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1. What should I look for in a voice teacher?
2. How does your teaching differ from modern training?
3. I'm told to raise my soft palate and sing with a yawn. Is this correct?
4. How can a speech-level approach to singing work if a singer speaks incorrectly?
5. If low larynx singing is incorrect, why is it widely practiced?
6. How do I determine my style?
7. How do I prepare for a vocal audition?
8. What are the two innovative chest belt techniques that you teach?
9. Why do I have trouble with high notes?
10. What exactly is breath support?
11. Why is there so much disagreement as to what breath support means?
12. If modern breathing methods are wrong, why are they universally taught?
13. Why do I feel as though I never have enough breath?
14. Why is my voice breathy?
15. How do I eliminate the "break" in my voice?
16. Can you teach me how to "mix"?
17. Why does my singing voice become tired?
18. Why does my throat become dry when I sing?
1. What should I look for in a voice teacher?
Someone with a thorough understanding of the core principles of Bel Canto and how to apply them to any vocal style.
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2. How does your teaching differ from modern training?
My teaching emphasizes vocal coordination. Modern training emphasizes physical manipulation.
Teachers often tell their students to "sing from the diaphragm," "squeeze the abdominal muscles," "place the voice well forward," "open the throat," "raise the soft palate," "lift the cheeks," "pout the lips," "raise the corners of the mouth," "spread the rib cage" - or any number of physical manipulations which pass for "technique."
Modern training is deliberately ambiguous. If a voice teacher has effective solutions, he can be clear and simple. If he doesn't have effective solutions, his only recourse is to bluff. Most voice teachers speak in vague terms because they know there is safety in mystery. This causes most singers to admit, "I haven't the faintest idea what my voice teacher is talking about."
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3. I'm told to raise my soft palate and sing with a yawn. Is this correct?
No. If you practice those errors, you will never acquire a beautiful tone, a spinning vibrato, breath control, coordination, agility, resonance, or good diction.
The best position for your larynx is the natural floating position, which occurs when you sing on the speaking level. Most voice teachers advocate a low larynx. This concept is the most widely practiced error among singers today. It is the chief cause of the steep decline in the quality of singing since the 1950s.
Singers are also told to "open the throat," which is an indirect way of saying "raise the soft palate and lower the larynx." This incorrect concept is a misinterpretation of Golden Age instruction. "Open throat" does not mean "sing with a yawn." It means "still throat" - what you feel when you speak.
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4. How can a speech-level approach to singing work if a singer speaks incorrectly?
The common objection to speech-level singing is that most singers speak poorly, and therefore speech-level singing is inherently faulty. "How can you sing on your speaking level if your speaking voice is scratchy, pinched, or nasal?" Answer: first teach the singer how to speak correctly, then teach him how to sing on the speaking level. Fix both. It's that simple.
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5. If low larynx singing is incorrect, why is it widely practiced?
There is a justifiable fear and loathing of high larynx singing.
Classical singers love to satisfy their ears instead of their sensations.
Classical singers feel compelled to distinguish themselves from pop singers.
There is a widely held belief that raising the soft palate enhances vocal beauty.
There is a widely held belief that lowering the larynx enhances vocal alignment.
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6. How do I determine my style?
Style is the overall result of your natural tone production, your innate vocal behavior, the kind of song material you gravitate towards, your musicianship, personality, physical talent, intellectual talent, and emotional talent.
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7. How do I prepare for a vocal audition?
Preparation means maximizing all talents prior to the audition. What you bring to an audition is the sum total of your vocal, intellectual, physical, and emotional talent. You should have a ready repertoire of songs in all styles that communicate you at your best.
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8. What are the two innovative chest belt techniques that you teach?
Most women belt chest wide open. The other two techniques are: (1) resonance behind the nose (which is not nasal singing), and (2) resonance behind the soft palate - the most impressive technique for belting upper medium and high chest tones.
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9. Why do I have trouble with high notes?
Your larynx is probably rising, your vocal resonance is not going in the proper direction, and you're singing too thick. The solution is to sing skillfully on the speaking level.
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10. What exactly is breath support?
Contrary to popular belief, breath support is not contracting the abdominal muscles, pushing out the abdominal wall, expanding the rib cage, breathing into the back, manipulating the diaphragm, filling the lungs to maximum capacity, or blowing air.
The true Bel Canto definition of breath support begins with natural breathing: (1) let the upper abdominal wall go out during inhalation, and let the upper abdominal wall go in gradually during the act of singing.
Most singers believe that inhaling as much breath as possible is breath support, but a singer can fill his lungs to maximum capacity and still run out of breath quickly if the vocal cords do not approximate efficiently. The vocal cords, which act like a valve, determine how much breath is spent. Any effort to control the breath with willful physical manipulation is futile, for (2) laryngeal coordination governs the breath.
Singers know that the vocal cords become firmer and breath compression increases with a rise in pitch. Therefore, (3) as you sing higher, never stop the breath despite an increase in vocal cord firmness and breath compression. Also, (4) when you ascend, let breath compression increase; but when you descend, let breath compression decrease.
How much breath should a singer use? (5) For every vowel on every pitch, singing on the speaking level determines automatically the correct amount of breath to use and the correct amount of breath compression to feel. The correct amount for both is the minimum amount necessary to sustain any vowel on any pitch.
These rules are the very heart of what the Golden Age voice teachers called "mastery of the breath."
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11. Why is there so much disagreement as to what breath support means?
Modern vocal pedagogy is a mass of confusion. Proof: the proliferation of absurd breath control techniques. During the Golden Age of Singing, there was great consensus among voice teachers as to what is vocal truth. Today, there is little consensus.
And yet, during the twentieth century a consensus did emerge centering on the invention of incorrect vocal concepts. Today, in virtually every voice studio in the world, the same platitudes are taught:
"Sing from the diaphragm," "Support the tone," "Feel nothing in your throat," "Raise the soft palate," "Lower the larynx," "Open the throat," "Feel a yawn," "Lift up in the back," "Create space in the head," "Place the voice well forward," "Place the voice in the mask," "Focus the voice on the bridge of your nose," "Cover the tone," "Raise the cheeks," "Form an inner smile," "Lift the corners of the mouth," "Groove the tongue," "Pout the lips," etc.
This is modern training. The platitudes that are offered as vocal technique have hardened into a universal vocal malpractice.
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12. If modern breathing methods are wrong, why are they universally taught?
Most voice teachers believe that over-compression and physical manipulation constitute breath support. By forcing the vocal cords together, over-compression can produce a seeming improvement in vocal efficiency, but it always leads to effort, thickness, heaviness, pitch problems, and a wobble. Over time, the constant application of excessive breath pressure deteriorates the larynx.
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13. Why do I feel as though I never have enough breath?
The vocal cords act like a valve. If the valve leaks, if your vocal cords do not function properly, you will have poor breath control.
If you inhale too much breath, you will be tormented by a persistent sensation of suffocation. Whatever you inhale, you must exhale. Breath volume cannot improve your ability to sing long phrases, for the point is not how much breath you take, but how skillfully you manage the breath.
Excessive abdominal contraction always induces a sensation of suffocation. Take a breath. Let the breath escape from the body effortlessly. Take another breath, but squeeze your abdominal muscles while exhaling. The mere act of contraction induces a sensation of suffocation.
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14. Why is my voice breathy?
Your vocal cords do not function properly. To produce clear tone, the vocal cords must function efficiently. Breathy singing can be effective when stylizing, but it is disastrous if it is the basis of your technique.
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15. How do I eliminate the "break" in my voice?
Develop vocal alignment. If your chest voice is sufficiently balanced, and if your middle voice is sufficiently firm, your voice will have no break.
It is often said that women have three registers: chest, middle, and head - as if three separate voices exist. These terms are often confusing. In reality, the terms chest, middle, and head refer to degrees of vocal cord depth. In the female voice, the so-called "break" between chest and middle is caused by an inequality of vocal firmness.
Among male singers, the so-called "break" is caused by an inability to shift vocal resonance behind the soft palate, coupled with a too thick laryngeal mechanism.
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16. Can you teach me how to "mix"?
There's no such thing as "mixing," for it is impossible to sing in chest voice and head voice at the same time. Every tone is produced by one specific vocal cord depth. Consequently, it is impossible to engage two depths simultaneously. The intensity of the tone, whether firm or light, is determined by the degree of vocal cord depth. Therefore, the term "mixing" is sloppy vocal pedagogy.
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17. Why does my singing voice become tired?
You are probably trying to sing too high with too much vocal thickness - in which case, your larynx is overloaded. Or, you may be employing an unnatural breathing method. All modern breath support methods induce over-compression, which fatigues the voice.
Other causes of vocal fatigue include: (1) low larynx singing (the persistent act of yawning involves muscular antagonism), (2) high larynx singing (the involuntary rising of the larynx causes throat constriction), (3) vocal abuse caused by singing too long without rest, and (4) breathy singing, which causes the vocal cords to work harder to remain together.
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18. Why does my throat become dry when I sing?
You are dehydrating your throat because you breathe awkwardly. When you breathe noisily through the mouth, you are constricting your throat. The mucous membranes in your throat dry rapidly because moisture is forcefully evaporated - the same way an ink spot dries faster when you blow air upon it. The solution is to breathe quietly through the mouth with a still throat.
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