Vocal Fatigue

Vocal fatigue can affect every singer to varying degrees. In the amateur ranks, the cure is usually painless and very simple. If one is not under the pressure of having to sing in order to keep a chicken in the stew pot, that singer can just stop for a while and rest will allow the fatigue to subside. Even in cases where the fatigue was brought about by bad singing technique, rest usually does the trick. After a short break, the singer can go back to the karaoke bar or the church choir and resume singing, bad technique intact, until fatigue once again dictates a period of inactivity.

But what about the professional singer who has dates on the calendar? There are professional singers who may have less than perfect technique and suffer from vocal fatigue. Indeed, there are a great many professionals whose lack of extensive vocal training can be an integral element of their style. Introducing too much correct technique into the style of a known artist with a characteristic sound can be catastrophic. I know that I'll get heat for that last statement, but only from the academic crowd. But screw you, you know who you are...snobs! Get back in your classroom and shut the door.

I have worked with quite a few pros who suffer from vocal fatigue. The first step in helping such a singer is to provide reassurance. The stress of thinking that one has lost one's voice can be the biggest hurdle to overcome when rehabilitation is required. After a singer buys into the possibility that the voice can and will come back, the real work can begin.

A singer should never think about technique when performing. If proper care is taken to develop exercises which gently heal the overused elements of the vocal mechanism, it will be able to recover sufficiently for the singer to continue performing without changing style or character. When a singer's style includes tension or a tight throat, there is damage done to the mechanism every performance. Consequently, every night's work begins a bit worse off than the last, until fatigue doesn't allow the singer to continue. Certain exercises designed specifically with each particular singer in mind can serve to get back what is lost during performance much like a football player might use water jet treatment or massage to therapeutically loosen fatigued or damaged muscles. This requires patience, trust, thorough knowledge of vocal mechanics and imagination. The sort of thinking that can deal with vocal fatigue in a well-known singer is the sort of creative thinking that may sometimes be frowned upon in academia. But professional singers live and work in the real world and sometimes an academic approach can fall short of success in real world scenarios.

My favorite tube amp technician is a purist. ( Yeah, I know. This is going off on a tangent but stick with me.) You can't pay him enough money to do a modification on a vintage amp. But there is one area where he will fudge the specifications. Say you have a sweet Fender Tweed Deluxe. The thing has been running with the same old capacitors for 30 years and is starting to make rice crispy noises as it warms up. Now, normally, an amp tech would replace the old, tired and leaking capacitors with new ones made to the original manufacturer's specifications. You plug in to the amp and, gosh, doesn't it sound fresh and clean. But wait. What happened to that lovely warmth, that flannel-like fuzzy mantle that surrounded your guitar sound? Aha! This is a case of correctness spoiling character. My guy will tell you that your amp does need capacitors and if you don't replace them, the sound will deteriorate further over time. But the deterioration up to this point has resulted in a sound that you like. So he will measure the value of the capacitors as they are today, and install new ones at the deteriorated value. Now your amp will have that character that you've grown to love without deteriorating. No, the values of the new capacitors are not correct according to the factory schematic. BUT WHO CARES!! The amp performs the way you like it to and it will do so dependably.

Now, I don't know if you'll understand the correlation between my amp rap and the issue of alleviating vocal fatigue. Suffice it to say that creativity is not limited to performers. The creative minds that work in support of creative performers can have a great impact on what you see and hear on the concert stage.

Think "outside." Think of something you do as a result of habit, and just for today, do that one thing differently...but don't hurt yourself!

Next entry, I'll discuss some pertinent vocal exercises and how they came about.

Vocal Architecture

Some of my recent lessons have inspired me to write about a subject that is extremely important to good vocal production. I call it Vocal Architecture. Good posture is a must if one is to breathe properly for singing. But Vocal Architecture has more to do with the efficient use of body structures and how they interact.

The main area of concern is usually the neck and head. The weight of the skull sits precariously at the top of the spine and is continuously balanced by various muscles. A reasonable parallel would be the Segway Human Transporter which has an onboard computer that calculates and adjusts changes in balance at the microsecond level. An improper tilt can cause a great deal of unnecessary tension which will cause vocal fatigue and can also completely change the sound of the voice. Many questions can best be answered by looking back into primitive human history. The question here is, what is the proper position of the head and why?

I find that many singers hold their head a bit too high which causes multiple problems. The weight of the back of the skull compresses the neck muscles, the throat muscles are stretched unnaturally, causing tension in an extremely vulnerable area, and the entire balance of the body is put into a precarious attitude. Head tilt seems like a small detail, but once a singer achieves the proper balance, everything changes for the better... immediately.

I teach singers to "Lead with their forehead and look intently to the horizon." I also teach the importance of dropping the jaw to open the mouth wider as opposed to raising the head. Here are a few reasons why this is so important:
1. This position allows the skull to be balanced equally by all the muscles around the neck.
2. Focusing on "leading with the forehead" is a mental image that tends to help the singer picture the sound as emanating from the resonant chambers of the mask.
3. Dropping the jaw eliminates tension in the area surrounding the larynx which must be absolutely free of undue tension in order for the voice to be produced correctly.

Dropping the jaw also has a massive affect on what happens inside the mouth and throat. The very tip of the soft palate or, the roof of the mouth, is called the uvula. When the jaw is lowered, this little guy points downward creating a wider passage for sound waves to pass up into the sinus area. This could be compared to turning up the high frequency tweeters in a stereo system. The difference in the sound of an AH vowel when the jaw is dropped just a small amount is amazing.

As to posture, I prefer that a singer do vocal exercises standing with feet shoulder width apart and one slightly in front of the other. There are certain exercises that include slight crescendos or extensions of energy and I like to see a singer shift weight forward on the crescendo and back on the diminuendo. Merely shifting weight from one foot to the other will expend energy in the legs and usually results in better support from the torso.

I think of singing as a very physical process and these slight variations in balance will have good results without clogging the mental process. The physical aspects of singing, when drilled and practiced extensively, should become second nature. Good habits will allow more "CPU" usage to be alloted to the interpretation of a song.

So...getting back to the dawn of human history, I imagine primitive man as a hunter-gatherer who had to have finely tuned scanning skills in order to provide himself with food and to anticipate both the danger of predatory animals and the presence of food animals in the distance. Primitive man walked erect, thereby making use of his built-in periscope. To anticipate what was in store for him, he looked to the horizon...out and down. His horizon was much different than ours. When we look for what we need, we look at shop windows and billboards...we look up. Our scanning and awareness has deteriorated to the point that any distraction can cause us to trip or step off of a curb.

My take on Vocal Architecture may seem a bit quirky, but it works. Become primitive man and look down and out to the horizon. Sing with a purpose, as if survival were hanging in the balance.

Breathing and Support 2

As promised, here is my rap on breathing. If you think you know anything or If you have had lessons, step into the way-back machine and degauss your brain. Remember rule number two, It's always simpler than it seems. A good way to maintain a receptive state of mind is to assume that everything I have to say is the truth. The information can be filtered or rejected based on your own criteria at a later time.

Let's start with that misunderstood bugger, the diaphragm. If you could imagine your torso to be a bi-level apartment building, tenant A lives upstairs and tenant B lives downstairs. Your lungs are tenant A and your stomach is tenant B. The diaphragm is the structure that serves as A's floor and B's ceiling. I would define a diaphragm as a membrane that serves to separate or divide two areas. In the case of your torso, the chest cavity is separated from the abdominal cavity by the diaphragm.

Touch your diaphragm...move it, feel it, tell it to do something...breathe into it. You can't, can you. Your diaphragm responds to the needs of your body on an involuntary basis. That's why a statement like, "Breathe into/from your diaphragm" is an absurdity. If a teacher ever says those words to you, ask for an explanation. You'll very likely get something similar to an auto mechanic explaining how a faulty muffler has worn out your tires...double-talk!

However, you can and must have control over the actions of your diaphragm if you want to sing. So let's use another analogy to describe the mechanics of breathing. Think of a syringe. A syringe has an opening through which things can go in or out of the reservoir. The diaphragm of the syringe is inside, you can't touch it. in order to draw something into or push something out of the syringe, the diaphragm is controlled by pushing in or pulling out the plunger.

Let's define the parts of our syringe in terms of our body parts:

Syringe opening = mouth and nose

Syringe reservoir = lungs

Syringe diaphragm = your diaphragm

Syringe plunger = the Abdominal Muscles

AHA!! This is the key to the whole shootin' match. You cannot control the diaphragm directly, but you can control the actions of your diaphragm by training and controlling the muscles of the abdomen. In order to accomplish this, you must first pinpoint the proper muscle group and learn to exercise that group without introducing tension or strain to any other area of the instrument otherwise known as your body. The following exercise will seem very simple but try it. It won't take much time or thought, and it won't hurt.

1. Find an object that you can balance on your stomach. A phone book, dictionary or any large book will do.

2. Lie down on your back and put the object on your stomach at just about the belt line.

3. Exhale as fully as possible without collapsing your rib-cage. All of the movement should be south of the solar-plexus and will be visible by virtue of the book on your stomach.

4. Inhale slowly and deeply, again, without involving the rib-cage. Picture the book rising toward the ceiling.

5. Hold the breath and count to four out loud. This will prevent you from holding the air by closing the throat muscles.

Repeat the exercise ten times. Then think about the benefits. In a few short minutes, you have relaxed and cleared you head. You have oxygenated your body to a higher degree than usual. And by mentally getting out of the way, you have allowed your body to practice efficient breathing in a controlled manner. The more you do this very simple exercise, the more benefits you will discover, and the more you will want to repeat it. Be good to yourself. Give yourself five minutes in the morning and five at night.

I once sat in a backstage dressing room discussing singing with Gary Puckett and the late great Brook Benton. Brook passed in early 1988 so this was one of the last shows that he did. Gary had asked Brook what he does to warm up. You had to be there to appreciate the charm and simplicity of Brook's answer. He stood up, looked at Gary and said, "Well Gary, first I breathe in...(takes in a huge breath and holds it)...and then I breathe out ( exhales fully). I do a few of those and I'm pretty much good to go."

If it's good enough for Brook Benton, It's good enough for me. Breathe.