From: gross@ssd.kodak.com (Dan Gross)
Subject: Vocal Exercise Responses (was Re: Vocal Exercises...)
Keywords: Resoponses received, many thanks!
Reply-To: gross@eksignal.kodak.com
Organization: Eastman Kodak
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 17:48:17 GMT


	Well, due to popular request, I am posting the responses I've 
received so far.  Many thanks to all who have responded.  If anybody
has anything to add, feel free.  I've included replies via E-mail and 
articles that have been posted.  Without any further adeiu, here they 
are...
					--Dan Gross

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From IK20050@MAINE.maine.edu Mon Dec 14 16:54:02 1992
Dan,
Hi!
I'm moving to the Rochester area on Dec. 23/24.  I too am a musician...
lead vocalist/songwriter....I have had classical training (operatic).
You might want to try drinking straight lemon juice (no joke!)  It
increases your voice range and gives it more vibrato.

I slug down lemon juice like it's going out of style...try it all day
the day of a performance...works wonders...

Andie.
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From: gds@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Greg Skinner)

This is an exercise I use to warm up.  Start at a note that is
comfortable for you and sing this exercise, once while trilling
(vibrating) your tongue, next by trilling your lip.  Repeat moving up
by half steps.

1-3-5-8-10-12-11-9-7-5-4-2-1

Do the same for this exercise, again moving up by half steps each
time.

1-5-3-8-5-3-1-5-3-8-5-3-1

Start this in your head voice, and move down each time by half steps.
Sing this exercise on "hwee"

8-5-3-1

--gregbo
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From: tim@research.nj.nec.com	(Tim Van Der Avoird)

Some very basic pieces of advice:

1. Try to do some singing every day.

2. Record your own vocals and listen what you like and don't like.

3. Try some experiments while you are singing. Record these experiments
   and listen if you like the results.

4. A good physical condition can also improve the strength of your
   voice.

5. Don't try too hard to improve your range. As long as it is sufficient,
   try to improve this range. Be careful not to overwork your voice by
   trying too hard to improve your range.

Tim
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From: lindaj@Solbourne.COM (Linda Weygant)

One thing I have seen done with varying degrees of success is vocal training
tapes.  You can get these at most music stores (not record and tape stores, 
but professional music stores)  Try not to go with a "metal screamer" tape (if
that's what you're in to) right away.  Try to start with the basics and work
your way up to screams, etc.  The key to these tapes is doing them alone at
first ot avoid the "self-conscious" phase.  Then have a (very good) friend
listen to you as you sing along with the tape to rate you.  

Good Luck.  I hope it works for You.
Linda
lindaj@solbourne.com
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From [elliott.chapin@canrem.com] Wed Dec 16 08:44:44 EST 1992

Don't go for range or strength too brute-force/direct; find the pitch,
loudness and vowels which give you the best chance at a good sound; then
extend gradually.

Elliott Chapin
---
  DeLuxe 1.12 #4315  elliott.chapin@canrem.com
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
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From newsserver.pixel.kodak.com!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!psgrain!charnel!sifon!CC.UMontreal.CA!IRO.UMontreal.CA!matrox!altitude!phaze!NewsGateway Thu Dec 17 08:41:46 EST 1992

Somebody else said "post to the net" so here I go.

I'm of the opinion that a teacher *REALLY* helps in vocal training. There
are just *SO* many techniques etc. Also, some are quite complex so I find
that I (at least) need feedback on whether I'm doing the right thing or not.
I'm not always able to hear my own faults until they're pointed out. Just
recently I was surprised to learn that I wasn't even completeing some
of my words. "It's beeeeecccccaaaaaauuuuuuu".

Improving range? Do you sing through your break or belt? If you don't use
your upper register, then smoothing the break can give tons of range. Mark
Baxter in "The Rock and Roll Singer's Survival Manual" (Pat Leonard Publ.)
discusses this at length.

Strength. Increasing general resonance is a good way. Cicely Berry (?)
in "Your Voice, what it is and what to do with it" (Virgin) describes a lot of
exercises to increase resonances. This is a book for speaking mainly (Ms
Berry is voice coach for the Royal Shakespeare Company) but it seems to me
that the exercises help singing as well. Americans may not appreciate what
she has to say about US Newscasters.

Also, last night I was reading the chapters on voice in "The Science of
Sound" by Thomas Ross-???? (Rossling?). (Actually a book on musical acoustics
in general). He mentioned that many untrained singers raise their larynxs
when they sing high notes (Mark Baxter mentions this and says it limits
range because if you raise your layrnx to get high notes, you can only
raise it so far!). Rossling then mentioned that lowering the layrnx (sp?) can
create another resonating cavity. I tried this and was surprised to get
a highly resonant sound I hadn't been able to obtain before.

He also mentions more complex methods, such as tuning the resonances of
the vocal passage to the note being sung. He doesn't give exercises, but
has some references at the end.

DISCLAIMER: I am not too good a vocalist, but I can safely claim to be
reading widely, practicing hard, and improving.

>From my limited experience I would strongly advise that people do look 
at different systems. There seem to be several different schools of thought
about what's important in singing. Rossling admits that the voice is not
yet well understood.

Hoping this is something vaguely approximating useful information,

Cheers,

Ross-c
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From newsserver.pixel.kodak.com!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!news!cod!healy Fri Dec 18 12:15:48 EST 1992


This month's Scientific American has an article on how the
voice works. Interesting reading.

Mike Healy

healy@nosc.mil
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From: scott@bbx.basis.com (Scott Amspoker)
>[...]
>Also, last night I was reading the chapters on voice in "The Science of
>Sound" by Thomas Ross-???? (Rossling?). (Actually a book on musical acoustics
>in general). He mentioned that many untrained singers raise their larynxs
>when they sing high notes (Mark Baxter mentions this and says it limits
>range because if you raise your layrnx to get high notes, you can only
>raise it so far!). Rossling then mentioned that lowering the layrnx (sp?) can
>create another resonating cavity. I tried this and was surprised to get
>a highly resonant sound I hadn't been able to obtain before.

Once, in a voice lesson, I was straining to reach a high note and was
coming up flat (and very tight).  My teacher told me not to reach for
the note but to mentally come down and land on the note from above.
After a little concentration I overshot the note by a halfstep and it
was a full sound (not tight).  Learning how to relax on the high notes
was a big breakthrough for me.  I still have to work at it but I've
noticed my useful upper limit extended by about a major third this
past year.  For a baritone trying to sing a genre of music that is
dominated by tenors, the extra range is very important.

-- 
Scott Amspoker                       |    
Basis International, Albuquerque, NM |  Too bad ignorance isn't really
                                     |  bliss.  Then it could be outlawed.
scott@bbx.basis.com                  |
-- 
Dan Gross              		716-726-7831           gross@eksignal.kodak.com
Signal Processing Dept.		"I'll always be a wordman,
Eastman Kodak EP Bldg 3, 1 fl     better than a birdman." - J. D. Morrison
Rochester NY 14653-5908         Kodak doesn't even WANT my opinion....
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers