SOUND OFF
Welcome to The Voice Connection Sound Off; a forum for users of books like Raise Your Voice, Melody to Madness, The Ultimate Breathing Workout, and Unleash Your Creative Mindset, as well as a place for Vendera Vocal Academy members to interact.
This message board was created so that singers could come together and "sound off" to help support each other during vocal development and the creative process of unleashing the creative spark that occurs when writing and producing music. Currently, myself and vocal coaches Ben Valen, Ray West, and Ryan Wall are here to respond periodicially to your questions, with new vocal coaches coming soon. But, feel free to help each other too:)
This board is here for you to ask questions about my and my fellow coach's books, videos, and MP3 programs, as well as offer others help with our vocal techniques. You may also post videos of yourself and your band to share your music and ask for critiques.
Please refrain from negative comments, profanities, spamming, and inappropriate criticisms of vocal methodologies, vocal coaches, and singers. All negative posts will be deleted and subject to banning without question. I will not respond to negative posts, because, as Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” With that said, positive criticism is welcome because that is how you'll grow as a singer during the training process.
Hey xblackxsailsx,
Fortunately both FAWiN and you, you are are correct. Much like full/head/chest/mix/legit (and any other you can think of) voice, falsetto is different from person to person. Some people naturally lean toward breathy when they attempt it some don’t, it can be trained to be breathy or clean. What is universal, is it’s lack full body resonance that full voice has, one could argue that falsetto resonance can be trained yadda but that is not to the point here.
What is the point is I think a more precise definition would be “feminine” like (remember that “like” there are many many women who melt faces with there voice ) sound. Ever try to mockingly imitate a member of the opposite sex, your probably doing falsetto. Falsetto is often very light, soft, lacking in body and yes usually breathy (again depends though). You sound like you are on the right track you appear to be doing the exercise correctly.
You mentioned adding twang to your voice, by doing that you are bring up that chesty/mix sound you are looking for. What is confusing is all this talk about full/head/chest/mix/legit etc. You seem a little unsure so I’ll try to clarify for you.
Full voice: = not falsetto… that’s pretty much it. Falsetto is a separate part of the vocal folds entirely. That is why it is so strange. Full voice has resonance, body and can be made to sound like any type of singing you want. Full voice can even sound like falsetto lol
Head voice: Is just where the resonance placement is in full voice. Head voice is full voice is head voice. It is also past the passaggio and where the fold start to zip tightly together.
Chest voice: same as Head voice only resonance is in the chest and the fold are not zipped yet.
Mix: Is adding that twang to get a non-classical more speaking voice sound
Legit: Is that classical pure sound, lack of twang. Kinda sounds like falsetto with body and power.
As for the digastric muscle, make a thumbs up like your hitchhiking. Now place your hands thumb prints facing up under your chin with your pointer fingers rest against the front of your chin.
Here are some pics of the Digrastic muscle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digastric_muscle.PNG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digastricus.png
As for the reply thing... no idea.
