Improve your vocal tone — Singing Demystified
Summary
TLDRIn 'Singing, Demystified,' Cornelius from Voice Studio East dispels the myth of innate vocal tone, outlining a three-step approach to vocal improvement. First, strip away bad habits for a blank slate; then, strengthen the voice for richness and brilliance. Lastly, develop musicality through expression and phrasing. Techniques include speaking on pitch, twang exercises, and focusing on dynamics for a compelling performance, ultimately transforming a plain tone into a captivating instrument.
Takeaways
- 🎶 Vocal tone is not fixed; it can be improved through practice and technique.
- 📝 The three main steps to improving vocal tone are establishing a blank slate, strengthening the voice, and developing musicality.
- 💡 Singing as you speak helps to strip away personal technique problems and achieve a natural tone.
- 🔊 Strengthening the voice involves practicing legato, maintaining clarity, and increasing volume for richness and brilliance.
- 🗣️ Addressing common vocal issues like nasality, tension, and hypophonia is crucial for a better tone.
- 👄 Exercises like tongue protrusion and using plosives can help to eliminate nasality and improve tone clarity.
- 😁 Incorporating mirth, or joyful laughter, into singing can make the performance more animated and lively.
- 🎯 Focusing on a point while singing can help maintain vocal clarity and direction throughout a phrase.
- 💪 Conviction in singing means going for it with confidence and assertiveness, which can enhance the performance.
- 🎭 Developing musicality involves adding drama and dynamics to shape musical phrases and make singing more engaging.
- 🔄 A mature singing technique is essential, even for those who prefer high-pitched pop songs, as it provides a strong technical foundation.
Q & A
What is the common misconception about vocal tone among aspiring singers?
-The common misconception is that vocal tone is innate and unchangeable, with some people being naturally gifted with a brilliant tone and others being unlucky with a plain one.
What are the three steps to improving vocal tone as outlined in the script?
-The three steps are: 1) Establish a blank slate by removing personal technique problems that affect tone, 2) Strengthen the voice to make the tone richer, and 3) Develop musicality to make performances compelling.
Why is it suggested to sing as you speak when trying to establish a blank slate for vocal tone?
-Singing as you speak helps to strip away the unnatural singing voice and allows the singer to access their normal speaking voice, which is a more direct and simple quality.
What is the purpose of speaking the lyrics out loud without melody at first?
-Speaking the lyrics out loud helps to make the singing process seem more like speech, which can help the singer access their natural speaking voice and avoid technical issues that may affect tone.
How can one address a nasal sound in their singing voice?
-To address nasality, one can pinch their nose for kinesthetic feedback and practice speaking phrases without nasal consonants, ensuring the sound does not enter the nasal cavity.
What is a simple exercise to help remove nasality from the singing voice?
-One can try humming with the tongue sticking out and then slowly retracting it to an NG position, aiming to maintain a buzzing quality while transitioning to a vowel sound.
How can a tense voice be addressed in the process of improving vocal tone?
-A tense voice can be addressed by ensuring proper breath support, practicing relaxed slow breathing, and gradually decreasing the volume of the speaking voice to relieve tension.
What is the purpose of practicing speaking with a loud, bright twangy sound?
-Practicing with a loud, bright twangy sound helps to open up the mouth and throat, counteracting a quiet, husky, or dull voice, and promoting a more vibrant tone.
What is the significance of maintaining a clear tone until the end of each phrase when singing legato?
-Maintaining a clear tone until the end of each phrase helps to grow the voice and adds richness and continuity to the singing, preventing the tone from trailing off into a mumble.
How can increasing the volume of the voice contribute to a richer tone with more brilliance?
-Increasing the volume helps to bring out the high treble frequencies, which contribute to the brilliance of the tone, making the voice pop and stand out more to the listeners.
What is the role of 'mirth' in the context of singing as described in the script?
-Mirth, associated with laughter, is used to brighten up the face and singing instantly, making it more animated and lively, which is particularly useful for joyous songs.
What is the importance of 'focus' when singing a musical phrase?
-Focus helps to keep the gaze and voice directed, preventing the eyes from wandering aimlessly and ensuring the voice remains clear and insistent throughout the phrase.
What does the script suggest as a method to strengthen the tone and make it richer?
-The script suggests a three-part cue consisting of mirth, focus, and conviction, which helps to add assertiveness and a sense of going all out in the singing performance.
How can a singer develop musicality in their performance according to the script?
-Developing musicality involves being highly animated, adding drama to phrasing, and manipulating dynamics, emphasis, and articulation to shape a musical phrase effectively.
What is the script's stance on following current music fashions in singing?
-The script advises against strictly following current music fashions, emphasizing the importance of developing a strong technical foundation and a mature sound that can adapt to changing tastes over time.
Outlines
🎙️ Vocal Tone Development Basics
Cornelius from Voice Studio East introduces the concept of vocal tone development, addressing common misconceptions that tone is fixed. He outlines a three-step process to improve vocal tone: establishing a blank slate by eliminating bad singing habits, strengthening the voice to achieve a rich and intriguing tone, and developing musicality to make performances compelling. He emphasizes the importance of singing as one speaks to strip away unnatural singing voices and encourages the use of exercises to overcome technical problems like nasality.
🗣️ Addressing Vocal Inhibitions and Disorders
This paragraph delves into techniques for dealing with inhibited speaking voices and various vocal disorders. Cornelius suggests exercises like exaggerating issues to understand them better, using specific vowels to maintain buzzing quality, and incorporating plosives to eliminate nasality. He also discusses methods for addressing tense voices, hypophonia, and the importance of posture and breathing in achieving a relaxed and open vocal tone.
🔊 Enhancing Vocal Tone and Strength
Cornelius provides strategies for making the vocal tone less boring by strengthening it. He recommends practicing legato singing, maintaining clear and insistent tones, and gradually increasing volume to add brilliance. The paragraph also covers the importance of high treble frequencies for a popping voice and suggests exercises to brighten up the sound, including using bright vowels and focusing on glossal onsets for a direct and speech-like quality.
🎶 The Importance of Maturity in Singing
In this paragraph, Cornelius discusses the pitfalls of trying to maintain a perpetually youthful singing style, cautioning against the pressures of current fashions and the 'pizza pan' syndrome. He encourages developing a mature sound to avoid the fear of aging and emphasizes the importance of a strong technical foundation in singing, regardless of the preferred music genre.
🌟 Adding Musicality and Expression to Singing
Cornelius concludes the script by focusing on musicality, suggesting ways to make singing more animated and expressive. He introduces a three-step method involving mirth, focus, and conviction to enhance performance. The paragraph also touches on the concept of phrasing in music, explaining its importance beyond mere articulation and advocating for a dramatic approach to create engaging and connected musical performances.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Vocal Tone
💡Blank Slate
💡Strengthening Voice
💡Musicality
💡Speaking Voice
💡Singing Voice
💡Legato
💡Twang
💡Glossal Onset
💡Hypophonia
💡Mirth
💡Phrasing
💡Conviction
💡Nasality
Highlights
Vocal tone is not innate and immutable; it can be developed and improved.
Three steps to improving vocal tone: establishing a blank slate, strengthening the voice, and developing musicality.
Begin by singing as you speak to strip away personal technique problems.
Speak the lyrics out loud boldly to access your normal speaking voice.
Address inhibited speaking voices by treating them like speech disorders.
Use exercises like exaggerating involuntary sounds to familiarize and correct them.
Practice speaking with a twangy sound to correct a quiet, husky, or dull voice.
Gutle onset exercises can help brighten the sound and correct dark vowels.
Pinching the nose can provide kinesthetic feedback for nasality correction.
Relaxation techniques and proper breathing can alleviate a tense voice.
Increasing volume gradually enriches the voice with more brilliance and high treble frequencies.
Opening up the voice by practicing with legato and clear tone aids in voice growth.
Bringing the larynx down provides depth and groundedness to the vocal tone.
Learn to sing with maturity to avoid the fear of aging in the music industry.
A three-step method (Mirth, Focus, Conviction) to strengthen and enliven the singing voice.
Mirth adds warmth and animation to singing, making it more engaging.
Focus on a point while singing to maintain vocal direction and clarity.
Conviction in singing involves confidence and assertiveness in performance.
Develop musicality by adding drama and dynamics to shape musical phrases.
Phrasing should be thought of in terms of drama, not just smooth contours.
Animating the face and adding movement can make singing more energetic and alive.
Understanding and applying the principle of drama across different music genres enhances performance.
Transcripts
[Music]
welcome to singing
demystified I am Cornelius of voice
Studio East and I am here today to talk
about vocal
tone many aspiring singers complain that
their vocal tone is plain and
uninteresting or Express concerns about
whether they have a good enough tone for
singing These concerns stem from an
implicit assumption that the tone of
your voice is innate and immutable and
that while some people are blessed with
a dazzlingly brilliant tone others are
just unlucky but this is not the case as
we shall
see there are three aspects to
developing a better vocal tone firstly
you will need to establish something
resembling a blank slate that is strip
away any personal technique problems
that result in an unpleasant
tone once this is done you can move on
to the second phase which consists of
making the resultant tone richer by
strengthening your voice once this has
been done you should have a tone that is
sufficiently brilliant and intriguing to
be suitable for solo singing But to
really make your performances compelling
it will also be necessary to develop
your
musicality so to summarize here are the
three steps to improving your vocal tone
first establish a blank slate secondly
strengthen your voice and thirdly
develop your
musicality we will proceed to explore
these one at a
time very frequently a beginner singer
will make a distinction between his
speaking voice and his singing voice but
when it comes to establishing a blank
slate the classic instruction is to sing
as you speak meaning do not try to use
your singing voice don't give your voice
some sort of mellowed rounded tone that
you might associate with singing instead
let it have a simple and direct quality
like your speaking voice to accomplish
this when working on a song it can be
helpful to set aside the melody at first
and just speak the lyrics out loud
trying to be as bold and uninhibited as
possible then you can try speaking the
lyrics on Pitch which is to say that you
can just cut off sustained notes or let
them Trail off or droop downwards and
set aside any concern about Legato
phrasing
Etc this is basically a little
psychological shake to make it seem more
like speech than singing and thus help
you access your your normal speaking
voice once you've got the hang of this
you can add the sustains back in but
still keep it very speech-like and plain
so to speak in other words it should
sound something like this and At Last I
See the Light and it's like the fog Has
Lifted obviously this is not a polished
sound but it is at least reasonably
efficient
which is a very good start unfortunately
the method just described is not
foolproof because the time we live in is
so abnormally Rife with anxiety and
Neurosis that a lot of people have
profoundly inhibited speaking voices
with all sorts of technical
problems in such a case this first phase
of the process becomes similar to speech
therapy in that it aims to cure what
amounts to speech disorders or
subclinical versions of these
for example if you have any
involuntary or saly this would be the
time to get rid of it one way to do so
is to deliberately exaggerate it just to
familiarize yourself with the associated
Sensations and really get to know what
it is you are trying to
avoid in the case of canoodle you can
also try sticking out your tongue and
humming then slowly retract your tongue
to an NG position like
this hopefully you will perceive a
strong buzzing quality in the sound you
can then open up to a vowel while trying
to maintain that buzzing quality this
can be done with any vowel but I prefer
front vowels as they make it easier to
maintain the buzzing quality in
particular I like the vowel I as in
nitpicking but if your native language
does not have this vowel I recommend
using an a
[Music]
instead if this exercise makes your
vowel nasal you can insert a g just
before the vowel G is a posive consonant
meaning it works by forming a complete
seal somewhere in the vocal tract and
then bursting through it with a buildup
of pressure behind the
oclusion however if there is nality then
the sound will simply Route Around the
occlusion and you will not get a buildup
of pressure making it impossible to
produce the
pive therefore a clearly articulated
pive has a convenient side effect of
removing nality at least if the
occlusion is formed in the oral cavity
as is the case with with all the
plosives in
English so here is the same exercise as
before but with the G
added the exercise just described has
several benefits it removes both cudle
and nality and improves the clarity of
your tone but if you are looking
specifically to remove nality there are
easier faster methods the most
straightforward method is to Simply
pinch your nose for kinesthetic feedback
and practice speaking some phrases that
do not feature any nasal consonants all
the while making sure that the sound
does not enter your nasal cavity as you
speak by pinching the nose you will be
able to tell immediately if there is
nasality here is an
example Steve works at a very large
store there will be a large art play at
the state Gallery this
week it helps to speak loudly and
emphatically both examples are from a
set of 47 sentences without nasal
consonants which you can find Linked In
the
description having addressed two common
disorders of articulation we will
proceed to consider some disorders of
phonation firstly some people have a
really tense voice like this sort of
harsh
sounding fixing this problem can be
quite a lengthy and involved process but
fortunately most cases are less severe
than the demonstration I just gave in
this case start by making sure you are
inhaling enough air to sustain a
comfortably upright posture without
becoming
tense make sure you can hold this
position for at least a few seconds
without either having to expel the air
or having to close the glutes and tends
up it may also help to practice some
relaxed slow breathing to relieve
tension or brew a hot cup of tea or
whatever helps you
relax then try to decrease the volume of
your speaking voice until the tension is
gone like this starting from this really
tense speech I am decreasing the volume
of my speaking voice until it has this
soft relaxed character
don't hold back the voice though to
decrease the volume there should instead
be a sensation of relaxing and of
opening up while simultaneously relaxing
your
posture by now you have hopefully
relieve the tension but the result is a
tone that is too weak and has too much
air flow this brings us to the next
category of voice problem hypophonia and
all its variant characteriz ized by a
quiet husky or dull voice it often also
features very dark vowels with a sort of
Dopey sound stemming from the tongue
being too far
back the easiest way to fix this is to
practice speaking with a loud
obnoxiously bright twangy sound like
this notice though how much I am opening
my mouth when doing that I am not doing
the strangled held in quality that a lot
of people seem to associate with
twanging it should be big and
extroverted and feel paradoxically open
even though twang physiologically
involves narrowing the
fings you can then dial it back to
something that sounds a bit more normal
but be sure to keep at least some of
that biting Edge in there if you're not
having much luck with the method just
described you can try working with gutle
onset
that clicking sound that occurs in the
phrase
uhoh but since dark vowels increase the
likelihood of a husky or dull tone let
us brighten up the sound by using a
bright a vowel with the tongue sticking
out
slightly ah
ah make sure that your glossal onsets
are neither forceful nor restrained but
simple direct and speech-like in other
words the there is no need to make them
emphatic but neither should you be
careful with them we are not looking for
this a nor
this but simply this
ah try familiarizing yourself with this
quality of directness and incorporating
it into your singing Once you have got
the hang of the glossal onsets you
should be able to apply it to other
consonants as well especially voiced
plosives like G B and D eventually you
should be able to incorporate it
fluently into your speech and
singing by now you should have a tone
that is fairly normal if a bit boring to
make it less boring the first step is to
strengthen it here the twangy exercise
from before is a very helpful start as
are the glossal onsets but even beyond
that there are number of things we can
do to achieve still more richness in the
tone firstly practice singing with
Legato and in particular practice
keeping the tone clear and insistent
until the end of each phrase instead of
trailing off into a Mumble remember any
given section of a song contains several
phrases in succession so there is no
need to round off each phrase as if it
were the end of the song instead keep
the energy going so as to maintain a
certain continuity between the
phrases this combination of Legato and a
Clear Tone will allow you to start
really growing your voice to do this
make sure to enunciate clearly
especially the open vowels which require
sufficient jaw separation to prevent
them from getting held in so to speak
that is to say instead of this and At
Last I See the Light and it's like the F
Has
Lifted we are looking for this and At
Last I See the Light and it's like the
fog Has
Lifted it is worth noting that opening
up the voice like this can sometimes
make it AER but you can get the clarity
back by just singing a bit louder while
making sure your vowels don't become
overly dark and
throaty in fact gradually increasing the
volume is the next step in growing your
voice and making the tone richer with
more
Brilliance what makes a voice really pop
is the high trepel frequencies which are
associated with loudness of course that
does not mean we must never sing softly
but even soft breathy singing will get a
bit louder as you become more proficient
and this will go hand in hand with
increased treble content providing
Brilliance to the
sound so far we focus a lot on
brightness and Clarity but another
important aspect of developing your
vocal tone is to bring the larynx back
down a little providing some depth and a
sense of
groundedness since the larynx to a large
extent moves with the jaw the process of
opening up your voice will automatically
give you some more depth
beyond that it can help to think of
making your voice broader and warmer the
goal is to get from this and At Last I
See the Light and it's like the fog Has
Lifted to this and At Last I See the
Light and it's like the fog Has Lifted
now some of you may be thinking that you
only want to sing high-pitched pop
Center songs like Justin Bieber or
Charlie poth and so it may seem
unnecessary to learn this I advise you
in the strongest possible terms to learn
it anyway as it is a vital part of
having a strong technical foundation and
can help you get out of the squeezing
spirals described in the previous video
not to mention that your taste in music
is is liable to change as you get older
and more experienced at singing and at
life in
general I encounter many aspiring
singers who insist on looking and
sounding as much like a teenager as
possible in no small part because that
seems to be in fashion at the moment but
Fashions change even this one will for
all that it might seem like an exception
a good thing too since this is really a
very disastrous fashion
but even if it were somehow permanent
your own youth is not and even in the
present music scene a 30-year-old who
still sings like a teenager will
register more as a PHA than as trendy
for this reason a great many aspiring
singers are terrified of Aging or even
just
maturing this is a manifestation of what
is becoming increasingly known as the
pizza pan
syndrome and it is something I plan to
make a full video about in the future
for now I will not Bel labor you with
admonitions against following the
fashions that currently beset our
culture for all that I consider the
present ones to be particularly
calamitous instead I will simply urge
you to look ahead and develop the
capacity to sing with a mature sound so
that the prospect of Aging will be less
likely to induce mortal Terror
now to really Hammer home the point
about strengthening your tone I will
give you a very straightforward
three-step method for convenience I have
come up with a memorable cue consisting
of three words corresponding to the
three steps here they are Mir Focus
conviction with conviction Mr laruso
mirth is basically a synonym for Joy but
with stronger connotations of laughter
if if you read old books you may
sometimes encounter the phrase a smile
without mirth meaning a cold or fake
smile accordingly we can make a smile
seem warmer and more genuine by adding
mirth the association with laughter is
apt because chuckling is a very
effective way to brighten up the face in
an instant you can try incorporating
that into a song phrase like this and at
last I see the light and it's like the
fog Has
Lifted it will immediately make your
singing come to life that is seem more
animated of course this quality is only
appropriate for joyous songs but even
for sad or angry songs there should
still be a hint of Mirth to breathe life
into your singing unless of course it is
meant to sound outright depressed or
dripping with
disgust the second part of the Triad was
Focus which is really just another way
of learning to sing all the way to the
end of a phrase instead of trailing off
into a Mumble namely keep your gaze
sharply focused on some point in front
of you as you sing the phrase you can
change Focus during the phrase if you
don't want to stare intently in a single
Direction but changing Focus does not
require you to let your eyes simply
wander
aimlessly since both the direction of
your gaze and the direction of your
voice are determined by your
psychological processes keeping the eyes
focused will usually also keep your
voice
focused the third part is conviction
this one is a bit more abstract than the
other two it consists of this intangible
sense of just going for it of not
hesitating in this respect you could
describe it as singing with confidence
but conviction is a bit stronger than
that as it connotes a certain
assertiveness that could be described
euphemistically as singing with your
whole body and with your whole soul or
mind if you
prefer by now if everything has gone
well you should have a brilliantly rich
tone with which to Dazzle your listeners
but your singing may still be boring for
a lack of
musicality musicality is really a whole
subject of its own and takes years to
develop but there are still a couple of
pointers I can give you firstly it helps
to be highly animated as you sing even
to the point of
hyperactivity especially when singing
high notes when we speak in an animated
manner the pitch will tend to be higher
since singing tends to be higher pitched
than speech it stands to reason that
doing it in a highly animated manner
will help it feel more real and
raw by adding mirth to the face you have
already taken a major step towards
making your singing more animated but
when it comes to really making the face
come to life it helps to think in terms
of adding movement rather than a static
conception of Mirth therefore articulate
energetically maybe throw in chuckle
here and a cheeky grin there Etc this
should help make your singing seem more
energetic and alive to The
Listener secondly there is the matter of
phrasing in online singing communities
the word phrasing is often used in
reference to singing words as opposed to
wordless
vocalizers but this is a misn Noma as
the word phrasing actually has a very
particular meaning in the context of
Music namely it refers to the
manipulation of Dynamics emphasis
articulation Etc to shape a musical
phrase when it comes to phrasing many
beginners and intermediate singers have
a bit of tunnel vision going on they
focus excessively on each individual
phrase giving it a smooth Contour by
gradually fading in the volume at the
start of the phrase and tapering it off
towards the end but bearing in mind my
earlier point that any given musical
section consists of several phrases in
succession it is clear that this tunnel
visioned approach will lead to a
disjointed result in fact it can easily
wind up sounding so bizarre that it will
entirely ruin an otherwise brilliant
performance so how should we actually
think about phrasing I can give you the
answer in one word drama this must be
understood rather broadly I am not
simply referring to drama in the sense
of how the term might be applied to
opera or musical theater it is also to
be found in rock pop gospel Jazz and
many other
genres for example a lot of rock songs
feature very aggressive onsets in the
chorus or make the downbeat very
emphatic a lot of jazz relies on
suspense through well-timed periods of
Silence often often ending phrases in a
somewhat abrupt manner to set up
expectations and then picking up from
there at the perfect moment here are a
few examples of how this principle of
drama can be found in various styles of
singing I see your
lips the sunburn
[Music]
kisses the sunburn h
I used to
hold some of them want to use
you some of them want to get used by you
some of them want to abuse
you some of them want to be AB
abused Jesus
Christ Den I your makeer
[Applause]
who
TR well me
W my
eyes now
you so to summarize what we have learned
about vocal tone firstly clear away any
personal technique problems to create a
blank slate in the form of a speech-like
quality
secondly strengthen your voice by
opening it up and adding warmth as you
grow the volume here you can make use of
the three-part queue mirth Focus
conviction finally develop some drama in
your
musicality and with that we've reached
the end of today's video if you have any
questions be sure to leave a comment
down below if you wish to get in touch
you can click the link in the
description to join my Discord server or
you can visit my website at voic Studio
east.com where you can also book lessons
with a 50% discount available on your
first booking stay tuned remember to
like And subscribe for more content and
as always thanks for
[Music]
watching and
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