Many students want to know how to sing with more power. They complain their voices are
weak and breathy and that the can't be heard when they sing. They also tell me that they
are having a breathing problem because they run out of air very quickly when they sing.
Inside this video I'm going reveal how to sing with power, eliminate breathiness, increase
vocal strength and have plenty of air so no one will ever say, "I couldn't hear you!"Hi, I'm
Chuck Gilmore with Power to Sing. How to sing with power. This is a very common problem
many singers and students of singing puzzle and agonize about. Physically it all comes
down to one thing in your body. Your vocal cords. If my fingers were my vocal cords which
would make a stronger sound? This? This? This? Or this? When you sing the vocal cords must
come together enough to resist the air to create a sound wave. If your vocal cords don't
touch, all the air escapes. You make no sound. If your cords barely touch, too much air escapes
and you sound breathy. [Breathy] Hey Jude, don't make it bad take a sad song...Firmly
touching but friendly, adequate for the mood and dynamics of the song you get a good balance
between how firm the cords are coming together and how much air is passing through. You can
feel the balance like riding a bicycle without any hands. "Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take
a sad song and make it better...." If your cords too firmly and unfriendly, too little
air escapes and little or no sound is made. Vocal cords closing too firm is the opposite
problem of vocal cords not touching enough which is the cause of the breathy and weak
sound. So, how do you learn to close your vocal cords firmly enough to develop the balance
between the air and the vocal cords? If you speak with your vocal cords balanced, friendly
and firm, don't change anything when you start to sing. Think of it as speaking but on the
melody. Don't try and add anything extra to your voice as you start singing. So if I were
singing "Hey Jude", lets just say I would speak the words first "Hey Jude, don't make
it bad. Sing a sad song and make it better..." Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song...",
but too many people will speak it as I just demonstrated and then they'll say "Hey Jude
[breathy], don't make it bad...' which seems strange to me. So the idea is sing it just
like you speak it. Only now you're speaking it on the melody, so to speak. If you speak
with your vocal cords balanced, friendly and firm, don't change anything when you start
to sing. Think of it as speaking but on a melody. Don't try and add any extra thing
to your voice as you start singing. If you are soft spoken in life you can't sing like
you speak. Singing is aggressive! Now there are many exercises that are available to help
bring your vocal cords together more firmly. Here are a few of them on a 5-tone scale.
ae ae ae staccato, or ae legato, or Nae, or Gae, or Ney. These exercises will bring the
cords together more firmly. Take those exercises and apply them then in a song. Nae..."Hey
Jude, don't make it bad..." Be careful that you don't revert back to the way you were
doing it. [Breathy] Hey Jude, don't make it bad... If you define yourself as shy or reserved
it can be emotionally difficult to impossible to let yourself firmly bring your cords together.
Trick yourself by thinking how firmly you would use your vocal cords if you were saving
the life of a child by speaking loudly not to run into the street into oncoming traffic.
Wouldn't it be like this, "NO, DON'T GO OUT THERE!" Rather than, "no don't go out there"....
One of the most exasperating experiences I've ever had was spending an entire lesson trying
unsuccessfully trying to get a young pre-teen girl to get her vocal cords together. Only
to have her say in a loud, strong voice as she was leaving to a friend, "SHOTGUN!". SHOTGUN,
SHOTGUN, "where you guys headed". I don't know if say that around the world or not,
but here in the States, you say that to get your seat in the front of the car. The next
lesson I used that to help her understand what the vocal cords need to do when they
sing. Not necessarily yelling it, but just that strength, that firmness, coming together.
If any of this describes your voice, your vocal type is likely Light Chest-No Chest.
Do you know your vocal type? I'm not referring to whether you're soprano, alto, tenor or
bass. Your vocal type is what you tend to do when you sing. In the case of the Light
Chest-No Chest vocal type, your vocal cords are not coming together adequately, firmly.
Visit PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz
and discover your vocal type. Then visit the knowledge center and watch the videos and
download the exercises designed specifically for your vocal type. These are designed to
help your voice improve quickly. The exercises for Light Chest-No Chest will help you develop
how firmly your vocal cords come together, which will increase the power of your voice.
I'm Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher, with beauty, confidence and
power. I'll see you inside the next video.