Finding Your Best Voice

An introduction to fundamentals of vocal pedagogy.

TMEA 2010Valerie Trollinger

Kutztown University of PA

The Singing Process

• Requires a person to:• be able to hear and process pitch• replicate the pitch with the voice• self-monitor is the produced pitch

is correct and created healthfully

Common problems• poor posture• inefficient breathing• phonation issues• hard glottal attacks• breathiness• loss of range after a few minutes• misuse of heavy vocal adjustment

Common problems

• getting over the register break• articulation problems• nasality

Posture• Problem posture• Remediation strategies

• when seated, back is not tense• when standing, bottom is gently

tucked under to help alignment, but not tightened

• Feet are placed a bit apart• Think of the body as a marionette

Breathing• Unhealthy breathing• Remediation:

• Front, back and sides are all engaged in breath support for singing

• Three stages of healthy breathing for singing:• Inhale, Suspend, Exhale

Phonation

• Breath needs to be under control for good phonation

• Constricted, shouty and breathy sounds can be remediated by learning the three stages of healthy phonation for singing:• Attack, Sustain, Release.

Balanced Onsets

• Harsh glottal attacks can be avoided by putting a soft “h” sound at the front of vowels ( attack = hattack).

• Follow the steps for phonation as well.

Breathiness• Breathiness can be remediated by:

• hum with the mouth closed AND teeth touching.

• hum with the mouth closed and the teeth NOT touching.

• vocalize on forward vowels ( ooo, oh) with a B or Z sound at the beginning ( boo, boh)

• these exercises encourage singing “off” the larynx. Also good for developing upper adjustment voices.

range Loss• Temporary, not permanent loss• Occurs when singing with excessive

tension in the vocal mechanism.• Remediated by:

• “yawn” exercise• vocalize on consonants to free the

jaw, phonate with forward vowels on B and Z.

Misuse heavy Adj.• Not uncommon in untrained singers• Remediated by

• Find optimal speech range area• Yawn exercise

• Sing within a limited range, then widen as healthy habits develop

• vocalize on forward vowels and consonants to alleviate tension

Register Break

• For voices that are mutating or matured.

• Lunge exercise while singing octaves, on forward vowels and consonants.

articulation • lips, teeth and tongue can interfere with the

production of a nice sound and understanding of words.

• Remediation:• sing in front of a mirror• enunciate silently to see if another person

can lipread the words• use consonants on warmups to loosen

articulators• Yawn approach for raised tongue

Nasality• Nasal singing indicates the soft palate is not

raised properly, allowing air to escape out the nose. This is a resonance problem rather than a phonation problem.

• Remediation• Using the yawn exercise• Open the mouth more• The voice should sound the same

whether the singer is holding one’s nose closed or not.

Not working?

• Get professional help: School speech specialists.

• These simple remediations work with voices that are already healthy. They won’t work for voices with sustained behavioral or pathological problems.

For more info• For full presentations with

demonstrations, go to • http://www.prenhall.com for

Music in Elementary Education by J.Flohr & V. Trollinger, 2010. DVD.

• My website for basic presentation:• http://faculty.kutztown.edu/trolli

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Finding Your Best Voice

An introduction to fundamentals of vocal pedagogy.

TMEA 2010Valerie Trollinger

Kutztown University of PAtrolling@kutztown.edu

http://faculty.kutztown.edu/trolling