30 Years of Singing Advice in 10 Minutes — Transcript

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1. 0:00You're making singing 10 times harder
2. 0:02than it needs to be. Now, that's a
3. 0:04brutal truth I'd tell myself if I could
4. 0:07go back 30 years. After performing
5. 0:10professionally and coaching thousands of
6. 0:12singers, I discovered that there's a
7. 0:14faster, easier way to sing higher
8. 0:16without straining and wrecking your
9. 0:18voice. So, in the next 10 minutes, I'm
10. 0:20going to share the three lessons I wish
11. 0:22I'd learned as a beginner to save you a
12. 0:24decade of mistakes and bad habits. The
13. 0:27first lesson is one which took me years
14. 0:30to learn the hard way. When I was a
15. 0:32beginner singer, I thought that singing
16. 0:34high notes was all about turning up the
17. 0:38power. So, I'd take a deep breath like I
18. 0:41was about about to blow out all 20
19. 0:42candles on my birthday cake and just go
20. 0:44for it. [screaming]
21. 0:47The problem with this is when you blast
22. 0:48more air, your vocal cords have to clamp
23. 0:51down like a vice just to keep up. Now,
24. 0:53you can get away with it when singing
25. 0:55low, easy notes, but as soon as you try
26. 0:57to sing higher, your throat starts to
27. 0:59tense up. It's like trying to drive up a
28. 1:02steep hill in fourth gear. It doesn't
29. 1:04matter how hard you put your foot down,
30. 1:06the engine will eventually stall. I did
31. 1:09that for years. My low range was strong
32. 1:12and sounded great, but as soon as I hit
33. 1:14the high notes, my heavy voice couldn't
34. 1:16sustain the effort and would eventually
35. 1:18crack or just completely give out. The
36. 1:22truth is singing higher doesn't require
37. 1:24more air. It just needs a steady amount
38. 1:28supported from your lower ribs and
39. 1:30stomach. Now, if I could go back and
40. 1:32teach myself one exercise to help fix
41. 1:35this bad habit, it would be this
42. 1:37breathing exercise. Breathe in.
43. 1:42Pause.
44. 1:52This exercise is called the fonelli.
45. 1:55Opera singers have been using it for
46. 1:57centuries to make singing look and feel
47. 2:00effortless by focusing on low expansion
48. 2:03of your ribs and stomach. You create the
49. 2:06right breath pressure for your voice.
50. 2:09And adding a sound like a lip trill or
51. 2:10vocalizing through a straw on the exhale
52. 2:13builds strength and vocal cord balance.
53. 2:15Let's try a few together.
54. 2:18Breathe in.
55. 2:21Pause.
56. 2:33Now breathe in.
57. 2:36Pause. And
58. 2:46While you're vocalizing on either the
59. 2:47lipill or straw, try to keep your ribs
60. 2:50from collapsing in. Keep them out nice
61. 2:52and wide. This is the next note, but
62. 2:54breathe in first and breathe in.
63. 2:58Pause.
64. 3:00And
65. 3:08we'll do two more. And breathe in.
66. 3:12Pause. And
67. 3:22last one. Now, make sure you're not
68. 3:23tensing your abs right here. And breathe
69. 3:25in.
70. 3:28Pause.
71. 3:30And
72. 3:39once your breath and vocal cords are
73. 3:42working together, you can sing higher
74. 3:44with less effort and more power. Which
75. 3:48brings us to the next lesson. Singing
76. 3:51with power doesn't mean singing with
77. 3:54more effort and force. Singers with big,
78. 3:57powerful voices. They know a secret.
79. 4:00Power comes from resonance. I used to
80. 4:02think the secret was was just pushing
81. 4:04harder, like I was trying to win a
82. 4:06shouting match with my neighbor's lawn
83. 4:08mower. Now, real power comes from
84. 4:10placing your tone forward in your mouth
85. 4:13and letting the sound resonate in the
86. 4:15cavities of your throat, your face, and
87. 4:17head. Taking advantage of these
88. 4:20different resonators gives your voice a
89. 4:22volume boost without any extra air or
90. 4:26effort. That's why pro singers make
91. 4:28singing sound effortless. The one
92. 4:31exercise that would have saved me years
93. 4:33of sounding like a fog horn is this.
94. 4:43Now this exercise places the sound
95. 4:45forward in behind your nose and cheeks.
96. 4:47It trains your voice to use the cavities
97. 4:50like an amplifier. It creates brightness
98. 4:53and vibrancy that allows your voice to
99. 4:55cut through the air. Now, classical
100. 4:57singers use it to allow their voice to
101. 5:00be heard above an orchestra without a
102. 5:02mic. And contemporary singers use it to
103. 5:04add power without getting tired during
104. 5:07long sets. Let's try a few together to
105. 5:10build some effortless power.
106. 5:22One 2 3 4
107. 5:342 3 4
108. 5:462 3 Four.
109. 5:572 3. Keep it relaxed.
110. 6:082 3 4
111. 6:192 3 4.
112. 6:28[singing]
113. 6:29Last one. 2 3 4
114. 6:34[singing]
115. 6:41projection and power. It comes from
116. 6:43resonance. It doesn't come from musling
117. 6:46your voice. Now, speaking of muscles,
118. 6:49there are two in your throat that
119. 6:51control your vocal range. The third
120. 6:54lesson I wish someone had taught me is
121. 6:57how to balance these two muscles to
122. 6:59prevent my voice breaking easier than
123. 7:01one of those crackers on Christmas Day.
124. 7:04For 10 years, my chest voice was trying
125. 7:06to do all the work, even on the high
126. 7:09notes. It's like trying to walk up a
127. 7:11long flight of stairs with heavy weights
128. 7:13above your head. The first few steps are
129. 7:16okay, but every step after gets harder
130. 7:19and harder until the weight gets too
131. 7:22much. And that's why your voice cracks.
132. 7:24The vocal weight becomes too heavy. The
133. 7:28two muscles that control your range are
134. 7:30your TA and CT muscles. The TA muscle
135. 7:33controls your low notes and the CT
136. 7:35muscle controls your high notes. Without
137. 7:37getting too technical, what needs to
138. 7:39happen is a gradual transfer of muscle
139. 7:43control. Now, when your voice breaks,
140. 7:46it's because one of these muscles
141. 7:48refuses to give control over to the
142. 7:51other. Think of it like two runners in a
143. 7:53relay race. As the first runner
144. 7:55approaches their teammate, they're both
145. 7:57moving. The baton transition is smooth.
146. 8:01Now, imagine the first runner stops dead
147. 8:04in their tracks right at the other
148. 8:05teammate, and they fight for control of
149. 8:07the baton like a tugofwar, and they
150. 8:10eventually both fall over. And that was
151. 8:12my voice for a long time. My low voice
152. 8:15muscle overpowered my high voice muscle.
153. 8:18Now, there's an exercise that would have
154. 8:20fixed this constant tugof-war. It's a
155. 8:23repeated note pattern in head voice like
156. 8:25this.
157. 8:33This exercise strengthens the head voice
158. 8:35muscle so that it can compete with the
159. 8:38stronger chest voice muscle. Now, after
160. 8:40doing this exercise, do a few gentle
161. 8:42slides to check for any obvious breaks
162. 8:45and practice the transfer of muscle
163. 8:47control.
164. 8:53Now, by slowly descending in pitch, it
165. 8:55trains the chest voice muscle to
166. 8:57gradually take over. Let's do the
167. 8:59exercise together to strengthen your
168. 9:01head voice muscle and bring balance to
169. 9:04your vocal range.
170. 9:07Here's our start note.
171. 9:17Next one.
172. 9:26Next one.
173. 9:34One more.
174. 9:36start note.
175. 9:43[singing]
176. 9:44And to finish off, let's just do some
177. 9:46gentle slides.
178. 9:54I've put together a free 10-minute
179. 9:56routine featuring all of the exercises
180. 9:58in this video with a bit more range for
181. 10:01you to explore your voice. You can
182. 10:03download it using the link in the
183. 10:06description. And if you want the full
184. 10:08system I'd use if I had to start over as
185. 10:11a singer, watch this video