I have to sing in a light breathy voice - need some help!

[gno]

The project I'm working on now requires the verses to be soft and breathy - or in CVT terms, Neutral with Air. I do not practice or sing this technique. I pretty much practice full voice all the time. When I try and record myself doing this it comes out full voice, just quieter. Most of the range of the song is lower F#3 - D4 - not ideal for my voice, but this is what it is and I can't change it. I normally sing chest voice or overdrive in this range and I know that applying "air" in this mode is unhealthy. I need to be in Neutral to safely apply breathiness according to CVT. Anybody have any tips, or visualizations I can use? Excersises? Thanks for any help you can give me.

[analog]

If it makes you feel better psychologically, Gillyanne Kayes' Singing and the Actor(based on Estill) has a "breathy speech" set-up. If you were to physically "sigh" in your chest voice...like sighing "AHHH" in contentment, you will have it. If you start a high note in falsetto and then bring that sound down into your chest range, you clunk into it. It's still Neutral w/ air in CVT terms, just in the low/middle part of the voice( Overdrive in that area would be much louder.)

[VideoHere]

The project I'm working on now requires the verses to be soft and breathy - or in CVT terms, Neutral with Air. I do not practice or sing this technique. I pretty much practice full voice all the time. When I try and record myself doing this it comes out full voice, just quieter. Most of the range of the song is lower F#3 - D4 - not ideal for my voice, but this is what it is and I can't change it. I normally sing chest voice or overdrive in this range and I know that applying "air" in this mode is unhealthy. I need to be in Neutral to safely apply breathiness according to CVT. Anybody have any tips, or visualizations I can use? Excersises? Thanks for any help you can give me.

gino, can you give me an example in a familiar song?

[jonpall]

Neutral sounds a lot like you're singing a lullaby so you could try that. Or Marilyn Monroe's "Happy birthday".

[VideoHere]

Neutral sounds a lot like you're singing a lullaby so you could try that. Or Marilyn Monroe's "Happy birthday".

"happy birthday mr. president (with that elevated quivering upper lip action she had) lol!!! she was something else!!

[Steven Fraser]

The project I'm working on now requires the verses to be soft and breathy - or in CVT terms, Neutral with Air. I do not practice or sing this technique. I pretty much practice full voice all the time. When I try and record myself doing this it comes out full voice, just quieter. Most of the range of the song is lower F#3 - D4 - not ideal for my voice, but this is what it is and I can't change it. I normally sing chest voice or overdrive in this range and I know that applying "air" in this mode is unhealthy. I need to be in Neutral to safely apply breathiness according to CVT. Anybody have any tips, or visualizations I can use? Excersises? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Gino: the time to determine the breath content of the tone is at the onset. Reduce the volume, and start the note with an aspirate H. When I do it, it feels a bit like 'keeping the H in the tone'.

To get dynamic mastery of it, use that onset at the beginning of a messa di voce... crescendo until the tone firms, and then let it return to breathy as you diminuendo. That should give you the sense of what the parameters of the tone are, and how it fits into your regular voice.

[gno]

Thanks for the advice everyone.