Finding Your Best Voice

1. Finding Your Best Voice • An introduction to fundamentals of vocal pedagogy. • TMEA 2010 • Valerie Trollinger • Kutztown University of PA

2. The Singing Process • Requires a person to: • be able to hear and process pitch • replicate the pitch with the voice • self-monitor is the produced pitch is correct and created healthfully

3. Common problems • poor posture • inefficient breathing • phonation issues • hard glottal attacks • breathiness • loss of range after a few minutes • misuse of heavy vocal adjustment

4. Common problems • getting over the register break • articulation problems • nasality

5. Posture • Problem posture • Remediation strategies • when seated, back is not tense • when standing, bottom is gently tucked under to help alignment, but not tightened • Feet are placed a bit apart • Think of the body as a marionette

6. Breathing • Unhealthy breathing • Remediation: • Front, back and sides are all engaged in breath support for singing • Three stages of healthy breathing for singing: • Inhale, Suspend, Exhale

7. Phonation • Breath needs to be under control for good phonation • Constricted, shouty and breathy sounds can be remediated by learning the three stages of healthy phonation for singing: • Attack, Sustain, Release.

8. Balanced Onsets • Harsh glottal attacks can be avoided by putting a soft “h” sound at the front of vowels ( attack = hattack). • Follow the steps for phonation as well.

9. Breathiness • Breathiness can be remediated by: • hum with the mouth closed AND teeth touching. • hum with the mouth closed and the teeth NOT touching. • vocalize on forward vowels ( ooo, oh) with a B or Z sound at the beginning ( boo, boh) • these exercises encourage singing “off” the larynx. Also good for developing upper adjustment voices.

10. range Loss • Temporary, not permanent loss • Occurs when singing with excessive tension in the vocal mechanism. • Remediated by: • “yawn” exercise • vocalize on consonants to free the jaw, phonate with forward vowels on B and Z.

11. Misuse heavy Adj. • Not uncommon in untrained singers • Remediated by • Find optimal speech range area • Yawn exercise • Sing within a limited range, then widen as healthy habits develop • vocalize on forward vowels and consonants to alleviate tension

12. Register Break • For voices that are mutating or matured. • Lunge exercise while singing octaves, on forward vowels and consonants.

13. articulation • lips, teeth and tongue can interfere with the production of a nice sound and understanding of words. • Remediation: • sing in front of a mirror • enunciate silently to see if another person can lipread the words • use consonants on warmups to loosen articulators • Yawn approach for raised tongue

14. Nasality • Nasal singing indicates the soft palate is not raised properly, allowing air to escape out the nose. This is a resonance problem rather than a phonation problem. • Remediation • Using the yawn exercise • Open the mouth more • The voice should sound the same whether the singer is holding one’s nose closed or not.

15. Not working? • Get professional help: School speech specialists. • These simple remediations work with voices that are already healthy. They won’t work for voices with sustained behavioral or pathological problems.

16. For more info • For full presentations with demonstrations, go to • http://www.prenhall.com for Music in Elementary Education by J.Flohr & V. Trollinger, 2010. DVD. • My website for basic presentation: • http://faculty.kutztown.edu/trolling

17. Finding Your Best Voice • An introduction to fundamentals of vocal pedagogy. • TMEA 2010 • Valerie Trollinger • Kutztown University of PA • trolling@kutztown.edu • http://faculty.kutztown.edu/trolling