only be damaging, but it also brings on fatigue. See for yourself. Take in as much air as you can and then exhale it. Repeat this action over and over again for about five minutes and you're bound to feel a little tired if you don't faint from hyperventilation in the meantime! Now imagine breathing heavily and hard like this, but with sound, over and over again between words and phrases of songs. A tired singer's instinct will say, I need to take in more air in order to keep that power going, hit those higher notes, and sustain the note (or notes) if needed. Not so. This is literally exhausting, especially on a gig. The more air you keep losing, your head will keep telling you to take more and more in. This will set you up for a no win cycle.
    Important to remember but not so easy to employ is the idea that the vocal folds do not need much air to produce a strong tone, or to prolong one. In my latest book I have created exercises to re-train how to take the air in properly through use of the staccato.
    This staccato is a bit different than most. It requires that you take tiny puffs of air between each note of the exercise. However, a tiny bit does not mean to hold the breath in any way. Nor does it mean to blow it all out on every phonated pitch. It's tricky but once learned, all three-support mechanisms will work as they should: naturally and automatically. You will not have to manipulate by tensing the muscles of any region of your body to achieve what you have wrongly perceived as support of the diaphragm.
    Natural and Automatic
    Going from one way of breathing to another is difficult; it takes the ability to focus one's efforts on re-training and requires repetitive practice of exactly how much air should be taken in for each phonation.
    For engaging natural support upon inhalation during a staccato run, the belly (below the navel) will automatically become firm. It should stay nearly unmoving until after you have finished the last tone of a run. You should not have to strain it for this region to remain firm. If you strain to hold the belly out, you'll be holding the breath.
    Because it is internal, it's hard to feel the movement of the diaphragm itself. The only part of your body you should feel moving is the upper abdomen (above the navel) jumping out and in as it is indirectly compressed by the moving diaphragm inside your rib cage. You can place your finger just below your breastbone to feel this movement. On an inhalation, the diaphragm will automatically move down a bit. As it goes down, it pushes the upper abdomen out. On exhale the diaphragm and upper abdominal muscles very slowly return to their starting positions. (There is no need to blow out the air for this. You only need to relax your belly and leftover air is automatically expelled. Try it. Take in a breath and then just relax the belly. You should feel the air having left by itself). Only when the diaphragm relaxes completely do the upper abdominal muscles move back into their normal position. Squeezing the lower belly muscles at this point only fights the diaphragm's natural action.
    Through the use of the new exercises I created to re-train the inhale/exhale action, the movement is much faster because the point of the repetitive exercises is to do everything in rapid succession. This will help to get the air and sound producing as if it is one continuous action, and working like a single unit.
    Material for this essay supported by the author's books Vocal Strength and Power, Hal Leonard Corp, 2009; Advanced Vocal Technique: Middle Voice, Placement and Styles, Hal Leonard Corp, 2008; and Vocal Technique: Finding Your Real Voice, Hal Leonard Corp 2002. This essay was first published February 1, 2010 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    The muscles controlling and surrounding the larynx represent one of the most important control systems affecting the human voice. For most singers, learning to stabilize the larynx is essential for their vocal health, their increase of range, and the proper blending of their chest and head voice.
    In this article I will attempt to shed some light on larynx position and offer some exercises that can help you improve your voice by stabilizing your larynx. Keep in mind that full-time voice students may spend years on this! But a little awareness goes a long way in saving your voice from the harm caused by singing on a high larynx.
    The Problem of a High Larynx
    Consider the larynx to be a basket floating in a complicated web of tendons and membranes inside your throat. Your goal is to not allow the larynx to rise too much as you sing from low notes to high notes. To find your larynx, put your finger on the V that you feel in the front of your throat (commonly, the Adams apple: the original problem J) If you swallow, you feel it rise. We refer to this as constriction, because you are squeezing the space around the larynx. Good for eating, bad for singing!
    You can tell if you're singing on a high larynx if you notice:
    A heavy chest voice and a large break between your chest voice and head voice. Vocal cords that feel scratchy and producing a lot of mucous. Your voice feels worse the next day after singing. Your head voice feels breathy, airy, and unfocused. There are some differing views on whether or not a high larynx is harmful or not, with some techniques suggesting that it's acceptable (even desirable!) , and others suggesting that your larynx should be as low as possible. I base my findings on eighteen years of teaching, and constant study and testing of new ideas. I believe that advanced singers can learn to sing with a high larynx, provided that they are working with a professional who knows what they're doing. For most beginning singers, however, a larynx that is too high and surrounded by tense muscles can lead to significant problems with the voice.
    Keep in mind that larynx control is only one of the five control systems I describe in my vocal method:
    All of these systems function in concert, with stability of the larynx representing a long- term goal of the method. The larynx houses the vocal cords, and operates in relationship with the whole voice (body, mind and spirit), and is not in any way isolated. Each system affects the other systems in a structure of balance and coordination.
    How to Stabilize your Larynx
    There are a lot of techniques to help stabilize the larynx, but the first step of this long journey begins with awareness. Keep in mind that professional singers spend years getting this right! With your finger on the V of your larynx (or Adams apple) sing along with a scale and notice if it is rising and falling with pitch. Notice the difference between different vowels: Sing OO (like boot), and then sing AH (like father). I refer to this as the kinesthetic approach: which means that you feel what's happening with your body. Gaining awareness of the position of your larynx is the first step.
    Next, consider your larynx to be a basket floating in a network of attachments, some reach up into the jaw, tongue and head, and some reach down into the chest, sternum and lower body. We want to relax the neck, jaw, and muscles around the larynx, so we can avoid the unconscious reflex that pull up on the larynx when we sing high. As you sing your scales, place your hands on the back of your neck and notice if there's tension. Next, place your hands on your jaw, and check to see if your jaw is clenching at all. The more release you have in these muscles, the easier it will be to stabilize your larynx.
    Proper breath support is also important in order to stabilize your larynx. The basics of this are:
    Breathe in without motion in your neck, shoulders or face. As you inhale, feel your stomach inflate. As you sing a scale or song, keep some gentle pressure out against your abdominal wall. As you're singing, try not to let your stomach contract suddenly. If you have any questions about the larynx, or singing generally, feel free to contact me at john@jdsvoice.com.
    This essay first published March 2, 2010 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    I am a voice teacher who specializes in correcting what is casually, though mistakenly, referred to as "tone deafness." I wrote a book on my process called Correcting Tone Deafness. My hope is that what I share in these pages will open a larger window on some of the most current, advanced practices in vocal training (I was going to write "vocal pedagogy," but I thought the rock stars would never return) and help voice teachers to correct off-pitch singing in their students.
    In order to work with off-pitch singers, I had to develop new definitions for "to hear" and "to listen," terms often used interchangeably. I think you will find these beneficial. They allow me to make a case for eliminating the term "tone deafness" from the English lexicon forever, as "tone deafness" has nothing to do with an individual's ability to hear, but everything to do with her capacity for listening.
    To here are my definitions:
    To
    hear -- Only to sense sound waves (air pressure waves). To
    listen -- To assign value to and make use of what one hears. Right now you are hearing sounds all around you to which you are not listening. Perhaps the sound of a light humming, a heater vent blowing or traffic outside. Now that I've called your attention to them, you are both hearing and listening to them, which is to say, you are:
    sensing the sound waves produced by the vibrations of the light, heater vent or traffic; assigning value to those air pressure waves [you value them as examples to validate my point]; and making use of them [to validate my point]. So, 1. constitutes hearing; 2. and 3. constitute listening.
    In my workshops, I've had students argue that because one isn't aware of a heater vent blowing in a room until his attention is called to it, he is not hearing it. But that would mean his ears and brain were selectively rejecting the vibrations of the heater vent, while allowing other vibrations to stimulate the ear drum. These definitions are critical to working with off-pitch singers effectively because they allow you to begin the work from the premise My student is able to hear everything I need him to hear. He is not tone deaf.
    Paul Cuneo is the founder of NotToneDeaf.com and the author of Correcting Tone Deafness. This is the ONLY completely sensible approach I have ever encountered to resolving the problem and stigma of "Tone Deafness. -Jeannie Deva
    Paul is also an actor and teaches Movement for Actors at the Stella Adler Studio, Los Angeles. He blogs on the topic of Performance and Movement for Actors at MovementalLA.com. This essay first published January 11, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team

    May I Be Franck?

    By TMV World Team, in Articles,

    Recently a young soprano brought the Pie Jesus from Faure's Requiem to work on in her voice lesson. Her church choir director had asked her to sing it this Easter season, and she was very concerned about breath support.
    We know that breath management is dependent on the coordination of the body with what happens at the level of the vocal folds, vocal tract and articulators. They are all dependent on one another even though we sometimes work things separately.
    But instead of working this coordination, I suddenly decided to veer in another direction and have the student listen to some great French organ works of Cesar Franck, who lived about the time of Gabriel Faure. Some of my students know that I grew up as the daughter of a full-time church musician, but rarely do I reveal the pipe organ geek that lives in my soul. My crib was behind the wall of the organ in the first church my dad served. I grew up hearing weekly, if not daily, the King of Instruments. I attended high school summer choir camps and studied organ in college; one of my brothers earned a masters degree in organ performance.
    So in a flash, I knew that if this student could hear the French reed organ pipe sounds that were developed during the Romantic era in Western Europe, played on a good pipe organ, she might be able to develop an inner compass to execute the lines of the Faure that she wanted to sing. And by developing that part of her ear, she could take what she already knew technically and start to apply it without my leaping around the room "teaching her how to support.
    During the Romantic period, French organ builders introduced a type of wind chest which was able to control higher wind pressures. The new sounds could imitate the woodwind instruments of the bassoon, oboe and flute. So between the new mechanical action of the organ, and the new woodwind sounds, the organ could produce lovely legato singing.
    The student, who is very talented anyway, instantly got the connection of Cesar Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation to the vocal line of the Pie Jesu. She and I were both amazed at what an instant difference it made in her singing.
    And I was humbled at how my shutting up enabled the student to learn more!
    This essay was first published March 8, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008

  • TMV World Team
    The last time I participated in the National Association of Teachers of Singing MD/DC Chapter Auditions was in March of 2005.
    That day I returned from four hours of adjudicating and writing comments, as all teachers who enter students are required to do, an hour helping out in the tally room, lunch and brief, friendly encounters with colleagues, reading the announcements of the winners and then sitting in on the winners recital a full-day affair. When I got home my husband asked how it had gone.
    I spewed venom. Well, for the first time in eight years, I had no winners. as if that was the primary reason I participated. All the way home I had been complaining about the comments my students received from other teachers and questioning the relevance of a project which takes so much time from everyone, with major loss of income for the teachers who work Saturdays. Liz drove. She is my colleague, friend and mentor, and had had a long day herself, including selflessly making lunches for the entire N.A.T.S chapter membership and tending her numerous winners though the final concert. She listened sympathetically, but I am pretty sure she was enormously relieved to drop me at home and speed away from the black cloud that is a voice teacher on a self-righteous rant.
    I told myself over and over that the important thing was that the chapter provided for students of singing the much needed experience of singing in a supportive atmosphere. For us, the teachers, it was also fun seeing old friends and meeting new people and the chance to join the group process of learning and making music. Why then, was my ego so ruffled? Was it because THEY didnt know what THEY were hearing from the products of MY most brilliant teaching and musicianship MY students? (Notice the huge investment of prideful ego in that statement) There was a huge disconnect between what I was feeling and my awareness of the wonderful validity of the whole N.A.T.S chapter auditions experience and the importance of the service each voice teacher selflessly gave that day.
    I have pondered this over time. I have learned over many years that if I ignore my feelings, they eventually wreck havoc with my health, like a child having a long-winded tantrum by dismantling the living room. I eventually realized that the key to my discontent lay in what colleagues continually tell me: Cate, your comments for my students were so right on and helpful. Really insightful. But the comments my students received from their judges were so vague, conflicting and canned that I realized the problem was not that I didn't have a winner. I was angry that the teachers judging my students did not have the verbal skills to communicate anything that was of help to me or the singers. Even if I had disagreed with them, if their comments had been written intelligently I would listen to and benefit from another's way of hearing. Here is a sampling of the comments my individual students received that year:
    Category: High School Beginning Women/Classical Category
    1. Adjudicator's Comment: Pay attention to vowels!
    Cate FN's view: What do you want them to pay attention TO? Is the soft palate inactivated? Is the back of the tongue moving too much? Is the vowel distorted because the middle of the tongue is stiff? Do they not have the sound of the language in general?
    2. Adjudicator's Comment: Watch those vowels!
    Cate FN's view: This is such a defensive comment, as in, look out for those vowels! Beware! Is it all vowels or is it just 'ah' or 'ee'? Is she riding on the wrong part of the diphthong What, specifically are you hearing? This is a very beginning student for Pete's sake! And if you cannot explain it you do not belong in this profession!
    High School Advanced Women/Classical Category
    1. Adjudicator's Comment: "Keep breath support
    Cate FN's view: Where? How, specifically? Or do you mean you like the way she is managing her breath and want her to keep doing it just that way?
    2. Adjudicator's Comment: Release for the top notes
    Cate FN's view: Release what? Jaw? Tongue, and if so, which part of the tongue? Shoulders? Bowels????
    High School Musical Theater/Women
    1. Adjudicator's Comment: keep vowel sounds tall and slim (this in the musical theater selections Meadowlark and The Lady is a Tramp)
    Cate FN's view: Now, did the judge want to hear a classical aesthetic in musical theater by the way, whoever you are, please listen to Patti Lupone singing Meadowlark before you judge this category again.Or was the general shape of the student's throat just closed?
    2. Adjudicator's Comment: You need more air and spin through your top
    Cate FN's view:"I find this a lazy comment, although the meaning behind is was probably correct. What about how she attempted to express the music to the best of her ability at the time, and how this is related to her use of breath? Did she show any connection to the spirit of the text? Is that the best you can write about her? Please take the pole out of your butt and become a human being!"
    Subjectivity of judges subjective comments made for the same student:
    Use text for more energy and expression vs. Diction excellent and well directed Make sure lower middle stays round (another lazy comment as far I am concerned) vs. the middle is great! (What is great? The coordination of middle voice registration with other registers? Freedom of tone and expression? What?) 3. You understand the basics of breathing vs your breathing needs a lot of work (I am sure this last comment came from a proponent of abdominal breathing only.)
    What irked me was not the general validity of these comments, most of which were probably correct observations, or the fact that we all hear things differently, as we should. What irked me was the blatant inability for these teachers to demonstrate verbally what they heard. These are the kinds of comments that Richard Miller spent his lifetime trying to help teachers to avoid. And in our MD/DC chapter, until recently, we had teachers who knew nothing about musical theater and the myriad of sounds, techniques and styles required for this art form, judging the musical theater categories.
    (As a side note, my son, a recent graduate from Berklee College of Music, was reading a N.A.T.S Journal article about musical theater singing, and he said to me, "My God, mom, this is so elementary and vague. Are you people THAT far behind general knowledge in musical theater singing??") Ok, so I remember when I had graduated from college and knew everything, too, but his point was made.
    But, time has given me perspective. I feel things are much better now. More of us are growing out of the vagaries of general mediocre voice teaching. We are more curious, more open and more eager to learn about things we know nothing about, without feeling that it reflects on our abilities or talents. As a matter of fact, I feel it shows we are smart and willing to step up to the plate in order to learn what singers today need to practice their craft.
    It is why I started The Washington Vocal Consortium 23 years ago, and it is why I am ready to participate with my N.A.T.S chapter again. I have experienced the extreme frustration of hearing something I had to learn to express, so I am sympathetic to all voice teachers who are trying to do the same. All we can do is keep trying.
    This essay was first published March 5, 2010 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    In its most general definition, phonation is the making of phones or vocal sounds. This general definition includes voiced sounds, which include quasi-periodic oscillations of the vocal bands, and unvoiced sounds, which do not. The focus of this post will be on the voiced sounds produced during exhalation, which is the subset of the general definition most often meant when singers talk about 'phonation'. From here forward, when the word is used, it will be used in that sense.
    Basic Motions of the Vocal Bands
    During breathing, the posterior ends of the vocal bands are moved apart, making a triangular-shaped opening for the passage of air. This motion is called abduction. Here is a labeled, magnified picture of the vocal bands, taken from above, with the vocal bands abducted. The inverted white V shape is formed by the vocal ligaments, which are also called the 'vocal cords'. They are on the inner edges of the vocal bands.
    The opening between the bands is called the glottis.
    When the person is about to phonate, the posterior ends of the vocal bands are moved together, narrowing the glottis, often to the point of closing it. This motion is called adduction. Here is a magnified picture of the vocal bands of a different person, from above, with the vocal bands adducted to the point of glottal closure.
    The Start of Phonation
    Phonation starts when the vocal bands are adducted enough that they cause air pressure to build up below the glottis, and that air pressure is sufficiently high (when compared with ambient air pressure) to cause the glottis to open and narrow (or shut) repeatedly. This repeated motion produces pulses of air pressure to be released into the spaces just above the vocal bands, called the glottal pulse waves, or taken together, the phonated tone. (For the time being, we will not include vocal tract resonance in the discussion.)
    How Adduction Affects Phonation
    The phonated tone is directly affected by the amount of glottal closure, which occurs in each cycle of motion. If the glottis does not completely close, (because the adduction is incomplete) then:
    the voiced phonation sound will be mixed with the sound of air turbulence passing through the larynx; the glottal pulses will not be very intense; and the listener will hear 'breathiness' to more or less extent, inversely related to the amount of glottal closure. If the glottis closes completely in each cycle, then:
    there will be very little sound of air turbulence; the glottal pulses will be more intense; and the listener will not hear breathiness. The percentage of the total glottal cycle time during which the glottis is closed is called the closed quotient.
    Vocal Pitch Control
    The pitch of the phonated tone is influenced by multiple factors, but is mostly the result of the actions of two muscle groups:
    muscles in each vocal band, which when they flex, shorten and thicken the vocal bands, tending to produce lower frequency glottal cycles; and muscles on the outside of the larynx, which, when they flex, lengthen and thin the vocal bands, tending to produce higher frequency glottal cycles. The two sets coordinate to produce the full range of frequencies that can be sung. The activity of these muscles is often called registration. Inter-relationship of Adduction and Registration
    The amount of adduction that occurs is affected by the thickness of the vocal bands. When they are stretched long and are thin, the muscles which adduct the bands must move them farther toward the middle in order to get the same amount of glottal closure as is achieved with less motion when they are short/thick. If this additional adduction does not occur as the pitch ascends, the closed quotient becomes less as the vocal bands thin, and eventually the glottis does not close at all during the cycle. Thus, the progression is heard by the listener, as a weakened vocal tone.
    Conversely, as the singer goes lower in the range, the vocal bands shorten and thicken, and progressively less adduction motion is needed to bring the glottis to closure. If this lesser adduction does not occur as the pitch descends, the closed quotient rises as the bands thicken, and eventually the glottis does not open and shut with a constant frequency. This latter situation is called vocal fry.
    The Influence of Breath Energy on Phonation
    The air pressure below the glottis during the phonation cycle is called subglottic pressure. At the beginning of a phonated tone, the energy of exhalation is resisted by the vocal folds during the closed phase, and causes a specific level of subglottic pressure to occur which, as we have seen, varies based on the adduction and the registration used for a note. If adduction and registration remain consistent, but breath energy (force of exhalation) increases, the closed quotient will progressively lessen. If adduction and registration remain consistent, but breath energy decreases, the closed quotient will progressively rise. In the former case, the voice eventually becomes breathy, and in the latter, the periodic oscillations cease, and a vocal fry results.
    Conclusion
    By training the voice to correctly balance and coordinate the laryngeal muscle actions and breath energy, the singer can achieve consistency of vocal tone and power throughout the entire range of the voice. With this balance, the singer is free to vary dynamics to suit the music being sung, and is also free to produce subtle tone changes by varying the closed quotient at will, in ways suited to the artistic expression desired.
    This essay was first published February 7, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team

    Vowels Revisited

    By TMV World Team, in Articles,

    This article delves into the basics of vowels: what they are, what makes them and how we influence their characteristics.
    The formation of vowels is an area common to all singers, and in many ways influences the listener's experience of the voice. There are a multitude of approaches taken by singers to making vowels: some based on grunts, groans, wails, screams and sighs; some based on spoken language; some based on concepts of 'Bel Canto', chanting, 'toning' and just about everything in between these. Even 'overtone singing' can be described in terms of vowels.
    What is a Vowel?
    For the purposes of this discussion, vowels are two things: a) spoken or sung sounds (not written letters), and impressions in the mind of the singer and the listener - caused by experiences of the sound through the sense of hearing. By shaping (producing) vowels in a particular way, the singer influences the experience of the listener, and creates a communications connection person-to-person.
    So, What is a Sung Vowel?
    As a general, non-technical description: A sung vowel is a sustained sound, sung with the mouth and throat open enough so at least some of the sound comes out of the mouth. The particulars of the vowel sound depend on the shape and dimensions of the vocal tract, which is usually considered to be the spaces from just above the vocal bands to the outside of the mouth. Sometimes voice scientists include the part of the trachea below the larynx to the point where it branches in two sections to go to the lungs, but for out purposes today we will not include that section.
    What Makes Differing Vowels?
    A key principle is worth mentioning now: Anytime the vocal tract changes shape or dimension, it produces a more or less different vowel, depending on what has been changed by the person.
    The vocal tract aspects that, when changed, have an effect on vowels (more-or-less in order of importance in the singer's technique) are:
    the position of the tongue the position of the soft palate the vertical opening of the jaw the shape of the lip opening the height of the larynx in the throat the diameter of the pharynx Resonances and Vowels
    By way of explanation - To modern language and voice scientists, the perception (on the part of the listener) of a vowel is the result of a combination of resonances in the voice, especially the lowest two resonances. The six items mentioned above, when combined, cause these two resonances to have specific frequencies. Any vocal sound components that fall near these two frequencies will be emphasized in the overall spectrum of sound energy.
    The sense of hearing of the listener 'decodes' the overall sound into a conscious experience, and (according to current psychological theory) the mind interprets the relative intensity of the sound components as a vowel.
    What Does This All Mean?
    All this relates to singing in that we can make very many different kinds of vowel sounds. By changing the positioning of any of the vocal tract components listed above, even if only slightly, for the pronunciation of a syllable or word, we change the way they are perceived, and, by extension, the quality of the connection that we have as singers with our listeners.
    This essay was first published September 10, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.



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