Singing Mastermind - Page 9 of 9 - You Deserve To Be Heard!

Singing With Good Vibrations

by Singing Master

Give Me Those Good Voice Vibrations

sound waves

Resonance Does It

For best results, read this article before you watch the 2 videos below.

People often ask me about how to get a good “ringing” sound in their voices. Others ask about the placement of the tongue when doing the “Silly Spinning Siren,” with the “ng”, so I would like to turn you on to a few things about resonance.

First of all, if you want a good sound, you have to get your resonators vibrating, and I show you how to do that in the two videos below. Remember, for optimum help with your voice, finish reading this article before you watch the videos. That’s the fastest way to understand this crucial topic.

Secondly, before you can understand how to get the most out of your vibrating resonators, you have to know what they really are, so we will start there.

Resonators – What Are They?

Resonators are simply hollow chambers or cavities that vibrate when sound waves pass through them. These are the most important ones.

Larynx – we usually think of this as the source of vibration for the voice, but remember that the larynx only houses the vocal cords, acting as a protective box for them. That is why it is known as the voice box.
Pharynx – this is the area in the back of the throat that extends from the mouth and nasal cavities to the larynx. It is divided into three parts, but I do not want to bog you down in this article with too many details, so that is all you need to know for now about this one.
Mouth – you already know this one!
Nose or Nasal Cavity (this is one of the three divisions of the pharynx I just mentioned).
Sinuses – I think you know this one too.

Resonators have hard surfaces that allow the sound waves to bounce off of them, which in turn, sets off secondary vibrations. These secondary vibrations are what make the voice sound warm, rich or velvety. The secondary vibrations are called resonance.

Your Resonators

The Secret to Resonance….RELAX!

When you do the “Silly Spinning Siren”, relax your jaw, your belly, your entire body and start the tone very very slowly and gently. When you watch me in the video, you’ll notice how effortlessly I do it. That’s because I pay careful attention to what the beginning vibration feels like in my larynx.

If the sound pushes or bursts out, I stop and start over, making sure I approach the sound more carefully and more gently
Since the exercise uses the “ng” sound, the back of my tongue HAS to be up in order to make the sound
I keep the tongue relaxed, however, not forcing the sound
I release the sound rather than pushing it out

Releasing the sound rather than pushing it out is the secret to finding your natural resonance because if you relax, your voice will find it for you!

I’ll have more about resonance posted soon.

Until then, keep singing and remember….

Singing Is Your Joy Released!

Joy Sikorski, Master Voice Trainer

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Voice Anatomy Rocks!

by Singing Master

Yikes, these really are vocal cords!

Vocal Cords (looking down the trachea or windpipe)

Muscles are the key

By knowing where and what to relax and to tense, you will discover how to sing with power, freedom and expressive beauty, especially if you find yourself having trouble going up or down and don’t know what what to do about it. How will you know where to search inside yourself for the answers if you don’t even know what’s going on in there? The answers are about physical muscles, not philosophical or artistic muscles (what are those anyhow?), so get the 411 on anatomy and muscles before you get frustrated or discouraged. I know, I know. Who wants to think about anatomy, right? How can a scientific approach help? I just open my mouth and the best sound in the world just comes out naturally, right? Don’t I wish! That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen that way for some people, but even those fortunate few always benefit from knowing about the muscles they’re using to get such wonderful sounds.

: Pink areas are muscles that help move your vocal cords

Why Know Your Muscles?”

The answer is simple: producing good resonant sound waves requires a fine balance between muscle tension and muscle relaxation of the tongue, cheeks, jaw, mouth, lips and everything other muscle that has a direct or indirect pull on the larynx and pharynx or throat. If there’s undo tension in one, the others are negatively affected. If one is too relaxed, the others try to make up the difference and throw off the balance. And that’s precisely why it is SO important to not only intellectually know what’s going onwith the muscles inside you, it’s also crucial to know how to visualize them in their right locations so that you can literally feel their movements and know which one’s too tight and which one is too loose. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to figure out how these drawings apply to you. Do you know where your vocal cords are in your body? Do you know what your larynx is? Can you feel the muscles that surround it? Do you know how to stay relaxed enough in your vocal cord area to make sure your voice isn’t all tied up.

What’s All This Talk About Muscles?

I Just Want To Sing!

I know, I know, but I want to get you thinking about your voice in different ways than the past so that you can sing better in the future. Try to visualize in your body what you seein the images in this article. Try to figure out where they are. If you don’t know and you just can’t visualize them, then stay tuned because I’ll be giving you more and more of this sort of article to help you out.

Visualize Your Muscles

If you can visualize them and begin to be more aware of them inside of you, then you can start relaxing what’s tensing up too much and tightening what’s too loose. You’ll know what is right by whether or not you can feel resonance, those secondary vibrations in your head. One of my best voice teachers told me that you have to train like an athlete to sing well and she was right, so use voice anatomy to rock your world and learn to sing better than you ever imagined you could. Meanwhile, keep singing and remember….

Singing Is Your Joy Released!

Joy Sikorski, Master Voice Trainer

All images in this article are in the public domain and can be found at bartleby.com

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Singing Mastermind Voice Tips

by Singing Master

Welcome to my Singing Mastermind blog, a place to find timely and timeless articles and tips about how to sing and use your voice to its fullest potential. Use the birdie buttons above to subscribe to my RSS and/or Twitter feeds to take full advantage of my updates and free resources.

My goal is to bring you the best possible resources for your voice. I am extremely passionate about the singing voice and have made it my full time occupation to help you learn to use your voice to enhance your life in ways you cannot imagine. Here are just a few of the things about your singing voice that I’ll be blogging about:

How to empower your voice so that you can sing and speak effectively
How to improve your health with singing (no kidding) – ENDORPHINS RULE!
How to make other people feel good when you sing
How to prevent or overcome vocal trouble, such as hoarseness
How to overcome your fear of singing in front of others
How to sing on pitch
How to make your voice BIGGER
How to learn from listening to Nature
How to learn from other singers and songwriters, directors and professionals (podcast and vidcast interviews)
How to sing when you don’t feel like it and why that’s important
How to sing outside your “box”
How to make your inner judges go away for good
How to listen to the right inner voice, the one that will make your singing voice get out and into the hearts of your audiences in a big way
How to……much much more!

My articles, interviews, video and audio tips and anything else I can think of to help you with your voice will continue to be posted here , so keep singing and remember….

SINGING IS YOUR JOY RELEASED!

Joy Sikorski, Master Voice Trainer

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