Draven Grey

Look at my last comment in the post right before yours, "Teaching Breath Support." I've been posting hat video far too often lately. I think I need to post my own soon.

This is a good start:

I'm happy to help. Whimpering = Cry vocal mode, activating the cry reflex in the vocal tract, a top-down phonation that is similar to a puppy whimpering.

We tend to speak in the pitches at the lower end of our chest voice range. She could start with that, then raise the resonance out of the throat by whimpering a bit and singing into either her third-eye spot or a few feet in front of her. If you're thinking contemporary vocal styles, then it can also help for her to touch her tongue to her upper back molars and keep the tip near the front teeth. This brings the vowels more into the mask by way of the soft palate. If more classical in style, then focus more on the whimper I mentioned, solid appoggio (leaning breaths into the sternum and sighing the the phrases), and hooking around the back of her head and then into the mask. If she's too airy in her chest range, then she likely needs two things: (1) Between compression from doing things like humming and buzzing the lips through songs (also called Resonant Tracking or Nasal Buzzing), and starting in Quack/hyper-twang compression and then backing/tuning into the singing vowel. (2) Defining Mass (overall effort and push) for each phonation: light, medium, heavy, or in-between. And make sure her "medium mass" is solid, resonant singing. Light is effortless. And Heavy is shouting. This is a page straight out of TVS Methodology and The Four Pillars of Singing. I try to keep my students between medium-light and medium at all times. But those struggling with too much air are usually far too light and falsetto like. Also, you'll want to separate mass (overall effort and push) from volume (bigger resonance from solid breath support). For men in head voice range, it's a very similar set of techniques. Cry Vocal Mode and good Appoggio can quickly fix a lot of issues.

From what I can tell, you're not really singing, but rather speaking with pitch. But great job on developing an ear for pitch! That's very difficult to do. As opposed to speech vowels, that form more in the throat, singing vowels will resonate away from the throat and a lot more in the soft palate. If you must use YouTube, go to either Robert's videos or mine. It's not ideal, but you will get results. Start now by humming and buzzing the lips through songs. Also try to whimper, top-down into your singing. Your main goal in this is to get out of your throat and start controlling resonance in the soft palate instead. There's so much more you can do though! Robert's programs will do you wonders. A very oversimplified summary, since you brought it up: Chest Voice = The pitch range that you naturally speak within. Not the resonance per se, but rather a pitch range. For a male, everything below E4 that has a defined pitch. Head Voice = From F4 up to Whistle Register (which varies by the person). Mixed Resonance = Head Voice range with chest voice musculature brought back in for a chesty resonance mix. Falsetto = A light, open and airy phonation usually within the Head Voice range.

It's best to use a link to your video, rather than an upload. Great low voice! I can form solid lyrics on a C2 or D2, and sing pretty straight forward down to a G1. Although, below B1 feels more like Tuvan Throat Singing.That took years of work too. A tenor range is probably the most difficult to develop, because, for a male, E4 to A4 takes a lot of control over head voice resonance balanced with bringing the chest voice musculature back in without strain, choking, over-compressing, or too much push. Start training with a course like The Four Pillars of Singing, or take lessons from a good TVS-Certified Instructor. Contact Robert or me and get started. There's no quick tip to helping you, but there is plenty your can do to start training solid coordination and strength in your voice. IT's not uncommon for someone to expand their range by at least half an octave, effortlessly, in the first lesson or two. For now, place a finger on your bottom lip and sing up and over it with a nice big smile. Also, sigh through your phrases from full lungs. Yes, sigh. If you need more detail, look up Appoggio explanations with Michael Trimble. Also, try to whimper top-down a bit more into your phonations. Done correctly, it's called cry vocal mode. Not a baby-like "whah," but rather whimpering like a puppy, just like when you cry or experience extreme emotions. In all honesty, it's best if you have guidance through all of that.

Fix what? The strain? You need to be training. There are plenty of things you can train with, especially in a program like The FourPillars of Singing. Even better if you're working with a vocal coach who has proven they can help you reach your goals. I'll try to give you a tip, but I'm not sure you'll understand it. I'm a natural baritone (although vocal fact doesn't matter in contemporary vocals), and I can sing Dream On without very little effort. First, you need to learn to bring the voice up and out, getting your out of your throat, helping the vowels to resonate in the soft palate, and using your tongue to hold the vowels. You can get started by humming while buzzing the lips, but it's more complicated than that. Another help could be touching the back of your tongue to your upper back molars, keeping the front of the tongue just behind your teeth, and trying to hold all of your vowels in the same resonant area. Another help for that is smiling while you sing. Again, this is oversimplified, but the best I can do in a quick written tip. Second, you need to learn to use Cry Vocal Mode, activating the cry reflex on demand, and learning to use the feeling of that top-down, whimpering phonation that it gives you. This will release a LOT of the strain, get your out of your throat, thin out the glottis so there's much less effort required to phonate, and the list goes on. Third, use your newfound lifted resonance and light, top-down phonation to get the lightest possible, almost squeaky phonation on your top note. Then slowly add volume (bigger resonance) to it by utilizing good appoggio (oversimplified: leaning your breath into the sternum and sighing through the phrase). You may have to start lower in your range and work your way up. You may also need specific exercises to build good control over compression and more strength in the musculature you're using. There are so many things this doesn't address that you could also be dealing with. In short? Start training. Don't force it. You need to build into the coordination and strength it takes to reach your goals, with someone guiding you in how to do it right. I blew out my voice pushing on that same note, and had to completely retrain my voice. I can now sing up to D6 without very little effort.

Can you clarify your question a bit more?

Falsetto or Head Voice Register? Falsetto is a vocal mode within the head voice register that's characterized by being open and airy. I'll assume you mean light-mass head voice, although you can also mix in the Thyroid Arytenoids (TA, chest-voice musculature) in the head voice register with a little more mass and compression. If I'm correct in what I think you're asking, then try the following video. At first, you may not have much phonation in the passaggio. You can also bridge like this to any mass or "fullness" level, from light to strong. I suggest starting by bridging into a lighter mass head voice at first, to get used to bridging through the vocal break.

Yep.I suppose I approached that from the negative side of things with 1(b). But you're right, there is extrinsic and intrinsic anchoring that can greatly help technique. In performance, you have to balance between having flawless technique and expressing emotion in such a way that the audience is drawn in. They're both important.

@sandwichTo quote his last post, I think he answers your question:

@Aubrey Maneth: What genre are you talking about? The first question is answered by good appoggio (see video below). The second question is more vocal modes or Formant tuning. Dampening gives you more Formant 1 tunings, or chesty weight. If you're talking about contemporary genres, I suspect he's not singing top-down enough, adding whimper through the cry reflex, using cry vocal mode, getting good resonance around Formants 3 and 4. This is only one way the voice should be lifting though. Good horizontal embouchure will also help, regardless of genre. But in contemporary voice, you need more soft palate resonance involved. The tongue can control the vowel resonance. The first thing I have students do is place a finger on their bottom lip and try to sing up and over it. The next thing is to touch their upper back molars with the side of their tongue while keeping the tip of the tongue close to the bottom front teeth. This activates resonance more in Formant 2. If he's over compressing or constricting, focus more on a Wind & Release onset (start with an "h"). However, activating the cry reflex should eliminate a lot of the tension. Also, start in lighter mass, top-down phonations and build resonance on top of it. If more classical in genre, then you want things more open in the throat, utilizing opera vocal mode more, opening up the throat and pharynx a bit, while singing towards the crown of the head and then outward. This could be visualized as a hook going from the back of the neck and then around the top of the head before reaching the mask.

This:

1. How much body movement is bad? However much is perceived as "bad" by the audience you're singing to. e.g. an opera singer dancing like a pop-star or flailing about like Janis Joplin may be too much for the audience. But then again, if your more ideal fan would enjoy that, even in opera, go for it. 1(b). Movement that makes throws off your singing technique can also be "bad." e.g. hunching over in a way that makes you have to push harder to sing part of a melody because you don't have good breath control anymore. 2. Physical movement is trained through awareness and practice. But again, "excessive" is very subjective. While you can stand perfectly still behind a microphone stand and sing with flawless technique, why would you want to? Romance the music, do what you need to do in order to feel and express your song. Doing so invites the audience to do the same. Singing is as much a full-body, emotional performance as it is a technical one. Once you know what the limit is that your audience can handle, then you have a line to push into and elicit a reaction from them. However, I also suggest purposefully practicing in three ways that have helped many of the bands I've coached over the years: Stay relaxed and have fun with the song, not caring about mistakes, and being able to laugh at yourself -- this will loosen you up. Stand perfectly still and emotionless, focused on flawless technique -- this will build fine-tuned technique. Act like you're giving the performance of a lifetime to a very large audience of your more ideal fans -- this will build endurance for when you do perform.

Focus on good appoggio, or sighing through the phrases. Here's a great explanation: