Just like our bodies, our vocal anatomy changes with every passing year. We all know about the vocal changes that happen in our teen years. But, did you know a male’s larynx doesn’t even finish growing until his late 20s? Female larynxes and vocal folds also experience changes that correspond with fluctuating hormone levels. Male and female vocal folds continue to change throughout middle age. This slightly alters the sound of both the speaking and singing voice. Not being able to produce the exact same sound you did 10 years ago can either be frustrating or freeing. Many singers get better and better as they age and their voices mature like a fine wine! There are even singers that sing very well into their 80s and 90s! To do this though, you must embrace your ever-changing voice and sing with the instrument and body you have TODAY!
Need to make a last-minute demo recording for an audition or an agent? This is becoming a VERY common request these days. So, don’t let technology and environment spoil your chances at success! After you’ve prepared your audition, carefully consider the device you're using and the acoustics of the room. Are you using a phone, camera, computer, or microphone? Any of them can work. But, make sure they capture your sound in the most advantageous way. Are you recording in a kitchen, bathroom, studio, or practice room? All spaces will have different acoustics and will feature your voice in different ways. Don’t rush these acoustic details in your excitement to submit your audition. Instead, experiment until you find which combinations make you sound best. Let acoustics work FOR you, not against you!
When acting a song, remember to SAY your words! This may sound silly or obvious, but try speaking the lyrics of a song you love to sing and you'll quickly notice how unnatural some of the speech patterns become. Every word is part of a sentence, even though this isn’t always obvious in the rhythms of a song. That’s why it can be easy to neglect these inflections and phrasings when we're caught up in a soaring melody or a fun groove. As you work through a new song, practice SPEAKING the lyrics. Really make sure that the meaning of your sentence remains honest even as you return to the rhythm of the song. Follow the WORDS to your destiny of beautifully acted songs!
“Don’t sweat the TECHNIQUE!” There’s a huge difference between TECHNIQUE exercises and Vocal WARM-UPS. A warm-up is something you might do for 5-15 minutes before a performance, an audition, or even a practice session. However, technique exercises are specifically designed vocal workouts that help to build strength, flexibility, coordination, stamina, resonance, agility, and tone. Too many singers never achieve the results they are hoping for because they don’t see the point of doing “warm-ups”. Yet, when this happens, they have sadly missed the point entirely by mistaking valuable technique practice for mere “warm-ups”. Don’t just warm up and then sing songs. Make sure you’ve also got focused daily technique exercises that allow you to become the singer you want to be. For the best results and fastest progress with your singing: “Don’t sweat the TECHNIQUE!”
Do you have EXPECTATIONS about what your voice should sound like or what it should be able to do? It’s very easy to focus on our end goals and then get discouraged when we don’t sound like our expectations. While setting long-term goals is very important to vocal success, you’ll move a lot faster if you live in THIS vocal moment. Establish a vocal journey where each step of your process is as valuable to you as your final product. Set small achievable goals and focus on these much more than your final goals. Take time to celebrate your successes and appreciate the progress you’ve already made. Give thanks for the voice you have TODAY. Because, no matter where you go on your journey - there will never be another voice like it!
Sometimes we’re not the STAR. Sometimes we perform in small groups, in choirs, as backup singers, or as a part of an ensemble in a musical. In these moments, it’s important to still give our ALL! It’s sometimes tempting to give less than our best because we think nobody will notice or that it doesn’t matter as much since we’re in a group. Yet, the reverse is true! The great Stanislavski once said, “There are no small parts, only small actors”. These wise words remind us that no matter what role we play in a performance situation, we ought to put forward our best work. This way of thinking will impact those who see and hear you perform far more than you’d think. Approaching every performance situation with full excellence cultivates a star mentality that will lead to solo and leading role opportunities! Be a star ALL the time! …even when you think nobody is watching…
Take your SINGING VITAMINS! Do you sometimes feel how, no matter how often you stretch, you’re still tense? The solution could be as simple as vitamins! A deficiency in Vitamin D and Magnesium has been shown to contribute to myoskeletal tension in the body. This includes the Larynx! It can be difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of these nutrients from dietary sources alone. And sadly, unless you live along the equator, your chances of absorbing enough Vitamin D from the sun are slim. Magnesium and Vitamin D are processed more efficiently when taken together. So, consider taking a supplement of each or a multivitamin. Continue your usual strategies to reduce vocal tension, but a daily dose of these critical nutrients could be just what your body needs!
Imagine a person who embodies CONFIDENCE and AUTHORITY. How do you envision this person standing? Most likely, they are standing up straight with an elevated sternum, relaxed shoulders, and a long back of the neck. How do we achieve this ideal alignment? One great strategy is to imagine the top of the head "gently suspended from the ceiling by a silken thread." This image helps good posture to not feel "postured", but to feel SUSPENSORY instead. Any time you're feeling insecure, making this physical and mental adjustment is one of the most effective ways to communicate self-assurance nonverbally. This will promote positive feedback from others and cause you to embody this persona naturally over time!
Give your Larynx a BREAK! The Larynx’s primary function is as a safety valve. It’s designed to protect the lungs from being invaded by food, drink, and foreign objects. It also seals off the airway to assist with the act of heavy lifting and other physical tasks. During singing, it’s vital that we override these anatomical functions. If we don't, the Larynx and vocal folds become too gripped and squeezed for healthy singing. Instead, we must allow air to flow through the Larynx at a small and steady rate. This allows the vocal folds to vibrate freely and make sound. Trying to sing without this steady airflow is the equivalent of driving a car with the BRAKE on! While braking is a natural function, it’s time to let a little air through. Give your Larynx a BREAK!
HEAR what you FEEL! At NYVC, we always encourage our students to record their Voice Lessons. Listening back to these recordings is an important part of understanding how what you FEEL connects to what your listeners HEAR. When you’re practicing at home, recording is an important discipline as well. Especially if you’re developing a new skill or rehearsing a song. Once you’ve finished a song or exercise, listen back objectively and evaluate what you heard. This will help you progress faster and will make you a better self-teacher. As a bonus, when you’re listening to other singers, you'll naturally begin to understand the mechanics behind how they make their sounds as well. HEAR what you FEEL!
"Networking" or "Schmoozing" are key parts of building connections and contacts within the entertainment industry. These things often have a negative connotation because they seem to imply that you have ulterior motives. That is, that you are falsely cozying up to someone for your own benefit. But, it actually should never be that way! Instead, successful Networking can best be thought of as a sincere desire to connect with and help others. If you consider your relationships from that perspective, it can be a VERY fulfilling and effective experience. As Zig Ziglar often said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want".
Singing, acting, dancing, modeling, performing. In all of these crafts, how you see yourself and how you present yourself are vital. This is why PERFECTIONISM is the greatest ENEMY of performers. All of us have a desire deep down to look perfect, sound perfect, act perfect, and BE perfect. However, since this is unattainable, it frustrates and even DESTROYS our artistry and individuality. So, the next time you go onstage to perform - think about who YOU really are and how you are going to present yourself. Are you perfect? No. So, should you try to show perfection to your audience? No. What do you show them instead? Show them your self-expression, your work-in-progress craft, your beautiful weaknesses, and your SOUL... in that moment. Perfect.
What is your audition song FOR? Audition and performance success relies on you knowing the PURPOSE of every song in your repertoire. All of your material should be meaningful to you as an artist. However, it should also be meaningful for the circumstances for which it will be used. If a pop/rock tune suits you well, it probably won’t work for your upcoming Golden Age musical theater audition or for an evening of show-stopping standards. Or, if you only get to sing 16-bars for your audition, there's no point performing a song that really only works if you get through two verses. Consider the many circumstances at which you are asked to sing: auditions, concerts, showcases, open-mics, weddings, and more. The more you expand your repertoire with a purposeful approach, the more your songs will be perfectly suited to any singing situation!
Selecting the right Musical Theatre audition songs can be DAUNTING. Where do you start? Well, first try choosing a few actors or actresses whose careers you admire. What roles have they performed? What songs have they sung in concerts? What concept albums have they recorded? There are a wealth of excellent and unique songs to find by using an established Musical Theatre star’s career as a starting point. For another easy place to start, check out the Internet Broadway Database (ibdb.com). It offers a comprehensive look at actors' and actress’ Broadway credits. With this resource, you’ll never run out of artists and shows to glean new song ideas from! Why not learn from the BEST?
Tension in the singing voice is often due to the voice's relationship with the SOLAR PLEXUS. The Solar Plexus is the upper abdominal region just below the sternum. This area of the body has an indirect relationship with your vocal folds. If the Solar Plexus is tight, the voice will be tight! To work on freeing this area, place your hand gently into your Solar Plexus. When you inhale, the Solar Plexus should either push outward or remain soft. This is a great way to ensure that your Solar Plexus is open and that your voice is tension-free! Let your voice and your Solar Plexus SHINE!
Can you do Lip Trills? They’re one of the most popular vocal exercises and also one of the best ways to eliminate vocal tension. Lips Trills cause increased supraglottic pressure behind the lips, which helps to decrease subglottic pressure beneath the vocal folds. Singers often describe the sensation as LIGHT and EFFORTLESS. If you've never done a Lip Trill before, start by gently pouting your lips. Exhale with a steady breath stream until your lips vibrate. See if you can sustain a steady vibration for 5-10 seconds. If you have trouble, try holding the corners of your lips or try blowing more or less air. Once this is easy to manage, add voiced sounds and notes. You can Lip Trill on scales or on songs. Practicing this will take the “weight” out of your singing and give you greater flexibility, breath control, and even vocal range!
Have you ever seen singers move their JAW when they sing Riffs? Interestingly, this can be both a bad thing OR a good thing. It just depends on the circumstances. For most singing, jaw movement that corresponds with pitch movement is a very bad habit. This can happen during vibrato, during Riffs, or just when moving from note to note. Very GOOD vocal technique happens when the vocal folds are solely responsible for pitch adjustments. So, the first step to Riffs and vocal agility is to move the notes WITHOUT moving the jaw. On the other hand, more advanced Riffers sometimes use their jaws for a stylistic rearticulation of Riff notes. This is a sort of vocal “sound effect” that adds an extra accent detail to complex Riffs. Rule of thumb: don’t use your jaw to Riff. (But, there may come a day when it’s okay!)
How many times have you started singing a song you love, only to discover you don't actually know the words? It's easy to listen to songs and enjoy the tune without really paying attention to the lyrics. Yet, lyrics are essential to a song's success. How do the song’s words communicate a story or a feeling? From a technical perspective, how do the consonants and vowels in each word establish style and texture? Do the breaths within the song change the meaning of the phrases and sentences? Lyrics give singers countless opportunities to communicate and express themselves. Your musicality, technique, and acting will all benefit from awareness of how the lyrics complement the music. So, next time you listen - or sing along - give the words the attention they deserve!
From rappers to auctioneers - We have all stood in AWE of those who possess the ability to speak quickly and clearly with prolific prowess. If we challenge ourselves via exercises (cue: TONGUE TWISTERS!), speaking in real life will seem easy in comparison! Start slowly, carefully, and deliberately to achieve the full integrity of each individual sound. Then gradually speed up until you can go five times as fast for each of these Twisters!
“Red leather, yellow leather."
“My cutlery cuts keenly and cleanly."
“Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets."
"You know New York, You need New York, You know you need unique New York."
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When you listen to a singer, do you listen? Or, do you REALLY listen? Critical listening is an invaluable skill for a growing singer. You can learn so much about stylistic nuances, performance choices, and vocal technique by listening very intelligently to what a singer is doing each and every moment. Which notes are breathy and which are compressed? When do they Belt or use Head Voice, Mix, or Chest Voice? Does the singer ever use Vocal Fry or other textures? What is the dramatic intention or acting choice? What about vibrato or straight tone? Next time you listen to your favorite singer: start... stop... replay... then replay again and again. It’s one thing to be a fan. It’s another thing to be an artist. Artists REALLY listen.