“Practice with a purpose,” he said. Who was he? Dr. J.D. Folsom, trumpet professor at Marshall University, with whom I had the privilege of studying, albeit as a trombonist.
What does that mean, to practice with a purpose? It definitely means to not run through etudes, drills, and exercises, giving little to no thought or attention as to why one might be doing those in the first place.
If an exercise or drill has no purpose, it would save a lot of time to avoid doing it.
The thing is, not all instructors or vocal coaches are equal to all others and in fact, some are dangerous to the health of one’s voice or career.
Vocal Exercises Which Have A Purpose
If a vocal coach doesn’t know which muscles for coordination or strength are being worked, he/she is playing guessing games with your voice.
If a vocal coach is weak in musicianship, interval studies for melodic and harmonic perception will most likely never be assigned.
Musicianship, the lack thereof, is the number one killer of opportunities for singers, because they have no awareness of intonation problems, much less what to do to rectify those issues.
A good vocal coach can hear if the issue of bad intonation is the result of bad musicianship or bad vocal technique and can differentiate between the two and know how to help.
When a singer sings with an elevated larynx, it’s most likely that they will 1) strain or 2) have register transition problems, ie. a “break in the voice”. Additionally, an elevated larynx may result in hyper-adduction of the vocal folds, cause irritation, and reduce endurance greatly. Over time, blisters may form on the vocal folds, become hematomas, and later turn to calluses, called vocal nodules. This is preventable.
So, why do we do “low larynx” exercises? the purpose is to prevent laryngeal elevation by retraining the voice, developing strength and coordination to overcome the upward pull of “high larynx” muscles.
When a vocal coach has some basic understanding of the anatomy, structure, and function of the vocal apparatus, it may greatly help to accelerate the progress of a student or client. Why? The purpose of the assigned exercise is known and explained to the singer. The singer puts the technique to use and improvement occurs.
Many Methods With Many Myths
- Support the sound.
- Sing from the diaphragm.
- Place the sound.
The above three do not stand up to science, as they are explained to singers.
- There is no connection between the abs and the voice, except in the mind of the singer. There is a “trick” which can be done with the abs, but is not directly connected to the vocal apparatus at all. It is a way to temporarily reduce strain, possibly, but does not replace proper technique. Tricks are best left for magicians.
- The diaphragm is your INHALE muscle and doctors have known this since the 1700s. You may not know that it has no proprioceptive nerve and that means you CANNOT feel it! You literally do not and cannot sing from the diaphragm and every doctor on Earth knows this is a fact (unless they flunked anatomy). Telling a singer to control something which has nothing to do with tone production and cannot even be felt is cruel at it best and destructive at its worst.
- Sound comes out of your mouth at a very high rate of speed (the speed of sound, about 1100 feet per second), You can move your tongue and your soft palate, but you cannot “send” the sound to your eyes, your “masque”, or you knees. You don’t have baffles or valves in your larynx/pharynx/sinuses. No one does. You cannot place your sound.
Finally…
Bad advice can be worse than no advice. If practicing with a purpose is based upon myths, magic, or misinformation, the results will be disappointing.
If your singing teacher or vocal coach cannot properly and clearly explain the purpose of exercises or vocalises you are assigned, you cannot practice with a purpose and will be blindly going through the same motions of getting nowhere in a hurry.
Know the purpose. Practice with the purpose.