Help Getting a Student to Bridge

[Jarom]

My Mom approached me the other day wanting me to teach her. So now i'm giving her free lessons because.... well shes my mom. she is having a super hard time connecting and bridging through her break. I have tried lift up pull back, resonant tracking, mums, bubs, bips, and tons of other exercises to help get her to bridge yet she still either yells the note or switches to the voice she has sung with for 30 years, a breathy falsetto carpenter type voice. Her embouchure and vowel mods are ok I just need to remind her to drop her jaw all the time. 

 

What are some tips to get her into the right placement and to bridge her registers?

[SickXamedhi]

Well, I'm going to start calling it "mom syndrome". All those years shouting and yelling might have thrown their voices off balance, with full chest engaged the whole time LMAO

Now being serious. haha, How is her headvoice?  Is it balanced in strength with her chest voice?  Because if it is weak and is only like a breathy falsetto that might be why.
To be able to bridge smoothly, both muscular groups must be as close to balance as possible, so she might have to lower a lot of volume and compression on her chest voice to achieve that smooth transition. CVI teaches, for example, a change in the mode will cause abrupt clicks or breaks. So I cannot approach my bridge in a load chest volume if my headvoice is not on par with it to cope with the pressure.

---- See if she can do falsetto on his chest voice, low or in the middle, just where she would normally be comfortable, and then siren up without loosing that breathy airy quality, in a very low/low/medium volume, whatever is more comfortable for her.   Then, she should train the hell out of her falsetto, so she can get more adduction in the headvoice. Doesn't matter if the breaks are still in, little by little in all areas and then they become just one.

I hope it helps.

[Owen Korzec]

Can she do the lift up pull back smoothly yet? If she is still flipping on the lift up pull back don't move on from there yet. just tell her to keep practicing making that feel and sound like one soft relaxed voice from bottom to top.

Try to get her to think in a different way - instead of thinking of bridging two unlike sounds, you want her to think that she's just keeping the same coordination she started with (have her start with an airy medium soft speaking tone - i forget if that's the normal LUPB way but try it for her) but instead of using more physical effort to sing higher, she is backing off and lightening the mass, thinning out to get to higher notes, but just doing it very gradually and early in time to start.

[Sexy Beast]

Although I don't teach much, this is what I do:

 

Listen to the singer on a 5-tone "ah". You can start her on Ab3 and move up.

 

First thing you're listen for is the quality of her chest voice:

- Is she using her chest voice? If not you can stop right there, she needs to find chest. Some women like to pull the head voice down.

- Is she a little light on the bottom? Perhaps a little breathy?

- Or does she squeeze as soon as she starts singing (pressed phonation)?

 

Then as the scale moves up you listen for what she's doing in her transition:

- Is she letting go and flipping into falsetto?

- Is it somewhat connected but a little weak on top?

- Does the vowel start to go wide?

- Does she start yelling?

- Etc...

 

If you know the properties of vowels and consonants and what her issues and tendencies are you can design exercices for her. Also which scale you use, where you start and the direction of the exercise is important.

 

Hard consonants like "g", "k", "b" will help with cord closure.

Medium consonants "m", "n" will not help that much

Aspirates "f", "sh" will tend to lessen cord closure

 

Vowels like "oo, "ee"... will drive her towards head voice, "ah", "eh"... towards chest as opposed to a more neutral vowel like "uh".

 

You also have bratty, witchy, crying, edgy, dopey sounds. Each have their purpose.

 

You might also want to start her on semi occluded sounds because they are generally easier to "bridge" than open sounds. Try lip rolls, tongue trills, "v", french "g", "z", "ng", straw. From there you can open the voice up into more difficult exercises but make sure she retains balance.

 

Hope that helps.

[Sexy Beast]

Also you might wanna check out:

- http://www.voiceteacherbootcamp.com

- Dean Kaelin's book "Teaching Good Singing"

[ronws]

SexyBeast, is that your website or is it the source you are learning from? Nothing wrong with that, just wondered. You talk about teaching students so I didn't know if you were already a teacher or not. Does that program provide a certificate? And how is the certificate accredited?

 

For example, I am a master electrician in Texas. I had to have  verifiable number of years experience and passing results of an exam that tested my skills in finding answers in the NEC, calculate loads on a building (basic electrical engineering), reading plans. The testing org was accredited, Sherman, Texas is a recognized my license. Later, that was grandfathered into state license. And I have to do continuing ed for credits that are transmitted to the state site TDLR for use in renewing my license. And, in fact, because what the license means, the state also now recognizes masters as electrical designers (basically electrical engineers.)

 

Actually, what would it take anyone anywhere to certify as a teacher and how is that certification recognized, honored, etc? And is it similar in effect? I never passed my license exams the first time. But I knew a guy who was absolutely useless in the field but he passed his journeyman's first time, while in trade school and did not have enough equivalent hours to go ahead and get the license.

[Sexy Beast]

Hey Ron,

 

The website belongs to John Henny. To my knowledge there is no testing or certificate provided but you would have to ask John about that.

 

I've learnt from the old SLS manual, Dean's book, other books, workshops, observing lessons etc...

 

Lots of different organizations have a certification program, you should be able to learn more from their website: IVTOM, IVA, CVT, Estill...

[ronws]

Hey Ron,

 

The website belongs to John Henny. To my knowledge there is no testing or certificate provided but you would have to ask John about that.

 

I've learnt from the old SLS manual, Dean's book, other books, workshops, observing lessons etc...

 

Lots of different organizations have a certification program, you should be able to learn more from their website: IVTOM, IVA, CVT, Estill...

 

I am aware that each teaching system will certify its teachers. But I don't guess there's a common standard to test against.

 

So, are you a certified teacher?

 

In college, one can major in something and also in the pedagogy of that thing. For example, my first wife had a BA from SMU in piano performance and pedagogy. That means she could both play and teach piano.

[Sexy Beast]

 

So, are you a certified teacher?

 

No I'm not.