THE VOICE CONNECTION
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.


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Questions regarding support and falsetto slide

1. At first when trying / learning support - does the throat and neck muscles kind of want to tighten up on you?.. If so - how to fix this - or will it just improve over time by trying to avoid that sensation?. How long would this usually take?.

2. At first when using / applying support - what should we feel in terms of voice quality? - will we still sound crappy if our voices are crappy? - i guess what i'm asking is. What sound quality related change can we hear when using it as opposed to not using? - is there even one?. Or is it more about simply over time it feeling easier and sounding easier?. I think things in the internet are often so blown out of proportion in terms of "this exercise will do this for you" that one starts to think is pretty much an immediate change. But in my experience with support - it hasn't felt any easier using it. Infact is hard to conciously apply it and as i said i get kind of tension related sensations. But then again i haven't been doing it for long so.

To summarize the question - is support directly responsible for aesthetic improvement or is it just something you do to make things easier?. I think this is easy to misinterpret and confuses a lot of people to the point where they just assume support doesn't work. When if this is true - it does - but it just isn't responsible for voice improvement - more like easier healthier singing?.

3. How low in volume should falsetto slide be? - enough for it to feel easy? - or should it be as low volume as possible to the point where it's barely audible?. More clarification on this would help since it's kind of confusing without being heard.

4. Does falsetto work improve only the falsetto range? - or is it responsible for improvement in several areas that include full voice?. I think this is also a common misinterpretation which is why people usually undervalue falsetto. They just see it as more "optional" and a "stylistic" thing one doesn't really need. Jaime basically says it's MANDATORY. Which is something i hadn't heard before.

5. Is the RYV voice method mandatory in every way possible in order to reach full potential? - or is it subjective?. In terms of - if a student becomes amazing without focusing on things like "micro breath" what would that mean?. I'm just wondering how MANDATORY all the methods / exercises / terminology is to full potential singing. If it's absolutely a must and you will always be "incomplete" without using them - or is it just a subjective thing.

Re: Questions regarding support and falsetto slide

1. At first when trying / learning support - does the throat and neck muscles kind of want to tighten up on you?.. If so - how to fix this - or will it just improve over time by trying to avoid that sensation?. How long would this usually take?.


It definitely should not feel tight. There is a Useful Tip in RYV about doing the NO side-to-side movement to alleviate this problem. This is your body trying to associate grunting with support, and we want to eliminate that:)



2. At first when using / applying support - what should we feel in terms of voice quality? - will we still sound crappy if our voices are crappy? - i guess what i'm asking is. What sound quality related change can we hear when using it as opposed to not using? - is there even one?. Or is it more about simply over time it feeling easier and sounding easier?. I think things in the internet are often so blown out of proportion in terms of "this exercise will do this for you" that one starts to think is pretty much an immediate change. But in my experience with support - it hasn't felt any easier using it. Infact is hard to conciously apply it and as i said i get kind of tension related sensations. But then again i haven't been doing it for long so.

To summarize the question - is support directly responsible for aesthetic improvement or is it just something you do to make things easier?. I think this is easy to misinterpret and confuses a lot of people to the point where they just assume support doesn't work. When if this is true - it does - but it just isn't responsible for voice improvement - more like easier healthier singing?.


Support is for stamina, range, and power. I doubt you'll notice a huge tonal difference out the gate. Most people report that the can suddenly sing for hours without tiring out their voice when using support.



3. How low in volume should falsetto slide be? - enough for it to feel easy? - or should it be as low volume as possible to the point where it's barely audible?. More clarification on this would help since it's kind of confusing without being heard.


As tiny as you can possibly make it sound:)




4. Does falsetto work improve only the falsetto range? - or is it responsible for improvement in several areas that include full voice?. I think this is also a common misinterpretation which is why people usually undervalue falsetto. They just see it as more "optional" and a "stylistic" thing one doesn't really need. Jaime basically says it's MANDATORY. Which is something i hadn't heard before.


I heard someone say something recently about they thought falsetto helped build their mix and regular range, but now know they were wrong...Well, that person is wrong about being wrong, haha. Yes the falsetto helps to build the full voice because we are teaching the cords to vibrate with less mass and tension form the muscles, such as the thyroarytenoid muscles which help with cord closure. You won't hear me talking a lot about anatomy and science because I try to keep all this boring voice stuff as simple as possible so you spend more time singing than learning terms:)




5. Is the RYV voice method mandatory in every way possible in order to reach full potential? - or is it subjective?. In terms of - if a student becomes amazing without focusing on things like "micro breath" what would that mean?. I'm just wondering how MANDATORY all the methods / exercises / terminology is to full potential singing. If it's absolutely a must and you will always be "incomplete" without using them - or is it just a subjective thing.


Well, everything in the book was mandatory to me. As humans who are different from eachother, I cannot say every step is mandatory, nor can I say it is subjective. What I see when singers ask these questions is the singer wishing to pick and choose from the method. I say you stay diligient and focused upon every step for at least 3 months and as you see your voice grow you can then decide if you want to drop something...This does NOT go for the Isolation exercises. All three MUST be used together. As well, breathing, support,. and placement are extremely important. Little things like micro breaths, focusing on core of resonance, using the visuals from RYV can be up to you...at the end of three months:)