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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 32 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 Ralph W. in Fiesole, Italy.
And Ralph writes, "Dear Justin, my choir director tells me to not spread.
'Don't spread the sound' he says.
What does this mean and is this something that
I need to avoid as a singer?"
Now that's an awesome question, Ralph.
And I want to just say spreading, as you're talking about here,
is one of the great plagues of all singers.
Spreading is something that most singers struggle with
at least to some extent.
And it's definitely something to eliminate from your voice,
or at least know how to.
Because it's really gonna put limits on your upper range,
and just your tone in general.
So we definitely want to talk about spreading
and how to work through that as singers.
First thing we'll say though is what is it, what is spreading?
So spreading is essentially moving the lip corners this way,
out horizontally or wide, widening the sound,
opening the mouth more this way.
Especially as you go up for high notes.
But just basically all through your range you could spread.
Now what this widening does is it does bring the air more out the mouth.
Air out the mouth isn't always bad,
but in this case it probably is.
It also is gonna raise the larynx up and put
pressure on the cords.
Raising the larynx, not always bad.
Pressure on the cords, not always bad.
But in this case, probably bad.
Now you know me, I don't like to say in Voice Land
that anything is bad.
We can use a lot of stuff that people usually call bad, for vocal good
if we know what we're doing.
but spreading is something that is actually, usually,
(between you and me)
not a good idea.
Alright.
In later videos I will show you how spreading can
be used positively.
But most of the time you want to be able to
do your sound without spreading out the tone.
Now I'm going to just show you what I mean in a song example.
And later we're gonna do an exercise.
This is, "Why God Why" from Miss Saigon.
And I'm gonna do it first just without any spread at all,
so you can hear what that would be
and then I'll show you what spreading would sound like after that.
So here's without a spread...
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♪ Why God ♪
♪ What's your plan ♪
♪ I can't help her ♪
♪ No one can ♪
♪ I liked my memories as they were ♪
♪ But now I'll leave remembering her ♪
Now that's without a spread, but if I start spreading
some of those high notes
which is the tendency, some crazy stuff happens.
I probably get...
♪ Why God ♪
And that AH, that spread of the tone makes it more mouthy,
makes the larynx come up, and in some ways it makes it easier.
But in other ways it puts more pressure on the cords
and that's why it causes the limitation.
It's using a pressure that we don't want, to get the notes.
So in that high section too...
♪ I liked my memories as they were ♪
♪ But now I'll leave remembering her ♪
I don't want to spread things out as I'm hitting that note.
♪ Remembering her ♪
I'm going to get it more in my head
by not spreading.
So you see what that does in a song to my sound.
Now you might think well why would you even
have spread in the first place, Justin, when the other sounds so much better?
Honestly most people are spreading, especially when you're training your voice,
they are spreading to go higher and they don't even know it.
So now we're going to get to some exercises
to help you guys get through the spreading plague that tends to happen.
So first I just want you to feel this in your speaking voice.
I'm just gonna say, in my own voice, hello my name is Justin.
And now try that using your own name.
Here you go...
And that's just a neutral mouth position.
Now actually pucker your lips and say, hello my name is Justin.
Try it...
Nice.
Now I'd like you to spread.
Hello my name is Justin.
Great.
And so what you see there is, as you move your mouth position
it changes the acoustics, it changes the resonance of your voice.
But the spreadier one tends to be a lifty-er, squeezier, one
that causes the problem.
Now I could eliminate it, I could do,
hello my name is Justin.
but I have to really think about that to make that happen.
It's not what it tends to do.
So we're gonna do an exercise now,
just a simple MA MA MA, alright?
To see if you guys can feel what it is
to go up in pitch and don't spread it out.
Right?
Now you might need a mirror when you're practicing this.
Because again, like I say, a lot of people
don't know that they're spreading.
You sometimes have to see it to believe it.
But this is the exercise.
Guys will be down here...
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
And ladies up here...
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
And what we don't want is, of course,
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪ [ Spreads ]
but
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
Keep it inside and neutral as you go higher.
So here we go together...
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
Nice.
♪
Good.
♪
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
Good.
♪
Great!
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
♪
Yep!
♪
Good for you.
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
Awesome.
♪
Great!
♪
Last one.
♪ MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA - MA ♪
Fantastic work.
So that's great.
So you felt what it was to go up higher without spreading things out.
Now some of you might have cracked to head voice
or to falsetto at some point.
That's fine.
That's actually the thing that people are trying to eliminate with this.
But what I'm saying to you today is,
as you go up in pitch if you have the note only with a spread,
you really don't have the note.
You need to be able to do every note in your range
without changing the shape of it first.
Later, like I said, we might change it.
But first you've got to be able to do it neutral.
If you can do it neutral you have the note.
If you spread it, you cheated it.
And that's what's causing the problem.
So, Ralph and all, I hope that's been helpful [♪]
for you guys today as singers. [♪]
If you guys have questions that you'd like to see us answer on the show, [♪]
you can send an email to: Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
We just encourage you not to lose that joy, don't lose that passion. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in your area [♪]
or if you guys are in New York City [♪]
you can check us out at: www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com [♪]
And if you like these videos you can visit: [♪]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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