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Today's discussion is dedicated to: "Vocal Release. 95% of Singers Can’t Do This Skillfully"
The vocal release is the measure of true vocal control. Either you have it or you don't. Unfortunately, most singers are shockingly underdeveloped in this coordination. In this video you'll learn how to train your singing finesse and develop excellent vocal control. Learn effective singing exercises specifically designed to help you train, "the Release".
EPISODE 03 - March 19, 2024 - TRANSCRIPT
Host: Philippe Hall
Speaker: Philippe Hal
Chapters & Time Stamps
00:00 Welcome to The Voice Vibe: Mastering Vocal Control
00:26 Understanding Vocal Release: The Key to Control
02:49 Exploring the Vocal Folds: Anatomy and Function
04:14 Practical Exercises: Starting with a Single Note
11:38 Advanced Techniques: Inverting Volume Levels
20:53 Expanding Your Vocal Range: High to Low Transitions
23:47 Mastering Vocal Control with Singing Straw Exercises
24:52 Exploring Volume and Pressure in Vocal Exercises
27:14 Transitioning Between Vocal Registers with Ease
36:49 Advanced Vocal Control: The Ultimate Challenge
43:34 Wrapping Up and How to Get Personalized Feedback
Philippe Hall
“……….. Hello, and welcome to The Voice Vibe. I am your host, Philippe Hall. And today, we're going to talk about something very, very important. It's going to allow you to control your voice. The true hallmark, the true indicator of vocal control is if you can release. So what do I mean by the release? Well, the release is something extremely important, and it's something that people don't naturally practice.
Everybody that I work with in the beginning seems to be very good, and I've noticed this with singers all across the board, very good. at accelerating, at getting louder, at ascending in pitch, but everyone seems to be quite weak at controlling the release. The descent, diminuendo. And why is this? Well, I have a theory, and it's basically that in real life, we use this ability to get louder very quickly, but we don't.
We get softer quicker. So if we're having a normal conversation, I can increase my volume and my pitch. It's very rare that I'm going to evenly decrease. So let's talk about this and why this is so important. We need to be able to understand and control the release. Okay. The ability to sing a note on one pitch from air to volume to maximum volume back to air. is the indicator that you have vocal control. So most people are going to do a scale and they'll do something on, let's take an SOVT.
And they will not concentrate on the descent, on the release. So this is what we're going to focus on today. And the ability to control your release is going to allow you to control your transitions. your vocal breaks, your tone quality, your head voice, your falsetto, your mixed voice, your belt, chest, all of your dynamics.
This is so essential to your singing. So how are we going to do this? Well, we need to first understand a little bit about how things work. Okay, so let's look here and see the vocal folds. All right, we've got these, this is what the vocal folds look like. That arc at the top is your false vocal fold on the left, and if you come down, you have your vocal fold.
So, we've got some different angles on this. Look up in the right corner where it says B. These are the different mucosal layers of the vocal fold. Very, very complex. And they're attached to the arytenoid cartilage in the C. C and to the thyroid cartilage in the front. Okay, so what do vocal folds do really?
Well, they do a lot of amazing things, but in essence they stretch. They stretch like an elastic. When they're shorter and looser, you're making lower notes. When they stretch longer and get tighter, you're now making higher notes. The nature of the vocal folds is elastic. Elastic in nature.
The ability to stretch, lengthen, and shorten. So, what I'm saying is everybody's really good at stretching the vocal folds, but they're very weak in releasing them in a controlled manner back to a shorter length. And this is going to help you so much in all of your registers. So, where do we start with this?
We're going to start with a single note. All right, we're going to start with a single note. We're going to start with a very easy volume, and we're going to increase it, and we're going to release it. And then we're going to use a slide, a glide, and we're going to slide up, get a little bit louder, and then come back down and release.
Oh, that's something that people do all the time, but we're going to invert that. We're going to start loud. We're going to ascend and get softer, and then we're going to come back down and get louder. So we've got it. We're doing a lot of cross training with the vocal folds. All right. So I'm just going to invite you to just Go ahead and work along with me.
If you are listening and you have the ability to make some sound. If you're just listening and you're in your car, then go ahead and sing along. If you're in a place where you can't do this, just make sure to subscribe and download this episode and come back to it, okay? I'm gonna give you some very basic exercises.
I'm saying they're basic because you probably have been exposed to them before and if you're listening and you're on the live Stream to youtube you can put some questions in the chat and I will answer them. Okay, so let's start off. Let's just jump right into it. We're going to start off with a single note and I'm going to walk over here to my keyboard. We're just going to pick a low note. I'm going to pick a "D". A "D" is pretty comfortable for the ladies and the gentlemen And we're just going to start on that D, but we're going to use an SOVT.
We're going to use A "V". Now, the key with the V is, a V is simply an F with sound, with vocal sound. Okay, so, get your airflow nice and even, nice relaxed F. Okay, now let's turn on the voice. We're going to first do it nice and steady,
an easy, steady volume. One more time.
Okay, this should feel very easy, very comfortable. And now we're going to slowly increase the volume and then decrease the volume. Very, very evenly. Okay, no jumping around, nothing like, see how that is very uneven. It's bumpy. There's no control in that. And to develop the control you want to sing a high note, Uh, uh, and go from piano to forte and back. This is the control we're developing, but we're developing in a low pitch range because the coordination is the same, so let's start off.
And if you want to use a gesture, like a hand movement, that's very smooth, any gesture will work, but you're trying to communicate to your brain and body that you want this to be smooth. You can also just draw an even circle in the air,
Good job. So the gesture, hand gestures are very helpful. because they connect the mind and body and your mind is focusing on the quality of your movement and that will blend into the quality of your voice. Okay, so once more, what we're trying to do is we're trying to increase the volume evenly to a higher volume and decrease the volume evenly.
And we want to start with the F because then we can start with air. And we're going to gently turn on the V, the vocal sound. Increase, decrease, and then release back to air. Let's try it again.
Look for the evenness. This is actually, if you think about it, quite a simple exercise. But to execute it well takes concentration. So relax your breathing. Easy breathing. We don't have to breathe in a lot of air for this. normal breathing just like when you're speaking or calm breathing when you're just standing there.
Breathe in easy. Start the F.
There you go. It's that easy. This is how you start working on this. Then you're just simply going to increase the pitch and I recommend not doing this in a big pitch range. So probably between a C and a G. for both the men and the ladies. If you're a bass, you can start lower, but there's no need to start higher because we want to be in a very comfortable pitch range.
So now we're going to take this and we're going to put it on a fifth interval and we're just going to slide and glide. We're going to go from a C, C to a G and back. First of all, try and keep it nice and even.
You don't need to worry about any individual pitches. Because we are working with the stretch and release. Of the vocal folds, okay? One more time nice and even be as even as you can
and release back to air Okay, let's make use of a hand gesture. We're going to draw a circle now
Now how you develop the control to be able to do this is by going super slow and evenly looking for any moments when your voice might want to jump a little bit and have an acceleration in the descent or the ascent. Try and make this really even, okay? Now we're going to add the layer of volume to it.
And release back to the F. How do you, how did you do? How did you do? Was it super, super smooth? It's not a big pitch range. It's not especially difficult to do this. The difficulty lies in the quality of your execution. So yeah, now we did piano to forte and back to piano. Let's invert that. We're going to take this and we're going to start louder.
We're going to get light through the top of the glide and we're going to add volume back into the bottom. The entire time we are working on being as smooth as possible. So here we go again on the F and the V.
So I could do that a little bit slower. So I'm always, I'm always observing myself in my warm ups. Okay? I'm observing the quality of my execution. And this is a great way to get the voice warmed up as well. Just do a few of these. You'll find you'll even hear my speaking voice is going to get a bit more resonant as we go, as it comes into gear.
One more time, same patterns, easy in the top and louder in the bottom. We're going for a nice mezzo forte, and then we're going to lighten through the top to a piano. And then we're going to add the volume back in as we descend and we're working to do this as evenly as possible.
Once you've finished the cycle, try it again, release that higher volume back to air so it's silky smooth. All right, now we'll do this once more together and then I'll give you some more
Good job. So why is it important to invert the volume levels? Because most singers get into the habit of adding pressure and volume as they're going up in pitch in their scale, and they relax down into lower volume on the way out. This will ingrain in your body and your voice the habit of adding pressure every time you go up in pitch.
And it's regardless of your register. Now, this isn't a huge problem when you're in your lower register, but if it becomes ingrained into a habit, you will always be adding pressure in your higher register and that's going to kill your high notes because you will overpressure, overpower them, okay? So this is why it's very important to switch this around.
Increase volume, come back to soft, start with a higher volume, lighten through the top and come back. This is going to develop some great control for you. Okay. Now we can do this on any SOVT. We can use a straw, any type of straw. I have a couple of different types here, and we can use that as a tool. It's also an SOVT exercise.
We can also do it with a lip trill. Let's try a lip trill. We're going to increase the pitch. From a D to an A.
Notice the lip trill also makes an air sound. There's no voice in that sound. That's what you monitor to know your airflow speed. So that's the constant. Now you add your vocal sound to that and you can increase, decrease the volume. So let's invert that. We're going to start with a higher volume, lighten through the top, and come back.
And always try, when you come back to that starting note, sustain it, and release it. Okay, so these are just, I call them circles or glides. You can use a circle hand gesture. You can use a smooth gesture. You can actually use any kind of movement that is going to signal to your brain evenness and smoothness.
All right. How are you doing? You can put in the comments. You can ask some questions. How smooth is that release? Okay, so let's look at some other things we're going to be doing in singing. Like, we are going to be singing high and coming back down low. So, this is important. What if I have a high chesty or I have a high belt sound and I want to come back down to an easy chesty?
breathy sound. Well, I'm going to have to release. I'm going to have to release the adduction. I'm going to have to release the stretch of the vocal folds evenly to shorter vocal fold length. And I'm going to have to release the tension in the inside of the vocal folds. And I'll also have to adjust my air pressure.
So you see how training the release, you're training your airflow, your breathing, your support, you're training your vocal fold coordination. Yeah, and you're also training control. I'll share this with you now. Singers that do this gain incredible quality in their vocals and This coordination is the fine tuning coordination of the vocal folds Alright, it's fine tuning of vocal folds, air pressure, lengthening, all these little muscles.
So when you actually fine tune the control of your instrument, the quality of what you're doing all across the board, in all registers and every style you're singing is going to improve. And you'll notice that improvement very, very quickly. Alright? So, let's take this time, a nasal consonant. We're going to take an M.
We're going to take an M and we're going to do the same thing. And I'd like you to say home. I like to use, in the beginning, the vowel O. Because it's a very good vowel for the shape, for the vocal fold deduction. Most people have the O in their language. And you're just going to say the home, the word home.
The little h starts your gentle airflow. You get onto that O vowel, and you close to the M with your lips, and keep the O vowel behind, behind the closed lips. Now you're going to keep that shape, keep everything steady, simply ascend and descend. Alright, let's give it a shot. Um, Uh, Um, Uh, And
release it to air. So we're going to release the vocal sound. How smooth is that going? Okay, now let's do that on a single pitch to check your coordination. And I'm going to take that pitch up now to an E.
Start very lightly.
Increase the volume, increase the resistance of the vocal folds against the air pressure, decrease the air pressure, decrease the resistance, decrease. the adduction and release it back to air. Can you do this super smoothly? One more time. Leave the mouth closed as you release and you'll find yourself gently breathing out through the nose. Okay, now let's take it on our circle and this time we're going to start with a higher volume level and we're going to lighten through the top.
We're going to start with that E to the B. Hmm...
And relax and release. So, these exercises are gold. Okay? They're gold, they're really going to train that coordination and they're simple to do. The difficulty lies in the execution and your concentration. Take a nice easy breath. Okay, and then we're going to now switch gears a little bit. We're going to start higher and we're going to slide/glide down low.
So why am I using a slide and a glide? Very simply, It is a slow change in the length of the vocal folds. If you're going from high to low, you're going to be a little higher, longer in the vocal fold. Then you're going to release the length. You're going to shorten the length of the vocal fold. You will control the release.
You'll be controlling that length very, very slowly. And you'll also be adjusting air pressure, adduction level, thickness, tension, all these things that we need to be able to adjust in singing we'll be doing during these exercises. Okay. If you have any questions, reach out. So we're going to start now.
We're going to start in, uh, in a light sound first, and then we will increase the volume gently as we go down. Then we're going to reverse it. Okay. So let's start. On an A. There is your interval. We're gonna start on the A. We're gonna slide down to a D. Okay? We're going to use another SOVT this time. We're going to, if you have a straw, a singing straw, try it on a singing straw. If you don't have one, a singing straw, don't worry about it. Just use a lip trill or use the V again.
Here we go.
Now with a straw, you're not going to hear me as well, but what's really annoying and very valuable with the singing straw is it will show you exactly where those bumps are. So you're going to really have to work gently to smooth them out. Changing air pressure, changing, using a straw that elongates your vocal tract and narrows it towards the end.
Increases the inertance, increases the supraglottal pressure back to your vocal folds. Basically, it is great for fine tuning, but it's not as easy. So you have to start very light and increase gently. Let's see if you can hear me.
Very easy to do on one volume. Let's try and make it smooth while increasing the volume.
And just play around. Come down, land on that bottom note. And then surge a little bit in the volume, but evenly, okay?
I don't know if you can hear it, but I hear sometimes there's just a little bit of wobble, a little bit of goat in the voice, alright? And that's what we're working to smooth out. So, in the beginning, using the singing straw, start with a very light volume. Now let's reverse that. Alright, higher volume of the top, lighten through the bottom, and try again to release, release the pressure, release the adduction, release it back to air. One more time, high to low...nice job.
Okay, so, we can do it on the descent, this is super important. One more time. Starting light. And starting higher volume, lighter volume, and descending, switching those around. I'm going to take it a little bit higher, okay? If this exceeds your comfortable range, don't go that high. Quite simple, right?
Men, Women have different vocal registers, slightly different registers, but we're going to take it high. Going up to a D now, okay? And this time we're going to use that lip trill. We're going to start very lightly
and release back to air. Easy slide down, very light volume, very light in the head voice. Gradually, gradually increase the volume as you slide down. working on that control.
How well did you do? I'm always challenging myself on this. You can challenge yourself as well because it's not that easy to execute it perfectly. Now let's change. We'll start with a higher volume and release as we go down. All right, this one is a little bit easier for me personally. I just have better coordination descending in volume and descending in pitch at the same time. But I'm very mindful, very mindful of that descent. How slowly, how evenly can I make that? One more time.
And release back to air. Good job, good job. Now let's switch it back around. Super light.
And release it again. So you're learning to control the release. Let's think about this in singing. Do you ever want to do a decrescendo? Probably. Do you ever want to be able to transition between head voice and chest voice? Probably. Both ways, right? On the way up and on the way down. So, how do we do transitions?
It's all about this. It's exactly this. You must change, you must control that release. The increase and the release. And remember, most singers are very good at the increase. Brrrrr. But they tend to drop out of control, right? They tend to drop that off. And by doing that you are not developing, The skills that you will need to control your singing.
You'll sing very high and then you're up in your higher register and now you want to come back down and your voice is going to crack or you're going to feel like you're stuck. So, let's take this now, this exercise and we're going to do a transition exercise. We're going to start in a chest voice and we're going to go up into head voice.
Alright, so in order to do this, again, we have to release intrinsic tension, we have to release the adduction strength, and we've got to manage our air pressure. So here's a little, use your two fingers like a peace sign or scissors, we're going to close them for the adducted sound and we're going to open them for the adducted sound.
The heady sound. And before we do this on an octave glide, I'd like you to try it on a single note. All right, comfortable note.
I'm taking on an E. Alright, we're going to go from an O to an AH. Now this might not be your best vowel pair, but we're going to try a couple different vowels, and every singer just is better at certain things than others. So we're going to just vary the vowels for ourselves to develop our control and our coordination.
I'm going to start now with an O, closed. We're going to, on that E. We're going to open the vocal folds. We're gonna release. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.
How well are you doing? Take it easy, breathe calmly, strong oh, release to the ah, almost to breath, but keep that sound going, and then close it back up, oh, oh, how did that go? As you practice this. Add a few more cycles in. Oh Oh Oh This will help you also develop better breath control. Ok. I'm going to the O to the AH because the AH is a little bit brighter.
It's a change to help you, first of all, feel this change. Now, let's do this on an Oh to an Ooh. Oh, Oh.
Very nice. It doesn't matter if you finish on the breathy or the strong, what matters is your control between the both. Alright, so oh ooh might work better for you. Oh ah might work better for others. Alright, let's do it again. Here we go. Oh, oh, oh. How are you doing? Are you able to do that smoothly?
Smoothly. Changing the volume. Alright, now we're gonna take this up on an octave glide. Alright, same pattern.
Train, don't strain. If this particular range is uncomfortable for you, you can lower it. Okay, starting with the O to the AH. Ooooooooooooooooh
Always releasing it back gently. Again, this is a glide, so we are looking to very, very, very gradually release the other, the adduction and the volume, and very, very, very, very gradually Add them back in. We're controlling here. We're developing fine tuning that's going to make all of your singing better. O to the U this time.
O, O, O,
How did you do? This is how you transition. This is how you train the ability to transition between head and chest. Mix and belt. Okay, let's do it again. Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, So the gradual, the controlling of the pitch, the length of the vocal folds, very, very gradually and smoothly and also gradually adding and releasing the induction and matching that with your air pressure.
These are the fine tuning controls of the voice. Alright, now let's do it the inverted way. Let's start lightly with an open vocal fold, or, uh, let's see, not completely open because we wouldn't have any sound, right? We can have a light adduction, low volume level, add the adduction, and then release again.
How did you do? Could be harder, could be easier, depending on your personal skill level. Once again, light. a ducted higher volume, release back to light and back to air. You
can use the two finger gesture. You can use a praying hands gesture, closing the hands to a prayer, to a pray, gesture, and then opening them. This is all symbolizing and signaling to your brain. More adduction, less adduction. Let's change the vowel around. Let's go from the o to the u. How's it going for you?
Challenging, isn't it? It's really challenging to control the release. But this gives you incredible control. One more time. Oh.
Great. Now you can take this up in pitch. Span your entire passaggio. So you control that area and develop the control in an area where your voice is likely to break and crack. So why does the voice crack and break? Is there something wrong with my voice? Nope, nothing wrong with your voice. Guess what?
Your voice is meant to crack and break. Sounds ridiculous, right? Who wants the voice to crack or break? Well, your voice needs to change gears. It's got to change gears. And that's all a voice crack or a vocal break is. It's changing gears. It's probably changing gears because you lost control and that's what these exercises are going to help you develop.
So, you can control the gear changes in your voice, the register changes, the sound changes from chest to head to mix to belt. It's all about this coordination. This coordination is so important. And yet, 95 percent of singers It is underdeveloped because they're not training it. They're simply not training it, alright?
Easy to go, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh. Pretty easy. Most singers do that very well. Oh. But where's the control? If you don't develop the fine tuning control, you actually have no control of your voice. Now I've got another exercise that's pretty challenging for you. It's more of an advanced exercise, and we're going to do this because it's hard, and we want to do it in an area that's hard, okay?
Right in the passaggio. Now, ladies, you might have to adjust this pitch a little bit. Guys, if you're a bass, you might have to adjust it. But generally, most acoustic shifts in the vocal folds and how they operate happen around a B flat in every octave. Okay? I'll expand on that another day, but around the B flat, you're going to experience a change.
There is some acoustic law around the B flat that registers shift, right? Might be an A for you, might be the B, but most people turn the B flat. This is why we consider the passaggio for most guys a B flat to an F. B flat to an F, E, F sharp, B to an E, right in there. It's difficult. So what we're going to do is we're going to do something.
I call Omo. Omo. We're going to start light. We're going to start very lightly. I'll put it on a, I'll put it on a D, the D. Ooh, that's a hard note. Hard note. Okay. So I have to concentrate light on the, with a tiny baby H to get the airflow going.
1) You're going to start in your head voice, in a released position; light adduction, easy airflow, on a nice O.
2) Then you're going to close to the M. By closing to the M, you will be adding supraglottal pressure and making it easier for your vocal folds to adduct.
3) While on the M, you're going to increase the volume gently till you feel and hear it switch from head into your mix. Aha! Well, let's just say chest. So we don't want to add too much pressure, we're just going to go up.
4) We're going to increase it very slightly. [Light head voice O, light head voice M] Increase the M slightly till you feel it, chick, it'll grab, you'll feel a little bit more strength in there.
5) Then, you're going to open to the O [you're in a mix now]
6) Then you're going to crescendo and go backwards. Woo! Tough. I'll demonstrate for you.
Review the steps:
Going from falsetto or head voice. All the way through to a forte big O sound and right back, switching gears, using the M to switch gears. Again, light O, light M. Switch on the M by adding a tiny, tiny bit of pressure. Then open to the O, now you'll be in mix. Crescendo to a full volume O. Then release back to a lighter volume, which is going to be a mix. Close to the M again, then switch back to the head voice M and release to the head voice O.
I told you, this is a challenge. Here we go again. If you can do that, I want you to send me a video because It's tough. Guess what? You're going to practice this on every note throughout your passaggio. That's the challenge. Now, what's going to happen to most of you, I'm making it look easy, but it's not. What's going to happen to most of you is the following.
You're going to have this happen to your voice.
As soon as you add a little bit of tension onto that M, your voice is going to start fluctuating. Don't freak out. It's normal. That's what you're trying to overcome. So how do you overcome that? You've got to find the right amount of pressure on it. If you're too light, it won't switch. It'll fluctuate. So add a tiny bit more pressure.
And see if that helps.
Okay, add a little bit more pressure in the beginning, but we keep the throat easy. We're not controlling any of this by changing our vocal tract. We are using vowels, consonants and air pressure to get the vocal folds to react. If you change your vocal tract, you're not going to, you're not going to get the full benefit out of this.
There you go.
Control, control, control, control. So if your voice starts wobbling, when you change that M,
That simply means you need to practice the other exercises that I showed you earlier. Then, come back to this and find how much pressure you need to give and don't change the inside of your vocal tract.
How did you do? I wanted to leave a challenge for you. Now, I've worked with some very advanced singers. They love this exercise because it helps them smooth out their passaggio. And with that control, you can sing head, mix, belt, chest, everything throughout your passaggio. And switch from one to the other.
That is the ultimate level of control: the Release. 95 percent of singers cannot do this. because they haven't trained for it. They've overemphasized the other coordination, the ascent, the crescendo, the adding of volume and pressure, but you will never find control until you train the smooth, easy release.
I've got some great, um, feedback in the comments. I want to thank you all for joining. Now, one thing that's great about VoiceVibe is that after our podcast, we jump into a private Zoom call where you can interact with me directly and with my co hosts and get some personal feedback and coaching on your execution.
Maybe it's part of a song. Maybe it's these exercises. Maybe you have a completely unrelated question. Well, this is how you get some expert feedback personally. Every singer wants that. Every singer needs that. Every singer deserves that.
So go to the link in the description. There'll be a link in there on how you can join the Zoom call. And I'm going to jump on that call in just a few minutes here. It's always going to be at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time every Tuesday. Have a lovely day, reach out and let me know how this helps you and your singing.
Take care everybody, we'll see you next week on the Voice Vibe.”
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