Over the next few weeks we will hear from Brett Manning Associates around the globe as they share their perspective on common issues faced by singers, the consequences of the issues, and what can be done to address them. Look for features in our upcoming newsletters on this series of common habits and challenges.
Estelle Poots is a BMA vocal coach in Queensland, Australia. She has identified several key issues for singers. One of the most common problems or bad habits that she comes across in her students is the tendency to sing in a way that does not correspond with the natural speaking voice; especially the resonance that is natural to an individual’s speaking voice, as well as the way vowels are said.
To Be Believable
“For some reason we treat singing as an entirely different mechanism, and we end up not sounding believable,” Estelle said. “I often find that attached with this are learned postures and facial expressions such as raising your eyebrows, lifting your chin, rounding your mouth in unnatural ways, and so forth. These are not helpful or beneficial in any way and only contribute to you not communicating in a natural and genuine manner. You should be able to sing throughout your range with pure vowels, just the way that you speak them. Over narrowing or over broadening these vowels are used as crutches to compensate for good technique. This is again unnecessary and unhelpful.”
Teachers + Mirrors
She offers some simple advice that will help address this issue that has become both unconscious and second nature. It calls for identifying the problem, making the adjustment, and then making the correct way of singing like speaking become second nature.
“It requires you to focus on it with your teacher or in the mirror by yourself to first become aware of these tendencies and to then overcome them,” she said. “With your vowels, the simplest way is to speak the word, and then sing it without changing a thing. It’s a lot harder than it would seem.”
Tongue Tension
Zuke Smith of Brett Manning Vocal Method: East Coast, U.S.A. sees tongue tension as one of the issues that many singers struggle with, limiting the full potential of their singing voice. She notes that any amount of tension at all in the tongue prevents freedom in the voice. That tension creates a ripple effect where you keep working harder and harder as the tension builds on itself with one area of tension triggering another area of tension and so forth throughout the body.
Tongue – Jaw – Neck
“There are three main areas of tension that will affect the voice – the tongue, the jaw and the neck – and these all are connected,” Zuke said. “But what is causing that tension in the first place? Perhaps the student had a lousy day at school or a fight with their best friend. I am careful not to cross the line into therapy, but sometimes just acknowledging that they had a lousy day will release some of the tension. Visually, I have them look in a mirror so they can see what tension looks like. Then I’ll have them roll their shoulders and neck and drop the jaw as if they’re drooling- simple relaxation techniques. The student can come in as one giant ball of tension, So I have to unravel them bit by bit. It’s never been a major challenge for me to break through for any student because I’m patient and tenacious.”
Depending on how the student is tensing the tongue, whether it’s at the root, tight at the tip, pulling the tip back, and forth, Zuke works with the student to help them rid those habits and work on developing new correct habits to replace them.
