♫
Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 82 Voice Lessons To The World,
the show where we want to help you as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week comes from
Salman S. in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Now Salman wrote this question to us actually today,
[Hits piano]
and it was so good that we just had to answer it right away.
Salman writes, "Dear Justin, I'm a new singer
and I'm starting to be able to belt high but it feels like
a strain, and even pain, when I sing.
What should I do?"
Now Salman, it's just so great that you ask this
because so many singers struggle with vocal strain.
Luckily, we can fix this.
And that's what we're going to talk about today,
what is vocal strain and how do we fix it?
So let's first talk about why we don't want vocal strain.
It seems obvious why we wouldn't want vocal strain.
But let's make sure that we know.
First, it affects tone quality negatively.
A good rule of thumb is that if it feels free
it probably sounds good.
Next is stamina.
We're just not going to last very long in practice,
in the recording studio, in a live performance,
if we've got a lot of vocal strain.
And then finally, vocal health.
You know honestly it's pretty rare to
hurt your voice all in one shot.
It's possible...
You could yell and scream at a football game or a party,
or you could have a really bad sickness and get hurt fast,
but usually vocal damage occurs over the long term.
And if you have repetitive stress from vocal strain
that can really be one of the reasons.
Now that's not to panic.
We're going to fix it together by looking at what
factors cause vocal strain and what it really means to strain.
So next, let's look at it.
What factors cause vocal strain?
We can break these factors down into the S-T-R-A-I-N of strain.
Setting, where are you singing?
Is it a place with poor acoustics or maybe a lot of noise going on?
Are you pushing over that noise?
Are you with a band and those other instruments
you're pushing your voice over those instruments?
Or maybe the amplification is improper for what you're trying to do.
Make sure that your environment isn't the source of your strain.
Now how about time duration?
It's not wrong sometimes to sing for
two, three, four, maybe even five hours.
But not every day.
You have to know, what vocal marathon am I running?
Also, is your speaking voice a part of that?
If you're talking a lot and singing a lot
you might just be doing too long of vocal usage.
How about the range?
Are you singing too high or too low?
Obviously it's not wrong to stretch your voice
and work on territories you haven't mastered.
But you got to be in a comfortable tessitura.
That's the spot of the voice where your songs "live".
If you're singing in a tessitura all the time that's uncomfortable
it's going to cause strain.
What about the amount of training?
I know you guys are working hard with your voice teachers at home
or you're doing our videos or our vocal course
and you're working to get to those more advanced levels.
But you got to be honest with yourself and not move too fast.
Work at the level that you're at so that you
don't cause strain trying to do things
that are too hard for you at least right now.
How about the intensity?
Don't be falling in love with a big old sound, alright.
If you're pushing volume, pushing force,
always going for the strong sounds,
never building the flexibility, the resonance,
the breath support that you need,
the intensity could be causing the strain.
And then finally your own natural abilities.
Everybody's got a different athleticism and a different history.
If you've had injuries in the past
you might be compensating more.
And some people it just takes a little bit longer.
So be honest with yourself as far as your own vocal athleticism.
We're going to keep working to take you to the next level,
no matter where you're starting off.
So now, what does it even mean though to strain?
One complaint that you hear too often from singers
is that their vocal training is not specific.
The teacher will say oh you're straining.
But not give specific ways to fix that strain.
So Salman, let's get specific.
Here's seven areas of strain that we want to address.
First, the neck.
The area that we see and probably feel
the most tension is the neck.
The sternocleidomastoids are these long head-turning muscles here.
They can get rather tight.
The stylohyoids, right up here, can also put some strain on the larynx.
What about the back of the neck?
The capitus the occipitals, and the trapezius muscles.
All of these can get tight, how do we fix it?
We become aware of it and then we aren't
afraid of holding it down or massaging it while we sing.
That's one of the best ways to free up a muscle,
is to hold it or massage it.
Get those muscles out of your vocal equation
so that all the right ones, the intrinsic muscles, can do their work.
Next, what about breathing?
We don't think of breathing as something that could be a strain.
But it can be if we're taking too much air or using too much air
or if muscles are misbehaving in our breathing system.
The biggest offender is the solar plexus, the upper abdominals.
We don't want these guys to get tight when we sing.
It's a muscle pair with the larynx and it can cause a lot of strain.
You can watch our episode "The Shiny Solar Plexus"
for a full treatment of that.
Now what about the larynx?
The larynx is a major concern for us as far as vocal strain
because the vocal folds are housed inside the larynx.
What we're trying to avoid is the larynx becoming a pitch changer.
We want the vocal folds to do that.
What do I mean by this?
Well we want to avoid this kind of thing...
♫ Mum ♫
And you can see my larynx moving with the pitches,
rising as they go up and falling as they go down,
we want to avoid this.
Now it's ok for the larynx to be a style changer.
If I have a neutral larynx...
♫ Whoa I've seen fire and I've seen rain ♫
It's cool sound, but what if I'm looking for a
little sweeter, pop sound?
♫ Whoa I've seen fire and I've seen rain ♫
It's ok to raise it up, depending on the style
or lower it down depending on the style.
But we don't want it changing those pitches for us too much.
Next, what about alignment?
It's easy to forget that our entire bodies need to be
involved when we sing.
So our alignment plays a great part in this.
A lot of people hold tension in their low back.
Make sure you're not crunched back here,
also make sure you're not slumping in the sternum.
But really you want to check in with your whole body when you sing.
Neck that's free to move, shoulders, spine,
hips, knees, and feet.
You might consider doing some stretching or even yoga
as a part of your vocal workout to make sure
that you're in touch with your physical body
and how that corresponds to your sound.
Now what about the vocal folds themselves?
Now we also forget about these amazing vocal fold muscles
and how they have their own independent strain control.
Check it out...
♫ May ♫ [clean]
Now that's a clean sound, but what if this is happening...
♫ May ♫ [squeezed and tight]
And I'm getting too much squeeze.
I can always go...
♫ May ♫ [decompressed]
Or...
♫ May ♫ [clean]
To fix it, I have control over too much, just right,
or even compensating the other way
with some looseness.
Control over that musculature.
Now, next super important the jaw and tongue.
Let me tell you something about the jaw and the tongue
they're located above the larynx.
Now why does that matter?
Well think about it, any muscle pulls
one thing towards another thing.
So all of these muscles, geniohyoids, mylohyoids,
digastrics, hyoglossus, styloglossus, the list goes on.
Tons of muscles above the larynx to hike it up.
What does this mean?
We need to release the jaw and not have it holding or thrusting.
And the tongue, not retracting or tightening.
Back to our NG position whenever we possibly can.
And finally, what about the soul?
Now Salman, we're really saving the best for last here
because we could talk all day about vocal strain
and still forget what's really important.
Which is the singer's soul.
We don't want to put a strain on that.
Why can't I get this right?
Why can't I get these high notes?
Why is this person better than me?
Why is this taking so long?
Why is Justin using all these strange words like sternocleidomastoid?
[hits piano]
Whoa... Hey...
Let's remember step 1, it is well with my soul.
I love to sing, this is fun.
I'm gonna be with this for my life!
This is my craft, this is what I do.
I have a gift, I'm going to give this gift away.
If we go back to those messages, I promise you
all the technique becomes so much easier.
And you're going to watch the strain,
in all those areas that I mentioned, drop like flies.
So Salman and all, I hope that's been helpful
for you guys today as singers.
If you have questions that you'd like to
see us answer on the show you can send an email to
Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
So I just encourage you, don't lose that joy,
don't lose that passion, don't let people tell you
that you can't sing, you and I both know, false.
Get with a great voice teacher in your area [♪]
or if you're in New York or you want to Skype [♪]
with one of our staff you can visit us at [♪]
www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
And I also encourage you to download our vocal course. [♪]
This is a 12-part course that takes you on a [♪]
singing journey from beginner to master. [♪]
Hundreds of vocal exercises that you can do [♪]
in the comfort of your own home or even car. [♪]
Check this out at www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
Last, if you're looking for free daily vocal tips [♪]
you can sign up by visiting www.DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♪♪
♪ Meow ♪ [squeezed]
♪ Meow ♪ [breathy]
♪ Meow ♪ [twangy]