Quality Vs. Quantity
by Ramesha Nani
One of the main goals every singer has is how to expand the vocal range. Whether out of necessity or of personal ambition, we want to be able to sing more and more notes and most of our energy in our singing practice goes toward that.
While we do that, however, it’s important to realize that working on improving the quality of each note we sing is also (and maybe more) important. We can improve the quality of our notes by perfecting our vocal placement. Every note has its “place” in our throat; to locate and fine-tune that place is the goal of every serious aspirant singer.
Oftentimes, when a note doesn’t sound as good as we’d like, the natural response we have is to push it to make it sound fuller and more resonant. That, however, as we’ve said many times, doesn’t solve the problem. What we actually need to do is relax in our sound so that the voice can find its right “pathway”. It’s an interesting fact that the voice knows what to do, if we can just stay relaxed and don’t try to force it in any particular direction.
Long Tones Exercise
One of the best ways I know to improve the quality of your sound is to practice long tones: Pick a low note in your range that you can hit easily and sing any vowel (ee, ay, aah, oh, oo); hold the note long enough to give yourself time to gradually relax your throat more and more as you keep singing.
Experiment with how much you can relax and still be singing. If you relax too much, your voice will sound weak and “breathy”.
Practice with different vowels and different notes; go up a half step at a time and repeat the same procedure.
As you hold your notes and relax, you might notice that your voice will wobble a little. This happens because you’re gradually releasing tension from your throat and relying more on your diaphragm* for support (this is supposed to happen).
By combining scales and arpeggios (like the one I suggested in the video of August Newsletter) with long tones you can work on two different fronts to accomplish the same purpose. With scales and arpeggios you learn to move fast up and down our vocal range, developing agility and lightness. With long tones you go deeper and deeper into each sound, you learn to better support your voice from the diaphragm, you experience how little energy it takes to produce a sound (a lot less than we would normally use).
* Refer to our July 2010 Newsletter for suggestions in the correct use of the diaphragmatic breathing.
If you want to learn more about how to improve the quality of your voice you can sign up for a FREE Introductory Voice Lesson and get live, one-on-one coaching through skype
___________________________________________________________________________
Excerpts from: The Power of the Voice: Transform and Heal Your Life
by Swami Kriyananda
“Only the voice can completely express the subtle changes of consciousness. Only the voice can give power to every word. Only the voice can suddenly shift from one sentiment to another so that you instantly know what’s happening. A violin can capture a little of the sentiment but it is more like an echo.”
___________________________________________________________________________
Questions?
Feel free to contact me about any singing-related issue or doubt that you might have. I will do my best to help you find a solution for it.
