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.
Interesting question. It might be a little tricky to answer, but I'll give it a whirl.
When Jaime says "Always maintain the yawning sensation", I think he means when possible. For example, if you were to say "ooo" as in "Ooo, baby I love your way" you're obviously not going to have a wide open mouth with a dropped jaw because it would end up sounding like "Aww" or "Oh".
In a sense, the answer is yes. There are instances in which the yawning sensation isn't the most important thing to focus on. However, one of the main purposes of this sensation is to keep your larynx from rising too high up in the throat where it can cause straining.
So in summation, YES there are times when the yawning sensation shouldn't be focused upon, BUT the principle ideas that the sensation tries to enforce should still be followed.
If this still doesn't fully answer the question for ya, just lemme know and I'll try to clarify. Hope I've helped!
