Vocal technique

by Tom Munch

This is taken from a post I made today 2007/01/23 on the Bose forum. I plan to work on it in the next month or so, but thought I'd post my initial post from the forum.

The L1 allows an extremely precise version of you to come across with a warmth & presence that is breathtaking. You are creating a brand new sound everytime you perform & the L1 allows the audience to connect to you & your uniqueness in a very personal way that allows you to be more expressive & artistic than ever before.

The L1 is such a beautiful way to hear yourself in such great detail, & it will allow you to experiment with your voice in ways you could never hear before. Try feeling your throat & what's going on in there by closing your eyes & concentrating on the feeling in the back of your throat. Does it feel relaxed? Open? Tense? Closed off? Dry? Do you have tension in your neck, shoulders, or back? All of these things affect the timbre of your voice. Take a deep breath. Do you feel your chest heave, or do you feel it all the way down to your stomach? Put your hands on your side above your belt with your fingers over your kidneys & your thumbs just above your hips. Take a deep breath again & try to push against your hands. That's your diaphragm pushing out your sides, & it is a very strong muscle that allows you to draw in more air & draw the tension there away from your throat & chest. This relaxation & abundance of air lets you stay on pitch better & have a deeper, bigger voice. Learning to breath from there allows you to sing much more naturally without straining & pushing your vocal cords. I do it naturally without thought. In fact I can't breath from my chest now even after running. A good (but hard) exercise is to have someone sit on your chest to learn to breath from your diaphragm. This is an awkward situation though, so make sure it's a close friend or your spouse. Breathing is the true key & first place in learning better vocal technique & relaxation in life. Back to the throat.

When you sing, try feeling the words in different parts of your throat. Close it off & sing through your nose. Open it up & sing like an opera star. Put the words at the tip of your tongue & then at the back of your tongue. all of this experimentation lets you hear the differences & feel when you sound natural & when you sound forced. Try over-pronouncing the words, making exaggerated lip & tongue movements. Try putting stronger emphasis on T's & S's & P's. Make them crisper or duller by using more of your tongue or lips or different parts of your tongue & lips. Try imagining a word in your throat or at your teeth or even 4 inches out of your mouth. That is the kind of experimentation that lets you hone your skills as a vocalist. It's best to do this without accompaniment in the beginning so that you can truly hear yourself & all the nuances of your voice & diction. Try playing with your dynamics. A well placed swell in volume draws the audience in & pushes the emotion of the line over the top. Conversely a drop in volume & a whispered line also draws the audience in & focuses emotion.