Tuesday, January 2, 2018 by Patti Barrow | Technique Helps

- by Katarina Schmidt

SIMPLE DEFINITION OF PHONATION

Phonation is defined as vocalization. Vocal sound is created by the opening and closing of the vocal cords, caused by air flow from the lungs. Muscular resistance to the air pressure also determines sounds from breathy to pressed or pinched.

HOW DO THE VOCAL CORDS OPEN AND CLOSE?

Bernoulli’s principle explains why air opens and closes the cords.

It is the same principle that keeps airplanes in the air. It states that slower moving air has more air pressure than faster moving air. When the space between the vocal cords is narrow, it is similar to a spot on the freeway that goes from four lanes to one. Before the constricted area, cars build up and slow down. During the one lane opening, few cars slowly get through and speed up after the highway opens up to four lanes again. The same goes for air flow through the vocal cords; pressure builds up below the vocal cords when the space between them is narrow. Eventually increased air pressure bursts them open. Muscular resistance to Bernoulli’s principle manipulates sound produced by laryngeal activity.

USE PAPER AND LIPS TO REPLICATE ACTION OF VOCAL CORDS

Take two sheets of paper and place them vertically in front of your mouth. Blow air forcefully through them. You may think the air will push the papers apart.

It actually causes the papers to flap together, which is a very clear representation of how the vocal cords work inside the larynx. Another similar activity is to buzz the lips, by keeping them loose and breath flowing. If you add pitch to the buzz, notice the lips elongate and loosen on lower notes and shorten and tighten on higher ones just like your vocal cords.

HOW DO THE VOCAL CORDS PRODUCE LOUD SOUNDS?

Notice the two vibrating papers make very little sound. Vocalization, however, makes a significantly louder sound because of the resonating chamber of the vocal tract in the human body. Each vocal cycle creates a puff of air produced by air pressure below the vocal cords cause them to suddenly open. Each air puff is like a tap on a drum. It sends a wave down the vocal tract causing it to vibrate. The rate at which the vocal tract vibrates determines pitch. So, 440 puffs of air per second create the pitch A above middle C. The frequency is referred to as 440Hz or hertz, which means cycles per second. The vocal tract can also be adjusted to create a louder or quieter sound.

WHERE ARE THE VOCAL CORDS LOCATED?

The larynx, often referred to as the voice box, is located on the neck where the Adam’s apple is. It houses and protects the vocal cords. Many muscles within the larynx aid in vocalization, but the vocalis muscle provides the main mass of the vocal cords. Laryngeal activity is another and possibly more accurate way to refer to vocalization, because it refers to all muscles involved rather than just the vocal cords.

HOW DOES KNOWLEDGE OF HOW VOCAL CORDS WORK IMPROVE VOCAL TONE?

With knowledge of how the vocal cords work, singers can find their breath threshold.

Breath threshold is the perfect balance between air energy caused by the Bernoulli Effect and muscular resistance to that energy by the vocal cords. The product is the loudest, most efficient and beautiful vocal sound each singer is capable of. If you sound pressed, then you are using too much muscular force to slap the vocal cords together. If you sound breathy, then you may not be closing your vocal cords together efficiently. To find your breath threshold, sing one note on 'ah' as breathy and quietly as possible. Sing the note again just as breathy, but a bit louder. Repeat this process until you cannot sing any louder. Breath threshold is the point just before applying more muscular effort to sing louder does not add volume.

Saturday, July 1, 2017 by Patti Barrow | Technique Helps

Warm-ups --> Focused technical exercises --> Implement into Song Repertoire -->  Artistic Performance

Over the years, Students have struggled from time to time with "doing warm-ups", deciding to just go right into their "song practice".  

For vocalists, this is the equivalent of running a 30 min marathon without stretching your quads, calves and glutes. Even if you do arm curls, bench press and jumping jacks, by the last corner the leg cramps are hitting and you are gasping for breath.  Without doing the proper warm ups, and warming up the proper muscles and tissues, the longer the race, the worse our race gets.  The same goes for our, and the more apt we are to attain vocal injury. So, are warm-ups and exercises really that important? Absolutely. Just as in any sport, warm-ups for the voice are necessary preparations for lesson, rehearsal or performance. And a definate must in preventing vocal injury. A good warm-up before a vocal work out will ensure the vocal cords are flexible and strong, while encouraging a vocal that is free yet controlled.

A short 5-10 minute selection of exercises is plenty to get you ready for action and even better if they quickly get you where you need to be. And remember, if you give yourself plenty of time to warm up before "go time", you can address any issues that may come up ...which helps avoid those last minute "freak outs". So which ones are the most efficient?  And what exactly do they do?

Well, here you go!  Enjoy!

GLISSANDO YAWNS - So many of us carry our tension in our jaws. We grit our teeth during the day and grind our teeth at night.  The act of yawning not only helps to open up the esophagus, but also helps in opening and relaxing the jaw. To help release jaw tension, place your fingers on your cheeks and slide the back to your hairline just in front of your ears. As you open your jaw, feel for the indentation in that joint. Massage that area, just below, and forward. Then on a "yaw", choose a high note in your head range and descend on a glissando as you drop your jaw on the "yaw".

LIP TRILL SIRENS - One of the first things we do in studio! This exercise is done by blowing air through closed, relaxed lips and voicing an 'uh' vowel will help to maintain that cord closure a bit better. Do a 1.5 or 2 octave scale to achieve the maximum stretch in the vocal cords. If you aren't sure how high or low that is, go as high and as low as is comfortable without feeling tension. If you are having a hard time getting it started, try placing a couple fingers into the fleshy part of your cheeks and raise them up. This can release extra facial tension and help your lips vibrate freely.

RASPBERRY TONGUE TRILLS - (a personal fave). Similar effect as a tongue or lip trill, only the tongue is out of the mouth and you're blowing a raspberry! When the tongue is further forward it lifts the tongue root off the larynx, and allows the larynx to lift and reach optimum height at the top of your range. It allows for a bit of extra stretch, even if it's just a note or two.  Keeping the tongue relaxed will train the tongue not to react to a change of pitch and is awesome for helping get rid of tongue tension.

STRAW GLIDES - Using a small plastic straw, think an "ah" as you sing through the straw, following that same range as the siren. The back pressure created when phonating helps to maintain better cord closure, so this warm up is excellent at helping rid the voice of any breathiness. It can also help in stabilising the larynx, regulating breath management and stretching the vocal cords in a very safe way.

SUSTAINS and VOWEL CHANGES - This is exercise #1 on your sheet, and more challenging than you may expect. Sustaining a note with vibrato can help to balance the tension in the vocal cords and will get you ready for those lengthy notes in your songs. Use an 'N' at the start to create a mini back pressure with the airflow such as 'Nay'. Hit a sustain before coming down an arpeggio scale at all pitches. Vary the vowels like ‘Nee’, ‘No’ or ‘Nay’ to know which vowels are easier and which may need a bit more attention. Once you have mastered the sustain on a single vowel, you enter phase 2.  Resonance varies on different vowel shapes, so you'll want to ensure that your voice stabilizes consistently from vowel to vowel. Following on from the exercise above, sustain your starting vowel for two beats, then switch to another. Be sure to keep your balance and composure as you change between the vowels, and challenge yourself in the trickier parts of your voice too.

NG's. - These are exercises 12 & 13 on your sheet.  This is the "hung" exercise. When you voice the 'ng', you'll feel your tongue and soft palette meet at the back of your mouth. Like the straw, this is an occluded exercise, so once again it's great at creating that back pressure of air to the vocal cords. It's also very effective in helping to bridge the passaggio so use it on sirens from the very bottom of your range to the top (as far as feels comfortable) and back down again. Gently use this on a 5 tone descending scale to the very lowest part of the range to warm up your low notes.

THE 'A' VOWEL - This is an excellent exercise for those of you that are breathy in the chest region of the range. When keeping the mouth wide and the tongue resting forward, make a repeated staccato "A" sound (as in cat). Keep the scale short (1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1) and use as little volume as possible, while keeping the sound clear and non-breathy. This will help to get the vocal cords working on their own instead of using excessive breath and/or muscle tension to bring them together.

Remember, it's the warm-ups that help things get out of the way and take their rightful place. Warm-ups also help those intricate muscles and vocal folds stretch and awaken, and ready to do their part! After including these warm ups to your routine, try one of the more difficult parts in your song ee where it's made the difference!   

Friday, June 23, 2017 by Patti Barrow | Confidence

As singers, we've all heard it.  We're in a conversation with a friend and it plays out like this:

Voice Student:  "Sorry, I can't today. I have a voice lesson right after class."

Friend: "What do you do at voice lessons anyway? You just .. sing ... right?" 

One thing you can tell your friends is "singing lessons is much more 'just singing'."  You work hard, focusing in on learning new skills all the while learning to "let it go".  Who knew breathing to sing was so different from blowing out a candle?!  In voice lessons you learn a unique balance of training abdominal muscles to work, while training jaw and tongue to let go and you are balancing breath management with phonation. The list goes on. Outside of vocal technique, you are learning how to read music and sing in foreign languages. Then, once you learn a song,  you learn performance techniques so you can be successful performing in front of others. There is a lot to learn!

Ultimately, anyone who can identify with any of these statements would benefit grately from Voice Lessons:

• I want a better range
• I want a stronger voice
• I run out of breath when I sing
• I go off pitch when I sing 
• My voice sounds too breathy
• I get hoarse when I sing for a long time
• I get hoarse after I sing loudly
• I frequently get a sore throat or laryngitis
• My break is huge
• My head voice is very weak
• My chest voice is very weak
• My body feels so tense when I sing
• What do these italicized words mean? Rit., dim., poco a poco?
• I can't sing fast songs
• I mumble when I sing
• My jaw hurts after singing for a while
• I don't have a vibrato
• I have too much vibrato
• I need a wider range of songs to sing
• I don't know how to "sell a song" emotionally
• I'd like to explore different styles
• I want to be in a staged musical
• I've been asked to sing at my sisters wedding
• I've been asked to sing at a church event
• I have no idea what I'm doing in choir, I just turn the page when the person next to me does ...

If you ever get in another awkward conversation regarding voice lessons,

and the above list doesn't clarify it for them, just use this drawing.

Bottom line is...singing makes us happy. I hope this helps!