Dangers for English- (and German-) Speakers - The Trailing Consonant
Lamperti famously said that native English and German speakers have a tendency towards tight, stiff jaws, inconducive for good singing. One of the reasons for this tightness is the necessity to produce strong final consonants on so many words - in Italian, French and other languages frequently a final vowel is added. (Where Italian does not, is it usually a 'n', 'l' or 'r' all of which are the longer, softer consonants, rather than 't' or 'p' for instance.)
Those strong final consonants require a lot of strength in the tongue. If priority is given to this, over vowel purity, then the body can elect to use various reinforcing components to make the job easier, and the large jaw muscle is on hand for this.
For the other languages, a vowel sound often follows, and the language prioritises the sound of that final vowel, so that the last consonant must be formed with the vowel in mind. With English and German, there is no need to prepare a vowel, and strength and clarity of the consonant is prioritised.
I realised that the Italian 't' sound is very much lighter than the English or German 't' - and I found myself tensing the jaw frequently when I have a 't', even in the middle of a word, and especially when there is a cluster of consonants. So work must be done to restrengthen the tongue as an independent unit; doing so makes the feeling into one of the tongue reaching forward to touch the teeth - it feels much more vulnerable and weaker in this position, not being supported by a more closed jaw, The 's' especially. A good rolled 'r' requires this skill anyway.
Further I have noticed that the effort to produce the fricative and plosive consonants also disturbs the action of the vocalis muscle - I am sure this is habit on my part and can be re-educated, but it shows that there are many inter-complications where the voice, and changes to it, are concerned.
Happy singing, happy discoveries!
Monday 8 July 2019
Opera vs. Song - Poulenc's Song-Cycle: Tel Jour Tel Nuit
Opera Singers deliver simple messages with strength; Lieder Singers deliver complex messages with depth and subtlety. No offense to either group.
Studying Francis Poulenc's cycle 'Tel Jour Tel Nuit', words by Paul Éluard, I realised that there are 5 steps for the singer to prepare themselves:
1) Familiarise oneself, immerse oneself in the text (pronunciation and meaning);
2) Familiarise oneself with Poulenc's music;
3) Putting text and music together, divine the composer's interpretation of the text;
4) Work out one's reaction to said interpretation, and divine one's own interpretation;
5) Work at the technical delivery of the song.
As they say, "Rinse and Repeat". That is, have a go, perform it; then, do it again, steps 1-5.
I was working from Pierre Bernac's "Interpretation of French Chanson", which has copious literal translations, and which helped greatly, but it was necessary to use a dictionary to see what the original meanings of the words were at times.
I also determined the following rule for "in" at the start of a word, which had been bothering me for decades. Fortunately, it is quite simple. "IN" + vowel, or "IN" + "N" = "i", otherwise = "ĩ" nasalised. So Inutile or Invocation. (Same with IM: Immoralité or Important.)
Studying Francis Poulenc's cycle 'Tel Jour Tel Nuit', words by Paul Éluard, I realised that there are 5 steps for the singer to prepare themselves:
1) Familiarise oneself, immerse oneself in the text (pronunciation and meaning);
2) Familiarise oneself with Poulenc's music;
3) Putting text and music together, divine the composer's interpretation of the text;
4) Work out one's reaction to said interpretation, and divine one's own interpretation;
5) Work at the technical delivery of the song.
As they say, "Rinse and Repeat". That is, have a go, perform it; then, do it again, steps 1-5.
I was working from Pierre Bernac's "Interpretation of French Chanson", which has copious literal translations, and which helped greatly, but it was necessary to use a dictionary to see what the original meanings of the words were at times.
I also determined the following rule for "in" at the start of a word, which had been bothering me for decades. Fortunately, it is quite simple. "IN" + vowel, or "IN" + "N" = "i", otherwise = "ĩ" nasalised. So Inutile or Invocation. (Same with IM: Immoralité or Important.)
Thursday 30 August 2018
Exercises for Loose Jaw
Hi there - I see it's 5 years since my last post on the jaw...
Since the jaw is such a large muscle, re-forming it, in the best sense of the word, is going to take time, so exercises for it should be done little and often (may take several months.) The more powerful muscles, which we use for chewing, will give way to the finer muscles which will allow freer, less effortful movement, which is what we need for vocal health.
1) Side-to-side: Learn to move your jaw sideways; start by going all the way to the left and right (no need to stretch, here) - use your fingers either side of your jaw to help. Now try to make the direction-changes very smooth. (Can your fingers move the jaw on their own?)
2) Up-and-down: Same procedure - try to make the direction changes smooth; the jaw will want to "snap" up from its lower position, so try to eliminate that;
3) Round-and-round: combine the two, make big circles (in both directions). Smooth movement. Aim more and more for effortless movement.
4) Smaller circles with jaw open. This is the final exercise, and the one I find most useful. We do need to sing with our mouth relatively open (1 to 2 fingers-worth), and we need to be able to move it easily in this open position, and to be able to control the vocal chords in this position (e.g. the arytenoids). But this is not a normal position for us, so these things are not easy. Finally you can add sounds, and breathing in noiselessly, whilst making the small circles. I found it affected my speaking voice quite distinctly, and my habitual method of producing the consonants would cause a slight jaw lock-up (big muscles jumping in), so these are the things that need a lot of time to re-form, to re-learn.
Anyone who just says "relax the jaw" without appreciating the difficulties in doing so is not helping you greatly.
Happy singing, happy vocal explorations!
Since the jaw is such a large muscle, re-forming it, in the best sense of the word, is going to take time, so exercises for it should be done little and often (may take several months.) The more powerful muscles, which we use for chewing, will give way to the finer muscles which will allow freer, less effortful movement, which is what we need for vocal health.
1) Side-to-side: Learn to move your jaw sideways; start by going all the way to the left and right (no need to stretch, here) - use your fingers either side of your jaw to help. Now try to make the direction-changes very smooth. (Can your fingers move the jaw on their own?)
2) Up-and-down: Same procedure - try to make the direction changes smooth; the jaw will want to "snap" up from its lower position, so try to eliminate that;
3) Round-and-round: combine the two, make big circles (in both directions). Smooth movement. Aim more and more for effortless movement.
4) Smaller circles with jaw open. This is the final exercise, and the one I find most useful. We do need to sing with our mouth relatively open (1 to 2 fingers-worth), and we need to be able to move it easily in this open position, and to be able to control the vocal chords in this position (e.g. the arytenoids). But this is not a normal position for us, so these things are not easy. Finally you can add sounds, and breathing in noiselessly, whilst making the small circles. I found it affected my speaking voice quite distinctly, and my habitual method of producing the consonants would cause a slight jaw lock-up (big muscles jumping in), so these are the things that need a lot of time to re-form, to re-learn.
Anyone who just says "relax the jaw" without appreciating the difficulties in doing so is not helping you greatly.
Happy singing, happy vocal explorations!
Saturday 18 May 2013
The Loose Jaw - and Bicycle Stabilisers
Singing with a relaxed jaw is good.
But, Guys and Gals, in can be disruptive to one's singing.
Think about it like learnnig to ride a bike. When you're very young, you start on a trike. It's safe, you aren't going to fall over but, as you use bigger tricycles, you find that cornering is restricted.
Later you go to a bicycle, but you fit stabilisers, usually fairly close to the ground. So sometimes you're on two wheels, sometimes three. Gradually you raise the stabilisers, and finally you ditch them altogether, and you're away in total freedom.
I asked a Laryngologist why it is that relaxing the jaw is so disruptive to singing. He replied that the "muscles of the jaw are closely connected with the muscles of the soft palette and the middle ear."
I my experience, I would add to that list the muscles bringing the vocal chords together ("the vocal kiss") and the muscles tensioning the chords themselves (ie those making the pitch go up and down).
When you let the jaw go loose, you clearly let some muscles relax. But the voical instrument still needs muscles around it for stability and control, and so you have to sense where those muscles are, and you have to re-learn how to use them, and if necessary, develop them.
I have found that trying various actions - starting a vowel, singing on a "Z" or "V", raising lowering pitch, raising the soft palette - with both tight and loose jaw is a very useful exercise. You'll start to notice how you managed these actions with the support of your tight jaw, then you have to see how you do it with a loose jaw. You have to be aware of these quite small changes, and then add the support back in, otherwise the voice can just wobble around and be very unreliable. I felt I had to completely re-learn how to sing in the middle of the voice, before it was worth exploring the upper register.
So, my advice is, don't try and transition between tricycle and bicycle too quickly, or you night fall off.
But, Guys and Gals, in can be disruptive to one's singing.
Think about it like learnnig to ride a bike. When you're very young, you start on a trike. It's safe, you aren't going to fall over but, as you use bigger tricycles, you find that cornering is restricted.
Later you go to a bicycle, but you fit stabilisers, usually fairly close to the ground. So sometimes you're on two wheels, sometimes three. Gradually you raise the stabilisers, and finally you ditch them altogether, and you're away in total freedom.
I asked a Laryngologist why it is that relaxing the jaw is so disruptive to singing. He replied that the "muscles of the jaw are closely connected with the muscles of the soft palette and the middle ear."
I my experience, I would add to that list the muscles bringing the vocal chords together ("the vocal kiss") and the muscles tensioning the chords themselves (ie those making the pitch go up and down).
When you let the jaw go loose, you clearly let some muscles relax. But the voical instrument still needs muscles around it for stability and control, and so you have to sense where those muscles are, and you have to re-learn how to use them, and if necessary, develop them.
I have found that trying various actions - starting a vowel, singing on a "Z" or "V", raising lowering pitch, raising the soft palette - with both tight and loose jaw is a very useful exercise. You'll start to notice how you managed these actions with the support of your tight jaw, then you have to see how you do it with a loose jaw. You have to be aware of these quite small changes, and then add the support back in, otherwise the voice can just wobble around and be very unreliable. I felt I had to completely re-learn how to sing in the middle of the voice, before it was worth exploring the upper register.
So, my advice is, don't try and transition between tricycle and bicycle too quickly, or you night fall off.
Monday 4 February 2013
Philosophy of a Warm-Up
Warm-ups are a singer's best friend. They should be treated with reverence and exploration.
But don't go about them 'religiously' - trying to find something you found before. Your objective is to find something new (and hopefully exciting) every time. Go for the pleasure of it.
You start with a sound. Any sound, something that feels right for that very moment. You notice how it sounds, how it feels, how it resonantes, and you work with what you find - not what you expected....
Then you start modifying that sound - changing your mouth position, changing the pitch, changing the vowel, adding a consonant, repeating short syllables, etc etc. Notice how this new sound feels, modify it, and go again. Eventually, you'll then end up in a very different place to where you started. Then you go back, either to your start note, or to some other sound you like along the way, and see how that sound develops the second time round.
And so on!
Happy Warm-ups!
But don't go about them 'religiously' - trying to find something you found before. Your objective is to find something new (and hopefully exciting) every time. Go for the pleasure of it.
You start with a sound. Any sound, something that feels right for that very moment. You notice how it sounds, how it feels, how it resonantes, and you work with what you find - not what you expected....
Then you start modifying that sound - changing your mouth position, changing the pitch, changing the vowel, adding a consonant, repeating short syllables, etc etc. Notice how this new sound feels, modify it, and go again. Eventually, you'll then end up in a very different place to where you started. Then you go back, either to your start note, or to some other sound you like along the way, and see how that sound develops the second time round.
And so on!
Happy Warm-ups!
Thursday 11 October 2012
'Sore Throat' Remedies - Steaming
Keeping the (Vocal) System Free of Rust...
My normal remedy has been gargling with salt water at the first sign of any throat pain. But recently I've had a couple of bouts of really nasty ENT problems, for which the even more ancient remedy of steaming has proved the only defence. Since I've noticed 1 or 2 of my pupils suffering with strange blockages behind the nose/in the ears, I thought I'd share a few simple tips on Steaming:
a) Get a good bowl 9" or 12" in diameter. Pour about half a cup of cold water in, then fill to 1" deep with boiling water.
b) Put your face over the bowl, cover your head with a hand-towel or similar, and inhale steam through either nose or mouth. Keep going for about 5 minutes. (Perhaps I should have said - put on some nice music beforehand, or a song that you know lasts the right amount of time?)
Afterwards you can always put a little Olbas Oil on the water and sniff that, but otherwise I don't add anything to the main steaming.
I use steam twice a day -- and will continue to do so until this blessed ear nonsense passes...
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