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Pharyngeal question


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Hi Billy,

If you're referring to that witchy (a la James Lugo pharyngeal stuff) then it can feel raw but it depends on 2 things :

a) The time of day/how well I've wormed up my regular voice. If I do it at 08:00 in the morning before warming-up then it will feel raw.

B) The time I spend singing like that - James states quite clearly that it shouldn't be used for more than 8mins per day

until the voice has strengthened. This does work, I can now use that voice for I don't know how long without any side-effects.

All in all, I think I've benefited from this type of sound.

Kind Regards,

Thanos

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Wow, interesting akarawd. I hadn't heard that 8 minutes a day thing. With what I'm experiencing, that seems to make sense. I'm not going for the 'witchy' sound per se, but that ... 'target' does help me to keep my chest from breaking when it goes to head. If I lean on that a bit at the transition, it doesn't break. So this week, I've been doing that more and I did notice a kind of raw/tiredness there.

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that ... 'target' does help me to keep my chest from breaking when it goes to head. If I lean on that a bit at the transition, it doesn't break

My experience too and although I'm slowly getting to the point where I don't need it that much it's good to know I have the option.

I also believe that it's an ingredient of many heavy metal voices, although it might just be the same thing as twang - I'm not 101% sure.

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I've been trying to figure that out myself but can't seem to get a definite answer. Does "pharyngeal voice"="twang"? Anyone know for sure?? To me it seems they are describing a similar mechanism and resulting sound, so I think they are the same, but not sure.

Assuming it is the same as twang, one possible reason for dryness on the roof of the mouth could be that you tend to lower your soft palate when you twang, so more air may be blowing around the palate, on both sides. For me, I get the dryness further down, like the back wall of the pharynx, not the roof. There is the fact that twang is a narrowing of the epiglottic funnel above the cords, and anytime you force air through a narrower funnel the sides will dry out more. Maybe the narrower jet of air is also drying out one particular spot higher up.

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I think the dryness is above the pallet, kind of on the backside, not the side that's in your mouth, but the sinus side...

Dangit Jim, I'm a doctor not a rock singer!

;)

Billy Budapest: I enjoyed the Star Trek reference.

Oh, for the Science Fiction fans out there.

Tuesday this week, SKYNET went live.

Yesterday, it became aware.

Be careful out there.

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Hi Billy,

If you're referring to that witchy (a la James Lugo pharyngeal stuff) then it can feel raw but it depends on 2 things :

a) The time of day/how well I've wormed up my regular voice. If I do it at 08:00 in the morning before warming-up then it will feel raw.

B) The time I spend singing like that - James states quite clearly that it shouldn't be used for more than 8mins per day

until the voice has strengthened. This does work, I can now use that voice for I don't know how long without any side-effects.

All in all, I think I've benefited from this type of sound.

Kind Regards,

Thanos

wooooooo, hold it guys!

lugo says the pharyngeal shouldn't be worked more than 2 or 3 minutes a day...the most. he warned not too overdo that exercise. also, it's not the same as twang, but i could easily see why they could they thought of as the same. it's his last exercise on the cd. it's covered in "voice of the mind." the book says there's really no such thing as pharyngeal voice. the term is a translation from the italian "voce faringea," to describe a vocal mechanism that lies between the "real" voice and the "falsetto." oh man, i'm starting to sound like steve fraser...lol!!! (love ya steve!!)

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Interesting, on the track I have he calls it the 'pharyngeal muscle', as opposed to the 'basic' and 'falsetto' muscles. I listened to his track and to twang tracks in CVT and SATA and they really sound like the same effect to me. In fact, they all use a witches cackle as a way to initially demonstrate twang.

That said, I definitely had some rawness when I was learning to twang, too, but lower in the throat but I think it was because I had a tendency to constrict the whole throat while trying to twang. Lugo does say to get really nasty and witchy with the sound, so it is a good idea to warn not to do it very long in the beginning. Same goes for most of the effects in CVT which, coincidentally, use a ton of twang.

Billy, one thing to play around with is pinching your nose shut. This is a great test for seeing how nasal you are, since twang and nasality can sometimes overlap, and you'll know if the palate is shut (no nasal) or open (nasal). I notice more projection with less breath pressure when I'm not excessively nasal. Less air will be going over the top of your palate and could let you know if this is what's causing the rawness up there.

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Hi folks

I have an inherent problem with the term 'pharyngeal' as a vocal mode. It is not a separate voice and also has no bearing or relation to 'twang'. Twang is a formant resonance technique effected by the use of the aryepiglottic muscles to change the initial laryngeal resonant space at source. The term 'pharyngeal' can be applied to any part of the resonant space above the vocal folds; hence it is too generalised. It would be convenient to say that poor vocal technique and constriction could be deemed as 'pharyngeal' as they take place above vocal fold level.

The pharynx is an area that is responsible for resonance only! One cannot possibly create a 'pharyngeal' voice. However, many confuse this term.

The pharynx itself can be subcategorised by many different subdivisions. Nevertheless, any manipulation of sound in this area is created post production of the initial vocal tone..i.e the Boss distortion pedal applied after the guitar string has been plucked.

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That's why I don't use the term "pharyngeal voice" any more ; it was clarified by Steven Fraser here :

http://www.punbb-hosting.com/forums/themodernvocalist/viewtopic.php?id=1677 (Post #9)

Bob, I might have stated the number of mins wrong - once I'm comfortable with an exercise I import it in protools and edit out everything but the actual exercises.

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