Emma

Awesome stuff Emma! Keep it coming. Lesson 3 or so should be using crystals to open up the Throat chakra. Seriously, this is great and I appreciate you sharing it. I've done some of that voice work stuff too, but probably have forgotten a lot or don't use it as much as I could. You have inspired me to play with it (my voice that is) some more. Having new experiences and inspirations help with singing too, just something to get excited about and express it through the song.

Chuckle... I thought I was being a bit 'out there' but have been hanging around here long enough to think 'wot the hell'
I'm just stunned at how easily I forget this stuff and then how powerful it really is when you practice it

Great blog Emma! It almost makes me wish that I was a singer just so I can try this stuff. You forgot to mention how these lessons are helping to make your vocal tracks w a r m e r... lol
It really is some killer info here. Thanks!

-holster

Thanks a lot. Really interesting indeed.

"The voice is YOU..."

and this is why I hate singing. thanks for the reminder.

Cool!

I never thought my voice was an instruments...It's more like a constant struggle and nightmare...I'm probably doing everthing wrong when I'm singing..so nice to read your experience here!

Interesting! I've never known a single thing about singing properly. Practicing like an athlete type of thing is what I'm gathering, but a vocal athlete makes it a bit more unusual. Even makes me think getting my body back into shape will help.

Dan

and this is why I hate singing. thanks for the reminder.

You cracked me up with this

I never thought my voice was an instruments...It's more like a constant struggle and nightmare

Urk, I know what you mean.. I stopped singing for years after my brief recording career and it has been a hard scary journey finding my voice again.

Interesting! I've never known a single thing about singing properly

te he... 'properly' is an interesting word... the stuff I'm doing is quite controversial and not the 'normal' 'proper' stuff. One of the women on the course has had recent formal training where you teach your soft palate (?) to move around and about for specific notes and stuff and she has real trouble with the free-range voice stuff. It reminds me of when I was doing yoga and a body builder gal joined up. She simply couldn't manage some of the moves as she was muscle-bound. The voice work I'm doing is different to standard stuff as it 'opens' the voice rather than 'trains' it... a huge philosophical difference. It's like playing with sound and being unafraid to make noise. The 'toning' exercises are amazing where you just let out a note and make it grow till it takes up a lot of noise space. My dog HATES it I used to practice in the car as it was a good place for making loud weird noises but she got frantic and started licking my neck and whining in a large distracting way so I abandoned that!

This is getting interesting! Training the old soft palate.. I know some folks who know a thing or 2 about it for other reasons. I gotta look into all this.

Dan

Hmm, this is gonna be good, keep up the lessons

It’s all to do with opening your mouth REALLY wide, hanging that jaw down as far as it will go.

I'm way too immature for this .

down to that old bass HAH sound... heh heh, hard to describe but very strange noises. The first breathy notes are described as ‘grey’.. heaps of singers just use that grey sound... sort of ‘fluffy’ (?) whereas a true note is described as ‘black’ – it is clearer and more directly pitched...

I 100% get it. No question. That statement SHOULDN'T make sense. It does. Strange. Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and Mariah Carey and that guy from Chicago no how to nail the black voice. That's what I'm often looking for and don't get. Strange. Awesome. There's so much "focus" and "clarity"....no "mud". AH HA!!!

1) Annie Lennox is bad ass on every metric possible.
2) You weren't kidding about this relaxed jaw thing. I never noticed how wide a person's mouth goes. When I speak, my mouth opens about 1mm, give or take. THAT'S why I have no singing ability.

Eurythmics - When Tomorrow Comes - YouTube

‘Brilliance’ is a cool term

Ah hell, I know everything about being brilliant.

I can't. I'd pay for this info.

Brandon

The sheer number of training programs for voice astound me. It all comes back to some very basic principles, though. 1. control your air release, 2. control where your larynx is, and 3. control the (naturally produced) effects you add on top of your tone. Get those three down and all you need is practice, practice, practice. I wish someone would have educated me on those three things long ago so I wouldn't have spent so much time thinking I was pretty good when I was leaking air, singing with larynx way too high, and clueless about how to produce distortion and other vocal effects. Good luck with the singing... er, voice-ing?

That high larynx stuff surprises me... I'd never heard of it before and I did do classical singing training waaaay back. I laughed to see an online vocal coach ad thing on this page... only $29.99 for a full set of lessons! I'm paying $300 (NZ) for 10
Voice-work is kinda interesting as it seems to focus on 'release' as opposed to 'control'.

Emma, I'm going to argue with you here a bit. The vocal is a human instrument. For an instrument to work such as in an acoustic guitar the sound is created by a resonator of some sort. In this case the body of the guitar. A different size body will make a different tone. The wood used also plays a part. The human vocal uses the larynx as its resonator. It's kinda like the chicken and the egg argument. Which came first.

Depending on the study read, the human voice is or is not an instrument. It appears your teacher read a "non instrument study" where other vocal coaches read the "instrument study". Science has not yet come to a full agreement as to if the voice is an instrument or not. After reading many studies with the researchers stating both perspectives, my mind is made up that the speaking voice is not an instrument while the singing vocal is. I guess it's all in the way you look at it but there is no true definitive answer.

That high larynx stuff surprises me... I'd never heard of it before and I did do classical singing training waaaay back.

It's amazing what larynx position will do. If a guy pushes the larynx up high enough he can sound like a chick, especially if he adds a bit of airiness (air release, again.) People who complain that they have wimpy voices are almost always singing with their larynx too high, aka speaking position or above. People's natural tone is found in a larynx that is in the middle, or where it is when no sound is being produced. Vocalists in cover bands who can imitate just about any vocalist really well weren't born with some amazing ability or possess any freakish larynx anatomy, they can just raise and lower their larynx, control their twang, distortion, etc..., and add in the right amount of airiness (remove airiness and it becomes very punchy and direct.)

I'm no expert, but these are the foundation that good vocals are built on. There is other stuff like releasing tension, vowel modification, tongue positioning, and whatever else, but if air release, larynx position, and effect control are lacking, the vocals are going to be lackluster no matter how proper your tongue positioning is, lol.

Voice-work is kinda interesting as it seems to focus on 'release' as opposed to 'control'.

It's been said that you have no voluntary control over your diaphragm. This may or may not be true. All I know is that I can control the air flow via my larynx the same way some pressure release valve can let out air in varying increments. On the other hand, it's also been said that you can't control vibrato and I can, so I'd take the whole diaphragm thing with a grain of salt. What's funny is that when vocalists lower their larynx to a more "netural" position, they HAVE to use their support properly. Try this without controlling your air flow and you will be out of breath faster than the Kardashian's go through another marriage (no, I don't watch it, but they apparently constitute newsworthy stories for some reason...)

Emma, I'm going to argue with you here a bit. The vocal is a human instrument.

Chuckle, no arguments from me... that's what I started off thinking and I am known for having fluid opinions
I was interested in your analogy of vocal biology and an acoustic guitar... because the glaring difference to me is that the guitar cannot play itself which... if I WAS in an arumentative mood (wicked laugh) is a pretty fundamental difference.

After reading many studies with the researchers stating both perspectives, my mind is made up that the speaking voice is not an instrument while the singing vocal is. I guess it's all in the way you look at it but there is no true definitive answer

.
That's interesting too... the voice work that I'm doing doesn't differentiate/compartmentalise the use functions.

Don't mind me... I did chose the title of the thread deliberately I'm absolutely only presenting this as a personal journey, I have no axe to grind, just a fairly long struggle with a voice that responds really well to this stuff and I thought others may or may not be interested.

It's been said that you have no voluntary control over your diaphragm.

It's actually quite amazing what control you can exert over the more remote parts of your body. I remember reading some psychology thing on behaviour modification, whereby rather than facing old gloomy demons in the woodshed through counselling, you can achieve good results by working on the symptoms rather than the underlying issue - e.g. by breathing and learning to control your pulse rate to address panic attacks etc..

all interesting stuff

Emma's last post was both interesting and entertaining. A guitar can not play by itself nor can any other instrument made by us humans. We must control it therefore making it an expressive extension of our bodies. So we as engineers in the control room can say to a vocalist, "Get in the vocal booth and go play with yourself".
I know what most of you are thinking about the quoted comment. Take it any way you want with a bit of studio humor.

Re "the voice is an expression of who you are", many instrumentalists would agree but would say that this is the case for ANY instrument. Yes the voice is different from non-human instruments in that the mechanics of the instrument are all part of the human body (though, practically, for much modern vocal performance mic technique etc. are an important part of the sound ultimately transmitted to the listener . . . ) - just like a hand clap or whistling or smacking my resonant belly - but in either case it's "how you use it" that is much of the battle for the performer. So yes it is different in that it is all part of the human body and therefore less 'changeable/swapable' and more 'immutable' than non-human instruments, but I would submit that (i) physical body attributes affect most performers (there is a reason that 6 yr olds don't often play contra-bassoon), even if they affect vocalists more completely, and (ii) in either case the end result is "an expression of who you are". So yes voice is different from non-human instruments, but I take the view that it still is a musical instrument.

And as for 'engineers treating voice differently' - I agree - and, personally, I treat every track differently, not just voice, so personally that doesn't set it apart from other instruments for me.

All that said, I've listened to a lot of Mike Patton over the years (Bungle, Fantomas, w/ Naked City and Painkiller, etc.), so perhaps my view of the human voice is a bit skewed compared to the norm . . .

A little story I like to tell about myself and my vocal singing:
Once upon a time I was in the studio doing backing vocals. For some reason I lost my voice that day. The janitor found my voice on the floor later that evening, swept it away with the rest of the dirt and dust into the trash can. The garbage guys then emptied the can into the truck and took it to the waste dump. Three days later the dump was closed due to toxic waste and the EPA was called in. I wonder why? Was my voice intoxicating or just toxic?

I can't carry a tune in a bucket with the lid welded on. LOL!

Any updates, Emma. I'm dieing to learn about "brilliance".

Chuckle... thought I'd save up a couple of lessons and do an update later this week

I got some problems with my Larynx and, just talking is out of the question for me. Singing, causes me too cough like I'm smoking some funky tobacco from Mars....every 2 minutes and intensely (some-times my food comes up with the cough).
Picking up chicks (hunting) get's really hard when you're only allowed 20 words before you start acting like your zombie infected... And I get a huge blood pressure build up, from using my vocal flaps, which leads to an intense 'head-ache' that feels more like a concussion (I've had one or two, I love sports). So by the time I ask somebody to come home with me I'm already on the verge of passing out. Hell, last nights jam session put me in my place.
Yea, I used to scare people who owned clubs for being one of the few singers who can break speakers and microphones just by 'singing' in um (I love doing raspy harsh blues jams). Or when I ran sound, if a singer really erked me I'd just grab the microphone and scare the bands .
But yea, With a good voice comes alot of responsibility. If your not careful you can end up .... mute.
Hell, just to breath in I have to pretend like I'm saying Ah.
Darth Vader had it easy.
And hanging out with friends turns to poop too. I just sit silently in the room smiling at everyone with a cup of wine in my hand. Thinking. "You don't know how good you have it'.
On top of everything, there is frustration.
Even playing guitar don't work out cause I can't use vocoders anymore

Wooo dudermn that is HARD!! Are you a classic example of what happens when you abuse your voice??? So what is the medical diagnosis??
You could carry a little notebook around and write notes to chat up the gals... with cunning sketches to show how artistic and 'interesting' you are, even though you are silent.. hmmm, the silent ones can be pretty interesting, but it's hard to figure coughing into sex appeal - specially when it involves redistribution of food hmmm
I'm always fascinated by Marianne Faithful's voice and how totally limited it is now compared to her young folkie voice... but she still manages to touch my heart with it at times..
So is resting and gargling strange potions going to make you better soon????

Carry a little notebook around? You mean like mini-me in Goldmember ? Actually had a friend who did that.... He was ready to press an album, a few weeks before the tour he went mute. He actually went to France for treatment.
Laryngitis Catoala, a few suspected thingys (to do with mucus and some other stuff I can't read), a large farange (pharynx).....and a much needed visit to a 'fonologist' is what I gott.
Yap, classic example of dumass cave-man who's too loud.
What worked so far was taking these weird little pills that make you depressive, drowsy and really messed up....while drinking a mini-bottle of vitamin A (drink a whole bottle in a month, than don't drink a whole bottle for a month). But after which, I had to many vision walks cause of the dam pills.
You know, a sax can be fixed easily, you just grab new pads and you glue um on, you weld some metal on and it's air tight again. A guitar is even easier to fix, especially since alot of um have bolt on necks and their made of wood (doh!).
Your vocal chords aren't gonna heal as quick as some of us can change the element on a mic. If I stay quite I can probably speak by the next NAMM show!

The whole silent thing works real good with my cowboy hat

Thanks for sharing this! Loved the commentary and tips so, PLEASE do continue

Hi Emma, thank you so much for sharing this stuff. It's a lot to take in on the first read, but now at least I'm aware of your blogs, and find them quite intriguing. It's great that you're bold enough to put controversial writings on here, as I love a good controversy. Some will always dispute what others say, I don't understand why someone that seeks knowledge is also resistant to hearing it.

I will benefit greatly from this alternative point of view, and I will put to practice what you have presented. Thanks for being brave and not giving a **** what others think. Some of us on here are really here to learn something new

Originally Posted by fretbone

Hi Emma, thank you so much for sharing this stuff. It's a lot to take in on the first read, but now at least I'm aware of your blogs, and find them quite intriguing. It's great that you're bold enough to put controversial writings on here, as I love a good controversy.

hehe thanks... I must admit to being somewhat dichotomous (?) courting controversy one minute and stealthily retreating behind a rock the next...
I've decided that one gift of getting-old, is the sudden realisation that if you don't do stuff now.. well... you won't do it
This voice stuff has always really worked for me... so much more than the 'tra la la' theories... it's a different concept... I love stuff like that