Hey everyone! It's time for your favorite voice teacher to take you to school. This exercise is amazing - but similarly to wine consumption on a Tuesday night, too much can leave you questioning your life choices on Wednesday. Ya feel me? Here's what to keep in mind:
You must start your sound with a lifted soft palate. Your sound must feel like it can start from that lifted place, or it will come from your throat.
Don't know what I mean by that? Pretend you're going to yawn and put your sound WAY at the top of your yawn.
Your breathe MUST start before your sound. That means you will see bubbles moving in your cup before you make a sound. Even if it's just a half second before.
You must blow your sound through your straw. Your sound will be super quiet because you're singing into water. If it's super loud, that means it's probably just chillin in your mouth. Get it out of there!!
You should feel your sound on the roof of your mouth at all times. Pretend it's a beautiful rainbow coming from the back of your mouth into your water. If your sound comes crashing down from the roof of your mouth, you lost control of your breathe. Whoops. Start again, sis.
If you had a crashing down moment, let's check in with your breathe. When you breathe in, you fill your diaphragm with air, which means your belly should puff out a little bit. No tension, just a little bit. When you breathe out, your belly should slowly pull in toward your spine. The key word is SLOWLY.
We like to over-complicate our breathing in singing. Your body knows what to do - don't get in its way. When you were belting out Barney at 5 years old, you didn't think about your singing technique. It just happened.
If five notes is too much for you, just practice sliding pitches around.
If you had a splash mountain moment and got all wet, make sure your glass isn't too full and DON'T BLOW SO HARD! It isn't a trumpet, ya fool. You need to feel like you're five years old blowing bubbles into your chocolate milk. We've all been there, Linda. Don't pretend you didn't.
Now before you say "LINDSAY THIS DOESN'T WORK YOU'RE INSANE" - this may not work for everyone. We are all at different stages in our singing journeys and maybe you're not ready to be a magical, singing mermaid yet. That's okay. Take the straw OUT of the water and practice blowing air through the straw. When you get comfortable with that, add some sound. It just means that your throat muscles want to be twins with your abdomen muscles. When your abs pull in, don't let your throat muscles pull in. They can't be friends, ya'll. They just can't. Your throat muscles need to open up and RELAX so your abs can move the air through.
If you have questions, let me know! I am always here to help you find your inner 5 year old.