July 4th, 2006 - Day 1, 14 days to go

First some background: I've been singing for like a year now. I have been doing RYV and SLS exercises for about 6 months. I'm 5'6" and the timbre of my voice is quite low for my size. I think I'm a lyric bass right now, I have a lot of healthy nasality to my voice though it's low (if anyone could help me classify my voice once I get my recording equipment back, I'd love them). My usual range is from a quiet, rattly D2 to E5 in falsetto. It's gone down to C2 and all the way up to C#6 at points. My comfortable range used to cap off at around D4, which I had to SCREAM to get out. Now, when performing, it's around G4. I can hit a C5 in full voice, but it requires way too much concentration to use for longer than a few verses of a song; I've hurt myself trying to sing that high without having the necessary support and no longer even try unless it's only for a few minutes.

So day 1, a day behind schedule. I woke up this morning, went back to bed. LOTS of phlegm. Throat's a bit sore. Feels constrained. Woke up after 8 hours of sleep and began warming up! I followed this schedule, with some alterations to my inital plan suggested by Jaime:

20 minutes breathing/jumping jacks (10 minutes of jumping jacks)
5 minutes of gargling
5 minutes of stretching
10 minutes of motorboats/tongue trills
20 minutes resonance hum

15 minutes of falsetto slide
30 minutes of siren
15 minutes of transcending tone

Then I took a shower and sang Panic! At The Disco songs for about an hour, applying technique, trying to achieve a lighter, mixed voice. I seem to have a very heavy, bassy, resilient yet sometimes ugly voice. I can take a lot of strain. This is usually where I see the most improvement, when I actually apply technique. My voice becomes much lighter and much more beautiful, at least to me.

Highest note in full voice: A4
Highest note falsetto: E5
Bullfrogs: 200
Transceding tone: C4-E4

This week I am going to focus on adding F and F# to my transcending tone exercises and weening myself off of falsetto slides and replacing them with resonance hums doing scales, kinda integrate the exercises. Gradually over the next 3 weeks, I hope to be moving my comfortable range up to A#4 or B4.

Important discovery today! I discovered that allowing myself to break into falsetto instead of simply giving up on parts of songs made my voice much lighter and made my voice much easier to work with after all was said and done.

Tomorrow, I hope for less phlegm!

Great log man! I will keep a watch on it. Dude, don't sing Panic at the Disco, please.

nice log!!
i'm a bass too.

hey james, do you have some tips to learn to
sing songs?

i know song mapping, but how to apply that when you sing? Maybe first make some scale work then transfer
that to a song? Or you hold a note ex: B3 then with that "talk" words only in b3?? i have fear in this part.. i dont want to create constricions. i dont
like scale work.

I know this sounds crazy but i already had singing
lessons but i just trained scales not songs

You know even though you can sing 'exercises' and all
that stuff, when you try to sing and sometimes dont
hit that note the first thing is.. 'more air.'
(my last teacher always told me that =/. "Give it
more support like brett said.. )

That thing of breaking into falsetto is cool to
leave all that "Bagage" when singing? Its a really
nice idea.

Thanks.
Great work!

The way I apply technique to songs is to find a part I cannot do 'naturally' or with little effort, and apply an exercise to it. I chose to spend a lot of time on a popular song Panic! At The Disco has called "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". There's a part in the 2nd verse where you belt out an A4 after a lighter few lines. I applied the siren to that A4 and slowly put the other lyrics around it, singing it slowly and making sure I was experiencing the same sensations I was during practicing exercises. Which, in the end, meant that to sing this section, I had to prepare for that louder, higher note. As I practiced it though, I could think less and less about it.

This is how I seem to learn at guitar too; I need to take a section, focus on what I am doing wrong, what I am tensing at, then do it slowly and gradually speed up. At first it requires concentration and effort, but eventually my fingers 'know' what to do and the amount of trying decreases significantly.

I suspect that breaking into falsetto's good for you since it teaches you that when you get to higher notes, you don't have to tense up, it comes out no mater what. I was putting out notes in mixed voice, falsetto, full, whatever was comfortable at the time.

cool! thanks.

just a doubt... the sound of your voice when making
exercises like siren and transcending tone is the
same when singing? I mean sometimes singers make
exercises with a voice and sing with another...

for example in SLS that nay nay nay exercise.. you
wouldnt sing with that voice..

Well, not the sound necessarily, just the sensation of pressure/vibration/buzzing in my head. You can't necessarily go by sound all the time, you can't always hear yourself, especially playing loud music.

July 5th, 2006 - Day 2, 13 days to go

Today felt about the same as yesterday. Lots of phlegm. And I don't seem to have the pizzaz, the strength, to accomplish certain things. I'm having to focus much more to transcend around G4. I am going to try getting to sleep earlier...That may be having an effect on things.

I got my warm-ups done while I was just chilling this afternoon and began practicing transcending tone and sirens for about two hours. Today was better in this regard; I could hit a C5 in full voice throgh transcending and then slowly bring it down to middle C. This reveals lots of cracks which I think I will work on every day along with focusing on transcending in my break-range. I went to a concert and sang some Coheed & Cambria on the way. I always have trouble with that since I'm sitting and since my voice is very different from Claudio's, but I was going higher in full voice than normal. That dude sings veeery light though. I do not want to sound like him, only be comfortable in his range.

I'm tired so I won't type much more.

Highest notei n full voice: C5
Highest note falsetto: E5
Bullfrogs: 100 odd (I am going to try doing them while I pee from now on!)
Transcending tone C4-C5 (I remind myself to forget about singing that high and focus on perfecting the first half of that octave instead)

I'm noticing that the area around middle C is becoming slightly more ringing since I've been focusing on it the past few weeks (and pretty hardcore the past two days). I am finding it easy to get into my head voice, and these have been 'not so good' days; I wonder what a good day will be like. Here's to life!

July 7th, 2006 - Day 3, 12 days to go

This must be quick as I am busy. Not as much phlegm today, I feel better overall. Must be coming off a downer. I am gonna try going to bed early tonight. My body is definitely not responding well to being up for 30 hours at a time. I was really careful warming up and by the time I started doing exercises, I felt pretty great.

Highest note in full: A4
Highest note falsetto: A5
Bullfrogs: 600!
Transcending tone: C4-F#4

I am working transcending tone to death. It's pretty much effortless to hit an F#4 today, but I lack to conctentration to try to got any higher. SLEEP. I must sleep. I drank almost 3 gallons of water today. Mmmm.

I had absolutely no caffeine this day. I think it helped.

AHHH that was actually for July 6th. My bad.

If you were feeling better on the 6th, then why were you not working as high in the T.T and Siren exercises? You should be right up there, unless you were rushing or you were extrememly tired, or you've been pushing the sound. If you been forcing yourself to work higher and higher, then backing off is the smart thing to do. Your goal should be to master any note before moving on :)

JV

That's what I'm working on. Not rushing myself. I'm taking off this 3 week thing too...I am just gonna work my ass off until it all comes to me. Even after 3 days I could feel and hear improvements so I'm sticking to it. But yeah, I primarily backed off because I've been so tired lately. I could get up there yesterday, but I haven't had the strength to do it without effort so I backed off. Didn't even get to practice today. I'm gonna practice falsetto tonight since I didn't have the time today. Tomorrow will be day 4 then.

jaime, i don't get it. this means if i cant make
a cool transcending tone at E4 i shouldn't go up
even if i use volume 3-4?? for example.. up to C5
using a 3-4 volume?

I am doing this. Is the same thing with falsetto slide? I know in the siren i wouldn't do this..

Also one thing about the whistle voice.. is a cool
thing to start it now? I mean that trick of
sound going inwards? maybe is a cool thing to learn
cool coordinations.

You know your limitations. Do what you feel comfortable with. If you can stand going a little further WITHOUT straining, then by all means go for it. Learning new notes will take more effort so I'm not saying to NOT do a new note. I'm saying don't rush it.

JV

okay!

But this is cool. So in the TT, going up only if you can
make a 'cool' transition in the preceding notes is a good way to practice? For example i will only go to
F after going well in E.

Thanks.

July 8th - Day 4

I slept for...14 hours? That makes up for lost sleep. Today was a really, really good day. First this:

Highest note full voice: C#5
Highest note falsetto: F5
Lowest note: E2
Bullfrogs: 100 (baaad...)
Trancending tone: G3-C#5
Water consumed: 1 1/2 gallons

I was having no trouble getting higher today. After I'd done warmups, sirens and transcending tone, I took advantage of this and for a full half-hour practiced transcending to a mixed C#5, sliding down to full voice in A4 and down to E4, then holding it as long as I can. This left be pretty exhausted but it gradually got better and smoother. I could have gone longer but my throat felt overused; not pain, but it felt tired.

Tomorrow I'm going to do pretty much the same thing and end with working the crap out of the highest I really care for right now. I am still focusing a large sum of my time on D#-F#4 as that area has always been weak and cumbersome.

Breakthrough today: I realized I should be engaging head voice sooner than I am, so I am going to work on sliding down from high notes to my break point more so I trick myself into that. I've always focused, primarily, on going low to high, it seems I may have conditioned myself to use the wrong configuration, not letting my cords zip up when they should be.

14 hours of sleep 1 night will night does not make up for lost sleep. It will take several nights to recover, especially since your body goes through specific sleep cycles via brainwaves. I will be discussing this more in a new book I am writing with Tony Harnell from TNT.

JV

lol, it's funny you say that. I just slept for around 15 hours...Awful. I didn't intend to. I went to sleep at midnight so I could wake up early.

July 9th, 2006 - Day 5

Woo! Good day. Hardly any phlegm, I felt good. I am so happy with myself. My head voice becomes more and more accessible every day. I only practiced for an hour today so I didn't get to do as much as usual.

My transcending tone exercises in the C4-E4 range have "clicked" today, and I hardly crack at all transcending on E4-F4. I did some sirens and it's easier to get over my break and into my head now. But what I am particularly happy with is that when I hit a G4 now, it's much fuller, and my D-F4 range is lighter.

I am focusing this whole week coming up on perfecting transcending on A4 and bringing more chest resonance into it. I've been doing falsetto exercises before going to bed the past 3 nights and I'd wager that's having an impact on things too.

I am devoting about 10 minutes to throat singing and screaming from now on too.

highest note full voice: C5
highest note falsetto: A5
lowest note: G2
Bullfrogs: 200
Water consumed: 1 and 1/2 gallons

I'm doing 100 situps and 50 pushups along with doing 300 jumping jax every morning. I might start doing yoga in a few weeks.