REACHING THE BREAKING POINT, Part Two

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REACHING THE BREAKING POINT, Part Two - By Jeannie Deva

Hello! In Part One of this article we began to address the phenomenon known as “register break,” the “passágio,” or “breaking point.” For those of you who read it, I hope you’ve been using the suggested exercises, and have been finding them helpful. After practicing them, you should find your voice sounding richer and a bit fuller and more resonant. Are you? In Part Two of this article, we’ll explore a few other “tricks of the trade” for better control of your vocal range.

BREATH SUPPORT

As discussed in Part One of this article, The usual cause of register break is too much air pressure under the vocal folds due to unregulated breath support. “Breath support” is a by word of vocal lingo. Unfortunately, not as common is a physiological explanation of just what it means and why it is a crucial part to vocal technique.

If you think you have to push out more air in order to sing higher, think again! Similar to fretting the strings on a guitar, to sing higher pitches a shorter length of your vocal folds are free to vibrate. They need less air coming up to them (from your lungs) to vibrate them faster, producing higher pitches. For lower pitches, a longer length of your vocal folds are free to vibrate. They require slightly more air (compared to higher pitches) and they vibrate at a slower speed.

To prepare for each speed of vibration, the folds are stretched and thinned or shortened and thickened appropriately for each desired pitch. To do this, a combination of three things must occur:

1) The muscles of the folds press the inner rims against each other permitting different lengths of the folds to vibrate. (For lower pitches, the entire length of each fold is free to vibrate.)

2) The muscles of the folds stretch and thin the folds (for higher pitches) or shorten and thicken the folds (for lower pitches).

3) To facilitate the stretching and thinning of the folds, the whole unit (called the vocal box) tilts slightly into the center of your throat. All this is designed to occur automatically and only needs your decision to sing different notes to trigger it. This is one of the beauties of the voice as an instrument. One of the main aspects of voice training as I see it, is learning to get out of the road of your vocal apparatus permitting it to work for you.

Your vocal folds are designed to be the vibrators and creators of your vocal sound, not air stream regulators. If you force breath out, it will usually be too much. This usually results in the muscles of your vocal folds tensing as they resist the excessive pressure created by the inordinate air stream. The surrounding area of your throat would become tighter and smaller. The necessary ease of inner movement then disappears as the vocal box is “locked” in place. And the winner? Register break.

Your Breathing

When you breath in, the air goes into your lungs, but where exactly are your lungs? Everyone knows they are inside the rib cage with the common misconception that the lungs are in the chest filling the front of your rib cage. There is a small portion of each of your two lungs in the upper section of your chest with the majority of each sac extending from inside your shoulders down to about two inches above your waist. Is this starting to change the way you think about breathing yet?

The largest part of your lungs are in your back! Your “stomach” moving forward when you inhale, is just organs being pushed down and forward by your diaphragm as it lowers, not because your stomach is filling with air. So when you breathe in, let the air fill your back. To do so, your ribs, which encase your lungs and assist breathing, need to lift and expand.

Here is a very simple exercise to facilitate rib cage expansion. This exercise is the first in a series of exercises I use, designed to stretch and tone muscles that are critical to breath support. This exercise, by itself, will not completely handle the breathing problems we have discussed, and in short articles it is impossible to teach you the entire technique I have developed for this purpose. However, it will help, so here it is. If you can expand your ribs when you sing, you will develop breath support that will prevent excess air pressure against your vocal folds.

Exercise ? The Rib Cage S Stretch

Throughout this exercise keep your mouth open and your throat relaxed so that your breathing is unrestricted.

1) Stand relaxed but erect, with your arms hanging by either side, palms turned to face forward. 2) Open your mouth slightly.

3) Stretch and Slowly raise your arms out to the sides of your body and slowly up over your head. (As you stretch your arms out and up, air will naturally inhale through your open mouth.)

4) Once over your head, continue stretching your arms, angle your arms by your cheeks, and put your palms flat together. You should feel the stretch in your back, not your chest or neck. (Your face should be forward not raised. If your stomach is tense, let it relax.)

5) While stretching up, silently count to 6. (Keep your mouth open and your throat relaxed. Do not breathe in or out at this time.)

6) Release the stretch and lower your arms back down to the sides of your body. Your breath will naturally exhale as you lower your arms.

Repeat steps 1 through 6 for a total of 30 repetitions.

Take a few minutes rest after each 10.

This exercise can and should be done daily for at least one week, and will take about 20 minutes. For complete details, pictorial illustrations and coaching, see my book and CD course: The Contemporary Vocalist Volume One. Use this as a warm‑up prior to rehearsal and gigs as well!

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© 2003 Jeannie Deva. Jeannie Deva is the founder of Jeannie Deva® Voice Studios since 1978 and of The Deva Method® A Non-Classical Approach for Singers. While her private voice studio is located in Los Angeles, Jeannie maintains private clients across the country and in Europe. Author of the internationally published vocal home-study course: "The Contemporary Vocalist" book and CDs, she has been flown to recording studios internationally to handle album vocal production and has been endorsed by producers and engineers of the Rolling Stones, The Cars, Aerosmith, and many others. Clients include Grammy Award Winner Aimee Mann, Patty Griffin, Coppertree, Dar Williams, Moodcrush, members of the J. Geils band, cast of Fame, Jesus Christ Superstar and many more. www.JeannieDeva.com

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