♬
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 84 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you 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 Gabriel c. in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
And Gabriel writes, "Dear Justin what is vocal embouchure?"
Now that question is great, Gabriel.
Because vocal embouchure is the kind of thing
we need to stare in the face and ask ourselves
what are all these crazy faces that singers are always making
and how does that affect their sound?
That's what we're going to talk about today.
But first let's answer the question, what is vocal embouchure?
"Embouchure" comes from the French word "bouche"
which means "your mouth', so, em-bouch-ure.
That's going to be the shape of your mouth.
Now usually we think of embouchure
as it applies to musical instruments.
If I play a flute I've got to have a small kind of embouchure.
If I play a brass instrument I've got to have a tiny kind of embouchure.
But our voice is really a musical instrument, too.
So how we shape the bouche, how we shape the mouth,
is going to affect the instrument.
Every instrument needs a power source,
a vibratory source, and a resonance source
With our voices- the breath is the power,
the vocal cords are the vibration and then the head is the resonance.
And all the different mouth shapes that we can do as singers
are going to affect that resonance and that sound so, so much.
So I know what you're thinking Justin you gotta ferme la bouche,
shut your bouche and tell us about the bouches
that are going to make us better singers.
Okay well, bouche number one, neutrality.
Now I promise, I'm not holding out on you
but really before we can make all the crazy bouches
we've got to be able to sing our entire range with neutrality, alright.
♪ Mum ♪
I want to be able to sing all the way up and down
without making any drastic changes to the embouchure.
Once that technique is in place
then the embouchure is going to have
a lot of stylistic and resonance effects.
But neutrality is always going to be king.
That being said, okay, so now
bouche number two, the smile.
Sometimes during a voice lesson we think
why is my voice teacher telling me to stay so neutral?
What if I need to smile?
Well of course you can smile.
But we want that smile to happen naturally.
If you're choosing to smile for the sound,
we need to know this is going to raise the f1 and f2 formants
(for all your format fans out there).
Now, what that means is it's going to increase
the strength and the brightness.
The problem with this, and we talked about this
in the episode on spreading,
is that if you're getting your strength and your brightness
from the front you're not getting
your strength and brightness from within.
And that's where we really need it to be first.
Once you've got that technique down,
you can color the sound all you want
with the strength and brightness of the embouchure.
And we use this in a lot of different styles,
but rock is definitely a style that we use it.
So check out "I'm Alive" from Next To Normal.
♪
♪ I'm alive, I'm alive I'm so alive ♪
♪ And I'll tell you the truth if you let me try ♪
Now if I try to do that with a neutral embouchure
♪ I'm alive I'm alive ♪
It's going to be really tough to do.
So we want to get some of that brightness and strength
from the embouchure, it can make your life easier.
Now the next bouche that we've got
is really a real bouche.
This is, the pucker.
Puckering is not just for kissing anymore,
it's also for lowering f1 and f2 formants.
Now what does that mean, that means darkening the voice
and also giving it more give and flexibility.
There's also vowels that require some of that rounding
like the round O vowel.
We talked about that in an episode.
Or the OO vowel, a high note's best friend.
We talked about that in an episode.
Those round shapes and puckered shapes
give the voice more of that flexibility.
Now classical singers use that rounding more-so than other singers.
But again all of these embouchure's
can be used for virtually any style.
But let's check out "Lonely House" from the opera, Street Scene.
♪
♪ Lonely house, lonely me ♪
♪ Funny, with so many neighbors how lonely it can be ♪
Now you hear how that helps get a
rounder, richer, deeper tone to the voice.
We certainly wouldn't want to do...
♪ Lonely house, lonely ♪
That would kind of lose the effect.
So we're seeing that rounding has a lot to do
with what we're doing from the bouche.
Now the next bouche is going to be, the snarl.
You'd think that the snarl would be an
angry or kind of aggressive sound
but actually it causes lighter qualities to the voice
by raising f3 and bringing nasal resonance to the sound.
Now you've still got to drop your soft palate to a certain extent
but this gesture encourages that.
Don't get it confused with the smile.
It's the snarl.
And this is going to cause lighter and more
radio-friendly sounds for pop and R&B, things like that.
So let's check in with our good old friend Michael, God rest his soul,
with "You Are Not Alone".
♪
♪ You are not alone ♪
♪ I am here with you ♪
♪ Though we're far away you'll always hear me say ♪
♪ That you are not alone ♪
And it brings it into a spot that helps you to sing
in a sweeter and lighter voice.
Now we're going to check in with a crazy bouche.
This is going to be, belt face.
Belt face is kind of frightening because
it looks like you're about to bite somebody.
However it's one of the coolest embouchures
because we've got the open mouth,
that brings up the strength.
The wideness, that brings up the strength and the brightness.
And then the forward tongue
that brings up the brightness as well.
Now we talked about all this in the belt trilogy
and we really don't want to do this until we're
way up in the stratosphere in our range.
Because if you do this too early in the voice
you tire out your belt and you don't become that great of a belter.
But for the stratospheric stuff way, way up there
this becomes very necessary.
Let's look at one of the best at it, which is Jessie J.
How about the song "Mama Knows Best".
♪
♪ We'll there is somethin' goin' down ♪
♪ Like the storm in the sky, oh ♪
And you see that opening the top like that
just encourages that brightness and strength.
It's actually not all that much pressure.
But the resonance is taking over up there in the stratosphere.
Taking the pressure off the voice
and making the sky high belting easier to do.
So that's been a lot of bouches, a lot of embouchures.
Let's take a recap of vocal embouchure.
I suppose our last embouchure of the day is a pout.
Because sadly I'm not going to give you
a vocal exercise like I usually do.
[sad music]
And the reason why is you can tell that vocal embouchure
is too vast of a subject to cover in one vocal exercise,
let alone one episode of the show.
But what I want you to know is that in your technique,
go for that neutrality.
You don't have to be making any crazy shapes
in order to hit the notes.
You should be able to keep your embouchure
the same across your range.
That being said, for your style,
now you know the full range of embouchure.
Opening increases the strength, closing decreases the strength.
Widening increases the strength and brightness.
Narrowing decreases the strength, increases the darkness.
And that snarl encourages nasal resonance.
So work with that neutrality in your technique
and then work with all these embouchures in your style.
And Gabriel and all, I hope and trust that
that takes everything to the next level for you.
So 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.
So I encourage you, don't lose that joy
don't lose that passion, don't let people tell you
that you can't sing you and I both know it's not true.
Get with a great voice teacher near you
or if you'd like to Skype with one of our staff
or you happen to be in the New York City area
check us out at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course that you can do [♪]
in the comfort of your own home, [♪]
you might be interested in the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course. [♪]
A 12-part course that takes you on a journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
And if you'd like free daily vocal tips sent to you every day [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
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Ferme la bouche and feed-ay le cat.