Natural sounds of the human

Humans have a wonderful and natural talent for expressing emotions and communicating.

Just as birds sing, dogs bark, humans have their natural instinct helping them when it comes down to expressing emotions or survival warnings. Let's have a look at a few examples.

WARNING : if you try the mentionned techniques and it hurts, please stop for your vocal safety. Singing should always feel natural. If it hurts, or you think it's wrong, then it is wrong.

1) Shouting danger.

Imagine a kid playing with his ball on the other side of a large road, the ball rolls on the road, the kid runs after the ball... classic, isn't it ?

Now imagine you're the only witness of that situation and you see a car arriving, you're gonna need to warn the kid.

Believe me, no singing technique can have you produce as much sound as you will just using that natural scream. You're gonna be using all your lungs, the highest note in your vocal range while shouting the "Hey" that will maybe save the kid's life.

That is exactly the technique used by "belters". Think of Christina Aguilera, Witney Houston back in her time... that is exactly what they're doing. Natural shouting is loud, clear and powerful. We should really lean on it to produce powerful notes rather than destroy our vocal chords by trying to force a technique upon our natural means of expression

2) Soccer fan - Fish seller.

Do you hear them soccer supporters shouting in the stadium : "HoooooOOOooOO". Only a vuvuzela could beat the volume of that singing.

You're not a fan of soccer ?

Ok, think of the guy on the market who sells his products : "FIIISH, FRESH FIIIISH, FRESH VEGETABLES".

Give it a try.

Loud, isn't it ?

Again, your body naturally produces a loud sound because you want to make yourself heard.

3) Crying Baby.

Any of us has had the chance to hear a baby cry. What a heckofanoise !!

The reason is : the baby cannot take care of itself. It needs to make a lot of noise to warn people around that it needs help. And therefore the volume of a baby's voice is one of the loudest thing we know.

Give it a try, try to sound like a baby crying (I know it's embarassing, just get over that...singing with a tiny voice and/or out of tune is way more embarassing).

Hey hey, there goes the volume ! !

See, the human has lots of ways to produce sound, with a natural posture, with power and volume.

Get back to the roots, to the basic expression means of your body. Let's stop for a while to distort singing and making it difficult. Any human being has a big voice if he lets it go out.

I will remind you not to force anything. If it feels wrong, it is wrong. If it hurts, it is wrong. Please try these techniques with precaution.

Singing Regards,

Menno

Breathing

The human body can remain three months without eating. Three days without drinking. Three minutes without breathing.

We are being taught what to eat, how much to drink, when to eat and drink. Breathing we are not being taught. At school, at home. Nobody looks at your breathing to correct it and make sure you give your body the maximum benefits of this number one survival tricks : Taking air to oxygen the blood.

For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth. ~Sanskrit Proverb

Breathing is the core of singing. Breath is what makes your vocal chords resonate, it's volume is the volume of your voice, it's power is the power of your voice.
Breath is sustained by the respiratory muscles. We have more than 400 muscles participating to the breathing process.

Let's have a short look at the technique of breathing.

1. Dynamic breathing

Breathe a few times consciously... take your time to breathe in, fill your lungs completely with air, and then breathe out. Watch yourself doing it, take conscience of your breath.

Now let's have a look at what you did.

You have probably used strength while breathing in, sucking the air into the lungs, and released the tension while breathing out...

Which is wrong... Singing is exactly backwards.

Let's try something else...

Breathe out while pronouncing the letter "F". Your lips obstruct the airflow, and you need to "push" the air out, helping yourself with your abdominal muscles. Push the air till you completely empty your lungs, pulling your belly in. Until you release the last breath of air... stay with empty lungs for a few seconds...hold...hold...and release...

Yes you did release !! While taking your breath in. The contrary of what you did before.

Singing (thus releasing air out of your body) is energy, requires a body dynamic. Breathing in, on the contrary, is relaxing. It's exactly like the bellow you use for a chimney. You push to get the air out, and you release to let it back in.

While singing, you push air out for a while, 3 to 10 seconds, and very often to catch your breath you only have 1 second. So within that one second, you want to catch your breath efficiently, cause your breath is what you're gonna be leaning on for the next phrase of your song.

Try a few times.

Empty your lungs while saying the letter "F",
Feel your abdominals contract, your belly pull in...
Hold the position with empty lungs a few seconds
Release your body for it to catch breath.

When you have exhaled completely, your body has no air inside, and there is air outside. There is an unbalanced force. When you open your mouth, your throat, and feel the air go inside the lungs to expand them, you are responding to that force to balance it again. Naturally... enjoy the body relaxing as you do the exercise.

Repeat the exercise a few times. Try inhaling through the nose. Exhale, through the mouth, and inhale by the nose. Inhaling should be relaxed, easy. You should have the feeling your belly "drops" back in place and takes with him the lungs, thereby filling them with air.

Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. ~Krishnamacharya

Now try and sing with this technique. Keep a constant airflow while singing a long phrase, catch your breath quickly while dropping the belly back in place and sing the next part of the song.

You may surprise yourself with the volume of your notes or the beauty of their resonance. As I told you in the beginning : Breath is what makes your vocal chords resonate, it's volume is the volume of your voice, it's power is the power of your voice.

That's for it for breathing today, stay tuned for other tips and tricks ! !

Singing regards,

Menno

Miley Cyrus : What you should do

Miley Cyrus Live : Can't be tamed



Yesterday I was criticizing Luce from the Nouvelle Star contest saying she didn't fit the role she was given.

I thought today I would link a voice that's worth listening to : "I can't be tamed" by Miley Cyrus

Her singing teacher is Brett manning. That guy does an amazing job, let's see why..

Her voice.

She sings live, no playback, no musical track, total live music. On the David Letterman show, which a looot of people look at.

In such a context, where any human being would be nervous, she holds her voice beautifully.

We have a lot of nasality in her voice, which comes naturally with the American accent. They are ones to use that technique a lot. This nasality allows her to hit the high notes with ease and have them resonate nicely in her head. But this time we have power, and a little something else which sends the shivers down your spine. That is chest voice mixed with head voice. You there would immediately recognize Brett Manning's signature.

How easily she gets those notes out ! ! Not with strength or by pushing, but by leaning on the emotion caused by the lyrics and with the proper technique getting them to sound full and harmonic. The result is a deliciously raw voice hitting beautiful notes on those refrains.

Notice on the video how she bends for each high note. Bending forward or loosening your body position allows you to forget tension and mechanisms and stay relaxed for hitting the high notes.

She has a beautiful vibrato on her voice, and uses it with parsimony. On very high powerful notes she would let it go to have a relaxed and resonating voice. On mid-song high notes or short notes she wouldn't. She keeps the vocal passage closed and send a lot of air volume in there, the result is a "crying" voice going straight in the nose.

That crying voice is an easy mechanism to explain : It's like when we where kids. We would blow a balloon and let it deflate while squeezing the entry to produce that annoying noise that would hinder the whole family for hours. Vocal chords act the same. When you squeeze them properly and send a lot of air volume, you get a crying and nasty voice.

And the breathing ! She has power, you can hear in the chest voice that it is resonating a lot. For the system goes like this :

Flexible material resonates a lot.
A big space produces big resonation (like when you sing in a parking)

So thanks to a proper breathing technique, a relaxed and fit body she gets a large and resonating voice.

Interpretation

Listen to her offering you the lyrics with that nastiness in the voice while saying "I can be a bit a crazy", or "I'm hot like that". She theatrically goes for the lyrics and plays the role. And I'm sure she's having a lot of fun doing it.

The body language is magic. She moves crazy on the stage while singing. You would only have eyes for her.

And the self confidence she displays ! She knows the notes are not a problem, the dancing is not a problem, she's got the guts to go out there and interpret the lyrics. I can't be tamed ! ! can't be changed ! can't be blamed ! Each time reaching those high notes with power and confidence, and giving all her energy in the performance !

The result is a hit song, that will last for a while, interpreted by a strong young woman that will last in this show business as well. I certainly hope to hear more of her now I discovered this.

Oh yeah... I forgot to say : She's gorgeous :-)

Singing regards,

Menno

Luce - French Nouvelle star competition winner

Luce, finalist in the "Nouvelle Star" competition, sings Jacques Brel, ne me quitte pas :



She won the competition with this song. So what's special in this voice that could attract the listener ?

I will not enter the debate about show business politics, the sharks that work in it and their way of getting the people to look at the show. I will only discuss her voice.

Her voice :

Her voice has a few distinctive characteristics : a lot of nasality, like when you say "Nay". She has a breathy voice, she adds a lot of air above her notes, making them smooth and soft (like when you sigh or say "haaa" emphasing on the "H" letter). When she adds power to the voice she has some distortion on it.

So why use this nasality and breathy sound ?

Because there is no respiratory power. Like a trumpet, or a bagpipe, you need strong respiratory muscles to sustain notes with full voice. We will study the breathing system later on.

If you're gonna put a lot of power into your voice with your vocal chords properly closed - that is with full sound - there is a huge risk of singing out of tune. You would find yourself in a "shouting" position, where the voice cracks and cries too much, and eventually gets out of tune if it isn't trained properly.

That is exactly why when she puts power in her voice it goes distorted. Since the vocal chords aren't properly closed, forcing through them is gonna put strain on them, and the muscles around will squeeze to protect the vocal system( without this natural defense we would all have torn vocal chords and would sound like Louis Armstrong).

With a lot of air on the voice, you sustain your sound and fill the missing bits with air. Reducing the volume, but stabilizing the sound. Nasality does the same.

So it looks like she relies on beginner's techniques to compensate a lack of power.

Phrasing :

She sings the words as they where written on paper. The right length, the right height. She doesn't transform them, modulate them, or phrase them differently. This is a special thing used a lot in French singing. You can leave a blank and undo the natural construction of the melody.

This would give, for example :

"ne me .... .... .... quittepas"

instead of

"ne...me...quitte...pas"

Certainly with Jacques Brel's song "ne me quitte pas" you would expect the phrasing to be worked upon. But she did the scholastic thing, without taking risks or expressing the words with her own experience. Plus she has an orchestra that plays ad lib (that means without a fix and regular rhythm pattern, but following the singer)...in such conditions you can take breaks, take your time to interpret the lyrics.

When saying "don't leave me", my voice would certainly crack and hesitate and get silent. There would loads of vocal signatures telling the audience I'm having an emotion, I'm talking to someone, actually I'm begging someone on my knees not to leave me (for those are the lyrics of the song). She more showed the emotion of someone chatting with a friend at the bar...

Expression :

She doesn't move on stage. Her hand is gonna move a little here and there, sometimes her eyes would give you that little emotion (she's got that scary look in her eyes... OMG !). But no outburst of emotion, no tears... it's like she's bored to be on stage, and doesn't enjoy the moment. Maybe that's the key to success ? Snubbing the audience, show them you're not interested in what they think or feel, and leave them hungry for more emotions... it is a known technique for attracting attention.

Conclusion

To me, this is nothing less than a karaoke singer put on a stage to sing one of the biggest songs of French music, and just isn't fitting in the role. As for why listener's where attracted to her, it will remain a mystery (I could pull out the argument that she's chubby and fragile and therefore all the teenager girls are comparing themselves to her, but I said at the beginning of this article I would only discuss the voice and not the marketing strategies of those big show business owners).

Next thing you're gonna ask me is : "OK, you tell us too much air, too much nasality, no phrasing, no expression. Can you do better ? ".

I will not pretend to be able to do better. But I will link the original song for you to have an idea of how she destroyed it.

Jacques Brel's "ne me quitte pas".

What is singing ?

Singing : to utter words or sounds in succession with musical modulations of the voice; vocalize melodically.

Well that doesn't tell us much about how to sing, does it ? First things first, what is a sound ?

Sound : the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium.

So when I speak, I produce sound. So what I'm left to do is utter them within a melody.

Say "Hello" for instance.

Listen to your voice. You have probably said "He" on a certain voice height, and "llo" on a lower note. Most people will go down from the first syllable to the second while saying hello.

Now say something else, just speak. And note the variations in the height of your voice. You are producing a melody, which sustains the meaning of what you are saying.

So considering that singing is uttering words within a melody... (you see me getting there ? ) you already sing ! ! And you have been singing all your life ! !

That was for getting rid of the "I've never sung and will never be able to". You are already doing it.

What you may not have learned, is to choose the height of the note, the length of it, the texture of your voice, the vibrato, the nasality, the air volume going through your vocal chords. Those are techniques, they can be learned and practiced. I will be giving tools and links to tutorials for all those methods.

But singing you don't need to learn. Cause you've been doing this all your life already.

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