For the voice exercises in the next sections you’re going to be using the six-step sequence below.
The first five steps you’ll be familiar with from the exercises in Part One, and are both a useful reminder of the skills you built there and a gradual preparation for step 6, when you’ll be switching your voice on and off on a range of notes without the help of a hum or friendly consonant. This final step gives you another level of control of your Better Voice, so that you can start phrases when singing (or individual words when speaking) whose sounds don’t assist your technique, or may even work against it.
Using this sequence for the voice exercises will ensure your voice is solidly head-focused.
Step 1: Hum each note
Hum each note of the exercise, on either an mmmm or an nnnn.
Step 2: Hum then aah on each note
On each note start with a hum, then allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open on an aah. Your voice should be in the same place (i.e. your head and nasal cavities) on the hum and the aah.
Step 3: Friendly phrases
Do the exercise using one (and then others) of the friendly phrases. Don’t attempt to make the words clear to start with. Just sketch in the sounds gently, using the hummy consonants to help you focus the note. In the more challenging exercises it is likely to take a while before you can articulate the words clearly while maintaining your Better Voice technique.
Step 4: Initial hum then continuous aah
Start the first note of the exercise with a hum and allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open on an aah. Then keep your mouth open while moving smoothly on the aah to the other notes in turn.
Step 5: Continuous aah
Imagine a hum at the start of the first note but don’t make the sound. Allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open, and produce all the notes of the exercise on a continuous aah sound.
Step 6: aah on each note
Imagine, but don’t voice, a hum on the first note then switch on an aah as you did in step 5. Switch that note off. Repeat the process on each note of the exercise so that you produce a separate aah sound on each note.
The audios in Section 1.4 demonstrate the sequence.
For the voice exercises in the next sections you’re going to be using the six-step sequence below.
The first five steps you’ll be familiar with from the exercises in Part One, and are both a useful reminder of the skills you built there and a gradual preparation for step 6, when you’ll be switching your voice on and off on a range of notes without the help of a hum or friendly consonant. This final step gives you another level of control of your Better Voice, so that you can start phrases when singing (or individual words when speaking) whose sounds don’t assist your technique, or may even work against it.
Using this sequence for the voice exercises will ensure your voice is solidly head-focused.
Step 1: Hum each note
Hum each note of the exercise, on either an mmmm or an nnnn.
Step 2: Hum then aah on each note
On each note start with a hum, then allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open on an aah. Your voice should be in the same place (i.e. your head and nasal cavities) on the hum and the aah.
Step 3: Friendly phrases
Do the exercise using one (and then others) of the friendly phrases. Don’t attempt to make the words clear to start with. Just sketch in the sounds gently, using the hummy consonants to help you focus the note. In the more challenging exercises it is likely to take a while before you can articulate the words clearly while maintaining your Better Voice technique.
Step 4: Initial hum then continuous aah
Start the first note of the exercise with a hum and allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open on an aah. Then keep your mouth open while moving smoothly on the aah to the other notes in turn.
Step 5: Continuous aah
Imagine a hum at the start of the first note but don’t make the sound. Allow your jaw to drop and your mouth to open, and produce all the notes of the exercise on a continuous aah sound.
Step 6: aah on each note
Imagine, but don’t voice, a hum on the first note then switch on an aah as you did in step 5. Switch that note off. Repeat the process on each note of the exercise so that you produce a separate aah sound on each note.
The audios in Section 1.4 demonstrate the sequence.
