Share how you practised support!

[pj]

Hi, recently I'm working on my basics- support, resonance and all that, and I see many beginners struggling with getting support down right, and I happen to be one of them.

Would you all mind sharing how did you guys practise support, how long did it take you and did you to get it down?

Personally I can feel the air on my soft palate on some occassions, but due to bad habits in the past I can still feel slight tension in my throat, and excessive singing would always injure my throat. I"m pretty frustrated as I want to practise a lot but whenever my throat hurts I have to stop.

And any opinion on using support when speaking? I have this habit of getting too excited when speaking and it always hurt my throat. I'm thinking of adding support to my speaking style, and making sure I'm projecting the air properly rather than forcing the sound from my throat.

Any help will be appreciated. :D

[VideoHere]

there are two exercises (there are more of course) but these two did more for me than any of the others...but you'll have to do some research on your own to find them on the forum....

1. the leaky tire, letting air out slowly between pursed lips all the while keeping the ribs and back expanded

2. the dog pant, but working up till the pants are short, fast and quick...striving to make them quicker and quicker.

and then just anytime i feel like it i just actively expand my lower core, ribs, back and i talk or sing while i'm doing it. i concentrate on not allowing any tension thats generated down below to move past my chest.

when you can effectively (and appropriately) learn to pressurize your air down below but remain relaxed up above, you can really add a lot of color and dynamics to your voice.

also, while some will not agree, at times, vibrato can come from the oscillation of the diaphragm.

but, start slow, this is physically demanding. and make sure you get used to panting, before you step up the pace.

your body needs to adjust.

[Mr Bounce]

I think you should check out Eric Arceneaux on youtube. A lot of his (completely free) videos helped me a lot. You'll get a lot of vocal coaches or singers who seem to know what they're talking about, but they charge for it. I'm not saying their instruction isn't worth the price, but if you're a poor student like me, then you want to take advantage of the free stuff.

That said, I can't recommend the straw enough. I bought a couple hundred straws for a few dollars at Ikea. I like them because their pretty colours entertain me while I buzz through them every day to warm up

The key is to realise that all that stress in your throat and jaw can go away, but it takes a tremendous amount of effort to relearn it! When you have spent the time practising slow breathing, and letting out breath very slowly (like VIDEOHERE said), and then gentle lip bubbles, humming, or using the straw, then it gets a lot easier. But to begin with, you may find that it takes a LOT of effort in your abdomen--front, sides and back--to get it going. I think this is normal but I could be wrong.

All I know is that, on a bad day, I have to use my abdomen and I feel like I've been wailed on in the stomach by a boxer... But after some time of warming up, or on a good day, singing is completely effortless in the throat, and just a gentle automatic action is felt in the abdomen.

[VideoHere]

yes...when you sing powerfully with support in the beginning, it's true. it can produce a voice within you that can make you a little intimidated at first. you need to come to terms with the sound that is being generated.

sometimes a beginning singer will desire a certain singer's sound or tone...so they'll try to emulate or do that sound whatever it might be.

but what might just happen is when the support kicks in (per your particular voice) you may find that you are actually more powerful, (more resonant) than the singer you were emulating and you might be inclined to throttle down or doubt that your sound, your tone is "right."

you may be a heavier voice than their's and as a result you begin to question yourself.

it's a mental adjustment that needs to be made. you have to adapt to your supported voice, because it may produce some serious sound.

[ronws]

Well first, I compliment the person on his bravery to offer his song. Then I point out what I like or thought was good. And .... wait a minute, that's a different kind of support.

Generally speaking, what others seem to mean by appoggio. I am now reading a 3rd book about Enrico Caruso. I read the first, by his phsyician. Another by Enrico, himself. And still yet another one. And the biggest key to Caruso's ability, physically, was that he managed breath with his intercostals (it actually says that in the book.)

And of course, by managing the breath, it allows you to "place" the note, giving you room, so to speak, to govern the tone of the note. Caruso's secret was that he did what he could to facilitate creating the right tone for the note. Which is really a testament to his powers of concentration. He never "phoned in" a performance or even a warm-up or exercise. For him, "working" was not how many hours he logged practicing. Working was paying attention to what he was doing.

But, physically, it's action down below and nothing in the throat, and the note is in the resonators.

Man, that sounds familiar ....

And no, I do not think of myself as the next Caruso. Just learning from the man to whom all tenors have been and are compared. It was written that he was the greatest tenor of his time. I haven't seen one to take that honor for whatever their time is. He is still the benchmark.

[pj]

Hi, what do you mean by the proper mental imagery you should use while using the voice? Right now I'm learning how to relax my neck and throat muscles when breathing in cos I realised I tend to tense them wen I try to breathe deeply in.

[Felipe Carvalho]

So far 3 years practicing daily, on the first months, twice a day. Still needs to improve.

[VideoHere]

congrats felipe!!! that's great!!

[Felipe Carvalho]

lol tnx, but in fact its quite boring.

And if you neglect maintenence exercises, 2 weeks are enough to feel your voice losing quality and resistance.

[VideoHere]

yes,

there's no denying i get days where vocal exercising is the last thing i want to do..but i manage to do something.

[pj]

Hmm I get what you mean. I used to tense my neck and throat so much during "singing", and it really led to bad habits that I have been working on to change. Right now there's much less tension than before but my throat and neck muscles still tense especially when I try to inhale to my maximum capacity. Seems like I have to learn how to relax these muscles while keeping the tension of the support there.

Anyway, is it okay to feel your lungs feeling tired when you inhale and try to keep your ribs expanded?

[Robert Lunte]

Practice support? I never really, "practiced support" outside of paying attention to some "down and out" dumping maneuvars when singing screams. Outside of that, there are 6 workouts in my vocal training system that build muscle strength and coordination but its not really "practice", its just working out the muscles.

[pj]

Practice support? I never really, "practiced support" outside of paying attention to some "down and out" dumping maneuvars when singing screams. Outside of that, there are 6 workouts in my vocal training system that build muscle strength and coordination but its not really "practice", its just working out the muscles.

Hi, yep, I'm going to order 4 Pillars pretty soon, I just got my credit card yesterday.

[pj]

Pj,

There is no need to inhale to maximum capacity when singing. Inhaling to maximum capacity causes the accessory muscles of breathing to come into play, which include the neck muscles. If you find yourself tanking up on air, blow out half of your air and then sing the phrase only on whatever air is left in your lungs.

As for the lungs getting tired, I'm not sure how to interpret that. Sometimes, after really working out the voice intensely, my diaphragm gets tired to the point where I don't have to energy to take in a deep breath anymore. But that's about it.

~~Dante~~

HI Dante, thanks for the help

Yea, I realised that taking too deep a breathe might be the root problem of tense neck muscles.

I'm confused regarding some aspects though. Right now because I tend to sing in my mixed voice, so it's easier for me to project the voice up to the soft palate, but when I try to sing bass notes, my voice tend to be stuck in my throat.

And lately I'm having problem with the health of my throat, recently because I was using incorrect technique for bass notes and one fine moment I felt as though I tore something in my throat, I'm not sure whether it's at the vocal folds there or what.

I have been resting, but due to my impatience I don't think I allowed it to recover fully.

When I don't talk for some time it feels fine, but if I talk for a while, I can feel my vocal folds (I'm guessing it's the vocal folds) swell and it gets pretty pain... should I go see a specialist? I'm pretty worried. Thanks.