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Draven Grey

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Draven Grey last won the day on January 25 2019

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About Draven Grey

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    Moderator & Subject Matter Expert
  • Birthday May 21

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    www.rocksinginglessons.com

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  1.    Janet2a reacted to a post in a topic: Teaching Breath Support
  2.    Janet2a reacted to a post in a topic: Teaching Breath Support
  3. Draven Grey
    If you're in The Four Pillars of Singing course, or the lighter Udemy course, train the Pentatonic Blues workouts and the Groove workouts in Phase 4. And in particular, learn the four step routines for the "Groove Improvisations." If you're not, then go purchase one and get started. Until then, besides slowing down a "riff" to learn the notes, one of the most effective I've used to teach vocal runs is singing a pentatonic scale that slowly expands upward while always returning to the first note. For example: 1 121 12321 1234321 123454321 12345654321 1234567654321 But you can start anywhe
  4. Draven Grey
    If it's a pitch issue, which I'm not sure it is, know that pitch is a listening skill that can take a very long time to learn. I use tools with my students like humming into and matching a pitch pipe, watching their pitch on a guitar tuner app, finding apps that train pitch through playing phrases or intervals you have to sing back in key, etc. However, it's most likely a resonance placement issue, rather than pitch. For singing in general, you need to train for command and control over a lot of little muscles in the vocal tract, not just good form. Your terminology makes it a little dif
  5.    Robert Lunte reacted to a post in a topic: Did I Improve/Should I Take Lessons?
  6. Draven Grey
    Interesting. I've seen the opposite in thousands of students - from little to no breath support to pushing way too hard. Very few have had great breath support naturally. I completely agree that if you overthink it while singing, or "push" or "force" it, then it gets in the way, especially in performance. At the same time, the whole reason we train anything is so that we don't have to think about it when performing - that applies to pretty much anything, especially in athletic ventures. I use specific exercises for breath support, so they don't have to think about it when doing other things in
  7. Draven Grey
    The difference is as I said. Falsetto is a vocal mode that is characterized by being open and airy. It's a "false voice." Head voice is a range. Within head voice, you can have difference levels of push/mass, compression, resonance, and chest voice musculature mixed in. Sadly, there are a lot of teachers who think falsetto and head voice are the same thing and use the terms synonymously. In that part of the song, you're singing in what I would call light-mass head-voice. A warm-up and then singing songs while she "fixes" various parts of your song isn't training. That's what you should b
  8. Draven Grey
    I agree that a bit too much emphasis is put on breath support with a lot of teachers out there. I would add that good breath support does so much more than what you get from simply breathing from the belly. Balancing compression with respiration is fundamental to any type of singing. Using good appoggio for increasing resonance and therefore volume, rather than pushing harder, makes a HUGE difference,
  9. Draven Grey
    Of course you can sing it! Allow me to address a couple of things before praising you on your incredible voice. Reading the things your teacher said to you, I'm infuriated. Let me ease into it from the least to the greatest offense. First, that's not falsetto, it's light-mass head voice. Falsetto is a vocal mode defined by being open and airy, usually within the head voice range. Jo Estill defined vocal modes in the 1930's, and any teacher above $50/hr should know the difference between falsetto and light or disconnected head voice. But that's not the main issue here at all. Telling
  10. Draven Grey
    You train to learn a new skill, get better at a skill, and continually improve. The question isn't if you're good enough to take lessons. The question is, why would you wait when you can have someone show you how to learn and improve on that skill?
  11. Draven Grey
    I agree that cry and lean work together extremely well. I'm not sure about appoggio doing anything to cause cry vocal mode or configure the larynx. I think it's a completely separate control. Appoggio in the description above is more of a way of sighing through singing. Consequently, if tension is focused, however subtle, into the sternum, the increased airflow increases resonance and perceived volume. However, you can still do the same thing without cry vocal mode, although you're more likely to push harder and cause more tension in the vocal folds than necessary.
  12. Draven Grey
    I don't recommend the hiss, as most students tend to either push too hard, or not enough. Getting very light and squeaky on higher pitches while doing big sirens into the straw, and tracking (humming while buzzing the lips) will both do much more for warming up your voice. There are some great breathing exercises in The Four Pillars of Singing too, if you want to develop better air support. The weight on the stomach is completely unnecessary. Also, a spirometer or volumetric exerciser will do much more for expanding your lung capacity than the hiss will.
  13.    leithinkjesusiscool reacted to a post in a topic: Need help with terminology
  14. Draven Grey
    Are you training? I highly encourage you to check out The Four Pillars of Singing, or it's smaller counterpart on Udemy. Singing and speaking are very different configurations of the musculature being used. Singing tends to be lifted away from the throat and more soft and hard palate focused. Registers and bridges/passaggi are also a bit different, although most people refer to their bridge as a switch in registers. The Short Answer Your registers are, from low to high pitch: Pulse, Chest, Head, Whistle. With the ability to mix the chest and head voice together in varying degrees.
  15.    Arj72 reacted to a post in a topic: Silent Night and Purple Rain
  16.    Adolph Namlik reacted to a post in a topic: Silent Night and Purple Rain
  17.    Kevin Ashe reacted to a post in a topic: Transitioning in between chest voice and head voice?
  18.    Robert Lunte reacted to a post in a topic: Silent Night and Purple Rain
  19. Draven Grey
    Kevin beat me to it
  20. Draven Grey
    You tend to default to a really good cry vocal mode, which can do amazing things for your voice. If you purposefully use the cry reflex throughout your singing, it can help immensely. (I encourage you to look up Robert's and my videos on Cry. Certain vowels and consonants seemed to knock you out of that beautiful cry vocal mode you kept finding your way back to. A big help for that could be touching your tongue to your upper molars while singing. This keeps your vowels on the tongue, resonating at the front of the soft palate or in the hard palate, while still being able to utilize cry behind
  21. Draven Grey
    Touching the tongue to the upper molars cause even better intrinsic anchoring and helps stabilize vowel resonance. This particular tongue position helps with what I call vowel anchoring, because its easier to keep all your vowels resonating in the same spot to keep your sound color consistent throughout your range. And definitely not your front molars. I've been saying "upper back molars" a lot lately, and just want to clarify that it has nothing to do with your front molars. Those don't exist. haha!
  22. 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.
  23. Draven Grey
    This is a good start:
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