6) Question about support. When I sing, should I keep the same tension in my body that I feel when I breathe out on the hissing "Sssss" sound? When I do this, my solar plexus pushes out and becmes really hard, but my lower abs feel totally relaxed. Is this the same feeling I should keep when singing, or is it purely only for support exercises?

Btw, I don't expect any 1 person to answer all six of these. Any that anyone has any type of input on, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

ND.

2) How do you wanna sound?

Thats how you should think, usually in singing there are no real rights/wrongs. You choose how you wanna sound and we will try our best to help you get there :P

1) don't know
2) whatever sounds good to you. i find when i sing "naturally" my accent isn't australian although my speaking voice is. i find most singers have a neutral accent, and i think it comes out naturally, if you force an accent it may be hard for you to sing with your full range. just go for whatever sounds best to you and your style.

3) i've never heard anything like that about sleeping with no pillows, but personally, i sleep without a pillow as it gets the neck used to being in a straight position, having a pillow puts my neck on a forward angle, so i'm not using my necks full range of flexibility. the first time i tried to go without a pillow it felt bad on my neck, as my neck wasn't used to using more range of motion. then after a week i learned to "relax into stretch" as pavel tsatsouline (russian strength coach) puts it. proper alignment fixes so many things not just singing. but it has helped me get deeper fuller breaths, which means better support for higher notes. proper support is the key to singing high notes without straining from the throat, when take an "abdominal breath" (the abdomen pushes outward on the inhale) and lock down and sing you should feel the sound go above the throat, or if your singing low should be below the throat (chest) so you got head and chest voice

4) not sure if this is truly a technique problem or just your taste, i'd have to hear it. you can always change the bass and treble in your voice by where you place the mic. as a recording tool: if you want more bass when you record, hold the mic higher around your head, if you want more treble hold it lower around your chest (I KNOW THIS MAY SOUND CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU'D EXPECT, BUT IT IS THE CASE WHEN RECORDING. LOGIC GOES OUT THE WINDOW WHEN YOU RECORD, TRY IT AND SEE FOR YOURSELF)

5) "modern medicines" answer to any health problem is to "cut it out" or "burn it" or any other primitive form of "treatment". i've said this numerous times on this site, you can choose to never get sick again if you choose to embrace health principles rather than exercising war on your body. if you are getting sick then you are not healthy. there are many that are taking health into their own hands now, and taking the mystery out of disease, because it isn't a mystery at all really. this is not some soemthing i'm repeating out of a book i read, this is stuff i know from doing. my philosophy is: if you haven't proven it to yourself by doing it, then it's merely a belief system and that goes for everything. listen to people's advice, try it out, and then conclude whether it works or doesn't.

6) the rule is, support as much as you need. if you want to sing stronger you'll have to put more support, and going for higher notes you will too. you will feel how much you need, because if you don't support properly you won't hit the note and you'll feel teh tension in your throat. proper support sends the sound past the throat and into the head, thats where you sing high notes without straining. it's all in jaime's book you just need to re-read the book a million times until it seeps in.

Pardon? Dunno where you live but you must have some very weird doctors...

Jens, I'm not sure how I want to sound... Good I guess... Erm, I like voices that have bite, but aren't all about the high frequencies. If I had to sound exactly like a certain singer (I know that isn't what you're saying, but I'm gonna use this anyway) I'd say either Miljenko Matijevic, Sebastian Bach, Chris Cornell or Freddie Mercury... Quite an odd combination of selections, I know. I'd be happy with anything that sounded good tbh.



Phil, thanks for this. I've never heard of that before but will ensure I try this the next time I record. I'll report back to you my experience with this after.



LOL! I did think this a bit too... I imagined that you'd go in with a cold and they'd slice your nose off or something. Cool though =]