Hey there,

It's me again, the guy with the DT cover band! First of all, I've recieved Raise Your Voice, and I'd just like to thank Jaime for writing this book- it's so interesting and revealing...and of course contains awesome excercises!

In fact, today is my first day of the "7-week-workout" that's suggested in the book. As a cardiovascular excercise, I jogged for about 15 minutes in the local park. I felt so great afterwards that I'll definitely keep up the routine of running (almost) every day.

I'm super-excited to work through all the excercises in this book, and being over-ambitious as I am, I've attempted a kind of three octave slide using the zipper-technique. Now I know that I'm not quite ready for this, but I feel it's important to get feed-back from you. I'm obviously straining and hurting my voice when I get to the upper octave. My feeling is that it's because my larynx is way high. Is that my problem?

http://members.aol.com/Ninteeny/Eslide.mp3

By the way, I'm very embarrassed about posting this, and I'm taking down the link after Jaime comments on it. Thanks ALOT for the answer in advance!!

Hey,

ok I'm not too sure how Jaime will comment, but what I would say is do the slide however only slide up as high as confortably possible without straining and without any tension...There's no need to force it.

Higher notes will come with the rest of the program and over time you'll notice getting higher without strain, only pushing it and straining in the exercise, will only develop bad muscle memory, believe me I know I'm still trying to correct alot of bad technique right Jaime?

Hey Legatoman,

The slide is based on the Siren and must be kept full voice. You swithced to falsetto first octave. When you do a slide like that after you are comfortable, you shouldn't stop at each octave, keep going smoothly right to the top. When working with the Siren , remember to keep the sound big and bright, because that will make it easier. The reason you strained is although you went to falsetto, you were using way too much air. The cool thing is that now that I've heard you do that slide, I know that you can gain those full voice notes fairly easy, as long as you work at it ;) Over all, great try and keep practicing :)

JV

Ah...thanks alot for the replies!!

However, I'm quite confused with falsetto vs. head voice. I was actually pretty sure I sang all of that in "non-falsetto". At least, that's how it felt for me. Just to make sure, I recorded a clip of me doing the falsetto slide, one starting in the voice I did that slide earlier in(which I think is head voice), and the second one starting in definite falsetto, with an obvious break into chest voice at the end. Now, if you tell me that BOTH are falsetto, now, that would be intriguing.

http://members.aol.com/Ninteeny/headvoice_falsetto.mp3

Falsetto and head voice are quite confusing because of so many7 different interpretations. I'm a fgull voice teacher, so what I would call your first slide would be a mixed type tone. You've elimintaed the breathiness and your break and although it wasn't completely a full voice tone, it wasn't falsetto either. That's kinda like on the T.T. exercise whwere you go from falsetto to full voice. If falsetto were a 1 and full voice were a 10, then your first slide was around a 5 or 6, whereas your second slide was definitely pure falsetto. Don't let it trip you out. The head voice tone is perfect for singing a lot of pop and some metal. I can't really name any singer who doesn't mix it up. Both a strong full voice or head voice in the upper rage are fine to use. Even falsetto sometines for effect. But, the very first slide you sent me, although it may have seemed a little confusing to you, it was closer to falsetto, maybe a 3 on the scale of 1-10. Don't worry brother, you are on the right path.

JV

I'm certainly no singing expert, but I hit a full voiced head voice for the first time in my life about 5 months ago, and trust me, you'll know when it happens. It feels really awesome if you've never hit it before, it's definitely a new feeling. Do plenty of transcending tone exercises, and eventually you'll figure out how to get it. It certainly feels very different than falsetto, and i'm sure you'll recognize it when it happens.

It's freedom :)

JV

http://media.putfile.com/slide-73-94

Is this full voice then. It feels very resonant and is super loud and I am sure it's not falsetto :(

Thanks for the clarification, Jaime and RX88. By the way, if I'm starting the 7-week-workout, should I already be incorporating "practicing the zipper-technique" into my daily regimen, or should I focus on breathing and VSR first...or both?

And Doug...holy fajitas! That sounded like full voice to me.