Need some advice from my fellow Barnsonians (particularly those with advanced vocal degrees from famous music performance colleges) on how to restrengthen the singing voice.
Yesterday, I auditioned a young singer for my studio recordings. The kid was pretty talented. Great pitch, nailing high notes. So halfway through the audition I decided to join in on harmonize, rev up the spirit of the process. It might have been by the third note that I realized how terrible my voice sounded. The kid was carrying me through the tune.
I haven’t sang in the studio or live for one year. 12 months. 365 days. You know what happens when you don’t practice an instruments for that amount of time? You lose your chops.
I need my vocal chops back in two weeks. What do I do?
Sing..
Sing a lot… Start with “Together again for the first Time” and sing every song you ever recorded.. through to your most recent one…give yourself breaks.. and just do it..
Record yourself doing it and then decide how to progress..
Its an idea..
The question…
The question might be better answered by someone at the Virtual Conservatory of Singing. I’ve always known that I’m a marginal singer at best, so I’ve never worried much about it 🙂 You and Ben, on the other hand, have dramatically different but good voices.
Their forums are here. There’s some pretty good discussion by some volunteer instructors and students on ideas to recover a voice after disuse, and even some discussion of recoverying from a vocal injury.
Good luck with your chops!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
I could dance with an angel muse…
The long and short of it is that no one can tell you how to sing. Trust me on this one. I took voice lessons for nearly 10 years, with 7 different teachers, and each teacher told me to do something completely different than the one before.
Still, here are some pointers that should go a long way:
– Work on breath support. Singing is just pushing your breath through your vocal cords – so the better you can control your airflow, the better. Sing standing up, with a good posture, and visualize your breath originating as low in the body as possible (generally about 3 inches or so above the Sammy Jewels). Resist the temptation to feel your breath up in your chest, as that encourages shallow breathing and a shallow sound.
A good way to practice breath support is to do to a little yelling. Really. Open your throat as much as possible and just yell “hey!” as if someone has just punched you in the stomach. The sharp exhalation should feel like its coming from deep in your abdomen, and that’s where you should feel your breath as much as possible.
– Don’t sing too heavily. The quickest way to tire your voice is to attempt to sing in somebody else’s voice. If you try to manufacture an artificial sound, like a deeper tone or a “rock star” timbre, you’ll tire out the mechanism quickly. Sing in your natural voice, and as much as you can, don’t oversing. If you keep your tone light and send a lot of air through it, you can get a lot of strength and power in your voice without feeling like you’re trying to pull a truck.
If you listen to a great rock singer like Steve Perry or Freddie Mercury, you’ll hear that their tones are very light, almost nasal. They crank out a snarl every now and then for effect, but mostly their sound is pretty clear, with a lot of air behind it.
I hope this helps, or at least makes some sort of sense. 🙂 To bastardize a well-known phrase: “Talking about singing is like dancing about architecture.”
— Ben
But I can’t seem to find a muse around…
And the funny thing is that I couldn’t remember my middle name earlier today when asked.
Similar experience
I had a similar experience. I was talking with a friend about a well-known scholar in Mormon History circles, and we’d just said his name like 30 seconds earlier, then suddenly I couldn’t remember it.
Not as bad as forgetting your own middle name, but… well, dude. Most men in my family live to somewhere around 55-60 before they kick off from diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. That means I’m more than halfway towards my probable death date, and there are days I think I’m an Alzheimer’s patient.
But my Dr. says that some minor memory loss is normal as you get older, and nothing to worry about. According to my uncle, who appears to be suffering from Alzheimers, “Forgetfulness is forgetting your wife’s name. Alzheimer’s is forgetting you have a wife.”
Don’t know why I enjoyed that tangent so much… what were we talking about?
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Here I am, your sad and silent serenader
Damn man, I’m impressed. I don’t even think we ever recorded that tune.
— Ben
Hmmm
D
All of the above
Weed
Croak!
In the last 2 years I have gotten into Rock. Going to concerts every weekend and singing/screaming my heart out has left me rather croaky? I thought it would eventually go back to normal but it not? Every time I try and sing a note of the songs I have written in the past, nice melodys I sound awful! I smoke very occasionally, is this a contributer? Is there anything I can do to get my lovely voice back?
Nodes…
You may have developed scar tissue, or “nodes” or “nodules” on your vocal folds. The only way to remove these is time and/or surgery. Smoking certainly exacerbates the problem. You should probably see a voice therapist and doctor to help you build a retraining regimen which is appropriate to the damage you have incurred.
I also have a permanent rasp to my voice, though not as a result of smoking. I was a cheerleader in high school, and my once-clear timbre has a bit of permanent hoarseness to it. I live with it, and just resign myself to never being an opera singer 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Croaking in certain places?
Since first posting a little over two years ago, I’ve been singing a ton. Though my voice has returned, there are still a couple pitch/vowel combinations which are raspy. No matter how I breath or attack the note I can’t eliminate the rasp. I’m thinking this is definitely a node and no amount of training or technique can overcome.
Are you getting the same thing, in spots? Or all all sounds coming from your vocal chords raspy?
slice!
I mostly lost my voice after surgery which sliced through my neck muscles (4 inch slice) after removing my tonsils (complications). It’s still tender. I lost a whole octave, pitch, resonance, volume….I’ve been trying to sing and am doing better lower…but still no high notes. I can squeak out a few but it’s not really singing. I used to be able to hit all of Steve Perry’s notes on the Infinity album but now I sing the same songs an octave lower. I’m still working on it. Surgery was end of last November.
BTW, doctor looked at my vocal chords and they are pristeen.
Practice and Posture
Hey wild8hrt,
Thanks for your post. Assuming that tux pic isn’t from pre-op? 🙂
What I’ve discovered, through nothing other than trial, observation and self-instruction, is that each human voice has its own contour and physical capabilities. Those capabilities I believe actually extend beyond the throat area itself, as the whole body acts as generator and amplifier for desired sound. Furthermore, much like different guitars put out different sounds, I believe each human body has a unique sound. This is probably why everyone’s vibrato sounds naturally different.
Anyway, as a result of these beliefs, I’ve actually tried to stop sounding like everyone else and enjoy the output I’m able to deliver. Furthermore, I’ve begun to creatively build my body to execute sound for specific purposes. For example, I’m doing a lot of faith-based gigs (churches and temples) and it’s a musical challenge to use the voice to help connect people to their faith. So instead of trying to manipulate my body to conform to a populist technique, I’m using the knowledge from that technique to create my own sound.
I’ve found that practice and posture are huge. Putting your body in different positions really helps. Even the slightest turn of the shoulder and opening of the jaw on certain vowels can sustain G5s for 20 seconds. I’m the creative director for a show going to Vegas this fall and in starting to work with the singers I’m helping them reach certain sounds this way.
Good luck and I hope you get your voice back to the point you feel comfortable and confident with your ability.
Vibrato
Never had it. Probably never will. I had a voice instructor work with me for a year to practice oscillating a quarter-tone, and although I could do it with some speed to almost sound like vibrato in certain pitch ranges, it was never real, natural vibrato.
Ahh, well. My daughter has great vibrato.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
vibrato
I’ve noticed the ones absent vibrato often have that dead-on, perfect pitch.
I had a great voice teacher
I had a great voice teacher years ago who taught exactly what you’re saying, re: the entire body contributing to singing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into singing only pop stuff…as a matter of fact, I’ve never performed a pop song (except in bars in Vegas and I don’t count that). What I miss is all the vocal gymnastics I’ve almost always been able to do.
I’ve been doing experimentation lately and discovered that if I move my head and jaw slightly forward, I can hit higher notes although they aren’t quality. With practice, they are slowly getting better.
I’m entertaining an idea of going to Toronto in the fall to the voice repair goddess, Diana Yapolsky. She only has an opening 1 day in September and it’s not cheap.
Thank you so much for your input. It sounds like you really enjoy performing for your fellowship.
I bought the suit for a big interview. It looks different in the pic. It’s actually midnight blue with fat, warm brown pinstripes fairly far apart. My surgery was last November 28. When I got out, I couldn’t speak much less sing. That pic was 4 days ago. In a larger version of this pic, you can see my scar and a big dent in my neck.