Here are some tips for practicing you range: * Siren up and down throughout your vocal range

every day. * Practice high notes on quick scales but also practice sustaining them to build up stamina. * Stick your tongue out 10 times, 2-3 time a day to train the back of the tongue root to come forward. * Imagine that you are crying when singing high pitches (this helps tilt the thyro id). * Practice to the top and the bottom of your range every day and try to practice high pitches at least 8-10 times (not just once at the top of a scale. Let s talk a little about belt and how it is different from your head voice. As a classically trained soprano you would be used to singing in head voice or ti lt . Tilt refers to the fact that your thyroid cartilage or Adam s apple tilts in order t o stretch the vocal folds out, which attach into it. Belt is a very different way of using the vocal folds and in a female starts on about an A above middle C. Belt is always loud, requires a very high larynx and therefore a high tongue pos ition. There is lots of twang . As the vocal folds are closed for around 60-70% of the cycle, very little air is required in belt. Too much air will blow the vocal folds apart. Thus, supporting belt is very different to supporting the head voice, as you are almost coming off your airflow altogether. Support for belt is very high, the muscles in your back and under your armpits w iden and there is maximum engagement of the muscles in the torso. It is very useful to slightly lift the chin whilst maintaining a long neck. This helps prevent the vocal folds from tilting and lengthening, thus maintainin g the thicker vocal fold mass that is essential for Belt. When you first learn how to belt, only practice it for 5-10 minutes daily. You need to gradually increase your stamina, and if you practice longer than thi s at the beginning, you will ache afterwards and can damage your voice. Belt practice at the beginning is hard work and not particularly pleasant. The sound is not attractive and sounds and feels pushed . Singers have to get used to the sensation of lifting their voices into a high twa ngy place and the feeling of singing through the back of the head . The higher the belt is, the smaller the inner space becomes. Belt should never be pushed. When belt is correctly placed it feels as if you ar e lifting the voice, retracting the false folds (a feeling like silent laughter, or a happy surprise) and then throwing the sound behind you. I always teach my singers how to belt on a Yey! as it keeps the tongue forward. A Hey is not advisable, as you are beginning the tone on an aspirate. As belt has hardly any air passing through the folds, this sets you up in exactl y the wrong position. Back vowels are also very hard to belt and it is important to keep the tongue an d the jaw forward. Changing pitches in belt is like rowing in mud as opposed to water . It is much har der work. With short practices over a few weeks, you will find that belt starts slotting in . It becomes progressively easier and sounds better the more you do it. Through measured, correct practice over time, belt organically changes from an u npleasant, harsh sound, to an exciting quality that seems to sit in a place wher e you get a lot of sound for little effort at the vocal fold level, yet maximum athletic effort in the body. Belt is exciting rather than beautiful; it should be used with discretion. A lot of singers are not aware of the difference between a pushed up speech qualit y and real belt. The two are very different ways of using the mechanism.

Belt is actually much easier than pushing up your speech quality and it may help to find it by imitating an Italian market trader or a high-pitched Disney chara cter. It is important to get to the bottom of why you are out of tune; your singing te acher should come and watch you perform, in order to establish what is going on at a physiological level. Having gleaned this from watching you perform, the problem should be addressed i n the studio where, with the right exercises and adjustments to your technique, you will learn to establish a new muscle memory. If your new technique is understood and practiced over a few weeks, it will even tually become natural for you. The beginning of this process does require some discipline, as you must practice with the new technique, avoiding old habits. If you practice your bad habits, you will find it difficult to establish a new pat tern. Now to get to the pitch problems: if you find that you push the voice when you bec ome emotional, see whether you can observe which part of your anatomy tightens o r grips. If it is your jaw and your tongue root, the chances are that you are flat. This is because the jaw is attached to the tongue, and tension in one affects th e other. If the tongue and the jaw are tight, it is particularly difficult to lift the so ft palate. A flat soft palate results in a loss of high overtones, which in turn produces a tone which has a lack of top and sounds flat and slightly pressed. A tight tongue root also makes it difficult to lift your larynx and tilt the thy roid cartilage efficiently. In order to produce easy high notes, the tongue root should be relaxed and prefe rably sitting forward, allowing the larynx to move up and down freely. If you say j or the word sing , you will find the sides of the tongue sitting up agai nst your upper molars. This is an excellent place for the tongue forward and out of the way. Now check your posture. If you have a tendency to stick your neck out when you are emotional, the tiltin g mechanism becomes more and more difficult. Your vocal folds are attached into your thyroid cartilage or adam s apple. For higher pitches, the thyroid cartilage tilts forward, stretching the vocal fo lds, to enable the production of higher pitches. This mechanism is impeded if you stick out your neck or arch your face upwards. The answer is to try to observe yourself and play with finding solutions. Tension travels, so if you are emotionally charged, and your face is tense, tens ion builds up in other body parts. Experiment with isolating so that your posture remains open and your jaw and ton gue remain loose. Although you can do this yourself, it will be much easier and more effective wit h a professional, experienced coach on board for at least a few sessions.

Do lots of gliding exercises and practice mostly in your head-voice.

Make sure you are not over breathing; support the sound by anchoring properly

how to

retract

the false folds efficiently.

The false folds are the pair of thick folds of mucous membrane that protect and sit slightly superior to the more delicate true folds. When you cough or hold your breath, they close or constrict . When you openly laugh, the false folds retract, allowing the true vocal folds to vibrate beautifully. If you hold your ears closed and breathe in and out through your mouth, you will probably hear yourself breathing. If you now imagine that you are just about to burst into a giggle, then you will find that the false folds retract , so that your in and out breath is almost silent, as there is much more width through which the air can pass. This retracted position is very important for healthy clear vocal production, an d for that matter, also for a healthy speech production. Do practice it, especially after having coughing attacks. It will help you regai n a healthy, open singing position. After illness it is also very important to stretch the folds out by singing in w ell-supported head voice, gliding between fifths and octaves. A lazy soft palate does not allow for spin and good overtones in the voice. Practicing exercises which strengthen the soft palate would be a good idea. Try lots of Ging,Ging,Gings on scales all the way to the top of your range. Make sure you keep a crisp, muscular G at the start of the Ging . The soft palate is the soft section at the back of the roof of your mouth. In trained professional singers the soft palate raises like the dome of St. Paul s . There are two muscles in the soft palate, the tensor palatini , which tenses it, an d the levator palatini , which lifts it. A lifted, tense palate makes a much better sounding board for your voice, as the sound waves have a nice hard surface to bounce against. Unfortunately the soft palate has hardly any sensory nerve endings in it, so tea ching a singer how to lift it is no easy task. Any tension in the jaw and tongue root will certainly make it harder to lift the palate, as they are attached. Try to leave your jaw and tongue soft and relaxed when you sing. A sneer and idea of singing into your ears tends to encourage a lifted palate; you c an also try holding your nose closed. If the vowel sounds change and sound nasal when you pinch your nose, it is a goo d indication that you have a lazy palate. Try singing whilst pinching your nose and not allowing the tone to become nasal as a result. It takes a little while to master this, perhaps a few weeks to change muscle mem ory, but it is well worth it. Singers need to know the feel of proper breath support says Vocal Coach Leontine H ass. Support for vocalists can mean the releasing of air from the lungs in a controll ed, slow and sustained way. It is the management of breath and, importantly, it should be a flexible system; support is not about rigidity. Whilst enough air has to pass through the vocal folds, too much air or a rush of air passing through the folds makes for a breathy tone; the voice can crack as the folds are literally blown apart by air, singing is difficult and long phrasi ng impossible. So, support also means holding back air pressure from the vocal folds, to enable easy vocalising. How it Works A clear tone with good onset, able to be sustained efficiently, is the result of

good support. When you sing the vocal folds vibrate. The vocal folds sit horizontally in your larynx and there are hundreds of closures a second. The higher your pitch, the faster the vocal folds vibrate. On a middle C there are around 262 closures a second. On a high C there are abou t 1,046 closures a second. If you have a lot of sub-glottic pressure, or air sitting at the top of the lung s rushing against the vocal folds, then it is almost impossible for the tiny fol ds to vibrate at such a rapid rate. In order to both support the production of a long, sustained airflow at the same time as holding back a rush of air, it is important to use the muscles in the p elvic floor, abdomen and back. The Feel of Proper Breath Support More important than medical theory is the knowledge of how it feels to properly use the vocal folds and the muscles that contribute to breathing. If you imagine lengthening and widening your body, you are engaging your trapezi us (large triangular muscles extending over the back of the neck and shoulders) and are half way there. The way singers support also varies depending on their individual physiques. Try singing through your range using a consonantal V sound, going from the lowest pitch all the way to the top. You will find that the higher you go in pitch, the stronger and higher your supp ort has to be. Singers who are not very fit, should feel as if someone is grabbing their stomac h and slowly pulling it upwards, all the way from the groin. The pelvic floor should be engaged as it would be in pilates, rather than heavy weight lifting. To balance this action at the front of your body, you must also engage your lats (latisimus dorsi). Imagine you are holding ski sticks and now push your elbows down. You will now feel these muscles engage. After you have found your lats, try find ing your quadratus lamborum. These muscles sit slightly deeper than where your love-handles might be. If you lean forward and imitate a gorilla (undignified but it works!), you shoul d find them sitting deeply in the sides of your back. It is very important that support is a slow bracing rather than a grip. I find that many singers who also dance grip inwards and this forces air out rat her than releasing it slowly. It is important for all singers, and especially for dancers, to release their lo wer abdominal muscles completely before and during the in-breath. Sometimes singers start to engage their support muscles before finishing the ins piratory cycle this brings about constriction in the larynx. Do not take in more air than you need no hoovering . Otherwise you will have excess a ir pressure. Breath Support for Different Styles The way you support must vary for different voice qualities and pitches. Over supporting whilst singing a low tone tends to cause too much vibrato in the tone. Sing through your range, focus on your body and see how different pitches are be st supported for an optimum sound. If you are singing in head voice, good low breathing and support are essential. However, supporting belt is quite different; in belt the vocal folds are short a nd fat and closed for about 60-70 % of the cycle. If the vocal folds are almost shut, the air has nowhere to go. Too much air pressure would blow the folds apart (when the voice cracks). Therefore, belt requires only a very small amount of air. It almost feels as if you are coming off your air-flow, as you would be when holding a heavy object.

The support is felt much higher, the muscles come out right under your armpits, and your intake of breath is quick and high. You will also find that opera requires a much stronger support than singing ligh t musical theatre repertoire. The D-Word Finally, a note on the diaphragm. Although the diaphragm does lots of important things, it is an involuntary muscl e, rather like your heart. You cannot control it; let it take care of itself!

Fun Vocal Strategies * sing a favorite song in 5 different musical styles (country, reggae, jazz ) * imitate drum sounds * sing along to a recording and sing one of the instrument parts * sing along to a recording of a song you don t know and pretend that you know the song * sing a favorite song as if you were a silly stock character (a basso profundo, or a whiny nerd, or a caveman/woman, or ) * randomly flip through radio or television stations and imitate whatever voices you hear * improvise a wordless song * improvise a song that consists of only three single-syllable words (if you can t think of any words, then try goat, tan, and wash ) * make silly sounds. No, really, get your mouth moving in strange ways and make weird sounds. * skat sing to every song you hear * sing the melody to a favorite song as if you are an instrument * sing a favorite melody while plugging your ears and closing your eyes * learn a new tongue twister * sing a favorite melody on repeated rhythmic single sounds (bu, nu, dee, etc. o n quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes ) * play a well-known song on a kazoo

When you are running a sound check it is your right to change/move/adjust so tha t everything will be in place for you to have your best performance. Nothing is sacred: rehearsal space, performing space, studio headphones, clothin g, pre-show routines, diet, brand of microphone if you want to make a change so y ou are more comfortable, DO IT.

Musical Vocabulary: This is a set of words, but also how you put these words into practice: dynamics , tempo, rhythm, blend, timbre. These words allow you to communicate with other musicians, with students, with teachers, and with sound technicians. Vocalists s hould feel comfortable describing to a band what they want to happen at a certai n section of a song. They should be able to express why they sing things the way they do, and what techniques they are using. They should be able to talk to a h ouse sound engineer to make sure the sound is great for a performance. Physical Vocabulary: Your movements and gestures do as much, and at times more, to communicate your t houghts than your words do. Arm movements, staging and choreography, the way you hold your microphone, what you do with your hands while someone else is soloing : all these things influence the overall impact of your performance. Singers tha t take dance or movement classes develop a sense of how their body works and fee

ls. Filming your performances gives you a good idea of how you are moving. Coach es and teachers can help you find gestures that add to your performance. Stylistic Vocabulary: This refers to both the style (genre) of music you are singing, and the style (t echnique) in which you use your voice. You learn the style of your genre by list ening to the best singers in your genre. You learn the style of your technique b y working with great teachers who have achieved mastery over their own vocal ins trument. And you must commit yourself to spending a lot of time working, singing , experimenting, and especially recording yourself and evaluating what you hear.

Don t mentally end the phrase until it s actually over

Carry Your Message Through A performance works when the details of your message, musical interpretation and visual presentation are aligned. This alliance is powerful. It makes your song believable and brings it to life. It s usual to find the conclusion of a thought at the end of a sentence. When you sing, in order for your message to carry through and be received by you r listener, it s important not to drop your volume or expression prior to the end of each complete phrase. In other words, don t mentally end the phrase before it s actually over. The Golf Swing This can be likened to playing golf or tennis; when you swing to hit the ball, i n order for it to arrive at the target, you must envision the target and then fo llow through in your swing while maintaining your attention on where it is you w ant the ball to arrive. When you sing, think past each entire phrase of lyrics and melody. Intend that y our message arrive to the listener. If your attention is kept in close proximity to yourself, your communication wil l fall short and never fully arrive. It won t reach your audience, as you never actually intended it to do so and didn t ensure they could, in fact, understand you. Try This You can practice this by speaking each sentence of your song aloud while maintai ning attention on an object in the room. Pretend that the object can hear you. Then when speaking each line, say it in a believable way with your attention on the object. Sing each line in the same manner: with your attention on the object; imagine th e object actually hearing and understanding what you re expressing through the end of every line. Remember A professional artist invests considerable time and concentration in creating a multidimensional relationship with each song one that goes beyond the mechanics of singing. The interaction with the meaning, the content and the emotions behind the story creates a dynamic way to convey the song. How you shape the contours of the music through your phrasing and dynamics can h elp you to connect with your passion and enable you to carry your emotional inve stment to your audience. Then all you have to do is sing TO your audience, which brings your song to life and connects it to your audience.

Improve your tone and control with natural breath support says Jeannie Deva

Many singers have been told through the years to use good breath support. While we may instinctively want to agree with this statement, we may be confused by the many interpretations, opinions and approaches on the subject. To sort this out, it will help to understand some simple essentials about how yo ur vocal instrument actually works. Let s establish some basics. Your body is your instrument and it has a certain way it needs to work to make t he sounds of your voice. The style of music you sing really doesn t matter; that s more on the level of how y ou play your instrument; how your body works to make sound remains the same. When You Breathe In, Where Does the Air Go? I m sure you know that without a breath you can t sing (or speak). So, one element o f importance is the intake of breath. But how? Have you ever been told to push your belly forward when you breathe in? Or, that air goes into your diaphragm or stomach when you inhale? From an anatomical reality, no air goes into your diaphragm (which is a muscle) nor does it go into your belly (which is filled with other types of organs such as intestines). Air goes into your lungs. OK, you knew that. But did you know that the biggest part of your lungs is in your back? The tops of your lungs are just below shoulder level. They fill your chest, fron t to back. In front, they only extend down about four inches. But in back, they extend down to a few inches above your waist. For many, this is a total surprise. When you breathe in, most of the air goes in to your back! Breathe Into Your Back To permit your body to work naturally and breathe the way it s designed; allow you r ribs to open as you inhale. Your rib cage, by moving, pulls open your lungs and that pulls in your breath. The joints that permit movement of your ribs are in your spine. And the stronges t muscles that help move the ribs are in your back as well. (Makes sense, right? ) So if your posture is at least basically OK, this movement can happen more easil y. Try this: Place your hands on both sides of your body about two to three inches above your waist. Recognizing that air will go into your lungs primarily in your back, inh ale and feel your ribs expand. Now exhale. Again inhale so you can feel your rib s open and the air come into your back. Now sing something. You should notice an immediate improvement in your vocal tone and a greater ease in singing. This is just the beginning of natural breathe support.

As a performer, you have a special power. Your audience is granting you this power just like you ve probably granted it to o ther performers; it s up to you to master it and use it well. Otherwise known as stage projection or performer charisma, the ability to comman d your performance space is an essential ingredient of your song delivery and pe rformance success. This is true whether you re performing for a video or at a live audience-performan ce venue. Beginning The Connection Your audience connection begins with your attitude toward them. You may not know a single person out there, but they ll like you if you like them first. By extending yourself to your audience you help create their interest, their sen

se of acceptance and their receptivity toward you. It s a two-way street. What you give you ll receive. Good stage projection and audience rapport stems from extroverted attention. The ability to guide your performance toward a desirable outcome begins with dir ecting your attention and interest outward, rather than inward. This is a skill that can only be developed with day-to-day practice; it won t just magically occur when you step on stage. Remember that your voice reflects your thoughts, attitudes and emotions. Exercise: Choosing the Feeling You Want to Create 1) Just before you go on stage or begin to perform your song on video, focus on the feeling you want to create through your presence and your song. 2) Create in your imagination a sense of how you re going to affect your audience, the overall mood you re going to establish right from the beginning. Imagine it a s if it s happening right now. Even though you haven t begun the song yet, mentally project this into your performance space. 3) Maintaining and continuing to create this focus, intend to involve your liste ner in the world of your song and begin.

Your gaze on stage can take your song to a new level says Jeannie Deva It may not be appropriate to sing every lyric of every song looking directly at your audience or individual audience members. But if you re avoiding looking at them, your audience may feel shut out or unengag ed. Being withdrawn from your audience like that, your performance might lack ma gnetism. On what basis can do you choose to connect with your eyes? Eye contact should be a decision based on suitability for the song, not on a fix ed method or emotional restriction. Similar to books or movies, song lyrics represent a dialogue, a narration of tho ughts in a character s mind. Let the Lyrics Guide You Additionally, the lyrics can be in first ( I ), second ( you ) or third person ( he or n a grammatical sense. Registering whether or not you re singing to someone in a dialogue or are relaying your thoughts as in a daydream can add depth to your song interpretation. This will inform you as to what to do with your eyes, with your gaze, while on s tage. However, even when your eyes are closed, continue to project the energy of the s ong outward. This will help you maintain your audience connection. What you do with your eyes and whether they re open or closed will differ, dependi ng upon your message. There are no rules about this except that what you do with your eyes, your gaze and facial expressions will either complement the song interpretation or it will detract from it. The point is to make a choice. Try This Out Look over the lyrics of a song and take note of whether they represent a dialogu e, narrative or introspective thoughts; notice if that changes as the song progr esses. The lines that can be sung to someone else can be sung directly to the audience and would ordinarily include looking at audience members. Other sentiments can be sung with eyes closed or looking somewhere other than at the audience. If you feel uncomfortable with eye contact, you can look in between faces or jus t over a person s head (or video camera) as if you re looking into someone s eyes. From the audience s perspective, it will look as though you re making eye contact. As you build confidence, transition into making direct eye contact to build grea ter performance power.

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