Breath Management

Some years ago one of the members on Vocalist asked for exercises to strengthen her “weak and lazy” diaphragm. The following is what I wrote to her and the members of Vocalist.  It elicited a very strong response and has been included on a number of web sites that specialize in vocal music and singing. […]

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More on Formants

Mathew, as a new reader, has asked a lot of questions about the Singers Formant and Formants in general.  This has opened a lot of doors that require some explanations.  I will try to answer as directly and concisely as possible but this will be a bit long.  Since this is a response to his […]

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Handkerchief Vowel Humming

Humming through a folded handkerchief is an excellent method of teaching the correct way to balance vocal tone with breath pressure and it is simple to do. Place a folded handkerchief, folded four times, over your forefinger.  Place the forefinger parallel with your mouth, gently close your lips over the finger so that they seal […]

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More about Lip Trills

Some additional thoughts about Lip Trills I have never found the lip trill to be very productive for most students even those that have no difficulty getting their lips to “flubber”.  And the reasons for this is that lip trills encourages excessive air flow which is not the desired description of the well phonated vocal […]

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Semi-occluded Exercises

Vowel exercises that use semi-occluded lip positions. Here are some exercises that I have used to help students develop a vocal tone this is rich yet easy to produce.  They are all based on the concept that good vocal tone is a combination of efficient and clear phonation assisted by resonance adjustments that compliment the […]

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