Tag Archives: voice lesson

How to Boost Your Chest Voice and Why

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Incorrect use of the low rang is one of the most common issues that I run into in working with singers. Most women resist singing in their chest voice and tend to sing everything in their head voice. I believe this is because it’s easier and the quality of the tone is more ethereal and less masculine.

There are significant problems with this approach:

  1. The voice in the low range sounds weak and breathy
  2. It’s extremely difficult to sing low notes as they simply won’t come out!
  3. It’s impossible to sing loud in the low range. Volume decreases the lower you sing.
  4. The quality of the tone is often gravelly.

There can be other reasons for not wanting to use the chest voice, ones that are rooted in our emotions and psyche. I discovered this while helping public speakers develop a strong, resonant speaking voice.

A strong, yet relaxed speaking voice is deeply connected to self-confidence. Often those who speak with a breathy voice were told many times as a child to be quieter. They may have been told to not sing, or to just lip sync because they were judged to be inadequate singers. When working with these students and we touch on making their voices fuller, buried emotions are often released, revealing the deep connection between the voice and our emotions. Working on the voice acts as a catalyst to bring deeply rooted issues to the surface.

A full voice communicates clarity of expression and conviction. If it’s forced out it’s often perceived as revealing insecurity. A voice that is full, strong, resonant, and without strain, conveys an attitude of self-confidence that is not imposing and is without ulterior motive. This predisposes the audience to be more receptive to you and what you have to share.

For a singer, a full, resonant voice means a larger “bandwidth”, better suited to sharing energy and inspiration. The correct use of the chest voice ensures that inspiration is grounded, practical, and accessible by the audience. Fullness and volume are but one aspect of what you are offering to your audience. Remember to remain open to the flow of inspiration, which can only work unimpeded when you get the ego out of the way.

Learning to balance strength and self-confidence with selfless expression of inspiration is a constant process of fine-tuning and recalibrating our intentions as performers. The reward, however, is the growing, overwhelming realization that we are part of something much greater, and through singing, we can access this and share it with the world.

CHECK OUT MY LATEST VIDEO

How to REALLY Sing – How to Be a Charismatic Singer

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Don’t Just Sing, Inspire!

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I can tell a good movie by how uplifted I feel afterward. With really good movies, the feeling of upliftment and expansion can last for hours, or even days. Lincoln was such a movie for me. I saw it at the Grove Theater in Los Angeles. I was struck by the fact that, unlike any other movie I had seen there, at the end of the movie nobody was in a hurry to leave. Almost everybody sat through the credits quietly. There was a tangible feeling of stillness pervading the theater. I distinctly remember the sense of deep love and harmony I felt for everyone I saw when leaving the room. Quite a contrast from the usual “push-and-be-pushed” that you experience when leaving a crowded movie theater!

I reflected afterwards as to why some movies have that effect on us. I think that a movie inspires us when it helps us expand beyond our mental horizon and see things from a broader perspective. Mere sentiments and emotions cannot do that. The same is true for singing. If all we do is express ourselves in a purely emotional way at the level of jealousy, anger, hatred, or other base emotions, the effect on our audience will be shallow and short-lived. Only when we share the higher qualities of love, forgiveness, compassion, beauty, and joy through our voices, does our singing become a powerful source of blessing for us and for our audience.

I think that many singers today focus too much on developing an impressive technique, and too little on doing what a true artist should do: inspire and uplift people. If you can hit all the right notes perfectly, but you don’t inspire, your performance will impress your audience, but it won’t bring about any lasting changes. The next day they will just move on with their lives, as if nothing had happened. If, on the other hand, you touch their hearts and souls with your singing, you could change their lives with just one song! Such is the power of music: in just three minutes you can change people’s state of mind and consciousness. All it takes is to consciously sing from your highest self to theirs.

DO YOU SING IN A CHOIR OR WOULD LIKE TO JOIN ONE?

Since I’m working with so many choir singers, I’m creating a special section on my vocalbliss.net website where singers and aspiring singers can find resources to improve their singing. There will also be a section with a special curriculum of vocal training for brand new singers who want to get started but have never sung before. Please email me if you have any suggestions for things that you think it would helpful to include in this section. Thanks!

8 Tips to Keep Your Voice Healthy and Strong

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by Ramesha Nani

baby_strongThose of us who speak often and for extended periods of time have all experienced vocal fatigue. While this feeling of tiredness when we talk improves only when we stop talking for some time, it is often quick to return as soon as we begin to speak again.

For someone who teaches, gives presentation, preaches, sells products on the phone, etc., vocal fatigue can be a real problem. Because of the demands of the job, they’re not likely to be able to stop and give their voice a break, allowing it to rest and heal. Unfortunately, this can eventually lead to more serious issues, like nodules, polyps, or contact ulcers, which are caused by vocal abuse (and overuse).

In this article I’m going to offer a few suggestions to prevent vocal abuse and to deal with it when it occurs.

  1. Get vocally “fit”. The vocal cords are, essentially, muscles. Just like any other muscle in the body, they need exercise to be kept in good shape and to make them strong and flexible. Using the voice for public speaking, as opposed to simple everyday conversation, can be compared to running a marathon, as opposed to taking a morning stroll. It takes strength and endurance. A serious public speaker needs to view speaking as an athlete views training for a sport: train the voice, warm it up before every talk, do everything you can to take care of it.
  2. Love your voice! As much as possible it is best to avoid “voice killers”, like smoking, sleep deprivation, alcohol, shouting, and too much caffeine. Be a good steward to your voice and it will serve you well in the long run.
  3. Water your vocal cords. Drink plenty of water! Your voice works best when you’re well hydrated. Remember that caffeinated beverages tend to dehydrate you. If you live in a dry environment, you can moisturize your throat using steam. Lean over a pot of boiling water with a towel covering your head and breathe deeply for about 10 minutes (don’t burn yourself!).
  4. Breathe! Many public speakers don’t breathe correctly. They take shallow breaths with their upper chest, instead of engaging their diaphragm, abdominal muscles, and floating ribs. Lack of proper breath support will most certainly lead to vocal fatigue, because it puts too much strain on the muscles around the throat. Full breathing allows the throat to stay relaxed and produce a full, resonant sound.
  5. Breathe more! The tendency to not breathe often enough is also very common. Training yourself to slow down and take frequent breaths throughout your talk will yield gains in clarity and vocal health, and will help keep nervousness under control!
  6. Stand (or sit) up straight. Besides being more pleasant and magnetic to look at, standing or sitting up straight frees up your abdomen and diaphragm, allowing you to speak with better breath support and avoid vocal fatigue.
  7. Speak in your natural range. Many speakers force their voice down to an unnaturally low range. This doesn’t allow the vocal cords to work correctly and they will tend to tire rather quickly. It also makes your voice raspy and not particularly attractive or magnetic.
  8. Learn to use the voice correctly. The best gift you can give your voice is vocal training. Neglected and overlooked by so many speakers, vocal training can be the key to bright, powerful, and confident presentations. Would you give a talk dressed in rags? Your voice is the garment of your words. It’s what people hear first, before any idea or concept is presented to them. Vocal training also ensures voice longevity. If you’re in for the long haul as a speaker, you need your voice to work at its best for years. Start now!

High Notes Are Not Hard!

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by Ramesha Nani

opera singer

One of the main goals of every singer is to extend their vocal range. Too many singers, alas, pursue this goal by straining and eventually ruining their voice. This is partly due to the many bad examples that can be found among the so called “professional” singers, as well as misinformation found on the internet. Of all the ways that one can sing, there’s only one that is physiologically correct and that fosters vocal health and longevity: by relaxing and expanding, rather than by squeezing and tightening.

Is it possible to sing high and even very high notes without strain? Absolutely! In fact, it is the only way, if you don’t want to ruin your voice. Here’s how you do it:

The ability to sing high notes without effort depends on the ability to access your high range, called “head voice”, or “head register”. In order to access it, it’s important to:

  • Stay relaxed and not push the voice
  • Open and expand the throat
  • Open the mouth wide
  • At first, decrease the volume. It’s harder to get into your upper range when singing loud. Once you know how to do it, you can sing loud or soft, it won’t matter.
  • Don’t be impatient! It might take time to develop and strengthen the muscles that operate the head voice. Some people don’t ever use them until they take on voice training.

One of the best ways to start is to hit and hold some relatively high notes singing in falsetto, and then gradually open the mouth and expand the throat. At first, your high notes will probably sound airy and thin. That’s absolutely normal. Keep practicing! As you do that, you will notice that your sound becomes deeper and more robust. Maybe still airy, but less thin. Gradually, you will strengthen your throat muscles as the sound becomes stable and strong, more and more similar to a “real” voice. Tip: practice on all the vowels (eee, ay, ah, oh, ooo). You need all of them to be able to sing a song!

I created a couple of videos in the past showing this process. Click here and here to watch them.

Don’t be impatient as you practice and learn this technique. It may take a while to get to the point where your voice is strong and loud in your upper range. However, in my experience, this is the safest way to learn to sing high notes without effort or strain.