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I'd like some help with some of my singing difficulties.


anthony009

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Hey everyone, I've just joined and introduced myself in the member profiles - now if y'all don't mind, I'd like a few tips on some singing difficulties I've had.

Being of Asian descent but being born in New Zealand, though I can speak english fluently for some reason when I sing during certain phrases or certain passages an "asian sound" is prominent. My singing teacher did little to correct this, I simply did not understand what she was trying to tell me as her explanations were quite shaky and confusing (but I'm still glad I took singing lessons as she was still a very good instructor!). Furthermore, not just due to this I think, I've always come out when I sing with a rather flat and drab tone where my words are not very clear, slurred and often with a suppressed "nasal" sound where the sound seems to be "pushing" against my nose, if that makes any sense.

I've struggled to correct this, to the point of frustration as I've pushed myself very hard to sing well and improve. I can hit the notes fine and I've tried Brett Manning's singing success and Seth Riggs' singing with the stars book - while they improved my range greatly to 3 and a half octaves, and improved my tone it did nothing to alleviate my problems - what's the point of singing so high if you sound absolutely crappy doing it?

I've also had difficulties rolling my tongue, or rather I can't at all, making tongue trill exercises all but impossible - my teacher suggested it was due to me speaking chinese in my household where I developed a "lazy asian tongue". I have no idea how to do this as I think this lazy tongue contributes to my flat and weak tone, so again I've worked to try to correct it but have no idea where to start. I've tried doing tongue twisters but am unsure of how they could help. Also I've had trouble developing depth in my singing voice, and I've been starting Brett Manning's "Mastering your mix" to try to correct some of these problems.

Though I realise I'm 19 and my voice is still yet to grow, I'd like to have some pointers in how to correct these problems so that I can hopefully gain a passable singing voice. The worst part is that I had no idea how bad I sounded as my teacher was too polite to tell me. It is frustrating since I grasped her material fine and do it well except others just have naturally gifted tones. I've worked so hard to catch up but get nowhere in this :(

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Hi! Welcome to the forum.

It sounds to me that you'd like to make your vowels shaded more toward those of native English speakers when you are singing in English. Here is an approach, easily done, that will help start you on your way to lessening nasality:

The presence of nasality is due to a too-low soft palate. There are many ways to train it to a higher position. Here is my favorite:

Add a vocalise to your practice... sirens on sustained consonants V and Z, and scales. The nonsence word 'ViZi' (Vih-Zih) sung slowly on each note of a scale upward and downward will be fun, too. Let the V and Z be sustained just a bit longer than they would be when used in an actual word. Do this exercise every day for 10 mins or so.

Let us know how things go!

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Thanks for the quick reply, I will endeavour to try your technique and see if it works!

Also, I'd like to ask about creating space in the back of your mouth. My teacher once tried this with me to get me to imagine an egg in the back of my mouth, thus creating tone and depth but I found it uncomfortable and a little silly with the produced sound and look.

Is there any credence to this teaching?

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Thanks for the quick reply, I will endeavour to try your technique and see if it works!

Also, I'd like to ask about creating space in the back of your mouth. My teacher once tried this with me to get me to imagine an egg in the back of my mouth, thus creating tone and depth but I found it uncomfortable and a little silly with the produced sound and look.

Is there any credence to this teaching?

anthony009: it works for some students, not for others. Its not one of my favorites, as it sometimes causes undesirable tensions.

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Ah, Caruso's egg. It worked well for Caruso. Of course, the shape of the hard and soft palates are different in different people. An egg for Caruso might have been fine, but not so much for others.

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