♬
Shhh!
Be very quiet. [♬]
Because today...
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we're going to learn the secrets of singing breathy.
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Hey singers!
I'm Justin Stoney the founder of New York Vocal Coaching,
joining you for episode 109 of
Voice Lessons To The World.
Today's question comes from Guy R. in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Guy writes, "Dear Justin, can you teach me
to use a breathy tone the right way?"
It's a glorious question Guy!
And today we're going to explore how a breathy tone
is actually one of the best things you can
do for your voice.
I'm gonna hit you with the vocal pedagogy,
we're gonna sing some songs,
and then I'm going to give you a vocal exercise
that will take your breath away.
But first, let's ask a question!
What is breathiness?
A breathy production is the sound that results
when the vocal folds do not make clean contact.
The technical term for breathiness
is actually "aspirate phonation".
It's okay to use the term "breathy"
but "aspirate" is probably a little better.
Why?
Well because there's one big secret about breathiness.
Yeah, a secret.
Do you want to know the breathiness secret?
The breathiness secret is in the family of some of those
classic vocal misunderstandings like
"sing from the diaphragm",
even though it's the exact wrong muscle for the job.
"Vibrato is natural"
and will arrive on your doorstep like an Amazon package
one magical day when your voice is trained enough.
"Raise the soft palate"
and you'll solve all of your vocal problems
and may even achieve world peace!
Heck, I might as well lift my eyebrows,
squeeze my butt cheeks together,
and lie on the floor with a pile of books on my stomach.
But we're not going to be misinformed about breathiness.
No siree we're not!
And that's why I want you to have the breathiness secret.
Here it comes...
Breathiness does not mean more breath.
What's that?
Breathiness does not mean more breath.
Come again?
Breathiness does not mean more breath!
Aha!
Most people assume that breathiness means more breath.
But my dear singers, breathiness does
not not not equal more breath.
Very easy mistake to make, I know.
But we are not gonna make it.
Instead, let's go to the lab
and discover how breathiness is really done.
♬
Ideally, breathiness has almost nothing to do
with the breathing system itself.
In other words, just because I'm making
a breathy sound that does not mean
I'm using more air to do it.
In fact I can have some ferocious breath support
and still be breathy.
♪ Mum ♪ [breathy]
This allows me to have lots of stamina and control
since the sound is not being done by air-blow
but on the vocal fold level instead.
Aspirate phonation is really the vocal folds
deciding to get out of each other's way a little bit
instead of coming at each other so hard all the time.
It's literally like the vocal folds go "peace yo!".
Remember, vocal mastery requires our vocal folds
to become responsible for their own destiny.
They get longer with the cricothyroid muscle.
Shorter with the thyroarytenoid muscle.
Cleaner with the lateral cricoarytenoids
and the inner arytenoids.
And for breathiness, the posterior cricoarytenoids.
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These guys cause you to reduce the
contact you're making at the backs of the vocal folds.
And it doesn't matter what register you're in really.
In chest you can be clean
♪ Ah ♪
or breathy.
♪ Ah ♪
In mix you can be clean
♪ Ah ♪
or breathy.
♪ Ah ♪
In falsetto and head voice you can be clean
♪ Ah ♪
or you can be breathy.
♪ Ah ♪
But wait a minute, is all of this bad for you in any way?
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The answer is absolutely not!
Think about what injures the vocal folds.
It's too much compression, plus too much breath.
Breathiness is neither of those things.
If anything, breathiness is healthier in the sense that
the vocal folds are actually doing less smacking than average.
But as with all things in singing,
moderation, balance, and variety are the keys.
So let's look at the variety of ways that breathy singing
can benefit your style and your technique.
Let's start with style.
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Aspirate qualities are used
in virtually every single style of music.
But they're extremely common in styles like pop, jazz, and R&B.
In some cases, it's desirable to set the voice in an aspirate setting
and just kinda leave it there.
It gives the voice a sort of smoky,
sexy,
and intimate quality.
[snap]
Sounds great on a microphone.
♬
♪ You'd be so easy love ♪
♪ So easy to idolize all others above ♪
♪ So worth the yearning for ♪
♪ So swell to keep every home fire burning for ♪
[snap]
In other settings we might use breathiness
as a sort of change up.
In other words, if I have a super strong belt,
or full voice quality,
breathiness can make for a nice juxtaposition.
Something like this...
♪ Maria, Maria ♪
♪ Say it loud and there's music playing ♪
♪ Say it soft and it's almost like praying ♪
Finally, we might use breathiness interspersed
with clean sounds
and maybe even some rasp and distortion elements.
This ends up giving the textured sound
that a lot of contemporary singers desire.
Like in this song from John Mayer...
♪
♪ My stupid mouth has got me in trouble ♪
♪ I said too much again to a date over dinner yesterday ♪
♪ And I could see she was offended ♪
♪ She said well anyway, I'm just dying for a subject change ♪
♪ Oh it's another social casualty score one for me ♪
♪ How could I forget mama said think before speaking ♪
♪ No filter in my head oh what's a boy to do ♪
♪ I guess I'd better find one soon ♪
So obviously breathiness has a lot of stylistic benefits.
But it also plays a serious role in technique as well.
♬
I could probably give you a hundred,
but here are three reasons why practicing breathiness
will improve your vocal technique.
One, it helps your high notes.
Too much compression often limits vocal registers
from developing.
Decompression offers a lighter alternative.
Two, it improves your breath support.
With the vocal folds making less of a clean seal
you actually have to be more disciplined
with your breathing system.
And three, your vocal folds learn control.
If your singing is too tight you could relax the abdominals,
lower the larynx, increase nasal resonance, etc.
But the best way is to have the vocal folds
themselves do the job.
And now it's your turn to try it
with today's Voice Lessons To The World Challenge.
♬
In today's challenge I'm giving you an exercise
that will help you master your vocal folds.
Today's exercise is a GEE HEE GEE HEE on a 1-5-1-5-1.
Sounds like this...
♪ GEE HEE ♪
In this exercise you're going to alternate between
your cleanest production and an aspirate production.
Try to keep a constant breath pressure the entire time.
This will teach your vocal folds how to
make the adjustment on their own.
Guys are going to be down here
♪
and ladies up here.
♪
And here we go!
♪ GEE HEE ♪
♪
That's right!
♪
Good for you.
♪
Clean. [♪]
Breathy. [♪]
Clean. [♪]
Breathy. [♪]
That's it.
♪ GEE HEE ♪
Nice.
♪
Right on.
♪
Steady breath.
♪
Good, coming down!
♪ GEE HEE ♪
Awesome.
♪
Keep that breath steady!
♪
Right.
♪ GEE HEE ♪
A few more.
♪
Nice vocal folds!
♪
And last one...
♪ GEE HEE ♪
♪
Woo!
That's tougher than it looks, eh?
Well keep working on it, your vocal folds
will learn they can do anything they set their minds to.
Keep us posted on how you're doing on
Facebook, Instagram, all the usual suspects
and remember to send your questions for the show
to us at Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
Here are some more things that I hope
can set your mind toward your vocal best.
For voice lessons or Skype lessons with the NYVC staff [♪]
visit us at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course that you can do at home check out the [♪]
Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course. [♪]
This twelve part program takes you on a singing journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find it at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
Or, if you'd like free vocal tips sent to you each day [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
And now, here's Justin with this week's vocal benediction. [♪]
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Sometimes our vocal journey will ask us to take a stand.
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Other times it'll ask us to stop resisting.
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As you practice breathiness,
your vocal folds are learning to resist less.
Can you learn from your vocal folds?
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Can you look at areas that scare you,
things that you're saying nah nah nah,
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I could never do that.
And can you say,
you know...maybe I can...
make some room.
♬