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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 46 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys 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 Orla O. in Dublin, Ireland.
And Orla writes, "Dear Justin, I hear so much about the vocal fry.
What is it, and how do I do it?"
That's great, Orla!
And we're getting so many questions from all over the world
about the vocal fry.
And it's a very important vocal concept.
So important that I'm actually going to do a vocal fry trilogy.
For the next three episodes we're going to take
three different questions all about the vocal fry
so you guys really understand it and how it can benefit your voice.
But first of all Orla, what is the vocal fry?
The vocal fry is another one of our vocal registers.
We've talked about so many in the past, more to come.
But it's one of the registers of the voice
But the strange thing is that it doesn't quite
sound the same as most of the more sung registers of the voice.
Take a listen to it as I drop my voice down here.
If I take "mum", and I just do...
♪ MUM ♪
Now that's the vocal fry.
It's a register beneath my chest voice.
It's actually notes that are lower than my low notes.
And what happens is the vocal cords shorten
via the thyroarytenoid muscle.
Whoa.
Alright, they shorten and fatten but they're also kind of loose
and there's a way to make them phonate
in a sort of loose yet compressed fashion,
where we get a kind of fried sound.
So it's not the same kind of phonation as our sung sounds.
But it is actually a phonation that's used in singing.
And something that we are going to need to learn
both for technique and for style.
But let me just give you a couple examples
that are more famous where you hear the vocal fry.
In a speaking voice you hear it in the character
Elmer Fudd from Looney Tunes.
You scwewy wabbits! [Vocal fry]
Right?
Remember that?
I'm hunting wabbits, you scwewy wabbits!
So we hear that in speech and then sometimes
we hear it in excessive ways in singing.
If you remember the song "Hit Me Baby One More Time"
by Britney Spears.
♪ Oh baby baby ♪
♪
♪ Oh baby baby ♪
♪
♪ Oh baby baby ♪
♪ How was I supposed to know ♪
♪
♪ That something wasn't right here ♪
Now I'm sure you want me to stop so I'm going to.
But there's an example from speech and from singing
of the vocal fry in action.
Now another question that people have about this voice is,
is it bad for you?
It sounds like it would be... does it not?
The vocal fry, that [vocal fry] sound,
that sounds like that's really going to be
destroying or ruining my voice.
And in fact no.
Because it's a natural register of the voice
we know just because of the nature of it
it's not inherently destructive.
Now it could be damaging if you do it excessively,
if you do it all the time, if you do it without
other variety in your voice, if you're never speaking on the airflow
with nice sound and tone but you're always just
down here in your vocal fry
and you're just a little bit too cool for school
and you're always talking in the fry,
okay that's not going to be so good.
But in fact speech therapists even use the vocal fry
to help people heal their voices
because it's such a loose and light phonation.
So the vocal fry isn't bad, it's not inherently bad.
But in fact it could be good if it's used properly
and if it's used in some degree of moderation.
Now is the vocal fry good for you?
In fact, yes.
We just heard a sort of crazy example of the vocal fry in a song.
But I'm going to show you in these upcoming episodes
of the vocal fry trilogy how we're going to
need the vocal fry for our style.
There's some elements that the fry is used for
within song work and we need to have it.
Then it's also going to be useful for your vocal technique,
since it's a compressed but also light phonation.
We know that one of the things that we
struggle with as singers is how do I find something
that is solid yet loose at the same time?
The vocal fry is going to become one of our
great answers for solving that particular issue.
And like I say, wait till these next episodes
we're going to work on it together.
But today all I want to do for us is just see
if you guys can get into the fry, alright.
I'm gonna just give you an exercise and a chance
to find the fry in your own voice.
Now some of you are just going to get this right off the bat.
Like I say, it might be something that you're [Vocal Fry]
already talking with if you've kind of got a cool voice, [Vocal Fry]
you might be talking with a fry already. [Vocal Fry]
But other people may not know how to
get into their vocal fry.
What we're going to do is take a MUM exercise.
A simple MUM, five four three two one
MUM.
And I want to give you guys a chance to practice the moment
when your chest voice moves over into vocal fry.
Again it's lower than your chest voice
so you're going to feel your voice want
to drop into vocal fry.
And I want you to try to let it.
Now here's the exercise we're going to do...
♪
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
As simple as that.
But watch what's gonna happen down here in my voice.
I'll have a choice, I could do this...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
And get too loose and breathy as I go to my low notes.
Or I could do this...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪ [Vocal fry]
And allow it to make that natural transition down to fry.
That's the name of the game for today.
All I want you guys to do is find
where in your voice your cords want to move to fry
and then let them do it, okay.
So ladies up here...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
Guys down here...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
And I don't know when it's gonna happen.
But go ahead and let your voice fry when it wants.
So here we go...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
♪
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
Some people might be frying already.
♪
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
A lot of people might fry right there.
Try that again...
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
♪
Good job.
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
♪
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
A lot of people might be fried by now.
♪
And last one.
♪ MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM - MUM ♪
♪
Fantastic stuff.
So I hope you guys found that moment where
your chest voice merges with your vocal fry.
So you can determine where that register is for you
and get into it easily.
So Orla and all, I hope that's been helpful
for you guys today as singers.
And this is just, like I say, part one of our vocal fry trilogy.
So stay tuned for those.
If you've got questions that you'd like to see us
answer on the show, you can send an email to
Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com
And we just encourage you guys not to lose the joy, [♪]
don't lose the passion. [♪]
Don't let people tell you that you can't sing. [♪]
You know that's just not true. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in your area [♪]
or if you guys are in New York City [♪]
or you want to Skype with us you can check out, [♪]
www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
I also encourage you guys to download our free app. [♪]
It's for iPhone, iPad, hopefully more in the future. [♪]
Lots of free resources, tips, articles, videos. [♪]
So, so much for you guys, to help you guys as singers. [♪]
So check that out or visit, www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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