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akarawd

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Steven, I wanted to ask you what your opinion is about contracting the abdominal muscles more as one goes higher up the scale (Elizabeth Sabine method).

Thanos

Thanos: Not quite sure of your specific question, but generally, when ascending a scale there will be a little more breath energy used for the higher notes. Most, if not all of it, will be produced as a reflex by the singer's desire to maintain tone quality as the scale is ascended. IMO, a deliberate attempt to contract the abs will result in too much ab action, and will require more diaphragmatic balance effort (more support) to counteract the extra exhalation force.

QUite often I find young students with 'yell' vocal habits, in which the ab reflex on the ascending scale is too strong all the time... where overdoing it is ingrained habit. For them, who already do to much, _more_ ab action is counterproductive. For many, I find it better to teach a 'less ab as you go up' exercise as a countermeasure. During the scale, they find the right balance (it can be heard in the voice, seen on the body, and felt by the singer'). On repetition, I have the singer stop and sustain that note, the one where the balance is just right, have the student identify the sensations involved, and then work out both higher and lower sustaining those sensations.

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Totally spot on, Steve. My problem before was the shout instinct to push massive air. Learning to hold back and not push so hard has allowed some of my pitch problems to clear up, since I am not overtaxing the folds as much.

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One of you guys asked me to explain how I hit the A5 in "Child In Time".

Well, I was always led to believe that to hit high notes, you don't inhale a lot of air, but you have to push down a lot more, use your diaphragm to the max almost. And that's what I did. There's absolutely no secret as to how I did it...I just simply did it, haha. I inhaled, with my ribs expanded, and the moment I let out that scream, I PUSH hard down focusing on my belly. But I think pushing down hard lets a lot of air come through which hurts the voice... so now I gotta do more research :)

Actually, that explains a lot, regarding your thread in the review and critique section. You were probably experiencing loss of tonality or voice endurance on your part, as you described, though the song sounded fine, because of pushing too much air. It's very subtle but one trick is to hold yourself back from pushing too much air. It took me a while to do that and it wasn't until I started visiting this forum and reading articles on the push of air that I was able to make some progress. Like you, I could hit some really good high notes and then I was trashed after that and would have to finish my practice set with a baritone song, like "Brandy." Now, I can go from "Sweet Child of Mine" to "Highway to Hell" to "Long Way to the Top" to "Heaven and Hell" without needing a low song to rest. I will still, however, vary my practice set list just to stay flexible in live performance and what it means to pace a show or presentation with fast and slow, loud and soft.

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akarawd wrote:

Steven, I wanted to ask you what your opinion is about contracting the abdominal muscles more as one goes higher up the scale (Elizabeth Sabine method).

Thanos

Thanos: Not quite sure of your specific question, but generally, when ascending a scale there will be a little more breath energy used for the higher notes. Most, if not all of it, will be produced as a reflex by the singer's desire to maintain tone quality as the scale is ascended. IMO, a deliberate attempt to contract the abs will result in too much ab action, and will require more diaphragmatic balance effort (more support) to counteract the extra exhalation force.

QUite often I find young students with 'yell' vocal habits, in which the ab reflex on the ascending scale is too strong all the time... where overdoing it is ingrained habit. For them, who already do to much, _more_ ab action is counterproductive. For many, I find it better to teach a 'less ab as you go up' exercise as a countermeasure. During the scale, they find the right balance (it can be heard in the voice, seen on the body, and felt by the singer'). On repetition, I have the singer stop and sustain that note, the one where the balance is just right, have the student identify the sensations involved, and then work out both higher and lower sustaining those sensations.

Thanks for your answer Steven, it answers my question, yes. The above mentioned method goes for "contract more to get higher" supporting that a contracted diaphragm acts

as a short of switch helping to generate higher notes. You are going more for balance than "push one way disregarding each individual's needs".

PS. I sincerely hope you have a book in the works.

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My problem before was the shout instinct to push massive air. Learning to hold back and not push so hard has allowed some of my pitch problems to clear up, since I am not overtaxing the folds as much.

Same here Ron, especially for high notes.

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Stan: The relationship of 'pushing down' and the air depends on what motion you are using to push down.

If your chest is staying steady while you do it, then the actual pushing is being done by the diaphragm. There are no muscles around the abdominal space, other than it, which flex downward.

There are two ways to tell that this is happening or not, both done with your throat and glottis open, as if right before starting a note (that is, while doing the downward press in anticipation of the note) :

1) press your hand against your abs either just above or belly button. If the abs feel 'firm', resisting your hand press, then the diapragm is engaged, and is balancing the action of the abs which would make you exhale rapidly if the diaphragm were not engaged. In this case, the diaphragm and the abs are in an isometric balance. The abdomen is under some pressure, and you may also see a vein in your neck become prominent.

2) Look at the ab area right below the sternum. If it is bulged out forward a bit, then the diaphragm and the abs are in that isometric relationship.

Best of all situations is for those that use the push down is for both number 2 and 1 to be happening. HOWEVER, the amount of firmness (and pushing down) that is needed is determined by how strongly the abs are contracting in opposition. If you sing with less contraction there, you do not need to push down so hard. As you probably know, I don't advocate the push down at all, I have a different way of discussing it. However, the principles of muscle action are the same: balance the ab muscle strength with the diaphragmatic engagement.

Steven, thank you for that detailed response!

Truth is, whenever I add support, I would place my hand on top of my diaphragm, and on my gut, and I would feel them both "pop out" or "tighten", which tells me I'm doing it correctly. It's just a matter of learning how much support I have to place. Seems like I don't have to push down really hard to hit high notes. This is not brute force after all. And when I push down, I don't necessarily focus my support on my butt, but rather my gut...the muscles below the belly. I just sing from that area. And when I do, I feel it tighten and I feel the diaphragm pop out (or descend?...it does something).

I never raise my chest, so the chest stays in the same position at all times.

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Truth is, whenever I add support, I would place my hand on top of my diaphragm, and on my gut, and I would feel them both "pop out" or "tighten", which tells me I'm doing it correctly. It's just a matter of learning how much support I have to place. Seems like I don't have to push down really hard to hit high notes. This is not brute force after all. And when I push down, I don't necessarily focus my support on my butt, but rather my gut...the muscles below the belly. I just sing from that area. And when I do, I feel it tighten and I feel the diaphragm pop out (or descend?...it does something).

I never raise my chest, so the chest stays in the same position at all times.

Stan: This is a pretty good description of what I had in mind. Just for clarity, as the diaphragm descends inside you (down and forward some), the area in the front of the abdomen, right below the sternum, pushes out. If you care at all, that part you can see push out is the 'epigastrum'.

It sounds to me that you have things well in hand when it comes to support, that you are neither under- or over- doing it.

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I am overdoing it, Steven. :)

I've been pushing so hard to reach the intensity of the note that I'm singing, not realizing that what I'm really doing is increasing a ton of breath pressure that's hurting my voice.

But guys like Jaime Vendera push down really hard and they're fine. So...hmmm... well, whatever works for you I guess.

Thanks, Steven!

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