A4 sirens

[David_kylie]

Well while im gathering money for pillars im trying to do some stuff i picked up from internet...So far ive been doing preety good actually...ive been able to expand my range from crackly F4 to A4...just yesterday i was able to perform A4's without breaking in 90% of the case...

Here is an example of 2-3 sirens....

What i wanna know is can u hear some distinct mistake im doing...i am aware this is the TOP of my range and its far from perfect but just some pointers to make it sound a lil less strainy (altough im really not straining while doing this but it feels like its just about to crack)

https://app.box.com/s/sv5z9zpcilzjz5thy5bn

Thanks )

[Martin H]

@David

Sounds fine. This is just one of many ways to do a siren. You use the AH > UH vowel modification. Can you hear that?

[David_kylie]

Actually i didnt even trying to do that..i guess its a bit easier when u are doing it will keep in mind that later and try to use it intentionaly Thanks

[Martin H]

But you can hear it now right?

[David_kylie]

Yea ofc...umm i know what vowel mod is..its just that i didnt do these ones intentionally

[Martin H]

Great, it just shows that you do something correct intuitively. And now, by being aware of it, you can use it consciously. :)

[RowboCaup]

You are doing the right thing, but your pharynx is tightening up giving you a squeezed sound. As you get better at this, that will happen less. Here is a tip:

During your onsets, try and leave your face/mouth/neck/tongue/jaw/throat relaxed. Make sure the onset is clean, clear, resonant, and vibrant. As you slide upwards in pitch, try not to lose the integrity of the relaxed mouth/neck/tongue/jaw/throat and let the resonance shift to where ever it wants to go (let the vowel modification do it's own thing).

I hope that helps, GOOD LUCK!

[David_kylie]

help alot,,,just tried your tip and after a few tries it really had a difference

[Khassera]

Question:

Are sirens like "THE" exercise for the voice? I recall Jaime Vendera saying he built his voice with sirens, and prefers sirens over scales.

If one had to pick (although you don't have to, I'm very fully aware of that), would it make more sense to do sirens than scales? If so, what gain would there be? Obviously slow sirening will build the passagio...

[Felipe Carvalho]

Khassera.

Legatto (sirens) is important, but so is registering the melody you are singing.

One thing that works very well, is to work the scale as if it was a siren:

Think of the extremes, low - high - low, on the scale.

Do it once as if it was a siren, continuous.

Then keep the idea of siren and just register each pitch in between, this will force you to keep legatto while registering the notes well.

On a side note, this does not "build" passaggio, there is nothing there different than the rest of the range in regards to emission.

[jaybird]

For actual songs having a scalar resolution is important of course, hence

the use of solfege in traditional teaching. For myself, I use chromatic scales

because developing a 12 tone resolution is important for jazz.

How often do you hear singers siren, well, other than teachers trying to

impress you with their range ? Legato is VERY important, yes, but

doing a legato run on a specific series of tones and having the intonation

correct is also crucial, and you wont get that via some uncontrolled siren.

[Owen Korzec]

I've had way more success with legato scales (they helped me learn to siren correctly in fact) but it all has to do with how you do them. They both have their pros and cons, but one thing can't be argued - legato scales are WAY more similar and relevant to 99% of the art of singing.

In that sense, training sirens as your main thing, is probably not a good idea. Unless you just want to be a vocal teacher that can show off great sirens and do not much else very well.

[David_kylie]

Oh i was thinking all these new posts are about my sirebs haha im dissapointed

[jaybird]

...

Singing is crucial because if you do sirens or scales and don't sing enough you will only be very good at exercises.

Its only when you sing songs that you confront all the fascinating issues of diction and articulation,

and believe me, even more than warbling sirens and scales, its here that you really want to have

a teacher, because these nuances differentiate an amateur from a pro.

Singing an Ab5 in an exercise is like having a 25ft run and jumping over a hurdle, singing in a

song you might have to jump that hurdle with NO run up, its quite a different kettle of fish :)