Do you want to know how to not strain your voice when singing?
Good because in this video, I am going to share 3 vocal exercises for practicing singing
without straining your throat.
Do these exercises daily and free your voice of tension and strain.
Keep on watching.
Hi and welcome!
If we are meeting for the first time, I am Katarina, speech-language pathologist from
How 2 Improve Singing and here on this channel, I share tips on how to use your voice in a
healthy and efficient way.
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If you want to know how to not strain your voice while singing, if you experience a strained
voice or vocal cord swelling, let me introduce you to 3 vocal exercises that put less stress
on your vocal cords and make sound production more efficient and easy.
They are 3 different exercises but they all belong to a group of exercises called SOVT.
What the heck are SOVT exercises?
SOVT stands for semi-occluded vocal tract.
Yeh, I know.
A terrible name.
But it just means that there is a partial closure or narrowing somewhere in the vocal
tract.
Sometimes, this narrowing is at the front of your mouth, sometimes it’s further back
in your mouth.
Before I share these 3 exercises with you, let me explain how these exercises work and
why they are so beneficial.
The narrowing or partial closure causes a build up of pressure in the vocal tract above
the vocal cords.
This pressure helps produce sounds in an efficient way because the pressure below and above the
vocal cords equalize, which creates optimal conditions for the vocal cords to vibrate
freely.
They vibrate with less effort, less impact and the vocal cords assume a more balanced
position.
In simple terms, semi-occluded vocal tract exercises help you learn how to sing without
straining, with less vocal effort but more efficiency.
Traditionally, these exercises have been used in speech therapy, but now they are becoming
more and more popular among voice teachers and singers for building strong and healthy voices.
These exercises are especially helpful for singers who use too much air or too much air
pressure when singing.
They address many vocal issues, such as extending your vocal range, smoothing out register transitions,
improving resonance, eliminating tension and strain and many more.
I am going to share with you 3 exercises and I am sure you know some of them already.
But let me tell you how to do them properly so that you get maximum benefits.
Exercise 1 Humming Who does not know humming?
It’s a great exercise for warm-ups, cool-downs and technical practice.
But do you hum with maximum efficiency?
Let’s see.
Here is the exercise.
Bring your lips together.
Don’t press them hard together, that goes against our main goal – singing without
straining.
Now, choose a comfortable pitch in your speaking range, breathe in through the nose and hum
gently.
Now, we are going to improve the sound to achieve maximum resonance by manipulating
the vocal tract, more specifically by changing the position of the jaw, tongue and soft palate.
So, first hum with teeth close together, then hum with your jaw open as much as possible
but with lips still closed.
Those are two extremes of jaw position.
Now find the optimal position of the jaw, somewhere between these two extremes.
Observe, which position feels and sounds the best.
For me, it’s teeth apart but not too much.
Now, let’s move on the tongue.
Breathe in through the nose and hum.
Keep your tongue down at the bottom of your mouth.
Then, hum with the tongue behind your upper teeth and again observe which tongue position
feels and sounds the best.
In which position do you feel the most vibrations?
For me, it’s probably more with tongue up.
But it can be different for everyone.
So, now we’ve found the best position of the jaw and tongue.
Let’s experiment with the soft palate.
First, keep the soft palate down, then slowly lift it up and observe how the resonance of
the hum changes.
When I find the best combination, I feel the vibrations in my lips, in my cheeks and in
my palate too.
This is your most optimal hum.
Humming exercises have endless possibilities.
You can sustain the hum for as long as possible, you can do vocal slides and sirens, you can
hum arpeggios and scales.
The sensation of vibration will change with different pitches but you can always find
the best resonance for each sound by manipulating the position of the jaw, tongue and soft palate.
And if you feel adventurous, you can play around with the position of the larynx and
lips too.
Exercise 2 Fricatives Fricatives are speech sounds that are produced
by moving air through a narrowing created by bringing two articulators together.
For example, the S sound is created by moving air between your tongue and upper teeth, the
F sound is created by friction between the upper teeth and the lower lip.
For this exercise, we will be using voiced fricatives.
Choose one of the following sounds, z as in zebra, zh as in measure, v as in van, or the
th sound as in they.
First, just sustain the sound on a comfortable pitch in your speaking range.
I will choose the V sound.
Feel the vibrations, feel the air coming out of your mouth and also pay attention to how
much air you are using for sustaining the sound.
Actually, it’s not very much, right?
And while you can use fricatives for any vocal exercise, such as slides, sirens, arpeggios
or scales, we are going to sing a part of your song using this sound.
Go ahead, pause the video and sing your song on a chosen fricative several times.
Now, sing the same part of your song with words and feel if anything has changed.
Ease of singing, reduced strain, improved power or resonance?
Did you feel any changes?
Let me know in the comments below!
Singing on fricatives is a good way to learn how to avoid vocal strain while singing your
repertoire or difficult parts of your song.
These exercises decrease vocal effort and increase ease of singing.
Exercise 3 Straw Phonation Straw phonation are exercises, during which
you produce sounds through a straw.
You can submerge the straw in water to get immediate visual feedback about airflow during
sound production.
Here is a link to a video, in which I explain how to do this exercise.
You can also use straw phonation exercises without water.
A famous vocologist, Ingo Titze, has extensively studied sound production using straws.
His research confirmed over and over again that straw phonation straw exercises have many benefits.
You can use straw exercises to warm up your voice and cool it down after a performance
or vocal practice.
Straw exercises are used to rehabilitate an injured, strained or tired voice and you can
address many vocal issue and problems with straw exercises.
I feel like straw exercises are hugely underutilized in spite of their many benefits, therefore
I decided to make another video on this topic.
There is so much to be said about straw exercises so I hope you will stay tuned for that video
too.
If you enjoyed this video, click the like button and don’t forget to check out my
other videos right here below.
See you soon!