Body Singing by Breck Alan

Nashville and Online Vocal Coach

Why it’s crucial to budget ahead of time for vocal production

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Are you working on a new album?

With all of the expenses associated with music production, singers often forget one of the most important budget items.

I would say a huge percentage of what I do is vocal production. Either months, weeks, days, or hours ahead of time, singers contact me to work on songs they’re about to record or perform, or both.

The idea is to go through songs and find ways they can be improved, either technically, artistically or both.

This can produce some very tangible and desirable improvements. We sometimes get in a groove that doesn’t want to budge, and sometime it takes an outside force to help us see the way over to something freer, more powerful, more communicative, or all of the above.

I don’t have an agenda for singers and want to help in any way I can, but I will say that the further ahead of time you can go through the process of examining, adjusting and rehearsing changes the better. In many cases I can demonstrate some desirable changes that aren’t necessarily going to be possible immediately. You’d like time to work through the techniques involved to reach these changes and be natural and genuine with them.

We want to be in a place where our intention guides our singing, but there are times we have to lock ourselves in a room with some new ideas and approaches and make them our own. There might be some struggle involved in that process and even though certain types of energetic struggles can be desirable in performing, fighting technique, is rarely attractive.

Waiting until the day of recording and having a producer start requesting difficult changes in your singing is more than likely only going to cause frustration, and we’ll hear that in the song.

So do yourself a favor, and budget some time and money ahead of time to do some Vocal Production for your project. Working with someone that has years of experience and some technical skills to teach you the steps to attain your goals, will prove invaluable not just for this project, but will leave you at a higher level of expertise for the next project and the performances of the material you’re about to record.

Here’s to thinking ahead.

Have fun,

Breck Alan

Mumbling

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Mumbling

Stan Bloodworthy, Detroit MI:    I sing in a rock band and really enjoy it. I’ve had several people tell me that they can’t understand what I’m singing. My girlfriend says I sound like I’m mumbling? What can I do about that.

Breck:       You need to think a bit about articulation. Articulation is best achieved by the ear. This simply means “want to be heard and want to be understood.” Often singers mumble because they’re not confident in some part of their presentation. Maybe it’s their lyrics, maybe it’s their tone, maybe it’s their stage presence. If you want to be understood then be clear in what you’re saying/singing. So much of that is achieved by listening to yourself. Something you’ll hear me say a lot is “the first part of voice is the ear.”
That said, the first thing is to understand about articulation is the concept “Living on the Vowel and Skipping off the Consonant.” We sustain vowels and connect them with consonants. Really learning how to think of singing as “phrases” and not just notes and words smoothes a singer out and makes their singing more liquid. I also like to purify  a singer’s vowels early on by teaching them about diphthongs. Diphthongs are two vowel sounds glued together to produce a vowel. For example: “I” = ahh eee and “A” = ehhh  eee. You can only sing one of these sounds at a time and be clear.
These are a few of the main things. We’ll talk more about this and related subjects soon.

Have fun seeking clarity.

How to Learn Scream Vocals

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How to do Scream Vocals without hurting yourself.

The Question From John H.  Buffalo NY……….is……..
I was trained with a classical background. My teachers always taught me to sing with a clean tone, and stressed that singing with a throaty or growly tone would cause permanent damage to my throat. However I find this limiting when I try to sing certain styles of music that seem to require a more guttural feel. Can I get the gravelly/throaty/screamy tone that some singers get without damaging my voice?

The stock answer to the growly or throaty tone question is that it’s only achievable if the singer is born with a speaking voice that has the same growly or throaty quality. I however do not subscribe to this stock theory. I refer to this throaty tone as throat resonance and seeing this tone as resonance is the key to safely learning how to add this color to your palette.

There are gillions of examples of singers out there that have successfully navigated the “Edgy tone” and had long and fruitful careers. The key is as with all singing that it must be accomplished without excess pressure on the vocal cords. It is not screaming!! In fact if you pay attention to singers that use the edgier tones correctly you’ll hear that most of them are not excessively loud. The throat tone projects very well as does Nasal resonance, but that is not synonymous with screaming. It is the projection of this resonance (and the illusion of screaming) that makes it so appealing for more aggressive music. It carries well over other instruments.

Placement is the key to this as with all resonance.  The first focus of placement as with all healthy and good sounding singing is to “anchor” your tone.  This refers to the age old voice term “singing over the throat.”  What this means is that the beginning of all resonance is at the top back of your mouth where your uvula hangs down.  Once the vocal cords produce the initial pitch and tone then the sound must initially vibrate at this spot in your body before being magnified and colored by additional resonance from your nasal passage, mouth, chest and throat.  When you’re good at anchoring your tone and can produce a non-airy clean tone without strain and harshness then you are in a position to re-direct your resonance back into your throat and attach the growly throat resonance to your tone.  Direction of resonance is a multi step learning process that cannot be covered in a single magazine article.   There are many techniques I use to teach singers to direct their resonance from their brightest nasal resonance down to their deepest chest resonance and all points in between.  Once a singer is good at going from one direction in resonance to the next then they must learn to work in both directions at the same time.  Meaning attaching the bright resonance to the deep resonance so we can hear them both at the same time.  That is the same thing that must be done with attaching some throat resonance to a solid well-anchored clean tone.  It’s a bit of walking and chewing gum but if you’re patient with the steps then you’ll be able to put them together in time.
Practice in your middle lower range first, feeling what it feels like to direct the resonance up and down from your chest to your nasal passage. Doing this can best be described as going from a yawny low larynx sound “umb” for the chest sound up to a buzzy eeee sound for the bright nasal tone.  Be as gentle and quiet as you can and really work on doing all of these placements with a non-airy tone. When you are good at this and have spent enough time to understand how to blend these resonance’s well and move them at will, then you are ready to begin gently trying to direct resonance into your soft palate and throat area. There is a mild compression (slight constriction in the throat that goes against everything we first teach a singer) involved in this maneuver but it must not create excess pressure in the throat. Finesse. This is the safest type of throat resonance but it is not to be used until there is an effortless quality to it. That comes with careful practice. You must also be well warmed up before you even begin playing with it.
The other type of throat resonance often heard is of the glottal fry nature. These are the edges of the vocal cords creating the buzzy resonance. This is often used by singers to get that smoky kind of rasp.  This one is more associated with a slightly airy tone.  You should allow this one come more or less on it’s own to you when experimenting with resonance.  This can be successful for some but dangerous when a singer using this tone tries to amplify it too much. They end up pushing through the throat and invariable cause vocal health problems. The earlier mentioned non-airy type of throat resonance is far more desirable for high projection instances. In conclusion, growly/throaty/screamy tone is a learnable technique, but takes a lot of skill and patience. If it hurts, you are doing it wrong.

Bruised Larynx!!!!

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Bruised Larynx!!!!

Linda M.
Anchorage, Alaska

My toddler accidentally  head-butted  me in the throat and now I can’t
even talk without discomfort, much less sing. Very disconcerting! I
have a performance scheduled in a month. Do you know if it
should be better by then?

Breck:     You should probably be fine in a few days. If it’s still within the first 24 hours I would ice it like any other trauma with swelling. Crushed ice would work best. The larynx is like a little box of cartilage woven together by muscle tissue. Unless you really damaged the structure of this you should be fine when then swelling goes down and the bruising subsides. I would go to a health food store or natural pharmacy and get some Arnica. It’s magical for bruised and damaged tissue. If you fear you might have damaged the structure of your larynx, then you do need to see a doctor!!! I understand how scary that is for a singer. I won’t allow anyone to even touch my throat.
The answer to when you can sing again depends a lot upon how good your singing habits are. If you’re not a singer with great finesse then I would probably wait for about a week. If you have great control, then you’ll know when.

Vibrato

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Vibrato

Terry Coleman, Boulder, Colorado:    Is the vibrato learned through the technique using slow to faster pulsing a “real” vibrato,” or is it contrived? Could using this technique do harm? Is there a better way to develop the vibrato and is it true that other ways take a very long time?

Breck:       Once long ago as a youngster I was in Berlin pre unification. Like all tourists I had one thing on my mind – the Berlin wall. I asked a local person how I could find it and she grumbled, “don’t look for the wall. It will find you.” Years later I asked a great voice teacher Peter Elvins how to get vibrato. He said something reminiscent of the crotchety Berliner, “don’t worry about your vibrato. It will come when it’s ready.” It took me awhile to understand what he meant but it did eventually become clear. When you focus on good tone production, vibrato becomes a natural element that falls into place. The vibrato I teach to singers is something I call “Open Body Vibrato.” This true vibrato is a natural balance of breath and resonance. It is possible only when a singer is capable of an open, unforced and sustained tone. When you sing a well placed, non airy sustained tone practice patience first. Listen to this tone and begin to make adjustments. This is best done when a singer has a good understanding of how resonance and placement work. The first place to focus on placement is at the post nasal position inside your mouth. This is right where your uvula hangs down. This is what I call the “Anchor” in singing and is basically the sound board of the voice. This is the beginning of resonance for the voice after the initial pitch and tone created by the vocal cords. All other resonance from the nasal passage, the mouth and the chest is attached to that initial placement. If you are well-Anchored and your support system (breath control) is even and not pushy, you will begin to hear the vibrato happening naturally. Because this true “Open Body Vibrato” is a type of echoing effect of the resonance in your body it is adjustable by making slight changes in resonance. If you direct your resonance upwards towards your nasal passage, it will become faster because that is the smallest resonance chamber. Conversely, if you direct your resonance more into your body (chest) it will slow down because that is the largest resonance chamber. Does this kind of vibrato take more time and patience then the type you described in your question? Yes it does. But it’s worth it because it’s real and when a singer finds it through this kind of process there are so many other things that come to them along the way.
The technique you described is indeed capable of causing harm if you are creating too much pressure on your vocal cords and larynx. And yes, this type of vibrato sounds very contrived and phony. Singing is largely about conveying emotion, and as in any type of communication honest emotion is desirable. That said I always maintain that anything a singer tries as long as it doesn’t hurt him/her is fair game. A huge part of learning and continuing to enjoy any instrument is in experimentation and discovery. So if you are careful with it, you might find some interesting embellishments that you enjoy.

Have patience, the slow way is the fast way.

Does Everyone Need Voice Lessons?

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Does Everyone Need Voice Lessons?

Stephanie F- Elkhart, Indiana – I went to a vocal instructor in my hometown.  She asked me to sing for her so I did.  She said that I don’t need voice lessons, that I have a beautiful voice and that I could probably teach her a thing or two.  Is it true that a person who sings so perfectly doesn’t need lessons? Anyone can use lessons right?

Breck- That’s a cool question.  In the March 2003 edition of Singer Magazine I answered a question titled “Does study ruin style?”  This is often a concern from singers that have a unique style and are afraid to lose it by going to a voice teacher.  I haven’t heard you sing and I don’t know the qualifications of the voice teacher you went to.  She might be very skilled and completely accurate.  She might not have enough experience to recognize things you could improve.  So at the moment you’re exactly the same singer you were before you went to see her.  But let’s say you went to a not-so-great teacher that said you needed a lot of work.  She might have proceeded to have you do all kinds of strange vocal teacher things and sing a bunch of songs you hated, really changing your perspective.  She might have even done all this in an unhealthy manner leaving you at a loss what to do next.  It happens.  So if you’re still interested in finding out more about where you stand, you might research the vocal teachers in your area and find someone who specializes in technique, and will let you sing whatever style of music you want.   Find a teacher that has a healthy vocal warm-up to teach you.  This way, even if you are already a perfect singer, you can keep your voice healthy for the rest of your life.  And maybe that is all you need. If you sound great and can tap into your music on an emotional level, then what else is there?  I can’t resist in answering that question with “variety.”  A great teacher will teach you to explore many avenues of singing and leave you with a lot of variety.  That said, some our favorite singers only do it one way, their way, and we love it.

The Right Reason to Pursue Music

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Jason Fynch NYC – I’ve been a bit depressed about the music business lately. When I finally realized I wasn’t going to be a famous rock star I had a hard time being motivated to play. Now I realize I was playing music all those years and sacrificing a more stable future for all of the wrong reasons. Still, I feel empty with out it. Your thoughts on all of this would be appreciated.

Breck – What shame is there in wanting to be famous? Any one doing music several times a week and putting themselves through the insanity of that, loves it and is doing it because they love it, even if they seem to have a another motive to begin with.
The difference between someone really pursuing music as a career and the person with another profession pursuing music as a hobby is rarely the love of music but a difference in agendas. Some people are just more willing than others to endure the discomfort of poverty and insecurity for a cause than are other people. I’ve known many people with other careers that pursue music on nights and weekends that desperately wish they could do it as a career. They love music. Many of them are not in love with their jobs but are of the opinion that there is no chance of success in the music business so they choose a more responsible path. They choose a direction that affords them a nice lifestyle with some security and a chance to do their passion as a hobby. They are probably the wise ones. Statistically speaking their chance of success is almost exactly the same as someone that pursues music as a full time career. It’s an itty, bitty, teeny, tiny chance of success. And that’s assuming the hobbyist is somewhat serious and actually throws a little music out into the world with their homemade CD, the song-writer contest every now and then and the bar gig every few months. You gotta at least play the lotto a little if you ever even dream about winning it.
The point is they love it to. Your argument would suggest that they do it for the right reason, which is just because they love it.

One could argue that it is the passionate ones that create great art. And it has been a rather universal opinion that sacrifice is needed to really feel passion. Therefore regardless of the outcome so far you can feel good in the fact that you have lived a passionate life despite your feelings of disappointment.

On the other hand I’ve never met a person that was truly pursuing music or any other art form that didn’t have a pretty deep love for. It didn’t mean they were necessarily good at it but they loved it. It’s very often the people that are just as in love with the idea of stardom as they are the actual music they do that live out their star character and bring that character forward in their performance. When it works it works because truly there are just as many people or more perhaps that follow musical trends for what they represent fashion-wise as to what they represent musically. The problem is that when it doesn’t work then you end up with a burnt out unsuccessful rock star. Now that’s the worst kind of rock star. And you know what? The world is full of them.
Basically you’re feeling disappointed because your expectations weren’t met. Well I hate to say this but in the music biz most expectations are not met. There’s a brutal saying in the pursuit of art that goes “if you can quite, do.” It’s a matter of self preservation and you have a right to not feel disappointed all of the time.
What I will say is that most of the people I‘ve ever known who have worked as hard as it takes to pursue music have come out the other side as very driven, motivated people and have turned that into a functional way of being in many different walks of life. Many of those people have stayed in music as educators, producers, agents, managers, record label owners or employees, equipment dealers etc.
It’s sad to see that things can disappoint us and burn us out to the extent that we don’t want to do them any more. But if that is the case it’s not necessary to feel guilty about it. I think people that pursue big lives end up leading several lifetimes. And if music was another lifetime for you then be happy and proud that you had that lifetime. I’m sure it will enrich you in whatever you do.