Welcome to Style part 3!
In the last topic we looked at modulating the amount of nasality in your sound by raising and lower the soft palate, and at some longer licks and runs. It can take some time to get used to moving the vibration and resonance around, so you definitely want to review that material this week. The component we’re adding in from a technical point of view this week is larynx position.
Your larynx houses sound producing mechanism and it’s inside/behind the thyroid cartilage/Adam’s apple. If you put your finger on that spot on your throat and make a miaow sound you can feel the larynx shoot up. If you make a ‘doh’ or ‘mum’ sound, you will feel it drop. Whilst it is unavoidable that the larynx will rise on the higher parts of your range, you want it to be in a neutral position where possible. So the lip rolls and ‘mums’ exercises this week focus on that.
Another easy to overlook aspect of working on arrangements is ho
w the words change the shape of the inside of your mouth. Broad sounds (eg aaa, aay eh) can distort at higher pitches. It will be MUCH easier to sing the notes accurately if you look at the lyrics and adjust slightly if you find any broad syllables where you are supposed to sing a higher note. For example, if I were singing David Bowie’s Starman, I would definitely narrow the ‘a’ sound in man by making it more ‘ah’ than ‘a’. The audience or listener will still hear it as the correct word, but the pitch will be more stable. Way/wee etc addresses this.
If you’re short on time, you can chose a couple of technique warm u
ps and a couple of melodic ones.
We also discussed slow practice. Find a lick or run or section of your song that is on the more challenging end, loop and slow it down inside soundtrap and dedicate one session to only that section. Doing it slowly is like learning a dance routine slowly. Your vocal cords are able to build coordination. Skipping this step means you never really get precise.
Aim to record yourself once doing some of the warm ups, you can play them off this screen and record yourself into soundtrap open in a different window; and then get at least one recording done of a song of your choice although you can do more.
The Elements of Style handout is in the materials tab.
