Warmups In G Major and E Minor

timliu92

Dear KTVA,

Recently I have been trying to use Ken's advice for a brighter sound. Accordingly, I decided to do a warmup in both G Major and E minor. I use the 'laaaa' sound to get that bright sound and realize that it becomes so much easier to access that G4 now (being a high baritone, a G4/G#4 needs warmup for me). I feel that it is not bright enough. Am I right on this?



At the same time, I use a darker 'eeee' vowel for my warmup in E minor and realize that the sound is still resonating even when I go for a slightly darker sound.



I am looking for feedbacks as according to the warmups. Thanks all!

highmtn

You're right. Your Lah needs to be brighter still. Your EE is also very darks, and sounds best right at the end of your EE demo, where it's a little brighter at the end.

Bob

Semi

Hi @timliu92,

I can hear a bel canto approach, perhaps you had some classical training before. This approach would work well for the this kind of singing, but if you wish to sing pop/rock stuff you really need to brighten the sound. Otherwise it would be too difficult to pair it down as you ascend the scale and sing safely in your belting register up to the high C and beyond. Try to copy Ken`s sound in videos and workouts. I found out that videos with @Joshua Barnes, Adam Spizzo and Alex helped immensely with brightening my sound.

Sam

timliu92

@highmtn @Semi Hi all, thanks for the advice! I have an issue though - everytime I try to follow the 'laaaaa' sound that Ken has always instructed his students in his first few lessons, it always produces the slightly nasal sound that I have always wanted to avoid. How do we ensure that the tone is still bright yet always keeping the nice quality at the same time?

highmtn

You may have a misconception about what you consider to be "nasal" and what is "nice quality". If you want to hear a sound without any "nasal" in it, pinch your nose shut and sing. Do you like that sound? That is your sound without any "nasal".

People are afraid to have a natural sound so they become afraid that if there is any "nasal" sound in their voice, then it is ugly. To me, if you pinch off all flow through the nose, that is not the sound that I want.

Read up on "mask" and then re-think your concepts about "nasal". Classical singers have relied upon "singing into the mask" for hundreds of years, and consider it to be a part of Bel Canto, or "beautiful singing".

Bob