Too perfect?

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I have a female client who has been training with me for the past year. She has lovely sound. A very pretty voice.

However, she is not happy with her sound. She wants to sound more like a radio singer (she names examples likeTaylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Rhianna).

This young lady had previous classical singing lessons. Her breath control is wonderful. Her head resonance is crisp and present, and her glottal onset is precise and clean……so beautiful, so lovely………and she hates it.

This young lady is so well trained that she is having trouble undoing her perfect classical sound.

What can she do to sound more contemporary?

1. Change the vocal cord set-up. She currently has a seamless onset where her breath and cord closure meet with smooth connection. There is not much edginess. We have been working on her “speech level” closure in her chest voice with wide vowels.

2. We have been working on changes at the vocal cord level in her speech level chest voice. She is doing exercises that keep her in stronger mix of chest voice versus head voice with lots or oral twang and mouth resonance.

3. I have suggested listening and copying other singers. One of the best ways to explore and grow your voice is by trying new co-ordinations. When you do this, you need to pay special attention to how your throat feels. It should never hurt, but the co-ordinations may definitely feel “different” from what you are familiar with.

Questions? Comments? Please leave a message below.

The “Carrie Underwood” / “Kelly Clarkson” type of voice

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Susan McAllister-Bee

I wanted to talk about this type of voice, because the configuration to get it isn’t what most people think.

When I have a student trying to sing in this style, I quite often hear a lot pf chest register being yelled at a high pitch that usually sounds dull, painful and, to say the least, quite unpleasant.

It isn’t uncommon for singers to try and duplicate this type of sound with their chest voice…it is however, the wrong approach.

Instead, the singer needs the practise “twang” in the head register. (Try quacking like a duck, or sounding nasty like a witch). You should be able to do this easily without any constriction or tightening in the throat. What usually happens is the head voice is not able to twang easily, and the student will over-compensate with throat muscles. Sometimes the singer will “flip” into falcetto mode.

Both Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have a superb ability to twang in their head register. This gives the listener the illusion of a powerful chest register volume, when in fact, they are not using much chest register at all. They are, in fact, in a middle voice/head register configuration with a lot of twang.

Secondly, the vocal cords are under a great deal of breath pressure. In other words, the singer is able to hold back a lot of breath without flipping to falcetto. This ability allows for great mouth and head resonance and again gives the listener the illusion of great power and volume.

Two singers that come to mind that do sing too high in their chest register at times are Adele and Christine Aguilera. Even though they both sing very differently, they both sing very loud and very high in their low register. Christine Aguilera has only had trouble with this as she has gotten older. Her ability to sing in a loud chest, middle and head voice mode through her entire range when she was younger made her a superstar. She is still a superb singer, but as she gets older her cords have probably thickened from singing so hard in her chest register. Thick folds can make it hard for a singer to ascend into their head register and keep control of their voice.

Do you have any questions or comments? Please leave them here.

How do they do it?

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Susan McAllister-Bee

That’s always the question? How do they do it?

The masters of rock and pop singing? Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. Steven Tyler, and more, how do they do it?

They are masters, indeed! Some may say it’s genetics, but vocal experts will say that there are a few key issues going on here.

First, the cry. This is a essential. A primal sound that is key to helping everyone sing better. It is more apparent in some styles, but it is a basic concept in helping the vocal cords come together and stay together for a duration in the higher voice.

Second, the twang. This is essential as well, in every form of singing. It is more apparent in some styles than others, but it is there. In Speech Level Singing, we experience this with “nay, nay, nay”. As I understand it, this, and the cry, will tilt the larynx, and change the vocal tract, and allow you “to mix” your lower chest tones with your higher tones”. If done without constriction for external factors (such as throat constriction, or false cord constriction) then the voice can resonate well and exhibit a loud, strong mix quality to the voice.
Do you have questions about the “cry” and “twang” of the voice? Please let me know. Susie Q.