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Universal Techniques that can help singing...It's deeper than we think

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izzle1989

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Going back to the original question...ish...it can be answered in some many different ways

Universal techniques? I definitely think every singer has to gradually thin the vocal cords and retain compression to get through the passagio. I've never seen a credible vocal method that didn't advocate that in some way shape or form. And when you get those two things down, you're basically there.

I second ronws' universal truths, especially resonate. IMO, resonation is the most important variable of singing. If it's not resonating, you're doing it wrong! That's why we twang, we lift the soft palate, we drop the jaw, etc. it's all to help amplify frequencies so that we don't have to blow tons of air, then squeeze the heck out of that air at the vocal folds, essentially blasting them with furious pressure. If we resonate, the pressure at the vocal folds can remain controlled and efficient, and the overall effort level is decreased, yet because everything is being amplified, we can still be loud.

As for connections to everyday life, I don't see that many. Though there will definitely be connections to certain athletic activities. For example, I wakeboard, and I've realized that getting up out of the water is a lot like bridging the passagio, you have to do a bunch of things in a short period of time, time it correctly, all while keeping resistance the whole time.

"However there are components of singing technique that can and should be reinforced during our everyday life. Head posture, breathing deep and low, keeping the tongue against the back of the bottom teeth, none of that makes noise, so if we practice all of that throughout the day, it will become habit, leaving us with less things to worry about when singing."

"And same thing can be done for how we speak. It's really hard to remember to intentionally use good vocal technique when speaking, but when I think of it, I'll try to make my speech sound a bit more like my singing. I know the SLS folks are about to start hating:lol:, but come on now, speaking in heavy vocal fry at the low end of your range, or with no compression and a lowered soft palate, is not going to help your singing, period. Stuff like that sounds unpleasant when applied to singing, and/or is bad vocal health."

The statements I put the quotations around are the two most important paragraphs in my opinion.

Posture, Breathing, and taking care of your body all affect singing. These inefficiencies cause tension in the other areas that you named (Tongue, jaw, neck, etc) because they are all interrelated. Just like you and I both agree with Ron about resonance we both know that they are all dependent upon one another.

If the vocal folds are vibrating correctly resonance will be improved, if the resonance is improved it makes it easier to support the voice, and if the voice is supported it makes it easier for the vocal folds to vibrate efficiently.

These are my primary focus when working on technique since these are the causes of the effects of good singing vs. bad singing. I make sure to remind myself to speak with these same principles. That's why vocal exercises are called vocal exercises and not singing exercises. They improve you singing voice and your speaking voice.

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paying close attention to how you speak is imperative to a healthy voice.

to add to everyday things we could do towards improving the voice i would add primal screams and crying.

a completely unstructured, primal scream and crying like a friggin' baby.

but the tough part is to commit to a scream without holding back and just letting it fly as we might do if we lived thousands of years ago.

easier said than done...lol!!!

This is a good point!

I find that if I really burst into laughter and don't hold back my voice is well support and there is little to no effort.

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yes, once you identify your sockets, per vowel, per note (resonance pockets) you can shoot them with more air pressure and your voice soars...

that's what great rock singers do, they know exactly where to place the pressurized air.

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