About Semi-Occluded Workouts Vs. Vocal Warm ups
This article is about a specific kind of vocal warm up exercises. These kinds of workouts are called semi-occluded vocal tract postures. They are popular with singing techniques and with voice therapists. Their purpose are three-fold, as I have come to know them at The Vocalist Studio:
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Create More Efficient Phonation And Balance
They balance the sub-glottal and super-glottal air pressure (above and below) the vocal folds and thus help the singer to create more efficient phonation and balance with the increased velocity of air required for singing. Inherently, speech vocal mode is not efficient compared to phonations used in singing, so the semi-occluded vocal tract exercises increase the efficiency of the relationship between the singer's respiration and vocal folds.
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Seamless Passage From Lower - To Higher Vocal Registers
Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises establish a resonant track. They help the singer to get into a seamless passage through the vocal bridges (breaks), thus preparing the voice for good bridging from the lower vocal registers to the higher registers, namely, (chest to head voice).
Lift The Voice Into Healthy "Top Down Phonation"
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They lift the voice out of what we call at The Vocalist Studio, bottom-up phonation into more healthy and successful top-down phonation. It excites the resonators (mouth, nose, sinuses), gets the overtone production placed in the mask and removes throaty singing.
Summary
This essay first published December 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.
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