want to feel your support?

[VideoHere]

hi folks,

by talking with my friend dante today, he helped me to come upon a great way to convey to you folks out there who are struggling or want to know a way to feel support.

might also be a great exercise too.....

try drawing out your support and get in touch with it.

if you simply do a simple 5 tone scale on a comfortable pitch, (i recommend the "ah" vowel) at a decent volume but repeat the exact same scale without stopping (all on one breath, you will sound like a broken record) when you get to the fourth or fifth time you should start to feel a sense of balance between the air pressure and the vocal folds that makes you feel a suspended feeling like you could go on with this scale for quite a while. it's like the air is being expelled so gradually you feel like you're holding your breath (yet you're not).

remember to achieve this sense of suspension, or balance between the vocal folds and the air pressure.

now, here's the great thing...as you do these you can now try out little adjustments while you're in this state of balance...whatever it might be.....try relaxing the jaw, softening the face, smiling into the sound, check you're not using your swallowing muscles, constricting....it doesn't matter...the point is if you do this right...you really can't help but feel support...and while you're in this state of support you can make some adjustments while the support is activated for a longer time than normal.

so basically, you drag out your support so you can go upstairs and play around and make adjustments or experiment while the support is engaged.

make sense? try it.

[Khassera]

Panting into a high-gain mic as fast as possible while trying to be as quiet as possible helped me.

[Danielformica]

Hey guys if I may throw one in there I would say just laugh a really good laugh and feel your back and sides and stomach expand and then hold an easy note like f3 to b3 range. Then continue on a legato scale and keep the same expanding feeling

[benny82]

A nice excercise is also doing Overtone buzzing. This is pretty nice because you also get to learn how to control twang while keeping your support stable, here is how it goes:

- pick an easy note, just like Daniel suggests, f3 to b3 range may fit for most, for me its a bit lower, more like e3.

- sing and hold the vowel OO

- then while holding the note switch to the french "u" vowel, like in "menu". Do this by just lifting the back of your tongue towards the palate, everything else (including support) stays constant!

- then switch back and forth between the two vowels while still holding the note

When doing this you will start to "sing" on the overtone spectrum. It is quite a strange feeling. You will stay on the note where you started (E3 for me) but twang that comes in on the french "u" will generate such strong overtones that it seems as if you would be sirening between two different notes constantly (which is not real, though). Sounds a little bit like a didgeridoo.

Those "sirens" somehow make you do a very constant airflow. Much better than real sirens, because real sirens will change your support setup (because the actual pitch changes and higher pitches tend to require more support).