What is Vocal Balance? Kathryn Kennedy, a member of IVA has a wonderful article on how to create vocal balance.
Let’s talk about how style affects vocal balance. First of all, what is "vocal balance"? Vocal balance is an even, seamless ability to go from low to high—or from chest voice to head voice—negotiating easily through the passages of the voice with the larynx sitting in a relaxed posture. Vocal balance usually results in more "finished" qualities in the voice, including vibrato, a rounder tone vs. way too edgy or nasal, and a strong, solid sound vs. really breathy or too pressed. Examples of a singer moving in the right direction could include a rock singer who uses mix rather than only chest, or a classical singer who has chest in their voice vs. none at all. Riffing, if appropriate, can also show flexibility and ease in singing. Some singers have vocal balance early on, but they can lose it as they get further into their careers. Tough touring schedules, high demands from their producers, or just not knowing how to do what they used to do can cause singers to lose vocal balance. This can happen to singers who have a natural ability and are very gifted, yet they never learned the mechanics of how they achieved vocal balance or how to maintain it. Various styles can pull a singer off of perfect balance. A pop singer might employ a more weighty sound (more chest dominance) while a classical singer will sing with a "head dominant" (less chesty) sound. These tendencies are OK for the style because singers need to be believable within the genre they are singing. They might be tilted a little more toward the chest side or the head side, and yet they must be able to retain some "balance." The fact is we might find that perfect vocal balance gets boring after a while. We don't want everyone to sound alike! We also want to be able to use expressive qualities that let our emotions come through. But we have to know what vocal balance is so we don't stray so far from it that we lose our way and can’t find our way back to healthy singing! Of course there are good singers of a particular style that can really 'sell' a song, and we might think: That sounds really cool! You can "sell" a song well without having perfect vocal balance. Here are some examples:
For this reason, singers who show some consistency and skill in terms of vocal balance will tend to have the longest careers.
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Many people in the state had the lucky opportunity to hear Elton John perform! We had a friend who was able to attend and said he played for hours. Elton exemplified what he said in this quote "Music has healing power". You as a singer have the amazing ability to use your talents to help heal others. You are the reason they can step out of themselves for a few minuets or even an hour and enjoy the gift you are giving them. What a beautiful power you hold. Let us help you gain more confidence and skill in your voice to share it more often. Both Kirsten and Travis are influenced and healed by the work all of the students at Anderson Vocal Studio are doing. Thank you for sharing your gift with us! www.andersonvocal.com
Travis found this great example of singing in Mix. By singing healthy and finding the right placement for your voice, you will have the ability to sing for many, many years!
This week Kirsten was reading an article on auditioning, since many of her students have a lot of auditions coming up. Carolyne Barry is an actor, teacher and casting director who has come up with 7 ways Actors appear insecure in Auditions. Read her article to gain more information about how to avoid these pitfalls.
7 Ways Actors Appear Insecure in Auditions Travis and Kirsten have a lot of experience running auditions and auditioning ourselves. Our biggest piece of advice is practice, practice, practice. The more comfortable you feel with your audition, the more control of your nerves you will have. We can help you with that practice by working your audition from start to finish. From the moment you walk in the room to the moment you say "Thank you!" at the end. Travis can help you find that perfect part of the song and help you feel confident in that selection. Even if it's not an "Acting" Audition, there is a level of professionalism in the audition room that we can help you practice. We also have included Acting sessions with Kirsten as apart of the services we offer at Anderson Vocal Studio. You can do 1 session at a time or sign up for monthly sessions to improve your acting by working one on one with a theatre director and coach. Our mission is to help you gain confidence in your performances and to help you reach all of your performing goals. We gain pride in seeing you succeed! Not only is singing fun but it actually can improve your life! It can lower anxiety and improve your overall well being. So Sing away!! Even if you are not currently a performer, take lessons! It will benefit you all around.
This week Travis had a lesson with his voice teacher Jeffery Skouson. Some of the students currently attending Anderson Vocal Studio has also had the privilege to work with Jefferey. He is a Master teacher and has perfected his craft. Travis learned some really great things including Catastrophic voice problems and how to fix them if they present themselves. Travis is training to become a better voice teacher to benefit all of his students here at Anderson Vocal Studios. Start lessons today to get all the benefits he is learning. You can also take advantage of our recent promotion. If you sign up a friend who starts lessons, your month is free!
I found this really interesting Article about how our brains process music and I thought I would share that with you today!! Check out Eva Amsen's twitter or website by clicking on her name below!
Eva Amsen Contributor Science Writing about the overlap of science and art When you listen to music, your brain processes this in a different way than when you’re listening to someone speak. So where does that leave songs? In a new study, researchers found that there is a small area of the brain that’s triggered by vocal music, but not by either speech or instrumental music. When you hear singing, your brain processes that in a different way than it does instrumental music or spoken word. Here: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O'Donovan of I'm With Her singing around one microphone during the FreshGrass Music GETTY IMAGES This study was uploaded as a preprint to BioRxiv, which means that it has not yet been peer-reviewed by other researchers, but the same group of researchers has previously published other studies that look at how the brain responds to a series of different sounds. In 2015 they found that music and speech were processed in different parts of the auditory cortex. What’s particularly interesting about this new study is not just the fact that it shows that our brains consider songs a whole separate thing from either music or speech, but also the way the researchers carried out the experiments. Instead of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) like they did in previous studies, here they measured brain activity directly on the surface of the brain. fMRI locates activity based on blood flow through the brain, and roughly finds the active area, but it can’t pinpoint the area in much detail. A more “high resolution” method to look at brain activity is by using electrocorticography, or ECoG. In the current study, neuroscientist Sam Norman-Haignere and his colleagues wanted to repeat some of their earlier fMRI experiments with ECoG, to see if they could find more accurate locations of music and speech in the brain. ECoG is a surgical procedure. The electrodes need to touch the brain itself so the skull needs to be opened. It’s very invasive, so - unlike fMRI studies - it’s not something you can ask people to volunteer for. But ECoG is routinely used on people who have a form of epilepsy that only affects a small area of their brain. These people qualify for a surgical procedure where the part of their brain that’s causing their seizures is removed. To prepare for that surgery, doctors first need to pinpoint the exact location of the affected area, and they use ECoG for that. So to find volunteers to listen to a series of music, speech, and other sound samples, the researchers approached people who were about to undergo an ECoG procedure for epilepsy treatment, and who were willing to take part in this experiment. They found thirteen volunteers this way. Each one of them listened to a series of 165 sounds and researchers used the ECoG measurements to find which parts of the auditory cortex were activated. The sounds were all short samples of familiar things. A dog barking, for example, or the ping of a microwave. The sounds were grouped into different categories, and this is where certain patterns started to show up. Samples in similar categories would activate certain areas of the brain, suggesting that that was where the sound was processed. Some of the samples were of instrumental music, speech, or vocal music. There was some overlap in the brain regions that these samples activated, but there was one part of the auditory cortex that seemed to respond very specifically to vocal music (songs) rather than speech or instrumental music. In the earlier research using fMRI this hadn’t been noticed, probably because the resolution isn’t as clear as it is with ECoG. From this experiment it looks like your brain processes songs in a different way than either speech or instrumental music. It’s not clear why, or what it means, but Norman-Haignere and his co-workers offer some suggestions in their paper. For example, it could be related to the fact that the earliest music was mainly vocal, or because we’ve learned over time to recognize the melodic vocal line in a song as information separate from the rest of the music. Whatever the explanation, this discovery is another piece of the puzzle in understanding how music is processed in the brain. Today our blog is going to be presented by our Acting Coach, Kirsten Anderson:
A lot of Auditions are coming up. Many of you may be heading back to school and have an audition that is right away. That maybe a play or a musical, either way the voice is a very important part of your success! Taking voice lessons not only helps you sing better but it also helps you learn techniques that help you in your speech. Today we are going to go through some tips! First tips for a healthy voice and Tips on Auditioning. Don't Forget to sign up for an audition prep session with me and Travis. Times are filling up!! Click here to sign up! Some 7 million Americans have some type of voice disorder, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology. Hogikyan and colleagues have put together the following 10 tips to help keep your voice in shape: 1. Drink water to keep your body well hydrated, and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Your vocal cords vibrate very fast, and having a proper water balance helps keep them lubricated. Important note: Foods containing large amounts of water are excellent hydration-conscious snacks, including apples, pears, watermelon, peaches, melons, grapes, plums, bell peppers and applesauce. 2. Allow yourself several "vocal naps" every day, especially during periods of extended use. For instance, teachers should avoid speaking during the breaks between classes and find quiet ways to spend the lunch hour rather than talking in a noisy staff room with colleagues. 3. Don't smoke, or if you already do, quit. Smoking raises the risk of throat cancer tremendously, and inhaling smoke (even secondhand smoke) can irritate the vocal cords. 4. Don't abuse or misuse your voice. Avoid yelling or screaming, and try not to talk loudly in noisy areas. If your throat feels dry or tired, or your voice is getting hoarse, reduce your voice use. The hoarseness is a warning sign that your vocal cords are irritated. 5. Keep your throat and neck muscles relaxed even when singing high notes and low notes. Some singers tilt their heads up when singing high notes and down when singing low notes. "The high notes are on the ceiling and the low notes are on the floor," Rosenberg says. "Over time, you'll pay for that"—not just with strained vocal muscles but also by causing future limits on the vocal range. 6. Pay attention to how you speak every day. Even performers who have good singing habits can cause damage when they speak. Many skilled singers don't continue their healthy habits when they speak; indeed, says Herseth, "many people—including singers—should have much more breath flow when they speak." 7. Don't clear your throat too often. When you clear your throat, it's like slamming your vocal cords together. Doing it too much can injure them and make you hoarse. Try a sip of water or swallow to quench the urge to clear. If you feel like you have to clear your throat a lot, get checked by a doctor for such things as acid reflux disease, or allergy and sinus conditions. 8. When you're sick, spare your voice. Don't talk when you're hoarse due to a cold or infection. Listen to what your voice is telling you. 9. When you have to speak publicly, to large groups or outdoors, think about using amplification to avoid straining your voice. 10. Humidify your home and work areas. Remember, moist is good for the voice. Further, warming up the voice is not just for singers, the researchers say. Think of it like stretching and loosening up before exercise. Easy, daily warm-ups for your voice: 1. Do lip or tongue trills in the morning (try it in the shower or on your drive to work) to facilitate better use of airflow and breath. 2. Perform gentle humming and cooing to warm up your voice in the morning. 3. If you do more vocally complex warm-ups too, such as vocal scales, do the simple warm-ups first. 4. Repeat these exercises throughout the day to reduce muscular tension in the neck, shoulders and jaw. 5. At the end of the day, perform a cool-down of the voice with similar vocal tasks. Good Audition Tips Come 10-15 min early.
The human brain makes over 27 judgments about another person within seconds of meeting them. These judgments are based on your posture, body language, voice tone, breathing rate, eye contact, etc. Make a bad first impression, and everything you do thereafter is filtered through that impression. Why is this important? Because acting is a business. And people do business with those that they know, like, and trust.
You have the ability to make your own destiny. No one can tell you no except you! Don't stop your potential. Be the best version of yourself. Let us help you achieve those goals you have. Don't forget to practice as well. Those daily practices are only going to help you improve your skills. Doing daily warm-ups and practicing your songs will help you reach your goals faster.
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voice blogAnderson Vocal Studio will post advice and helpful articles that will increase your understanding of your voice and improve your vocal technique. Archives
November 2020
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