The hoarse voice

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Susan McAllister-Bee

Do you ask yourself why you keep losing your voice? Why do you get a hoarse voice after singing for an hour, a night, or maybe two nights in a club?

The vocal cords can only handle so much pressure. When they are misused, we can hear evidence by the imperfections in the sound quality such as hoarseness and gaps in certain areas of the voice.

Many working musicians who are singing every night in loud bars and nightclubs experience the challenge of maintaining control and stamina of their voice without losing their voice completely.

It’s a fine line between a sultry, edgy, husky-like singing voice and no voice at all.

Bottom line….self awareness and self control is key to maintaining the task of singing day after day, night after night in difficult environments.

Professional singers learn very quickly to get lots of rest and drink plenty of water…two key ingredients to maintaining tip top vocal cord function.

Professional singers also know when to stop singing….when to stop blowing so much air through their cords. They have good instincts. They pay attention to the signs. Otherwise, they risk having no voice at all.

Previous voice training

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Susan McAllister-Bee

When I think back to the voice training I have had (6 different teachers in the past 20 years), speech level singing was the eye-opening experience for me. That is not to say that the classical training I had wasn’t useful….because it was….in many ways….but in other ways, it was detrimental.

It wasn’t until I took speech level singing lessons that I found a teacher who understood the actual bridging of my voice (and taught me to understand it)! I was vocalizing through three passagi in the first lesson and over 2 and a half octaves. I had never experienced that in all the previous lessons I had taken.

The blending of the registers is key, in my opinion, to developing a strong and healthy voice in all registers. Here are three favourite links to teachers who teach “mixing” and blending registers (formerly called speech level singing).

http://www.singingsuccess.com/

http://www.vocaladvancement.com/

http://www.speechlevelsinging.com/

http://torontovoicelessons.com/

What is a balanced voice?

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Susan McAllister-Bee

It’s no secret that good technique is key to singing well.

Once you have established a firm foundation on which to build your voice, you should then, and only then, venture on to extreme singing.

What is extreme singing? Any coordination that requires the voice to go beyond the basic set-up of a balanced mix between your low and high register.

I always “balance” my voice in warm-up. I ensure I can easily soar and siren through my entire range (mine is D2 to D5). I usually start with lip bubbles and vary the vowel/consonant combinations daily.

One of my main goals when warming up is gain insight into my breath control and cord closure. Depending on my “energy” and focus on any given day, this can vary. Warming up gives me the cues I need to know how my voice is going to be in performance.

If you have been singing all your life, odds are you can be ready to sing in fine form in a matter of minutes. However, if you don’t sing every day, it may very well take you 15 to 20 minutes of warm-up before you are ready to sing well.