What is "Support" in Singing? Why vocal "Support" is NOT a one word answer.
00:00 Welcome to World Voice Day with Philippe and Aramat
00:16 Technical Difficulties and Introduction of Guest Speaker
01:03 A Deep Dive into Vocology with Aramat Arnheim Sharon
05:22 Exploring the Mysteries of Vocal Support and Resonance
07:16 The Science and Perception of Vocal Support
14:20 Understanding Air Pressure and Vocal Fold Dynamics
17:09 The Role of the Diaphragm in Singing
23:30 Navigating the Complexities of Vocal Sensation and Perception
25:37 Exploring Vocal Techniques: The Glottal Stop
26:46 Understanding Vocal Fold Dynamics
27:43 Mastering Superglottal Pressure
28:37 The Magic of Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises
31:07 The Role of Resonance in Vocal Color and Support
33:18 Demystifying Vocal Support
38:54 Practical Exercises for Vocal Mastery
51:04 Concluding Remarks and Next Steps
Welcome and Introduction to World Voice Day Special
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Philippe Hall: Welcome to the voice vibe. My name is Philippe Hall. I'm your host. And today is also conveniently world voice day. So thank you for joining us today. I'm excited to introduce my special guest speaker Aramat Arnheim Sharon.
Technical Difficulties and Guest Introduction
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Philippe Hall: Thank you for holding on tight there. We've had a few technical delays, so it's been a bit of a journey to get things going, but we've worked it out and Aramat will be joining me shortly.
So I'm going to just bring her on and welcome Eramat, how are you doing today?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Hi, thank you so much for everyone's patience and for your patience, Philip. Um, it was a journey, it was a journey, but we did it and I'm so happy to be here. And I'm glad everything's working and I'm apologizing for any video lags or whatever's going to happen.
Bye! But I'm gonna give it my hundred percent.
Philippe Hall: Yes, of course. I know, I know you will and always do.
Meet Aramat: A Journey into Vocology
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Philippe Hall: So for those of you who don't know Aramat, Aramat and I met, I don't know, about four or five years ago and we've been in touch ever since. Arama is a certified ologist. And if you don't know what a ologist is, it's just a a, it's a voice scientist.
Right? Isn't that how you describe ologist?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: I think so. Yeah. Sort of. It's like let's a, a, a voice geek. That's really into science.
Philippe Hall: Yes. So vocal college. You know, it's, tell me a little bit about. I mean, I know it's very extensive, but what I want to communicate is being a vocologist is, is not just a walk in the park. It takes a lot of learning and preparation and intensive training. And you probably had to pass an exam. How did, to get certified, who did you work with to become a vocologist?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Well, that's the thing. It's the vocologist thing is, is kind of new. I mean. The person who coined this term is Ingo Tietze. Um, actually, maybe someone else, but he was really the person who made it become a credential, um, and pushed for it to happen through the Pan American Vocology Association. And first of all, he had, um, his own course before that even happened in the organization.
Um, he has Summer Vocology Institute for years happening in the University of Utah, uh, National Center for Voice and Speech, uh, in Utah. And so through that, I did the program. Um, to get certified and that's like, um, a semester, like a, a summer semester sort of thing. Um, but then they did it much more like a much more formal credential through the Pan American Vocology Association in which you really have to, um, prove that you have done everything that it takes.
To be a vocologist in your field, which means you need to show and create a portfolio of all the work that you've done so far. Um, show how extensive it is and actually, uh, do a test that takes like three hours or something like that. That goes through a lot of material. Um, and so, uh, yeah, I did that and it was actually really exciting.
It was really nice.
Philippe Hall: Thanks for sharing that. I just want to To communicate to, to the listeners that it's, it's a big deal, even amongst voice teachers and vocal coaches. It's, it's a big deal. It's my opinion, one of, one of the top certifications you can have. And you're, so when you say you're a PAVA or Pan American Voc, uh, Certified Vocologist, It's not just, uh, something you can walk in and get a stamp on.
There's a lot of effort put into that. And it's a very, very high bar. Not only that, you helped to found the Israeli voice association. You've worked as the director of education for vocology and practice. It's a, also an excellent. Association for teachers and I've been a member of that and you ran the entire education department for that which means just to be in the VIP basically you were in charge of making sure people again Had a certain level of knowledge and experience.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Yeah, I was very lucky to sit on that chair for a while.
Philippe Hall: Yes. Yeah. You did a great job and it was, that's how I got to know you and we've collaborated since, and I know you're actively involved teaching group, teaching, teaching classes, teaching individuals, also creating your own educational programs. I know you've consulted different people on their, their programs.
Um, and I just. Love working with you and I think you're great. So I want everybody to know how, how special you are and how lucky they are to be listening to you.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Oh, thank you. I'm so lucky to work with you, Philip. Really? It's a pleasure. It's an honor.
Philippe Hall: Thank you. Aramat. Let's.
Diving Deep into Vocal Support and Resonance
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Philippe Hall: Let's get into what you'd like to talk about every time I, I asked a guest speaker to be on the podcast and the live stream and work with our private community.
Um, then I talk with them about what, what do they want to talk about? And you have expressed an interest in talking. About clearing up this, this, um, concept of support, appoggio, diaphragmatic bringing, singing from your diaphragm. It can be very, very confusing for singers. It seems to always be confusing for most singers and even very experienced singers have heard about it, maybe think they're using it.
And then it's also not a clear subject, which is astounding because breath moves the voice. Right air moves the voice the only thing that moves the voice So if we're not connected with we don't have that body breath voice connection We're really not singing to our full potential And interestingly enough you you chose to talk about Resonance and I put that in the description because i've been working with some clients again and again They will say when they get their resonance, right?
Oh my support activated And I'm like, it's an automatic thing. And it's very, very cool. So I'm going to turn the time over to you now and let you jump into this topic. You're really passionate about, because I know it's can really help singers. And, uh, the time is yours. We're going to jump back and forth.
I'll ask you questions, of course, but I'm going to. Because we're late going anyway, let's get started for all these people who've been patiently waiting and thank you for waiting everybody Aramat take it away
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Thank you Thank you so much again and happy world voice day for everyone or we'll listen later.
Exploring the Complexities of Vocal Support
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Um, I am passionate about this. I'm also terrified at the same time because it's a topic that in every school of singing has different opinions and different points of view. And so I don't want to step on anyone's toes and I don't want to claim that I know how to solve the support situation. Oh, just,
Philippe Hall: just do it.
Just do it. You know what I, you know what I tell them, my clients. I say everybody's right and everybody's wrong and it's just because It's always about this perception, right? If somebody could be saying something that's absolutely right. I know what they're saying And for somebody else they could get so upset and say, you know, it's totally wrong And that's why I like to say hey keep an open mind Everybody's right and everybody's wrong allows you to have an open mind and all that really matters is What works best for you?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Exactly. Yes. And, and I like that because there is no right or wrong. If it works, then it works. I'm not going to argue with anyone or anything. And if you feel like support for you, it feels like, um, singing inside a blender, then that's the way to go. And I know there's a lot of guided imagination out there and I'm all for it.
Like whatever works. For real, but I do like the fact that we can go into the science a little bit and and really understand what's behind it because it's kind of just clears away some of the mystique about it and it also really helps us understand how big This term is it's a big word and it includes so much and you mentioned resonance and it's the resonance is a huge part of support and we tend to just focus on whatever our tummy does or something like that.
And really, really what got me going into this Let me see if I can. Oh, there we go. I don't know if it's going to work. There's some sort of presentation in the back there. Um, so the whole thing started really when I was thinking about, um, my clients who are coming in and just asking me, Uh, to help them with their voice or whatever, and then they're saying stuff like, uh, No, I'm gonna ask them, what's happening in your voice?
What do you want to work on? And they're gonna say, I'm lacking some support. So, I'll be like, okay, what does that mean? What do you mean? You need more support. Who are you supporting? What is, what is that need? So, and then they give me all those sort of answers. Like I run out of air. I need to push my tummy a little more or strengthen my abdominal muscles.
Um, they could be more specific about, you know, my note is not too stable or. I don't have enough volume. It could be even more specific like that. Uh, but then you really kind of get introduced to different approaches. You know, people come from different techniques and I respect all of them, but some techniques are all about expanding the ribcage or pushing the belly out.
And some people about pushing the belly in. Um, and even without all of those approaches, What we feel inside is so individual. I mean, someone can feel, and I actually had a voice teacher tell me yesterday, I'm going to mention Lizzie, um, she just told me that when she works on Pilates, um, then her trainer told her that she's going to feel the muscles that are probably more weak in her system.
So those are the muscles that she's going to feel more. So in some instances, when you work on your voice. You can suddenly feel something very intensely under your ribcage, or in your tummy, or in your back. And it's possibly a muscle that maybe, you know, is working a little harder than you would expect it to work, and that's why you're feeling it.
It doesn't mean that that's the only muscle that's in charge of whatever it is that you're doing. And so, it's so individual. And on top of all of that, there are different stages in, in the breathing and singing and vocalization process. So for example, when we inhale, you know, we have the inhalation muscles, we have the expansion, we have all of that happening.
And then we're starting to create sound. And so some of the air slips out, but we're trying to keep the stability inside of our lungs. Um, and then slowly and gradually things are changing. In that stability, because we're on a sustained note, or because we're singing a melody, or because I'm, you know, I'm speaking to you right now, and while I'm speaking, things are changing in my systems, pressures are changing, because some of the air is coming out.
And so I need to react, my body constantly needs to react, and so things constantly change. And that's something we need to understand, like there is no one way. Perhaps in the end of the line, if I talk and talk and talk and I won't stop, and for example, I'm not gonna breathe and I'm gonna try to go into the next line right now, and I'm not gonna breathe and I'm gonna try to And so, at some point, perhaps my abdominal muscles are really gonna kick in, because I need more of that action, but it's really not the case in the beginning of the phrase, in the beginning of the note.
So, it really, really changes throughout the entire phrase. And I do have to say, and I put a reminder here for myself on that presentation, that A lot of the stuff that I'm going to talk about today, um, is really stuff that I've learned from so many people, so many different programs. I can't thank all of them because it's a long list, but you know who you are.
Um, but in the last few years, I've been really bugging, um, Ingo Dietze and Brad Story and Chad Lee Ballantyne, Who I've been working with is my teacher recently. And, um, so they've been giving me extra knowledge on that. So I just have to credit. Um, them as well for some of the stuff that I'm going to present, even though I'm going to present them in my own wacky doodle way.
So
Philippe Hall: I love that. It's a very open minded introduction and right on. I think it's so important. Things are always changing. Things can be individual. That doesn't mean that there's not a system that runs by a design, right? There is a system. It can be very clear. So let's clear that up. I love that.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Thank you.
The Science Behind Singing: Air Pressure and Vocal Folds
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Um, and so, yeah, so what are we talking about basically? Because when we talk about air pressure that's inside our lungs, um, we're talking about, um, air pressure that goes into our trachea as well. So I don't know if you can see the drawing behind me, but I kind of just painted everything in yellow. So we have that lung pressure that's the air pressure that's beneath the trachea.
Our vocal folds. So everything that's in our trachea and in our lungs is that air pressure is that the kind of thing that starts our voice, which Philip mentioned earlier. That's what kind of ignites everything in the beginning. Um, and really below that we have the diaphragm and we have all the abdominal.
Muscles and systems and digestive system, and it's really, really nice when you see the diaphragm moving. The diaphragm just kind of sits like a dome. Um, and, and when you inhale it, you know, it lowers. And when you exhale, it just bounces back into the resting position, which is that dome position. Um, but it's really nice when you see it because above the diaphragm and between the lungs, you have the heart.
It's really nice. And below you have all the digestive system. And so when you inhale, it's almost like you're giving a massage to your digestive system. And when you exhale, it's almost like you're giving a massage to your heart. So it's, it's really in between there and it's really nice to see. But when we sing, we kind of just delay everything.
It's not just inhale and then exhale. It's kind of just inhale and wait. It's nice. Hang on, hang in there, stay in there air. And so it just stays in that lungs, you know, and that kind of creating that specific air pressures that we have. And if we do use the abdominal muscles and push on it, then we actually make the volume in the space a little bit smaller.
And so we increase the pressure. And the interesting thing is that Singers, professional singers, at least according to some studies, really use the minimal amount of pressure in their lungs and trachea to create sound. So it's very, you know, it's very intuitive. That we want to push more, uh, air out or push our abdominal muscles and, and, and create that kind of lung pressure that's a little bit higher.
But the more we train, we actually learn to keep it more stable and rely on less air pressure.
Philippe Hall: Amen to that, yes.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Yeah. Um. And so that, that's the interesting thing and, and you know, and when we inhale, the other thing is when we are trained and people tell us breathe to your diaphragm. Okay, so that's, that's something that I also, I feel it's a little bit funny because if we wouldn't do that.
That we wouldn't be here.
Philippe Hall: Yeah, exactly. I like to tell people that, you know, say, I got to learn to breathe from my diaphragm. And I say, well, if you weren't doing that, you would be dead. You know, you're alive, so you know how to do it. But there is There's some additional
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: information that helps.
Uh, we just had a little bit
Philippe Hall: of delay.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Yeah, so, uh, I'm sorry. I don't know what's happening today with our technology. It's the old, all the World Voice Day celebrations are getting everything out of whack. Um, but yeah, so, uh, so that's the thing really, the diaphragm knows its job, but it is interesting that that massage that I was talking about, Uh, we don't need to take such a huge inhalation when we, you know, when we go into a song or a line or a note.
We tend to do that when we're beginners, but then we know we don't need to kind of just like, you know, inhale a whole amount of air because that's going to create too much air pressure. But when we talk about deep breathing and really Inhaling as much air as we can, you know, we will expand our rib cage, but also lower our diaphragm as much as we can, and then really exhale to the max as much as we can.
We are creating flexibility in our diaphragm. We are creating, we're kind of allowing it to stretch. And the cool thing about stretching the diaphragm and doing that, I actually found that it's really important for people who suffer from reflux, for example. Because a lot of times you have that problem when, you know, your diaphragm can be a little bit tight.
And it's not as flexible, um, and then perhaps your digestive system is a little bit high and pushing some of those, um, acids, uh, up there and creating a bit more reflux. And so, when I have clients who suffer from that, I do try at some points of the lessons to just take a break and do some, um, inhalation, exhalation slowly, and just practice that to do that little bit of a massage.
Because as singer, we're really, as I said earlier, trying to just put on the brakes and say, hold on diaphragm, no one moves. Um, and that just really makes it work in a different way. Um, which is also really, really interesting because a lot of people feel that singing is the same as Working on your breath, and it's not.
It's different in so many ways. It's different because of the rhythm of the patterns. Okay, so when I'm talking it's it's not Like inhale exhale. It's not like someone who runs a marathon who knows how to work with their breath so well It's not like meditation It's a different pattern and sometimes it's a bigger inhalation of someone is sometimes it's a smaller one and sometimes I need to hold on to a longer line and Hold the diaphragm in place and hold my ribcage in place and whatever my abdomen or back muscles need to do and my entire body to You know hold on to that position and that is sometimes what people refer to as support Is how do I allow my body and my entire system?
to hold on to that position and find that stability. And that, everything that I've just mentioned so far, is just everything that's happening below the vocal folds. So it's that kind of dance that happens between the air that's inside our lungs, the muscles that are all around it trying to hold it in place, And then the vocal folds resisting it and saying, we're closing the gate.
We're not allowing all of the air to come out. And that's a very important thing to say, because, um, let me just put that here. Um, what we, what we need for those vocal folds to, to adduct and close and start vibrating that. moment where sound is created when we have that adduction, that's a really, really important part of controlling the air.
It's not like everything below it is controlling the air on its own. We need the vocal folds. on the glottis, which is like the space between the vocal folds and all of the, you know, section. We need that to kind of just be the gatekeeper. And that's a huge part of it. So we can't just focus on whatever my tummy's doing without thinking about how will my vocal folds react to it.
It's part of the dance. And it's still just a part of it, but it's an important part.
Philippe Hall: Yeah. I like, I love that, uh, more and more. I found myself, it's very helpful to myself, even after decades of singing professionally and teaching a lot of singers around the world. It seems to help singers to acquire the realization that your voice is reactive.
There's very little your voice can, your vocal cords can do themselves. They, they're reacting, they're reacting to that air. And I love the way that you said it, they, they do create resistance. Usually the question I get is, Then, um, this might get a little off topic.
Understanding Vocal Sensation and Perception
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Philippe Hall: So indulge me for a moment, but a lot of singers like, can I feel that, you know, can I feel that there's all of the things we're looking at?
There's, that's why everybody's right. Everybody's wrong is another way of saying, well, it's not, uh, it's not singing. It, there are very few absolutes in singing. So can you feel that resistance? Um, tell us a little bit about what we can actually. feel like the nerve receptors down there? What come, what can we actually feel?
And I know individuals feel different things, but there's a lot of associated perception of feeling things and
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Yeah. Yeah. The, I mean, the nerve system is so complex. And, and again, as you said, it's so individual and that's why we kind of interpret things in different ways.
What I recommend is just doing, and I'm going to give you some, you know, pointers and some exercises maybe that we can do later. Awesome. But, but yeah, but we can try something now just to see how you feel. And that's like the, the way I, I see things and I know you are the same for that, um, is let's feel something, you know, let's do an exercise.
Let's feel something. And then the client, the student, the singer, they can say. What that felt like because I don't want to dictate what that should feel like Um, I don't want to dictate what it feels like for me But I can say if we inhale and then we hold just try to hold the air inside There is a certain sensation, and then we can let go.
And then I want to do the same thing, but I want you to do it with your mouth open. Just like to show your brain that it doesn't have anything to do with your lips. And so we inhale, keep our lips open, and hold. And then relax.
Exploring Vocal Techniques: The Glottal Stop
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: And so something in there stopped the air, and now we're starting to, you know, kind of, uh, communicate with that gatekeeper.
And so what I want to do the next thing is to do like a glottal stop, so like saying an apple, uh, uh, uh, uh, um, but doing it without actual sound. So just doing like a silent glottal stop and and then you can sort of just that's I think the closest you can feel the sensation of feeling your vocal folds like doing You know,
Philippe Hall: yeah, it's like I Love this because it's so fun to discover in the beginning singers are a little bit like what what is that?
Um, so I'll say to do a, do a soft H and stop the air.
And then those, when they find it, they say, it's like, Oh, making little bubbles in there. It's kind of cool. Yeah.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: I love it. Yeah. So that's, yeah, that's really how we kind of just start feeling that sensation and that amazing kind of communication that happens between everything.
Understanding Vocal Fold Dynamics
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: in our breathing system to our kind of vocal fold system and how they're working together to kind of just resist or delay the air from coming out.
And by doing that, we are creating sound. And the interesting thing is that in order to continue creating sound, The, the subglottal pressure, the pressure below is not enough. And so we need the pressure above. And that's why I have those two arrows there. It doesn't matter if we're doing like a more adducted version, uh, whatever sound you want to call it, like fuller voice, chest voice, falsetto voice, whatever kind of sound you call it, whatever you want there to happen, you still need to play around with the pressure that happens below the vocal folds.
And the pressure that happens above the vocal folds what we call the superglottic. Yeah.
Revelations in Singing: Superglottal Pressure
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Philippe Hall: Awesome the superglottal pressure So for many singers, that's like a revelation. It's like what there's pressure above my vocal folds. So How do we create the right pressure above the vocal folds?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Okay Um, so that's that's a hard one because again It really matters what sound we're going for And it's very hard To it's not like it's one of those things I can't tell a singer.
So that's how much pressure you need We need to guide singers to feel what it means and we have exercises To help us as singers what superglottal pressure is. Um, and so let me see if I can shift that around. Oh, I'm gonna, that's the other one. Okay.
Exercises for Vocal Control
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: So now, um, but, um, but what we can do, first of all, is use some of those, S O V T, Semi Included Vocal Tract Exercises, and it's basically shut your mouth exercises because, you know, you close your mouth in some way.
You can do it from your lips, you can do it using a straw, um, just putting a straw inside, which limits the amount of air coming out. Um, you can use a consonant. Like a voiced consonant that's gonna be long from your lips, like an M, you can do it with your tongue, doing an NG, mmm. All of the lip trills, bubbles, all of that.
That's why I'm saying a shut your mouth exercise because it somehow blocks the air. So it's not just your vocal folds resisting the air now. There's another gatekeeper. And that kind of helps us because it balances the superglottal pressure. It balances what happens above. And then you create that kind of stability of airflow that wants to come out and you're not letting it come out fully.
Philippe Hall: Right, and that's where people say that's the adduction, right? The cord closure.
The Magic of SOVT Exercises
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Philippe Hall: And those SOVTs, I mean, I'll be honest, you know, I, I, Didn't know really what an SOPT meant for a long time and I was a professional singer. I'm like, oh, yeah SOPT But semi occluded vocal track. It's just sounds And that's a great way of describing it.
Shut your mouth. It's easy to remember. You can say, yeah, and I'm not saying to my singers in the session, shut your mouth. You know, that sounds very aggressively rude, but we're just, we're, we're blocking off the escape of the air. So we're slowing it down. Like if you're watering your garden or something, you pinch the hose.
Well, there's back pressure that builds up the back pressure. So that helps, helps us get to the point. The more adduction it makes it easier for the vocal folds to
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: exactly
Philippe Hall: the little gatekeepers, right?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Yes, exactly and using those gatekeepers really help us manage the pressures and that's What I was really passionate about when we're talking about sport is understanding that it's not just the lung pressure It's not just the airflow It's managing the pressures above and below the vocal folds in order to really help them You Sustainable vibration.
Um, and when we talk about that space above the vocal folds, that is a resonance space. Like our mouth, our throat. We cannot ignore the importance of resonance and what you mentioned earlier. And so that's why I was kind of just going. And I created that little megaphone with a wand saying I'm going to enhance this I'm going to enhance that because that's what our our resonance space.
That's what our vocal tract kind of does We have we create a sound wave and that sound wave has It's multiples, it's not just a pitch, it's all the harmonics above it, all those overtones that are inside the note that we're singing. It's a really magical and fun thing. And then, what part of those harmonics, what part of those overtones are we enhancing is what kind of dictates our color.
So, we constantly change our color. We constantly change our color just by changing the vowel. And I'm sure many singers here notice that what vowel you sing, what note you sing, all of those are really key to am I going to be comfortable or not. Is my sound going to break? Because when you break, it's sort of like things are not lining up.
The interaction between the pressure here and the resonance space that happens above the vocal folds is not helping what's hap what's going on in my vocal folds or in my subglottal pressure. Like, those things are not lining up. So it's like a cycle that feeds into itself. I need to use my resonance in a way that's gonna help me.
I need to find how to enhance certain harmonics, certain parts of my notes, and then I am really improving the relationship between the pressure above and below. So it's not just how much flow I'm controlling, but also how I'm resonating, and then I'm really feeling the benefits. of that so called support.
Breathing Mechanisms and Vocal Support
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: So when someone tells a singer, you need more support, or when a singer says, I need more support, it's a really big word. You cannot just, you know, throw that word in the air when you know it means, you know, support. It's the sublateral pressure, the lungs, all the muscles around it, the abdominal muscles that might or not contribute depending on what stage of the line you are.
And that has to do with the vocal fold deduction and has to do with the pressure above it and the resonance and how you're using it. So just throwing that word in the air can be so confusing when there is so much in that one word. That really supports the entire system and sound
Philippe Hall: love that love that and you're right I remember, you know, I was I was a young professional singer and somebody just said to me you got to support that No, one of my colleagues got to support that none and I was perplexed.
I'm like, what are they talking about? You know, and I love the fact that you put put that out there So, there's a lot of things that influence that. It's not just push more pressure up. Yeah? So, that's the beginning idea of support is I'm gonna push more pressure up and that's gonna fix everything. But, like you just said, if the, if that resonance above, that shape above that's creating not only the super glottal pressure, but also, I love that, that little diagram there, magic wand thing.
It's, it's highlighting, amplifying certain frequencies that your voice reacts to that. And that changes the requirement, like the subglottal pressure requirement. So it's an interaction. Like I love to say, it's just a dance. You get that resonance shape, right? You get so many benefits and then your effort level goes up.
Way down. Maybe you can talk about that a little bit, because I think that's what most singers are also looking for. Yes. Let's clear this up. What is this support thing? And then realize if you get the resonance, right? Hey, it, things get a lot easier and it requires less effort. That's, you know, almost every singer is.
Had that moment where like, oh, that's it. That's it. My voice feel free. It feels open Uh, it was so easy and then they come back the next day and say I lost it
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: I
know Yeah, some people even call it the sweet spot like you find that sweet spot and then everything works and I remember early on for me as a singer, um, I was struggling to kind of just go for my passagios and then My teacher at the time, that was Heather Baker, and um, And I still have recordings of me telling her, There's that place again.
What's that place? And, and she's, she would ask me like, what do you feel like? What, what is that place for you? And I was like, I have no idea, but you, you know, I just take me there again. And so that's, that's part of the process is just like using the exercises. That's what I see as my role as, um, as a, as a teacher, as a voice coach is to just guide my clients to explore and find.
Like specific positions, find specific sensations and then let them again, define it or, or just enjoy it until it becomes a part of your system. And it's really magical how it happens. I, I notice it on my body as well. When I try new stuff, they tend to just like, stay there, especially if they work, you know, if they're good, if they're good for you, your body tends to go, that was nice.
Let's do that again. And it could be, it could be a little bit scary, especially if there's a lot of like the habits that you had before are not in line with that, then it would be a longer struggle to maintain it and make it consistent. Um, and obviously the psychological, um, patterns that I'm not even going to get into.
But we are, uh, emotional creatures and we cannot, cannot avoid having that part of our singing voice as well. But really, it's just about showing our body, hey, it's possible. And then your body goes, okay, let's do it again, let's do it again. And then it sticks and it's really, really cool. Yeah.
Philippe Hall: Yeah. Let's go through this.
Are we
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: doing the practice thing here? Yeah?
Philippe Hall: Um, yeah. Let's, well, let's do something. Yeah. Let's absolutely do something. I know, like I said, we got a late start due to technical difficulties. So we're a little bit behind schedule for everybody. Um, and I want to mention that at this point. So we have a private community and after these live streams and podcasts, then myself and Aram at my guest speaker jumps in a private zoom call with.
Singers in our private community where they can ask questions get some one on one coaching and and take this to the next level So the the community is going to be waiting and if you'd like to join the community or you'd like to join us here after There is a link in the description on this live stream.
Just click that link and join us in a few minutes But let's do let's uh, let's just go down this list you put up there and give us give us something we can do Everybody wants to know hey, that sounds great. But what can I do?
Practical Exercises for Vocal Mastery
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Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: All right, so first of all, like what can we control? What can we guide ourselves to do is Just remind our body as a first step that when we inhale or exhale It's just about making room because the exchange of the air happens really, you know And everything that happens in the diaphragm just happens independently And automatically and think, you know, we need to thank God that it does because that's again, what keeps us alive.
And so what we wanted to as a first stage is just to remind our body that this is part of the process. And so we can exhale, you can do it on a consonant, like a shh, and you can do it just on an H. Just exhale, and then just kind of let go. And when you let go completely, The air will just pop in. If you're not, if you're just going, uh, what's supposed to happen, then the gatekeeper is still working.
The vocal folds are still closed. And we want to go into that position where we're like, Oh, I'm so tired, you know, and then and then you'll feel like the air is just popping in there without you thinking and that's the amount of air you want to Get inserted inside. You don't want too much air. You don't want to have that like I'm taking a lot of air because i'm getting ready right now.
Okay, so it's just about reminding your body First of all that natural position that really gets you into that air pressure inside your lungs You That is the minimal you need and what and nothing more. So again, just exhale And then let go and then the air just comes in. All right, and then After we learned how to make that room We want this to happen a little bit faster.
And so what we can do is be a little bit more surprised, okay? We can be like, Oh, you don't say, okay? And we can make that part of like, Oh, really? Oh, I didn't know. And so we can just, let's do, um, let's do a shh. And then, whoops. Oh, I didn't know. Okay. And if you notice that when you do this, all of a sudden you inhale again like this, or you can hear the breath coming in, then it means there was too much tension and you didn't really let go.
You didn't make enough room. So you can go back into shh, and just sort of letting go, fainting into it. And then you will find how the air comes in. And what then I want to do is change the rhythm. Because when we sing, when we talk, the patterns are not going to be, you know, the same. So we can first do like a 1 2 3 4 count, let go, 4 count, let go.
Let's do Just a symmetric one for a second. So we're going to do
Good and now I want to do a non symmetrical thing so we can start with maybe counting till six And then to five and then to four, you know, so I'm just gonna remove Like a beat every time I'm doing it and I still want our body to let go and Allow how much air it needs and it could be that the shorter We're going to do, the shorter beats that we're going to do, the smaller times that we're going to exhale, um, we're going to have extra air.
And so, having that extra air means that you might feel like you're exhaling at the end, and then, and then the air comes in. And so it's like a, I don't know if you hear it through that microphone here right now. You can? Okay, good. And so let's do it. We're going to start with six. So, let
go.
Let go. Four. Let go. Let go.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, let go. Okay. So we're changing the rhythms and then we're going to do the same thing with sound. And so we can just say, uh,
uh,
and I totally felt the moment that I got sound in there. The moment that I got the gatekeeper to be a part of my, you know, of my exercise. Even through the five beats, I had to exhale at the end because I had extra air, you know, in there. Yes. And so it's something [00:45:00] that we want to train ourself to do in different beats.
And then when we talk, when we sing, we understand how this process happens. And that's why for me, when you work on, uh, breathing or the breathing mechanism, it has to be a part of changing patterns or just doing exercises because. That's what you train. That's what you want to do. Um, and so that's the first stage.
And once we have that, we start playing around with what I like to call the air faucet. So I want to feel like I'm in control of my flow. If I just did, uh, like in my speaking voice, then I can change that into something that's a little bit more flowy. Okay, or even too much air coming in, um, breathy voice sort of thing, and go, uh.
So just feel the difference between, uh, uh. And then, if I'm closing the faucet, and going, uh, uh, just trying to play with that. That's a really cool stylistic feature and that's also a tool for us to understand how much flow am I letting go and see how I'm controlling that gatekeeper. So again just going uh,
and you can play around with that on different notes and see how much air you can, you know, afford to lose along the way. Um, sometimes the higher you go, the less you can, especially when you go back to a fuller sound. Um, so don't go into full on full on open faucet. That's not what we want. We want to control it.
And by the way, Billie Eilish and all those artists out there that are using breathy phonation, Um, they're [00:47:00] always holding on. You can see it when they're singing. It's not It's And sometimes you can even hear the fry You can hear that. It's not It's not a completely open faucet So working on that is a cool stylistic feature and it's another way to communicate with your body and saying okay I know how to control that And then we talked about the SOVTs So what I like to do in order to just like, okay, I don't want to work so hard now holding on to that flow.
I can just use the SOVTs that will shut my mouth and, and help me feel that pressure above. And so if you just, um, puff your cheeks and almost go for like a W. Yeah.
And
then, You just want to sustain it. Like your lips are saying, okay, we're not going to open up completely. So you're going,
yeah. And that you can just do some glides.
That's it. And so when we going with those exercises, we can put them on notes and just feel how we have that. air pressure above and then when we
open up when we go from BOO WAH we don't want BOO WAH we want BOO WAH how could I keep that in there
without just letting all the air go? Okay, so that's part of the process.
But that also kind of tells us how to keep that party inside our mouth when we have a BOO WAH sensation there's a lot of energy happening inside that we want to enjoy. And so the last part that I thought I was going to give you to just try and explore and, and go ahead and enjoy that resonance is that twang, twangy sound.
So like country singing Alabama sound or Janice from France going, Oh my God, China bing, that kind of sound. Um, because that really enhances, is the higher frequencies in our voice. So when we saw that magic wand just kind of going, okay, I'm going to enhance some of those frequencies. So twang is an example of doing that.
So we can use that to feel how it just creates that interaction of resonance to vocal folds. And it's really easy to just go, Alabama, and
then feel how you're not losing energy and just, you know, you're feeling some of that feeding into your system. And so this is just the process that I thought like a number of tips on how we can feel what we talked about.
Philippe Hall: That's great. That's really, really useful.
Simplifying Complex Vocal Techniques
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Philippe Hall: Um, You know, I think a lot, I love the simplicity.
So you've got these, these, these steps, it just, uh, I'm trying to like do my mirror thing, you know, but I can't, I can't reach over onto your screen. So it's very, it's very simple. And that's, that for me is the mark of, of a really good teacher. Okay. So you, you created this, you create these steps. They're very, very simple.
What you're asking people to do is simple. It's not easy. And I think a lot of singers, um, miss out on the incredible benefits of practicing Simple, simple exercises to get these coordinations working together. You'll be surprised. How, uh, how difficult it is to do the simple well, but it's really the simple mastery of those simple things that allows you to do incredible things with your voice.
Because if you, these coordinations are not working together, your airflow, your body movement, just like you said, your subglottal pressure, the vocal folds, the resonance in your vocal track, that superglottal pressure, all these things have to work together. So this simple steps of just getting them to coordinate.
Then it becomes what you want. It will become more automatic. It just will start happening More and more on its own as you get used to it. So it's great.
Closing Remarks and Future Learning Opportunities
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Philippe Hall: Um, We have to do this again because that was amazing and there's so much more to tell so We're going to spend the next hour with With singers, uh in a group and one on one if you'd like to join us click the link in the description And join us on this zoom call here in just a few minutes.
I know that you've been working on also getting, um your program that you've that you've authored into english and Available for singers around the world and it's going to be launching soon, right? So if somebody would like to get, uh on your list To get a heads up of when it's ready to come out. What do they need to do?
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Well, I can just send a link for a form So you'll be the first to know and all the voice vibe Listeners can have a special discount for the book when it comes out Um, and of course for the online course, if you want, uh, when it comes out, I'll be happy to let you know and offer you something special.
Philippe Hall: Awesome. Great. Well, thank you for that. I'll put that link in the description. You'll be able to find this on my YouTube channel and Sing and Reveal YouTube and this live stream in the description. You don't want to miss out on this. Heromat has a beautiful way of making the complex simple and. Please go through the steps watch this and please join us if you have more questions Just jump on this call with us.
Don't ever be afraid to reach out. Thank you so much for your time.
Aramat Arnheim-Sharon: Thank you
Philippe Hall: All right, everybody You will see you in a few minutes on our private zoom call have a lovely day and have a lovely world voice day Goodbye
