Tougas- McCoy- Ch.3

 As I was reading this, I thought about my last vocal teacher a lot before coming to college. She would constantly talk about raising my pelvic floor to sing which I thought was attached/connected to the diaphragm. However reading this was really fascinating to learn that they are two separate entities that create two separate functions and therefore affects the same sound in different ways. 

In this chapter, McCoy gives a general overview of the muscles in your body, especially diving into the ones in your abdomen and lung areas that have the greatest impact on singing. He also discusses the different methods for breathing and how each type of singer uses a different one for what kind of style they are looking for and their own voice type. I remember us vaguely discussing this in class one time, but it got me thinking about how when I have a studio, I really should specify it to maybe only a couple styles of singing and voices after a while. This is to ensure that it won’t be the “jack of all trades, master of none” studio. This is reiterated when he later states that teaching men and women breathing and singing techniques should be different.

I do question one thing though: he states towards the end that, “this might not change the way we sing, but it helps better understand why we do what we do.” I feel like it is a little useless to learn something if you aren’t going to actually apply it. So why do we spend so much time on something if we aren’t going to use it change? Thoughts I am wrestling with. Personally, I think we should!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tougas- Voice Overview- 11/9

 This week in Voice Recital Hour, Kate Wilson performed L-Invitación a Voyage. Something that was really awesome was the placement remained the same through out each note. Every word was in the shape of an “ah” just with different lip shape to round out the desired vowel. This gave great resonance and each note could springboard off of the hard palate! Also, Kate usually takes a stance of putting one hand on the piano which in turn expands the area for the diaphragm and deeper breaths. One thing I noticed was that depending on high notes or low notes, Kate would move her head slightly in the same direction. This probably is more a psychological effect but leads to out of alignment breathing, actually making it more difficult to sing. I noticed this in particular because it is exactly what I worked on in my lesson this week. We had an awesome break through where I realized I had root tension due to moving my head up for high notes and so Laurie and I worked on singing an Ah then to ...
Read more

Dombroski-McCoy-Ch. 4

 I think reading about how stuff works inside our body is interesting. The fact that my vocal folds are 18 millimeters is crazy! I wonder if that’s why men sing lower, because their folds are slightly larger? It’s also wild that our folds oscillate hundreds of times per second when we sing. I was amazed to read that the when singing the F6 in Queen of the Night, the vocal folds vibrate 1400 times. I don’t feel the vibrations when singing so it’s strange to think about. I think it’s amazing the sounds we can make through the larynx, which is only the small size of a walnut/pecan.  It’s important as teachers to consider onset and phonation. If our students are singing with excess breath, we can know one of the reasons might be their vocal folds aren’t completely closed. It’s also important to consider the difference between adduction and abduction, and basically what the body requires for the voice to sound balanced. 
Read more

Camryn-McCoy Chapter 4

 There were a lot of things in this chapter I thought were surprising and interesting! First, the vocal folds are SO SMALL. Literally the size of a DIME in women and a QUARTER for men?! I don't know why I thought they'd be bigger than that, but still! The vocal folds are responsible for sound production, and can produce a sound loud enough to be heard over a symphony orchestra. That is insane to know just a tiny portion of our vocal folds create such a strong, powerful sound. Another subject I want to touch on is the glottal onset. Listening to the example given, the attack of the note sounds really harsh. When reading about this, I was surprised to see that these onsets can lead to vocal nodules. On the opposite side, an aspirate onset lacks energy, and sounds airy/breathy. There's little no none air support and flow in the voice. In doing this an excessive amount, it can also lead to voice problems, such as "chronic incomplete glottal closure and muscular tension dys...
Read more