The Importance of Resonation

Resonation is your key to effective communication. If you say or sing something, what your listener "hears" is determined by the WAY you do it...

Let me explain:
If your throat is somewhat closed and/or your airstream (power) is not supported and controlled, your resulting sound will not be perceived as important or confident. Your message will be "I'm not sure about this", "Don't eat me for saying this" or "It's ok if you don't listen to this".

Here is an example:
I was listening to NPR this morning and there was a hilarious bit about the note "Bb". There was an experiment someone did (this person may need a life) near a pit of alligators. He played a Bb on a tuba, and the gators started roiling and splashing around because they thought they heard a big rival intruder coming. No note except a Bb did the trick. Follow this link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5500502 for more of the story.

Now I'd like to see a further experiment. I bet if the guy played a Bb on a kazoo or flute, the gators would have ignored it. The resonation caused by the tuba communicated the message they "heard" that made them go nuts.

Conclusion: If you want your listener to "get your message", do it with an open throat. Your vocal cord buzz will then be able to reach all your resonation zones, and your sound will be rich and full. For help with resonation, check out my vocal training course at www.judyrodman.com

ALSO: if you're near a gator pit, don't voice a low "Bb". Do it in falsetto :)

Are You Really Communicating?

When we speak indistinctly, it doesn't communicate. Only common sense, right? Funny how a desire to communicate something can get scattered like a flashlight beam.

It's like there's a disconnect between your mind and your voice. It can happen for a lot of reasons, such as-

• You're not quite sure that the object of your message really wants to hear it. Hey, and sometimes, they don't! It's your job to change their minds...
• You don't really want to communicate- you're going through the motions while thinking about something else (don't you hate it when someone talks to you and you know they aren't really "present" with you?
• You are wondering how your voice sounds, how you look, what they think about you, what the judges will conclude(which has absolutely NOTHING to do with communicating)
• You may be afraid your voice or your message isn't good enough. (This is where you may need some help with vocal techniques and songwriting/selecting)
• You are, for whatever reason, INSECURE. Could be a temporary condition, or a chronic state.
• Or... You're actually only rehearsing for the real thing! Try this... count to 5 in a zombie-like voice (rehearsal). Now look at a point of your choosing and count with some kind of attitude... try mad, happy, amazed, confused, etc.

Communication problems can also be caused by a disconnect between your body and your voice.

Vocal training can provide life changing help to people who think that the voice only comes from the throat. Consider this...The best communicators have rich, musical voices with dynamics and flow. Guess what? If your voice is not like this, it's only that you don't know how to access all of your instrument. Much more than your throat, your voice involves your whole body. In fact, when operating optimally your voice should never feel like it's coming from your throat at all (unless you put your hand on your larynx and feel the vibration)!

To help connect the body and the voice, I have a saying: "act as if and ye shall be". In other words, what would your body language be (how would your posture be, how engaged would your eyes be, how well would you form your words) if you WERE secure about your voice and determined to communicate? OK, fake it till ya make it. Have faith in your voice... use a confident stance and delivery, and your voice will then clearly understand it's chore. Before you know it, you really ARE secure about your message, and someone is truly listening.

Remember that true communication has a purpose and an object. If it's worth saying/singing, then commit and communicate!!

What to do for your Speaking Voice

I had a comment on my last post that was a question about the speaking voice. Because I figure most of you may not click on the comments to see what is said, I thought I'd put the info in this new post, with a bit of elaboration.

I remember when I was on the road as an artist, I used to dread interviews before shows. It actually affected my singing voice to do a lot of talking before I sang, so I tried to have them scheduled after the show. Now I can talk all day long, 8- 10 hours a day and my voice never gets tired! (The rest of me does, but not my voice.)

Vocal sound quality and volume - whether speaking or singing- comes from resonation; your vocal cords just create the initial buzz when air moves through them. That buzz needs to reach reverberating zones in your head, throat & chest (some teachers even add your back and tailbone). That's how your speaking (and singing) voice can become much richer, more melodic, and yes, louder. Without adequate resonation, you end up pushing too much air through your cords trying to work up enough volume. Here are some tips for you:

• This advice alone will make immediate improvements: USE YOUR EYES WHEN YOU SPEAK!!! even on the phone!

To convince you, try this little exercise: keep your eyes very still and count to 5 moderately loud. Now count again, but move your eyes very animatedly while you speak, (check the mirror because sometimes your brain really doesn't know what your eyes are doing- your eyebrows should be active).

Your eyepads and eyebrows are very connected to what's going on inside your throat. You'll notice your voice is more melodic and can reach more pitches, and it's richer. It feels like you're pulling your voice out of your head by the word, with no forward "push" pressure. For practical application, just know it's important to communicate with your eyes while you are speaking- imagine your audience is deaf and needs to read your face for the message. Or imagine talking to a child. Use animation. ESPECIALLY on the phone, we tend to speak without expression on our faces.

• SUPPORT YOUR VOICE!

Don't be a talking head...Speak from your pelvic floor! Keep your ribs open by your posture, and you'll have compression power for your voice. This is another thing we do when we're on the phone... slouch. Then the voice feels like it's disconnected from the body. When standing, your voice needs your legs (which your voice considers butt extentions). Another power point: Whether sitting or standing, even on the phone, talk with your hands. It helps your ribs stay weightless and gives your diaphragm room to control the airflow to your cords. Keep your back flexible and keep your head from going forward of your shoulders. All tension can and should be relegated to butt and legs.

• WARM UP your speaking voice, too!

As many voice-over artists and actors know, it is very helpful to warm up the voice for speaking as well as singing. The tissues and muscles involved in your vocal apparatus need to get blood flow and flexibility increased.

• Get a list of tongue tanglers and say them a few times till your tongue and jaw get loosened and flexible, your face starts working, articulation gets animated and fluid... and you don't get your tongue tied behind your eye teeth when you practice (OK, it's a southern phrase, but you get the pic). I have pages of them for my clients...Try these three:

1. red leather yellow leather
2. you know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York
3. eleven benevolent elephants

• A great way to warm up is to make noises like a siren or ghost. You have to become somewhat fearless as to what people may think if they hear you.
• Humming, bubbling and tongue trills are great voice starters, too.

IN SUMMARY:

1. Warm up your voice
2. Talk with body language- especially eyes and hands
3. Keep your chest open, head back, chin level and your back flexible.
4. Loosen your jaw and form words distinctly.
5. And one more time... talk with your eyes!

If you'd like to check out the exercises in my training method Power, Path & Performance, go to my website www.judyrodman.com where you'll learn how to order my 6-cd package or my single cd condensed course.

Happy talking!

More thoughts on vocal pitch problems

I want to add some thoughts to my previous post:
Slowwww Dowsnnnn when you try the target practice exercise. Take plenty of time to:

1. Hear the music- the note(s) you play
2. Intend to hit that pitch dead center (focus your mind in a purposeful aim)
3. Support your aim (use your breath support centered in the pelvic floor to lift your voice into the right placement)

You can go a bit faster only when you are consistantly accurate in hitting pitch at the slower speed. This slowing down is vitally important... don't shortcut training the automatic nervous system. If you are used to being inaccurate with pitch it may take some time to re-train yourself and to trust yourself to sing in tune.

Before long your singing won't be like a game of vocal pin-the-tail-on-the-pitch. Your ears will be wide open and you will have begun habitually AIMING your voice at the right pitch!!

Another suggestion having to do with studio singing... don't think the recording engineer can make your vocal all it should be with vocal tuning. This technology is used, in my humble opinion, FAR TOO MUCH in today's recordings. The human voice sounds and communicates to the heart better with natural variences not usually allowed by those who over-tune vocals. Flying the same chorus everywhere can backfire and sound BORING!

Not to say vocal tuning and flying should not be done. On the contrary, sometimes it's wonderful to keep a vocal that has just the right magic but needs a slight pitch tweaking. And sometimes the chorus really is the same. It depends on the genre you're going for. Ask yourself (or someone whose opinion you trust) if you sound like a machine. If so, swallow your pride, get out your checkbook for studio time and sing a couple more passes of that song !!

Vocal Training: Pitch Issues and Target Practice

If you have pitch problems, it can usually be chalked up to:

1. The acoustic instruments (piano, ac. guitar) aren't loud enough
2. You aren't really listening to the music
3. The bass is too loud (overtones can fool you)
4. The electric guitar is too loud, or you're swimming in violin, steel, harmonica or organ
5. You don't want to listen to the music!
6. Your earphones are all the way flush against your ears instead of one side partially off (ok, so some people do well this way... go figure!)
7. You can't hear yourself acoustically and get aurally disoriented
8. You aren't connecting to your voice to the music
9. There is too little or too much reverb on your voice
10. You aren't really listening to the music
11. Your shoulder/back/neck/spine/big toe or some other part hurts and you aren't supporting your voice well enough for accuracy
12. You aren't really listening to the music

There are a lot of suggestions in the list above, but did you notice a certain redundancy? YOU AREN'T REALLY LISTENING TO THE MUSIC... You think you are, but you're not aiming at the center of the pitch in the music. And it's hard to hit something when you aren't aiming. Many times this is what is going on.

Here is a great way to fix it. Target practice!! Every day, make time to practice your aim. Hit a piano key or a note on guitar. Sing a short syllable like "la" or ya" and try to hit the pitch dead on. IMPORTANT: make sure you know when you're right- if you're not sure, enlist the help of a friend who CAN hear whether you're on pitch or not. Check yourself one note at time, then picking more random notes ( a short phrase) and see if you can hit them. Keep making the notes harder to hit.

You'll be amazed. Even people who have had damage to their ears from childhood infections, etc. can learn to be on pitch. If you want to bad enough, you can do it. Just make time for target practice!

Vocal Performance: Messages

There's an ancient Chinese proverb that goes something like this:
"A songbird doesn't sing to be heard, it sings because it has a song." I translate that proverb into this observation- The most important part of vocal performance is... THE MESSAGE!!

Here is an interesting vocal exercise:

Next time you choose to generate sound waves with your vocal apparatus, (or write something for someone else to sing!!)- I challenge you to honestly ask yourself: What is my motivation(s) for using my voice? Check all soul-searching answer (or answers) that apply:

• I'm trying to get someone to like me
• I'm trying to impress someone with my talent
• I'm trying to win a contest
• I want to make a fortune- no matter what addiction, violence, hate or sexual misconduct I have to sanction with my music.
• I want to be famous (worshipped)
• I need to know I have a voice that is heard
• I want to make a living with music I believe in
• I'm looking for a musical rush- to feel the passion of my own voice
• I'm singing as background vocalist for someone's recording project or live show and they are trusting me to give my best vocal efforts
• I'm speaking my truth for anyone who will hear
• I'm mad and want to expose something
• I'm in love and want to sing about it
• I want to entertain and make people happy (and it's really about them)
• I want to make people think
• I'm trying to share some insight on love/faith/justice/forgiveness/freedom/mercy/integrity/faithfulness/life/etc.
• I have a song you need to hear!

Btw... the only right answer is a truthful answer :)

The first answers, as you can see, involve insecurity and nervousness centered around yourself. I'd be lying if I claimed I have never been nervous or vocally insecure (that's how I know what YOU are doing! hehehehe)

As for contests... I'll share my thoughts about them on a future post, but here's a clue: I would like a contest named something like"American Positive Role Model" to take the place of "American Idol". (Investors welcome!)

If you're like me, you have more than just one motivation. And if you, like me, make a living with music, you have to draw your own fine line between the business and the art of music. As for me...I sang jingles and background vocals exclusively for many years, and I found that I almost lost my love of making music until I began writing songs that meant something to me. I still do background vocals and jingles today, but I know I also have to regularly sink my teeth into a message my heart needs to communicate to keep the fires going.

The paradox is, the more you make your performance a useful message to your listener instead of all about you, the better your vocal technique tends to be. See previous posts about body language on this blog.

Here is a possibly uneasy fact to wrap your head around. When you use your voice, you are sending a message. That message may cause people to like or dislike you, buy or not buy your music, reject or dismiss you, or... change something in their life or mark a memory because of your vocal performance. Music is THAT powerful!

Every choir practice. Every songwriting session. Every casual jamfest. Every recording. Every show. Remember who you are. Remember what messages you want your audience to hear. Then your singing can be considered - dare I say - a holy art. Comments always welcome...

LoVetri Post: Perfect Vocalism

Here is a link to a wonderful post on emotional singing by vocal teacher LoVetri. I totally agree with her conclusions.

If someone sings with power and technical perfection, yet without authentic emotional feeling, the performance is wasted. Yet emotion without training can wreck a voice.

The voice must elicit some kind of emotional response to be effective, yet no one listens very well when someone yells at them. Balance, dear singers. Balance vocal training with the courage to sing from your deepest truth.

Set yourself up correctly, know what you want to communicate, intend the message and support it. Let the song sing itself out of you. It's amazing when this happens.

Here is Ms LoVetri's article:
LoVetri Post: Perfect Vocalism

Jaw movement and the voice

The position and movement of the jaw has significant effects on the voice. You may hear different points of view from various vocal teachers about what you should try to do with your jaw. Whatever you are taught, just know that you can over-do what is being suggested.

Here's what I've learned by experience with both my own voice and that of my students and recording clients:

A stiff jaw (I call it "lockjaw") will limit your control of pitch, vocal range, tone color, and articulation. It will numb the eyes, which need to sparkle with communication in order to stimulate and expand the upper nasal membrane (yes, the eyes are intricately connected to the nose). It will tighten the throat, causing the larynx to rise uncomfortably (not good) with high notes. It thins the voice and causes vocal fatigue to quickly set in.

Sooooo... what to do?

• First of all, drop the jaw loosely. Don't drop it tightly like pliers, drop it at the hinge like a monkey wrench. You know that phrase from the movie "Forrest Gump" - "Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates"... try talking in that slack-jawed way and you should feel the jaw dropping.

NOTE: DO NOT OVER-DROP the jaw!! In fact, Forrest Gump drops the jaw too much for good vocal production. You need to feel distance between your molars, but to do this correctly you need to lift the upper jaw more than drop the lower one when you sing or speak. Anatomically, when I say "lift the upper jaw", I'm really trying to get you to lift your soft palate and the back of your nasal membrane. If you're doing this, your eyes will show it. The upper jaw lift feels like the beginning of the yawn. If you over-drop the jaw, you'll compromise this upwards lift.

• Secondly, move the jaw in a chewing motion. Don't over-chew; what I'm talking about is a slight sideways movement that unlocks the jaw much like a slight twist unlocks a frozen nut or screw. I noticed this when one of the members of my church choir was having trouble holding a note. When I suggested that she move her jaw in a slight chewing motion, all her vocal fatigue with this note disappeared.

So, give your jaw permission to be free...JUST DON'T OVER DO IT!

FYI: I have two cd packages available on my vocal training method "Power, Path and Performance".

• My 6-cd package sells normally for $130 + $5 s&h; if you order it by calling 615-347-5195 or emailing judyrodman@comcast.net, I will discount it to $99 + $5 s&h.
• My 1-cd condensed course sells for $17 plus $3 s&h. It's new, not even on the internet yet, so order it by the same phone or email.

Singing, Health and Body Language

Here are some very interesting links about singing you might want to read:

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/06/06/07/how_singing_improves_your_health_even_if_other_people_shouldnt_hear_you_singing.htm
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/10/19/how_your_body_language_conveys_confidence_intelligence_and_trust__or_a_lack_there_of.htm

Back Off the Pressure!

Here's a very important tip for using max vocal power...

DON'T DO IT!

I mean... never use 100% of the power you have available to sing. It will turn into "pushed" sound instead of what I like to call "pulled" sound.

Instead of "pushing", imagine pulling your voice, by the word, from above and behind you. If you sing as hard as you can, you will tense muscles and tendons in your neck, shoulders, jaw and tongue- oh, yes- and your larynx! This will limit your vocal range, will make it very hard and effortful to reach for upper notes, will fatigue your voice, and will sound strained, thin and brittle.

Instead, back off the pressure and you will find yourself with more vocal range, tone and pitch control. You'll be able to blend your registers much better. Your voice will less likely suffer from strain and fatigue.

That's because when you back off a bit, you'll be better able to keep your throat open, giving the vibrations from your larynx an open path to the resonation zones in your face, sinuses, nose, throat and trachea. You'll be able to blend your vocal registers so you are not screaming chest voice and then changing to weak head voice.

Here's the bottom line: Vocal volume should come from more resonation, not more pressure through your vocal cords!!!

IMPORTANT: As you back off the power, you should (and can) add PASSION! Meaning, with less strain in your face, neck and shoulders, you can articulate the words and emotions of your song even stronger.

So......

Whether live performance or in the studio: Back off the pressure + add passion, and you'll find that less is truly more!