Advice, Please, On How To Progress In Exercises?

DanC

Hi All,
I've been doing the exercises for about 3 weeks now. I feel I have the same issue as when I first started. I got the idea of a flat tongue, open throat, and uvula rising pretty quickly. But my tone is never "pingy" like Ken's is and others I have heard on these forums.

Here's a video of me doing a portion of the arpeggio exercise:
http://youtu.be/_fAeO-wp1Fg

Can anyone who's gone through this give me any advice on what I can do? Like... Is it something specific I need to change or will this slowly get better with time?

I've also been working on my speaking voice and I notice having a strong "pingy" tone is not a habit I have - I have to really focus on doing it. Otherwise I fall into a softer sounding tone.

Thanks!

Dan

highmtn

Dan,

Your old "really bad technique" has a brighter tone than your "Open Throat" example.

Your LAST NOTE on the whole video clip is very close to what you want. You're doing that sound on a low note. That "buzzy" sound, as you called it...

Take that sound and maintain that "buzzy" sound as you go up.

Part of the Bright Ping is having your cords firmly closed.

When Ken demonstrates "It's the LAH!!! AHHH!!! AHHH!!!!" Those last two "AHHH!!!'s" almost POP out at you. In other words, his cords are closed in such a way that it takes just a bit of air pressure (not too much) to get the sound to POP out. POP. PING. POW!!!

We can open our cords and let too much air through, which is the sound you demonstrate when you go up high and you're NOT getting the bright ping. That's more of a hooty sound. We want the Bright Pingy sound, and to get that you will have to close your cords a little more.

Practice the AHHH!!! AHHH! several times and see if you can make it pop and ping just a bit more. You don't want to clench your cords so tightly together that you can't get any air through or you have to yell or strain... you just want good cord closure. Cord closure and good support will help to get that ping.

The Open Throat is the resonating chamber for your instrument. The Cords are the Strings. Together, they work to form tone and, if you get a bright enough ping, that will help to form Resonance. Resonance will help to amplify your voice acoustically. Resonance is inefficient with a dull or airy tone. The bright tone is the ONLY tone that will grow your resonant voice to the Maximum Efficiency. You really want to develop this for the long run.

Try to get the cords brightened up with that pingier sound, and open up the vocal tract as you do. You don't have to overdo the open-ness of it. Opening up is emphasized because most people think they are opening up when they actually are not. Your original sound source (the cords) must be bright enough to begin with before any vocal tract shaping can become fully effective.

Give this a try and let us know how you're doing.

Bob