HOW TO FREE THE VOICE by Keeping the Larynx Stable (Comfortably Low) as Pitch Ascends

[@rattlesnake2]

You are simply the best. Every time I see one of your videos you inspire me to be better as a teacher. Thank you.

[@emilysiar3230]

From one voice teacher to another...THANK YOU for posting accessible vocal training that is scientifically informed. A lot of my students have turned to youtube in the past, and some of the videos they've showed me are frightening. This is an excellent presentation of the material.

[@tinytenor5414]

This video has addressed and solved many of the vocal problems I have had for years. Top quality vocal advice.

[@singwisevocals]

Yay!!! I'm so glad to hear that!

[@patopodolyak]

Excellent vocal lesson!

[@singwisevocals]

Thank you!

[@elizabethdavis5995]

Thanks for this video. This is something I continue to work on. If anyone is on the fence about Skyping a lesson with Karyn, do it! I have been singing a long time and have a lot of training, and I learned some new tips from Karyn. It was a little weird doing it over skype, but I quickly got over it and it was an hour worth my time and money.

[@singwisevocals]

Thanks so much for this, Elizabeth! It was great meeting and working with you yesterday (and chatting a bit again today)!

[@ILZE.77]

OMG YOURE SINGWISE!!!! I trust your advice with my LIFE

[@j_larusta_8825]

Thank you for your excellent videos

[@PapagenoHannover]

Your advices are really good! Specially for people, who have gained bad habits or begin to study!!!

[@singwisevocals]

Wonderful! Please let me know if ever need help with your singing.

[@PapagenoHannover]

@@singwisevocals kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5amgJ2EfbyZrJo

[@IntrinsicSinging]

Thank you. Two comments: 1. the larynx is under the control of the ear, so just like the eye, we do not have to tell it to DO something when we go into the sun or from the sun into the house. It dilates automatically. It is under the control of the autonomic nervous system. The larynx is under the same control. And it is the will to communicate via consonants and vowels that ignites its function. But you must have achieved a competent Listening Posture were the relationship between the larynx and the cervical spine will allow the larynx generated embryonic vibration to vibrate the spinal column.. This is called the Sound Center (and must be kept independent at all times from the Speech Center in the front fo the mouth to be able to do what I am describing here). 2. Speaking and singing are exactly the same physiological process. I notice that most singer's placement shifts back when they begin to sing, though when they speak they are more front placed in the Speech Center in the front of the mouth. It is the abdominal muscle and fascia (connective tissue) support with simultaneously rib cage expansion (especially the upper few ribs coming to the near horizontal) that will allow you to sing from the same place where your speaking voice is emitted from at the teeth and lips. I am a singer and I have worked with Broadway and opera singers for 35 years and have found this to be scientific and replicable.. See Dr. P. Mario Marafioti (Scientific Culture of the Voice: Dover Books) and Dr. Alfred Tomatis (The Ear and The Voice).

[@celibidache1000]

How are they the same physiological process? If I, as a classical tenor, sing, for example, an Ab4 in full voice on the Italian vowel A, I am doing many things that I would never do in when speaking, eg drop the jaw completely, lowering my larynx, lifting my soft palate, keeping the back of my tongue out of the pharynx, relaxing lips and oral cavity, etc... Or am I misunderstanding you? Also, you should not expand/lift the upper part of the rib cage. To have a working support you must keep the diaphragm and lower back ribs expanded. Try to expand your lower ribs and your ribcage simultaneously - you can't...

[@IntrinsicSinging]

@@celibidache1000 HI. I respectfully submit: I am only speaking from direct experience as as singer and voice professional whose career began in 1976. I did exactly what you are speaking of until I met my teacher who had sung at the Met and trained in the physiological side of the Bel Canto, who worked with actors. It took quite awhile to break the accepted habits that you are speaking of and finally recognize the speaking is the physiological basis of singing; but it was not like falling off a log to get there. Trauma plays a big role (subconscious) here, since unresolved trauma is 'held fear' in the body and the defense mechanisms, once triggered with a threshold of stress, will prevent us from fully engaging the intrinsic muscles (I call them the singer's muscles). Once you break through this compensatory protective process, you are amazed the singing and speaking ARE the same process. feel the same, and you sound just like YOU when singing, not a wall or chasm between speaking and singing voice. It only took me 5 plus years to get there and another 5 to be able to do it fully in front of an audience. Dr. P. Mario Marifiotti's book "Caruso's Method of Voice Production" confirms what I am pointing toward. Go here for a download copy of Dr. Marafioti's book (it is out of copyright);: Just keep an open mind while reading it. www.thesingerscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ScienceofVoice-Principles.pdf

[@celibidache1000]

@@IntrinsicSinging I have read it and I respectfully disagree.

[@IntrinsicSinging]

@@celibidache1000 OK. I respectfully accept that. I pray that it works for you!

[@navmrjtjs4687]

Great video Karyn

[@singwisevocals]

Thank you!

[@aimeemiakelley3325]

Hi Karyn ~ Thanks for this great video! You flashed at one point that you'd be going over these concepts & practice with the other vowels... will that be in an upcoming video? Would love to see you demonstrate them. Again, thank you!

[@singwisevocals]

Yes, I'm planning to add other vowels to that one exercise and then discuss how to apply this concept to repertoire and lyrics in a video that I'll record either later this week or next week.

[@mikeythefirst]

Thank you so much Karyn! For a year I pretty much had no idea why my tone was so off-putting (even after removing nasality, better placement, etc.). Eventually I found that my voice was just naturally bright, and gets brighter as pitch ascends. This was so helpful! I realized I had to open my vocal tract more to compensate. Now I can even swallow my vitamins properly lol. I find that it may even be a cultural thing. Our country's culture tends to be more soft-spoken, so we tend to speak inwards rather than outwards, with a more closed jaw. It's a very hard habit to have for singing!

[@singwisevocals]

I'm so glad this video was helpful to you! Culture and environment are such interestingly influential things.

[@krisv6166]

This is another great example of how awesome your videos are!!!!! Thank you! Karyn, I keep coming back to your videos to practice the exercises, and I was just wondering if it would be possible for you to put a little "marker" on the video where the actual exercises start, so to make it easier to practice daily by enabling us to "jump" to the exercises after the first watch... I have seen these markers in other videos being used to indicate where each song start in a lengthy compilation... in the progress bar these markers show as yellow dots... I am not sure how to add them though, but if you could add them that would make your videos even more helpful for daily practice!

[@singwisevocals]

Thanks for the suggestion. The starting pitches and topmost and lowest notes in all these exercises are movable and should be determined by the individual singer's voice type. But I can try to do something like that. I've been planning to record complete versions (for both male and female) of all the exercises that I reference in these videos so that everyone can practice along to them. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. But when I do, I will be referencing the top and bottom pitches so that singers can know where they are in the scale. I just don't have the kind of time that I need to really pour into these videos.

[@eleesiasportraits6114]

Ummmm... I don't approve of testing on owls 😒... I'm joking 😉. lol I'll try to use that imagery to keep my larynx comfortably low. I'm glad that you mentioned that the larynx position does move depending on the vowel and style of singing. I've read so much about how the larynx should NEVER rise. I'll try to focus on the open feeling and keeping the 'tightness' out of my throat.

[@singwisevocals]

So much of what has been written about the voice relates to classical styles (e.g., opera). In these styles, the larynx must remain relatively stable as pitch rises in order to maintain chiaroscuro timbre and to allow the vowels to turn over where appropriate. Most classical repertoire doesn't go above the range in which the larynx does start to rise. But even Richard Miller, who taught opera, acknowledged that the larynx is not fixed and is slightly lower for /u/ and higher for /i/. So when we're talking about having a 'stable' laryngeal position/height, we're not talking about a fixed, stiff position. When it's stable, its height remains within a certain area... with a tiny bit of wiggle room.

[@eleesiasportraits6114]

singwisevocals thanks for clarifying. A 'stable larynx with a lil bit of wiggle room' sounds a lot more realistic and doable.

[@aacha548]

I have done this sort of thing before but it doesn't sound like a big rich operatic sound comes from this. I will try it though.

[@VIDEOHEREBOB]

Thank you .

[@singwisevocals]

You're welcome!

[@wandajames143]

Thanks

[@fgvvhgbtxa3870]

I don't know if I lowered my adam's apple to low is that possible and is it dangerous to suppress it to low

[@thagoofykid1018]

Well I notice that when I try sing in my mix it sounds strain and forced but when I lower my larynx I have more access to my mix and more access to my headvoice. Because I can belt but when it’s to high I just flip into my mix to keep from larynx but developing need to practice this excersise s.

[@wowawewah]

Lifting my cheeks slightly doesn't do anything to the feel or the sound of the vowel. Do most people instinctively raise their soft palates as well when they do that? because I don't lol.

[@singwisevocals]

Most, yes, but not all. There is no muscular attachment between the zygomatic muscles and the soft palate. When we slightly lift our cheeks at the time of inhalation, I believe it triggers a psychological response (like happiness and inspiration and laughter) that prompts a physiological response (elevation of the soft palate). But honestly, unless you feel as though your tone is nasal or otherwise 'muffled' sounding, I wouldn't focus too much on consciously raising the soft palate. Doing so may lead to an exaggerated vocal tract posture and tensions. All you really need to do to open the throat is get a good inhale, as though you're about to say something, but then forget what you were going to say, or as though you've just had a brilliant idea. You should feel the air cooling your mouth and throat as it rushes in, and there should be a sense of 'openness' and release. Then sing with that same (or nearly the same) sensation and inspired vocal tract posture. That's all you need.

[@wowawewah]

My larynx seems to only move about 1cm in total when I go from chest to falsetto in a hum.

[@elisabetheriksson8789]

So I start in chest voice on the decending scale?

[@singwisevocals]

For women, I usually start the u-slide exercise at E4 (the E above middle C) as the bottom note and then move up by half steps until we reach somewhere around F5 or G5 as the top note. This is an exercise to encourage the laryngeal tilt, which happens a little higher up in the scale, so that's why I usually start in the middle range. (For men, I typically start at E3.) That doesn't mean that you can't sing it throughout the entire scale, though. The slide will encourage flexibility and control.

[@elisabetheriksson8789]

Perfect, thank you!

[@singwisevocals]

You're welcome.

[@nickspinner1850]

I recommend people read your blog and watch your videos but I think the larynx is not the thing to focus on with students. It's a result, not a cause. The cause is the technique. I tell my students not to think about their larynx at all. The same goes for "tongue position." Students can fixate on this stuff and it causes them to use/strain muscles that should be kept relaxed.

[@singwisevocals]

Agreed! I don't actually discuss laryngeal height during private lessons. This is just a video that I recorded in response to many questions from viewers.

[@t.1230]

4:00 kou, 6:10 ou

[@bauwensstefan2463]

3:37

[@blaze262332]

:)

[@farzadgarmiani3653]

Dear Karyn please check your email :-)

[@singwisevocals]

I was just catching up on my e-mailing this afternoon. I think I responded to yours.

[@farzadgarmiani3653]

I'm afraid it's not responded :)

[@singwisevocals]

I'll look again.

[@farzadgarmiani3653]

thanks