- There seems to be one type of vocal sound
that most people are keen to avoid, nasality.
What is nasality and why does it get such bad press
and how do you remove it from your sound?
These three questions will be answered right after this.
- [Woman] Sound check,
check one, check two.
- Hello everyone, I hope you're in fine voice.
My name is Dr. Dan and I'm a contemporary singing
voice specialist and that means it's my job
to develop your voice and improve your sound.
Nasality receives a pretty bad rap.
Somehow it's become synonymous with hardcore
country and western music
and it's often presented as an ugly witchy cackle.
Simply any sound that travels through your nasal cavity
is nasalized.
The plain truth is the English language
has a number of consonant sounds that are purely nasalized.
A nasal sound is produced when your sound,
carried by air, travels wholly or partly
through the nasal cavity.
Sounds such as m, n, ng
are all produced through the nasal cavity,
so if everyone who speaks the English language
is producing nasalized sounds,
why does it receive such a bad rap?
- [Woman] Sound check
(microphone feedback)
- There is one major anatomical influence
in the production of nasality, the soft palate.
The roof of your mouth starts from behind your teeth
as a hard ceiling and then becomes soft
towards the rear of the ceiling.
If you run the tip of your tongue from front to back
along the roof of your mouth,
it'll go from hard to soft,
and that soft fleshy bit at the rear is your soft palate.
Now the soft palate is actually a collection
of muscle fibers and the space between your soft palate
and the back wall of your throat
is called the velopharyngeal port.
When your soft palate hangs low,
the velopharyngeal port is open,
allowing air and sound to travel into
and through the nasal cavity.
And when the soft palate is moved into a higher position,
closing the velopharyngeal port off,
all your air and sound is, you guessed it,
being directed through your mouth.
So let's try this out.
Starting with a simple ng sound,
transition the sound into an open vowel, like this.
(sings)
The sound starts as nasalized and then transfers
to predominantly move through your mouth.
Now this time, commence the ng sound,
but before you move into the ah vowel,
pinch your nose.
(hums)
You'll notice that when you pinch your nose
that the sound stops, and that's because
your vocal sounds require air flow.
Once the air flow stops
as a result of the nose being closed off,
so too does the sound.
So why do some singers sound more nasally than others?
Well you've probably already arrived at that answer.
The soft palate is to blame, my good Watson.
A lazy soft palate, one that hangs low in the pharynx,
will generally result in a sound
that is more nasal sound than might be deemed desirable.
But let's be careful here.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
or listener as the case may be.
So a heavily nasalized tone might just be
what the country and western singer is looking for.
You and I might not love the sound,
but die hard country fanatics will listen to it all day long
- [Woman] Sound check
(microphone feedback)
- So let's just say you want to exercise your soft palate
in order to reduce the tendency to sound overly nasal.
Here's an exercise I found in one of my favorite vocal texts
Voice Work by Christina Shewell, brilliant.
Christina encourages us to make deliberate tense contact
between the back of the tongue and the soft palate
as you call Kaya, Gaya.
And when you say the two words,
hold the first consonant for a second or two
before you release.
Kaya, Gaya.
Make sure you repeat this several times
and mentally focus on the changing physical position
at the back of your throat.
And you should be aware of the tongue lifting up
to a raised soft palate on the consonant,
followed by a dropping of the tongue through the vowels.
And to be doubly sure that you have no nasal resonance
in the exercise, hold your nose as you do it.
Kaya, Gaya.
The aim is to feel no vibration or sound
through or in your nasal cavity.
Now before we finish, let me make one final note.
It's important to stress that nasality
should not be mistaken for the contemporary vocal technique
of twang.
I have a whole other video that explains what twang is
and how nasality differs from twang.
So I'll put a link to it in the notes section below
if you care to learn more.
And make sure you leave me a thumbs up
if you found today's video helpful.
I love getting your feedback about my videos
and if this is your very first time here at Voice Essentials
I'd love for you to subscribe
and join our global community of singers,
who just like you, want to raise their voice in song.
See you in the next video.
I'm Dr. Dan, sing well.
(audience cheers)