Vocal Care and Protection is VITAL for Professional Singers

Learning to care for the voice is a must for all singers. Vocal care and hygiene should be a large part of any vocal training program that you sign up for. Some singers I have worked with do not realize how important vocal care is until they lose their voice. If the voice is pushed too hard by improper singing from the throat or a lack of breath support or singing without awareness, damage to the vocal chords can result. If you push your voice and over-work it, not only can Laryngitis occur, but nodes or vocal burn can impact the vocal chords, often requiring a need for total vocal rest, sometimes lasting several weeks.

Professional singers who have trained their voice know they must protect their instrument, pamper it and do the work of learning to master breathing technique and the work involved in building strong breath support and vocal control. It is like you need to make the training your religion (so to speak) as a singer, and learn to love your practice time. --"I don't like to go on the road because it messes with my practice time." -- Sonny Rollins

I've seen students who try to sing like Christina Aguilera and some actually sound pretty good.  But, when I try to impress upon them that they need to sing like themselves and retrain their voice and learn to sing properly so they are not pushing from their throat to sound like her, they disagree.  They don't realize that pushing and singing from the throat is damaging.  Breathing shallowly and singing from the throat is like rubbing sand paper over your vocal chords. They are very sensitive and need to be respected and cared for or they may just stop working. Some singers feel that as long as they sound great, why should they sing, "properly.?"  Well, a strong, long-lasting healthy, voice that won't burn out...is the reason.  

If you are a singer who has not trained your voice with a voice teacher or vocal coach, do yourself a huge favor and find someone who has a solid teaching program that includes vocal hygiene or care of the voice.  As a singer, you need to know your instrument, how it works, the parts of your voice, the ways to build, access, train and control it, so that you have it working well and healthily for a long time.

Learning diaphragmatic breathing and breath control, which allows the breath to rise up from the diaphragm, catch your tone and carry it out into the room, as opposed to your pushing it from your throat, will serve you very well.

Many famous singers like Adele, John Mayer and Keith Urban have had to learn this the hard way.  They all experienced problems with strained and damages to their vocal chords after rigorous touring schedules.  The attached article explains in detail what happens when singers do not take proper care to get the training and take the steps to care for their voice.  Article - Getting Vocal about Voice Care

To learn more about proper voice care visit:   Learn Voice Care & Control

To get help locating a good voice teacher:  Contact us

TRAIN YOUR VOICE WELL BY SINGING THE SCALES

Working on scales is an important part of learning how to control your voice. Many singers have told me that they do not believe in singing scales as a warm up to a rehearsal session or even before a performance. 

If you want to keep your voice in good shape, extend your range, learn to manage your breath, have more stability in your voice and more access to a variety of emotions... sing scales that you like and work on them daily.  Often, it is with a bit of embarrassment that a singer will admit - "I never thought that doing scales was important for me. I just sing and warm up as I go. Vocal warm ups and exercises - that's really more for classical singers, isn't it?"  No, that is not true.
Vocal exercises are a requirement for all vocalists. 

What is a Singing Scale?    

Scales are a series of notes that go up or down in pitch and have a distinctive, regular pattern. If you sing Mary Had A Little Lamb using just those first four words and you repeat them at different pitch levels (going higher and going lower), you will have an elementary type of singing scale. Most scales are not so melodious. 

What scales should You sing?

The easiest way to discover scales that work for your particular voice is to take a few lessons with a teacher who is trained to work with vocalists. That is, find a respected teacher who is supportive of you and the kind of music you want to sing. They will cover scale work with you, but if they don't, ask her/him to give you some appropriate scales for your voice and your current singing ability. It is of no value for you to be singing scales that are beyond your means at this point. Having said that, I also believe that even the simplest of scales can be a benefit to the most advanced singers. If you cannot or do not want to find a singing teacher in your area, look for someone who teaches on-line with SKYPE or over the phone.

Scales for Everyone - and Scales for Certain Problems
Some scale patterns work for all students because they exercise the entire voice in ways that everyone benefits from, regardless of  their ability, age, genre or style. But there are also many scales that can help a singer with specific problems - such as singing high notes, developing vibrato or learning how to keeping the breath steady. 

Daily Vocal Exercises Have a Hidden Benefit

Overall, singing scales is an important part of learning about your voice, developing your voice and keeping your voice in good shape. But there is another less obvious benefit to these exercises. When you sing them daily, you are learning how to maintain presence, physical and mental co-ordination and inner awareness. You are also working out the voice as a weight lifter works out the muscles when lifting. Regular practice and repetitive scale work allows you to maintain your skill on stage, performing well, even when you are not in good health or when other conditions are not optimal.

Scales are Fun and Energizing 
When you learn scale and do regular scale work, it helps to build confidence and exercises your vocal muscle.  It's like you really pay your dues to the musical GODS by doing the real work of developing your voice.  You will succeed far better if you practice the scales regularly so that your voice has the opportunity to sing all of the notes in all of the key configurations that you could ever possibly encounter in a song.

YOU WILL BE PREPARED TO SING ANYTHING!

HAPPY SCALES TO YOU!

QUICK AND EASY VOCAL WARM-UPS

Find a quiet spot and briefly close your eyes,

 take a few cleansing breaths and relax.
When you feel completely relaxed, begin slowly...

* stretch and yawn; hold the ending "ah" sound; relax your throat and jaws

* take a deep breath (from the diaphragm) and on the exhale say and extended hhhhhmmm.
Repeat X 10 allowing the lungs to release all of the air. Collapse your abdomen as you exhale.

* * Do a hum-slide up and down your vocal range with "hhhhhmmmmmmmm."

* * feel different parts of mouth and nasal area or "Mask/Mid-Range" vibrate with the different sounds:

MMMMMMMMM... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...EEEEEEEEEEEEE... NNNNNNNNNNNNN...
VVVVVVVVVV... Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum Mum

* open your mouth , eyes, and face as wide as you can on the last syllable of:
Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula Mumula

SILLY PHRASES
* each phrase features different difficult consonant combinations.
Start slow, over-articulating and then increase speed
Red letter, yellow letter~
Good blood, bad blood~
Eleven benevolent elephants~
Teaching ghosts to groove~
The big, black-backed bumblebee~
A critical cricket critic~
Selfish shellfish~
Really rural~
Unique New York~
The tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth~
To titillate your taste buds, we've got these tasty tidbits~

COGNATES
* Feel a pulse in your diaphragm with the following sounds
unvoiced: PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH PUH
VOICED: BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH
unvoiced: TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH TUH
VOICED: DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH
unvoiced: KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH KUH
VOICED: GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH

TONGUE TWISTER!* This long tongue twister contains many buzz sounds and difficult
consonant combinations. It is possible to say all in one breath if you
use diaphragmatic breathing and carefully control the volume of air
expelled. Articulate every sound!

What a to-do to die today at a minute or two to two,
a thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do.
for they'll beat a tattoo at a quarter to two:
a rat-ta tat-tat ta tat-tat ta to-to.
and the dragon will come when he hears the drum
at a minute or two till two today, at a minute or two till two...GREAT JOB! YOU FINISHED!!!

SUMMER SINGING TIPS ~ STAY IN VOCAL SHAPE WITH HUMMING!

HUMMING...

AN EASY AND EFFECTIVE WAY

TO KEEP YOUR VOICE IN SHAPE.

With the weather becoming nicer, it is easy to overlook practice time and to want to get outside and enjoy the spring activities. It is fine to skip your routine indoor practice time, but you want to keep your voice in tune.  One easy and quick way to have the best of both situations it to hum.  Simple isn't it?  Yes...and that's the point. Singing and practicing doesn't have to be drudgery.  It does require regular work and time put in to keep your voice in good shape and to strengthen it.  Humming scales, doing the hum-slide exercise (humming from the top to the bottom of your range and then from the bottom to the top) humming your favorite song, improvised humming are all important ways you can maintain vocal power, flexibility and control. Hum for 5 minutes the first time you begin the process...then a half-hour or so later, hum for about 10 minutes...take a break and throughout the day, hum off and on for 5 - 10 minute increments.  Try to build the number of times you hum throughout the day during the week until you can hum 10 - 5 - 10 minute rounds per day.  Proper breath support incorporated with the humming is essential. Remember to utilize your diaphragm, stay relaxed and you'll find that you have accomplished the equivalent of you vocal practice time...just not while being stuck indoors.

Happy Humming!   hhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Protect Voice with Pampering when Hoarseness Occurs

WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR VOICE ?

REST YOUR VOICE ~ STOP SPEAKING & SINGING~ 

Hoarseness is one of the first, most easily discerned audible symptoms presented to a voice teacher that indicates the presence of a “vocal fault” in an otherwise physically healthy singer. The most common cause for vocal hoarseness is “hyper-functional phonation;” demanding too much from the voice, producing a sound that can be described by any one, or combination of the following adjectives: tight, tense, hard, edgy, strident, rasping, grating, rough, constricted or even strangulated. Hoarseness is a danger signal to you, the singer. If huskiness or soreness is a common result of your singing, then you should

1) stop singing, and if it persists,
2) see a laryngologist.

Observations and recommendations:
1. Screaming hard even once can do temporary damage to the voice. The voice has to recover in silence and with more than usual sleep. Give it more time than you think it needs.

2. Vomiting and the burning from stomach acids also require extended time to heal. Give your voice time. You should pay attention to resulting soreness as there are relatively few pain nerve endings in the throat! Give healing more time than you think it needs, and limit your voice use. Begin establishing the habit (if you don’t already have it) of gargling whenever you brush your teeth and after meals - rinsing out your throat with water.

3. Regularly speaking too high, or too low will often result in hoarseness. Please read my entry on “speaking” to help you find where you should speak without unnecessary tension.

4. Long-term misuse of the voice can permanently damage the voice. So, your concern is legitimate. A voice therapist or qualified voice teacher may be what you need to correct the problem.

5. The feeling of “a giant lump” in your throat is a definite indication of misuse. Stop singing. Give your voice more time than you think it needs to heal and recover.

6. Allergies do tend to exacerbate (aggravate) upper-respiratory and throat edema (swelling). So, allergies compounded with possible misuse of the voice would tend to make things feel worse, faster.

7. While this blog will give you great tips and tools to utilize to start working on your voice, you would benefit greatly by working with a reputable voice teacher. If you do not live in the North Bay San Francisco Area, which is where my studio is located, you can Download SKYPE and we can work together well, on-line.

REMEMBER TO REST YOUR VOICE WHEN YOU FEEL IT IS STRAINED AND HYDRATE OFTEN!!!