Introduction and guidelines of this Topic! Please read and try to adhere so everyone can benefit

Hi first of all let's make clear the direction for this topic so everyone can benefit ok?

Things we discuss include, How to Sing, Singing techniques, Singing pop songs, Singing classical songs, Singing in choirs (choral singing), different ranges of singers (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), styles of singing (soloistic, ensemble, broadway, jazz, pop, rock, accapella), common questions e.g. how not to get a sore throat, expanding of singing range (how to sing higher or lower), finding your singing range and anything related to singing etc.

What you should post: Questions and answers to problems or general tips and discussions relating to the above

Hi Ok. Let me put my contribution in a separate post from the Introduction and guidelines.

Today I will be addressing a common problem faced by many singers. That is a sore throat. Below are some common reasons why people get a sore throat and the solution to these problems.

1. Dehydration --> This is obvious, Drink plenty of water and do not scream or shout

2. Screaming or shouting or singing excessively loudly --> there is a correct way to shout and a correct way to sing excessively loudly, and that is by engaging your diaphragm to “punch” the sound out. How do you do that? Lie down on a mat or on your bed and place your palm just below your rib cage. The bottom of your rib cage is shaped like an inverted “V”. At the vertex of this V is also the center of your diaphragm muscle and where you should exert your force when singing. To see how your diaphragm moves, just inhale and exhale gently without any tension whatsoever in the shoulders, throat or neck and feel it rise (inhalation) and fall (exhalation). This can go on to become a whole topic, I’ll thus address this another time. If your problem persist, you may want to continue reading point 3 which deals with what you need to do to your throat.

3. Tension of the throat --> this occurs because you are trying to sing a high note, or trying to sing very loudly or just tense. If this occurs because of singing high notes, or loudly, then please refer to point 2. Now if this occurs because you are tense, then there is a way to release the tension. A tense throat is only one where the throat is shut tight and you are trying to force air in. Now one way to see if your throat (which is the back of your mouth) is open, is to stand in front of the mirror and open your mouth wide (3 fingers spacing) and see if you can see your uvula. If you don’t know what’s a uvula check dictionary.com. If you can see it dangling freely and not resting on your tongue (which means your tongue has to be raised and blocking the passage way in order for that to happen), then your throat is open. If not it isn’t. A common problem with many people including singing coaches is that we tend to equate a big open mouth with an open throat. However, if your mouth may be open at the front, but not at the back. Meaning your jaw may be wide open but the passage way is blocked, thus sound cannot flow freely and there is abrasion against your larynx (voice box) thus you get a sore throat. Now, I’ve yet to touch on how to open that throat. If you can identify when its open and when its close, then just try to relive the same experience that causes it to be open. Some experiences include, yawning, getting ready to swallow something huge, or just having trained to lower the back of your tongue at your whim and fancy. To solve the problem you have to go progressively from identifying the experience to creating it. This will take time and a conscious effort. It sounds difficult, no but its actually very easy. Think of how many times your have yawned in your life.

I will stop here. If you have further questions pls direct them to this topic. I will try to be of help.

Thanks liauce, this is really interesting, I love singing in choirs and did so infact this morning for our harvest service. But the bacis technique are the same if you want to sing on your own or in a choir. So I am really looking forward to readon more about the technical and physiological side of singing. I think that is the area where I lack most. I know, and practice good warming up techniques, including efforts to relax the whole body, before starting to sing, but I only do this because one of the conductors used to do that with us. So I do it, know it is good from practice, but don't always know, why (physiologically).

She also had some fantastic tricks for our Soprano's, when trying to reach the higher notes, she said a sign should flash up in the nape of your neck saying "It's fun to sing."

So, please continue this series, I am looking forward to learning a lot.

Thanks

i have voice like a frog. and i can't help myself.

i gues god didn't wanna me sing.


have a nice day!

Singing and Its Psychology

Thx OCAC for your question, I hope I answered some here.

Unlike other instruments like the piano or guitar, your voice is inside you. Ironically, what's inside you is more difficult to feel than what's outside you. For what's outside you can feel with your skin, through pressing, through feeling pressure, through looking at what to press and even through hearing the sound you produce on the guitar and piano.

You noticed I mentioned "hearing". With your voice as your instrument, what you hear and you think you are producing is not actually what your audicence hears, unless you sing into a mic and hear from the monitor speakers which then again only mean 50% of what you hear is what the audience hears.

Try this - if you have not done this before try this out. Find some way to record your speaking and singing voice onto a casette tape or a MD or into your computer through a mic and then play it back. What do you notice? I'm sure you may even be freaked out at first. What you recorded and played back seems so different from what you have been hearing. Is there scientific evidence for this? The answer is yes! Your body has many resonating chambers of which includes your phraynx, cheeck bones, mask of the face, nasal and oral cavity and even your chest. The sound that your vocal chords produce will be resonated in these chambers.

(In fact, a proper way to sing loudly is to channel all the sounds into the these chambers so that you sound louder rather than only using your oral cavity) Sound travels at different speeds through solid, liquid and gas (3 states of matter and yes sound does travel through solid, that is why soundproof studio rooms have double glazed vacuum glass doors)

Therefore what you hear comes directly from yourself to your ears through the vibration of your body and skin while what others hear is transmitted through the air from the vibration coming from your body. Simply but what others hear is body >> air >> ear and what YOU hear is body >> air >> ear AND body >> ear.

I'm sure that you have realised from the previous article that you are able to control a few things in the singing mechanism, that is the lowering of the tongue, the pressurising of the area where your 2 halfs of the rib cage meet and the opening of your jaw. But how do these relate to your larynx, your diaphragm and your throat? Indirectly they do. e.g. lowering of the tongue is controlling the tongue muscle but not your larynx, yet if done correctly it helps to lower your larynx (place a finger at your adam's apple, that's the position of your larynx)

Therefore Singing IS psychological

How do I then use psychology to the advantage of singing better?

Have you experienced a time when you felt sad and spoke to your friend over the phone and your friend could tell without looking at your face. Or have your conductor or coach ever told you to smile when you sing so that you produce a bright and happy sound? Indeed how you feel translates into how you sound.

Therefore to produce a bright forward, ringing, inspiring sound means you have to smile, raise your eyebrows and your cheekbones. However, wouldn't it be weird to do such actions on stage. Yes. Therefore there must come a point after sufficient training where such techniques become second nature and internalised. Meaning you only have to smile slightly on stage without looking weird with an over exaggerated smile to produce just the same extremely bright and cheery sound. How do you do that? Here comes the psychological part. For psychology in itself is too hollow and intangible you need to do all those exaggerated smiling as mentioned previously first! Then you start to think of your body producing sound waves that emit like a rainbow from the tip of your nosebridge (this is where your sound should focus at) and flowing out with ease like a set of notes. Imagine the colour and beauty of these notes just like you are watching a cartoon with birds chirping and animations of musical notes emitting from their cute tiny beaks. This imagination translate to sending the vibration up there. Since you have no buttons to press and no internal anatomy, then this is the only way to send the sound up and out, into a heaven-like lightness and beauty. So putting into perspective what do I mean when I mentioned about not being able to feel tangibly like playing a piano and yet having to smile excessively which is obviously a very concious feelable thing. The smiling is only to aid in your imagination and feeling because the smiling in itself is so indirect. Using muscles to smile does not specially activate certain muscles in your body that move sounds upwards or change the quality of sounds as if your body is such a straight forward instruement where there is a spring, valve and string to everything. No there isn't! Its about feeling and things insides your body that happen but are hard to explain. If fact as a singer, there is not really much need to know all these. To sing a happy sound just look and think happy. =)

IN conclusion

Therefore singing is a mix of things you can feel tangibly and things that are just emotions are imaginations. Of the things that you can feel tangibly, they do not have a direct and straightforward cause and effect on your anatomy that leads to you producing that sound, rather that kind of sound is the side effect of the cause (your doing of the tangible actions like smilling excessively)

I know that when I sing, I want to either be standing or sitting up straight to get airflow. Always open your mouth, to the point of yawning, but not quite there. You want to project your voice. Never sing from your throat, let the air come from your stomach. It may sound weird, but if you can work air out of you with your diaphragm, you should be all right. Everyone has a set range that they can sing at any given time. Don't overextend yourself. For example, I'm a soprano - I can manage alto, but tenor or bass would be out of my grasp. However, I'm extremely comfortable with mezzo-soprano. And I think lastly, ornamentation that a lot of singers use today isn't exactly necessary. It does show how powerful or flexible your voice is, but if you can't do it well, don't do it. It's not necessary to hear moaning and groaning. Also, vibrat(t)o is not something you can just force out of you - wiggling your chin and shaking your throat will only ruin the quality of your sound.

And yeah, that's all.

I can't sing either. I was hoping I could but I have too much of a baby voice. SOmeone ttold me I was soprano and like wtf , I don't know all that stuff lol.! I use to go to this music thing and they gave us singing lessons but I was never good at it.

Some people also sing from their noses I don't know what activates it but it sounds squished and aweful and I do it sometimes...why do people do it ?

Oh god, a lot of people sing from their noses. But hey, if you want to sound like a dying cow, by all means continue.

And I'm sure you'd be great. I'm still mastering not going flat on some of the high notes in my songs...or hitting them at all :/