Notes on Vocal Projection

 

(A Word: these notes are meant as a reminder of material covered in class, not a substitute.  The techniques of vocal projection are best taught through in-person instruction, and a lot of the material in these notes will not make sense if you have not had the class.)

 

            The hardest part about learning vocal projection is that you have to go back to go forward.  There are a few basic things that you may be doing wrong, like standing and breathing, and you have to unlearn the bad stuff before you can implement the improvements.

 

 

Posture

 

            Nothing will defeat your attempts to project (other than a sock in your mouth) faster than bad posture.  You can't even begin to breathe properly if your airways are compromised by the way you're standing.

 

Stand up straight, but not TOO straight

           

            My husband graduated from a military academy, and they have a phenomenon they refer to as "pulling chins", or trying so hard to get their ears over their shoulders that they create several layers of "double chin".  That's not the look you're going for.  Every muscle you are using to hold things in is taxing both your breath and your attention, and it's unavailable to help you force air out in a controlled fashion.  Forget everything you were ever told about chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in, butt tucked under, feet shoulder-width apart and flat on the ground.  First, just stand. 

 

            Now, are you comfortable?  You should be.  Stand flat-footed, on the balls of your feet, whatever makes you happy, as long as you are upright and balanced.  If you have a bad back and you are only comfortable with one foot higher than the other, put one foot on a book or something, just get comfortably situated.  Where are your arms?  Loose at your sides is great, but hands folded demurely in front of you is fine too, provided you don't feel tension in your shoulders or neck.  (When I record, I like to put my hands on my sides because it helps remind me to keep my stomach muscles toned, but I'd look pretty goofy performing that way, so I save it for the studio.)

 

            Hold your head up, but not obsessively so; I don't care if you can balance a book on your head, I care that your airway is unobstructed.  Your head should feel relaxed, and you should be looking at the horizon line.  Don't succumb to the temptation of lifting your chin when you are reaching for high notes; it actually accomplishes the opposite.  Try singing a sustained note with your eyes on the horizon, then hold the note while you tip your chin up to look at the ceiling.  When I do it, the pitch drops about a quarter of a step. 

 

            On the other hand, a lowered chin will pinch off your air; sometimes it works to briefly stretch your chin skyward and let it relax.  Or try this: put two pencils on the floor in front of your toes, one about 12 inches out and the other about 18-20 inches out.  Now stand as you think you should and look down without moving your head.  You should be able to see the further pencil; if you can see both, your chin is too low.

 

Eventually, when good projecting posture becomes natural to you, you will be able to maintain it even while holding a book, gesturing, or in some cases, even playing an instrument (sadly for me, I have yet to be able to keep good posture and play the guitar).  Until then, perform a cappella (or have a friend accompany you), memorize your pieces, and keep the visual aids to a minimum.

 

 

Breathing

 

            Now that you're standing properly, you can start breathing (and you thought you had been doing that all along!).  Unless you are a swimmer or a distance runner, you're probably taking in about one third less air with each breath than you might be, and more air equals more sound.

 

            Place your hands on either side of your ribcage, slightly towards your back.  Now breathe.  Most people feel their hands going slightly up, and slightly out, probably towards the front.  Take another breath and try to force your hands straight out.  Did you get more air that time?

 

            Here's part two.  Find the hollow below your sternum at the bottom of your ribcage, and rest your fingers there.  Now breathe.  Most people feel their fingers going in slightly or staying in about the same place.  Take another breath, and this time try to push your fingers out.  More air?

 

            It takes practice.  If you have any connections in the health care industry, or any friends who are asthmatics, you might be able to get your hands on a little gadget called a peak flow meter, which measures how much air you can force out in one breath.  Take a normal breath and blow into it, then take a breath like we worked out above.  You should find you're blowing about one third more air.

 

            WARNING:  Do not practice your breathing for long periods of time, or under the influence, and stop immediately if you start to feel woozy.  It's really easy to hyperventilate until you have good control, and passing out is no fun.

 

 

Warm-ups

 

            After you've been breathing properly for awhile, you'll notice that you are sore, because you're using muscles that aren't accustomed to use.  When you  need to project, either singing or speaking, it's helpful to warm up your muscles AND your vocal chords, which are also made of muscle tissue (and other stuff-- see the section below on "throat care"). 

 

Body

 

            You're not running a marathon; the only muscles you really need to warm up other than your vocal chords are neck, shoulders, and abdominals.  The first two are best done by making a few circles with your head, alternating clockwise and counter-clockwise, then again with your shoulders.  The easiest (and one of the most effective) warm-up for the stomach is isometric.  Stand (like we discussed) and tighten your abs; hold for a count of 10, then release.  Do three or four "reps" (repetitions, for you non-workout types).  Beats the heck out of sit-ups.  Be sure your back is nice and loose, so you can stand comfortably.  Take a few deep breaths and let them out; this warms up the breathing muscles and helps with the stage fright!

 

Voice

 

            Anybody who has ever had a chorus class in school has done warm-up exercises: scales, cute little sequences with silly words (my personal favorites involve the words "bumblebee" and "Coca-Cola").  Vocal warm-ups can be whatever you want provided:

 

1.  They aren't too challenging, at least at first.  Decide what octave is in the "meat" of your range; if that's not middle C, DON'T start at middle C.  Don't attempt to move outside that octave until you feel like you have good flexibility within it.  This can be running up and down all eight notes (drive people near you crazy by singing, "Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, do-ti-la-so-fa-mi-re-do!"), or just up and down the notes in the chord (referred to in music theory as 1-3-5-8, which for C would be C-E-G-C).  Once that octave is comfortable, you can move up, either by half notes or whole notes, until you "stretch" all the way to the highest note you'll need to hit.  Be sure you use several different vowel sounds; the constrictions to hit a note while saying "ah" are very different from the ones to hit the same note while saying "ee".

 

2.  They cover the right ground.  As I said above, you need to work up to your highest note, but don't forget to work down to your lowest as well.  Also, be aware of the kind of intervals in the piece you're warming up for; if most of your intervals are whole and half steps, doing scales will be fine.  If the piece has octave reaches or odd intervals, you need to make sure that you practice those, too.  Be sure you've taken the difficulty of the piece into account when you do your warm-up.  If it's not particularly challenging, you can probably get by with singing a couple of pop songs along with the radio.  If it's opera, you'd better prepare.

 

            If you have the opportunity to warm-up in situ (i.e., where you will be performing), do it.  If you warm up in a nice cozy room where you can hear yourself bouncing off the walls and then move into a large hall (high ceilings, acoustic tiles, lots of bodies, etc.) or outside on a windy day, you'll wonder where your voice went.  You may also panic a bit and strain your voice trying to compensate.  On the other hand, if you warm up outdoors, then go into a cozy room to perform, you're going to knock the audience off their chairs.  Know how far your voice will need to carry.

 

Other Muscles

 

            There's another important muscle we haven't warmed yet-- the tongue.  Unless your material is lyrical drivel (hey, nonny, nonny), you might actually want your audience to be able to tell what you're saying.  Tongue twisters are actually really good for this, as is any favorite piece of Shakespeare.  Just pick something with lots of consonants, and enunciate like your life depends on your being understood.  And smile while you're doing it; it gives the facial muscles an additional challenge.  (It’s not usually necessary to warm-up your facial muscles unless you are doing a lot of emoting or acting.)

 

 

Pitch -- It's not just for singers

 

            Everything that comes out of your mouth has a pitch, and if you've ever heard anyone belch a tune, you'll know I mean everything.  Singers actually have it easy; the pitch has been provided for you.  Unless you select a melody that is beyond your singing ability or wildly out of your range, your pitch is probably under good control.  [And if it's not, go back to the warm-up exercises; my husband and I have a motto that came from a commentator a few years back at the "Cardiff Singer of the World" competition (we were watching on the BBC, not entering): "At the end of the day, pitch is what it's all about."]

 

            If you are heralding, or reciting, you still have pitch, and the pitch you select will control both how well you are understood and how long you can keep at it.  Here is one place where you don't need to unlearn; Nature has taught you what your natural speaking pitch is, and how to modify it.  Try this:  Say, "Long Live the King".  Now declaim it, like you would in court.  You probably went WAY up in pitch (for me, the natural speaking is roughly G below middle C, and the declamation is E above middle C, raising it the better part of an octave).  We naturally raise our pitch when we want to be heard, which is why the scream, what we give out with when we are most in need of attention, is the highest-pitched sound we can make.  On the other hand, we can't keep it up for long; anybody who has been to an exciting baseball game will tell you that they have no voice left by the 8th inning.  Projecting is not screaming.  Keep track of where your pitch comfortably should be; when it rises very much, it usually means that you are trying to compensate for a weakening voice by raising your pitch, and it is time to stop.  Better yet, assign a friend to listen for you; you aren't terribly impartial.

 

 

 

Presence

 

Stage presence can have a tremendous impact on how well you project.  Your lungs are your lungs, but even the puniest instrument can benefit from a little pink smoke and magic.

 

Drama—the Joan Sutherland effect

 

            Or fill in your favorite opera singer.  This is an exercise I do in every projection class; I have someone sing a couple of lines, and then I ask them to do it again as Joan Sutherland (Kiri Te Kanawa, Luciano Pavarotti, you get the idea).  Relieved of the worry about looking ridiculous (because they KNOW they look ridiculous), virtually everyone has better pitch, better tone, and better volume.  It's a combination of losing the self-consciousness and gaining a presence beyond your own-- the presence of somebody who sings better than you do.  If it helps to pretend to be someone else singing, I say, go for it.

 

            Beyond the effect of channeling an opera singer, drama offers another way to stretch your sound.  I mentioned before that I consider pitch pretty important, but I can overlook a lot if a performance has intensity.  Meatloaf is one of my favorite performers; he isn't anywhere near perfect in his pitch, but does he sell the product!  If I believe that you believe in what you’re singing, you’ll have an easier time getting to me emotionally, and I’ll be a lot more focused on what you’re singing than on how perfectly you’re singing it. 

 

Speed

 

Speed is greatly dictated by the piece you choose to perform, but you need to be aware of its impact on your projection.  Generally, the faster the piece, the less time you’ll have for breathing, let alone focusing on anything else.  Fast pieces require a lot more practice so you know exactly where you have the chance to breath.  You should also know the lyrics VERY well or have them available; if your singing gets ahead of your brain, you’ll go into panic mode and forget everything else except, “What’s the next line?”  On the other hand, a fast piece automatically gives you a little extra intensity.  Most concert-goers notice that performers tend to do songs live just a bit faster than the recorded versions; it’s a cheap way to boost the energy level.

 

Volume

 

            Huh?  Weren’t we here trying to be as loud as possible?  Watch musical theatre performers, and see how they use the same energy to get out a whisper as they do to belt to the back of the hall.  If your performance is focused and intense, people will strain to hear it if they need to.  If you've worked on your projection and you think you've gotten all you're going to get out of a puny instrument, consider going the other way.  A 40-watt bulb looks like a laser if it's shining through a pinhole.  If you can be dramatic and pitch-perfect at a low volume, why be mediocre and reach the cheap seats?  A smaller performance might get you more bang for your buck.  Besides, even if you can blow out eardrums, your overall performance will be more interesting if you rein it in from time to time.  The audience doesn’t want to leave your show feeling like they’ve been shouted at for an extended period.

 

Tone

 

            Is your piece, or your delivery, happy?  Sad?  Stately?  Remember our exercise with “Long Live the King”?  A piece that requires a formal or narrative style is likely to get the best natural projection out of you, along with comic pieces.  For some reason, we tend to get light on happy songs and quiet on sad songs.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but keep it in mind if you need to be heard a fair distance away.

 

Gesture

 

            Some people are good at this.  Some look incredibly goofy.  There’s a reason Pavarotti used to clutch a handkerchief in concert; bereft of a role, he had no idea what to do with his hands, and he was smart enough to know it.  If you are one of those people who can’t talk while sitting on your hands, you’ve had years of drama or dance and you are comfortable moving, go for it.  You will be more uncomfortable trying to stand still.  If not, consider just standing quietly.  Or clutch a hanky.  I have seen some truly terrific vocal performances ruined because the accompanying gesture was so (unintentionally) comical.

 

Instruments other than your voice

 

            They help you stay on pitch.  They give you something to do with your hands.  They give you something to hide behind.  On the other hand, they compromise your breathing, and often, your connection with the audience.  You can do what I did, which is marry another musician and get THEM to play while YOU sing; otherwise, you’ll have to decide which is more important to you.  Incidentally, the same can be said of songbooks, though with practice you can learn to incorporate holding your music into your comfortable breathing stance.  Just consider having a small folder that holds a few sheets, rather than trying to heft that 4-inch binder from Office Max you carry around everywhere.

 

 

Throat Care -- Would you leave your instrument out in the rain?

           

            Bear with me while I get technical for a minute.  The vocal chords are folds in the mucus membrane, covered by stratified squamous non-keratinized epithelium underlaid with a layer of fibroelastic connective tissue, with a core of skeletal muscle.  Whew!  What does that mean to you?  It means that everything that can go wrong with skin, muscles, mucus linings, or cartilage can go wrong with your vocal chords.  It's a miracle we can grunt, let alone sing.  Fortunately, like everything else in our bodies, vocal chords will stand up to a surprising amount of abuse with little ill effect, as long as you give them some basics.

 

Fluids -- lots!

 

            You know the drill; we are mostly water.  Since the first thing to go is the protective mucus lining, the single best thing you can do for your throat is to keep it wet.  Water is best, but most fluids will do.  Try to go for something not too hot and not too cold, tart, but not too tart (grapefruit and cran- blends are good).  Acids (most fruit juices) will tighten your throat, and sugar and carbonation will loosen it (so lemonade makes you sharp and Coke, ironically, makes you flat).  NO dairy-- it's like teflon-coating your vocal chords; you'll find you have seriously impaired control.  If you just can't drink any more, and it's a really dry climate, consider a non-medicated lozenge like Riccola to keep the tissues moist.  Avoid alcohol; number one, it sucks the water out of your tissues, and number two, long before it makes you stupid, it affects your fine muscular control, i.e. your vocal chords.  Personally, I can have one drink and still sing; after that, I have to hope that my audience is at least as drunk as I and therefore not too particular.

 

Food?

 

            Personally, I can't stand to eat before I sing something challenging.  The butterflies make me nauseous, and if I eat too much, when I go to tighten my abs, I can't, because my dinner is where my support should be.  If you want to eat, just use common sense; avoid cheese (dairy again), irritating over-spicy foods, and scratchy foods like nuts.  I once heard an interview with Kiri Te Kanawa, and she said she NEVER eats cheese, nuts, crusty bread, snack foods, fried foods or spicy foods for fear of damaging her throat.  I knew there was a reason I never wanted to be an opera singer.

 

Know when to say when -- Chloraseptic is NOT an option!

 

            Okay, if your best friend is getting married, and you have ONE song to do, grit your teeth and tough it out, but in general, if your voice isn't at least 85%, skip it.  Chloraseptic and the other "deadeners" on the market are evil.  First, you can't control what you can't feel, so your pitch will probably be lousy anyway; second, and more important, if you can't feel how much it hurts, you can do serious damage.

 

            Even if your voice is at 100%, if the ambient noise of the hall is so loud, or the acoustics so bad that you need to force your voice to carry, invite everyone who wants to hear you into a cozy corner, or just stop.  If you’re heralding an enormous Crown Tourney, or singing at one of those bardic circles 'til dawn, take periodic stock-- how does your throat feel?  Like I said before, sometimes it helps to appoint a watchdog to tell you when they think you're sounding ragged.  Above all, be firm when you decide it's time to stop.  It's very gratifying when fans are clamoring for more, but you want to be singing for a long time to come; that won't happen if you don't learn your limits.

 

Smoking -- Just don't!

 

            Do you want to sing in ten years?  Twenty?  Listen to Frank Sinatra circa 1950 and then circa 1970.  Or Joni Mitchell in 1969 and 1990.  Age didn't cause that change; cigarettes did.  Health risks aside, which are your own business as long as you don't smoke around me, I promise you that regular smoking will eventually make you sound like you shoved a rasp down your throat.  Unless that's the sound you're going for, you’d better quit.

 

Exercise

 

Go back and review the warm-ups.  If you treat your throat well, it will give you years of faithful service, but let those muscles get flabby and it won’t matter how moist they are.  Because using your voice is a physical discipline, even experienced performers who are out of practice can suck.  They'll be better without practice than a novice performer without practice, but they won't be as good as they can be.  So use it carefully, but above all, USE IT!

 

 

At Last

 

            As I've already said many times, the voice is like any other instrument.  The more you practice with it, the better you'll be.  Sure, some people are born with better voices than others, but everybody can get better.  As with any muscular skill, nothing will help you improve faster than PRACTICE.  Sing (or recite) whenever you get the chance: in your car while stuck in traffic, while vacuuming the house, whatever.  I’m always singing at the top of my lungs when I’m in my car, and yes, other drivers sometimes look.  But they smile.  Despite themselves, they’re impressed with someone who isn’t afraid to look a little goofy, especially when they’re so obviously enjoying themselves.  And after honing your instrument, nothing will help your projection more than learning to be a little less self-conscious while performing, which again, only comes one way—by DOING!

 

 

 

 

Adelaide de Beaumont

m/k/a Lisa Theriot