March 2018 – DevelopingVoices

PAJAMA MOVES – easy, fun ways to maintain a healthy voice and body

EXERCISE! Thoughts of pain, time, and hassle? It doesn’t have to be that way.

Change the word to MOVEMENT to help you feel good just about all the time.

You don’t need to move your body fast and work hard in order to experience life changing benefits. You do not have to go to the gym, go to a class only offered a certain time of the day. You do not have to buy cute little work-out clothes. The only exercise I do in public is walking, riding my bike and dancing on the impromptu rare occasions I find the opportunity. I have never been able to maintain fighting traffic to get to an exercise class on time in the right clothes and with the water bottle in tow. I want to do it when it is convenient for me and without conversing with others while doing it.

But, why must we move? Because that’s just the way it is. If you don’t find an enjoyable way to keep moving you won’t be able to.

Full realization of singing can be hindered by bodies that are heavier than an optimum weight range. There can be a reduction in strength, endurance and range of mobility in respiratory, laryngeal, and vocal tract coordinations.

Every function of every organ and system in your body is enhanced by body movement. When they are activated, your:
1. Respiratory and circulatory systems deliver more oxygen and glucose to the muscles that enable more cognitive sharpness.
2. Metabolism increases.
3. Glands of the immune systems are better supported and protected(1).

The most important thing is to be consistent and use appropriate movements. This does not have to involve heavy weight lifting, aerobic classes, or even a personal trainer.

3 PAJAMA APPS – STAY IN YOUR JAMMIES AND STAY AT HOME –

Down Dog Yoga App

Down Dog: My absolute favorite app in the world. Love it even more than iBooks!
Best feature: Operator friendly
Important features: FREE! You can upgrade to choose what kind of music you want and what areas you want to concentrate on. Deals throughout the year as low as $29.99
Beginner to advance. 10 – 60 minute work outs that you can save to repeat.
Nice voice to listen to for an hour.

Sworkit App

Sworkit: Free trial, but then you have to pay to play.
Best feature: Designs 6 week plan for you based on age, gender, weight and skill.
Important features: Offers challenges and quick workouts.

Tai Chi: Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and health benefits. The term taiji refers to a philosophy of the forces of yin and yang.
Best feature: Lovely traditional Chinese music in background.
Great features: Written and oral explanation of every move. FREE! But, when you are ready to move to the next level you must upgrade.

Worth checking out online:

Babette Lightner

THE LIGHTNER METHOD:

Ease common chronic physical pain such as knee, back and shoulder pain.
Shift frustration, anxiety or worry to clarity and calm.
Transform effort, strain in moving to light, lively mobility.
Experience
Experiencing your current capabilities rather than always try to improve/change.

THE ANCIENT ART OF MINDLESS WALKING:

Walking.Mindless.

THE TAKE AWAY:
You don’t need to carve out an hour a day or even a few days a week. You can do small twelve minute sessions of any movement to receive a great benefit. I often do just a twelve minute beginner yoga session before I go to work because I just don’t have the time to do more. Those twelve minutes make a vast difference in my stamina, outlook and focus.

I hope you’ll give it a try!

Footnotes
1). Thurman, L. & Welch, G. (2000). bodymind & voice: foundations of voice education. The VoiceCare Network, USA, Book 3, 639-640.

What’s the big deal about healthy singing?

. . . I didn’t know what a larynx was, I thought the diaphragm was something you “sing from,” and I could barely access my head voice. I had spent four years pushing my voice to its limits as a high school cheerleader. Then I became a choral conductor . . .

. . . because of my passion for singing, my love of choral music, and for the challenges and rewards that come with working with young people. While all of those things still apply to my practice, a humbling experience early in my teaching career gave me new direction and a new priority:

to provide adolescent singers with healthy singing techniques, and to make them aware of the consequences of using the voice in harmful ways. As a young teacher, I endured a personal struggle with several of these consequences.

While voice lessons can offer the opportunity to learn proper technique in a one-on-one setting, most young singers do not have the time for, access to, or interest in private lessons. The task of providing vocal technique was therefore left to my middle and high school choir directors. I loved my directors; they built my confidence, taught me the fundamentals of music, and nourished a passion for ensemble performance—but our curriculum did not emphasize healthy singing.

By the time I started college, I had spent my entire singing life trying to belt Broadway tunes and pop songs with the trademark sounds of the famous voices on the radio. I didn’t know what a larynx was, I thought the diaphragm was something you “sing from,” and I could barely access my head voice. I also spent four years pushing my voice to its limits as a cheerleader for my high school. Needless to say, my college instructor had her work cut out for her!

The music program at Washburn University gave me the opportunity to grow as a singer. Even as I learned more about vocal technique, healthy singing was still not a cornerstone of my degree program. When I entered the teaching profession after graduation, the consequences of old vocal habits finally came to bear. In my first year teaching Kindergarten-8th grade music, I began to experience vocal fatigue. It was a struggle to make it through every week, and I wondered why I barely had a voice by Friday. It was frustrating and, frankly, embarrassing. How could I be a good example if I could not effectively model how I wanted my students to sing? Only after I began my post graduate studies at University of Kansas, did I learn the true importance of vocal pedagogy. Regular voice lessons with Steve Scott also helped me work my way back to a healthy singing voice.

The experience was humbling on many levels, but my vocal struggles ignited a new passion for me as a choir teacher: I regularly expose my students to the biomechanics and physiology of the voice so they too can learn about the importance of healthy singing. They learn about the demands they are making on their bodies and the importance of practicing good technique. They also learn about the consequences of bad habits—including the ones that gave me so much trouble. I believe this approach has yielded better student engagement and produced young singers who are more cognizant and more confident. In the future, as a new author to Developing Voices, I’ll detail some effective ways to incorporate healthy singing into the choral curricula.

Jennifer Berroth, Choral Training with Summer Singers of Kansas City

Jennifer Berroth, Leewood Middle School

L – Ms. Berroth leading Choral Training for Summer Singers of Kansas City, an ensemble of the William Baker Choral Foundation.

R – Ms. Berroth and the Leewood Middle School Chorus.

The Breathy Girl’s Changing Voice

Two videos attached for your reading enhancement ~

My favorite part of being a voice teacher is working with “Changing Voice Girls.” An email arrived this morning from Becca (8^th grade) who has an audition for a select 9-12 girls touring chorus. She’s been making bi-weekly recordings of her singing for me this season so that I can track her voice change progress. In January I noticed her sound becoming progressively more “breathy” and “gunky” so when I received the following message today, I was not surprised! Here is our exchange:

March 2018

Hi Miss Jamea!

My voice has just recently started to fade away. I have to work a lot harder than usual to sing even the S1 part of “Let the Sea Make a Noise[1]”. Do you have any tips that might help? Just a couple weeks ago I would have said with confidence I have a good chance of making the top girls’ choir next year, but now my sound doesn’t sound as pure as before.

Thanks!

Becky

~~~~~~~~~

Hi Becky!

I noticed on your recordings that some changes are a-coming! The most important thing at this time is to keep singing with all the healthy practices that you’ve learned. No pushing or forcing the voice. It’s going to be a bit breathy and gunky for a while. That’s ok! We know that this is normal and that most girls auditioning for the first time to the touring chorus are in this stage.

Girls.Vocal.Chink.Image. — Adolescent Female Vocal Folds.

Helpful Guidelines:

Practice daily. It’s important to stay ‘conditioned.’
Drink lots of water & swallow (or spit) the gunky stuff.
Avoid coughing or clearing as this is wearing and damaging to the vocal folds. Take care of the voice!

– Your sound will not have the same clarity as last year, but you will still do your ‘set up’ the same as always. We’ll keep watch that you don’t start any unproductive habits like:

pulling the lips, arching the tongue, over-blowing the air (this actually makes the breathiness worse)
pushing/pressing the sound, or even getting a strange head/body posture started. These things would ultimately undermine the sound.
Support the breath just like you have been! Nothing needs to change from what you’ve been up to already. You will feel like you don’t have enough air because you’re leaking[2]! It’s normal!

You can still get resonance. The more relaxed your teeth/mouth/jaw/pharynx is, the better! When these things are in place, your breath will be more efficient!

Vocal Exercises:

Descending glissandos. Start with your lighter head voice production and maintain that sound throughout the exercise.
Ascending glissandos throughout the range. You want the voice to sound even from top to bottom. If you feel a ‘yodel’ or ‘break’ in the slide, focus on:

1.) maintaining lighter “production” all the way through the line.

2.) energizing the breath where the break happens. (The tendency is often to back off when there’s a hitch, but you must keep that breath moving!) Note: when I say “light,” I don’t mean wimpy tone: I’m saying not to use a ”muscular” or “heavy” tone.

Skip-intervals will add flexibility to your voice. Strive for accuracy and ease. (“Let the Sea Make a Noise” has great melismas that make a perfect exercise!)
Sing your own voice! If you start trying to “do” your old sound or a more mature sound, you will likely be going in the wrong direction. Your new “changing” voice is beautiful. Embrace it!

XOXO

Miss Jamea

[1] “Let the Sea Make a Noise” by George Frideric Handel, Arr. Jacob Narverud for SSA & Piano. S1 range is E4 – G5, S2 range is D4 – D5, A1 range is A3 – B4. (This is Becky’s required audition piece.)

[2] During female adolescent changing voice, girls’ vocal folds develop a gap (place where the folds don’t fully close). This is an occurrence that is normal and that will eventually pass given good technique and time.

Please watch stroboscopy showing small posterior gap or vocal chink in normal teenage girl:

Allegro Choirs of Kansas City perform “Let the Sea Make a Noise”, Georg Frideric HANDEL. Christy Elsner, Director; Jamea Sale, Vocal Coach.

7am Children’s Choir Rehearsal?

Honor Choir coming before school to rehearse? How do you structure the vocal warm up? Is the warm up the same as the afternoon class? Should the warm up at 7am be the same as the vocal warm up at 7pm? This video shows how to get the brain, body and voice engaged so the early morning rehearsal is the most productive it can be.

In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.

Your Body is Your Instrument.

Keeping in great physical shape is a professional necessity for singers.

Exercise improves singing by increasing your cardiovascular strength and breath stamina. A good sweat stimulates your endorphins and strengthens overall muscle tone. If you chose the right kind of exercise at the right time of day, you will feel relaxed, clearheaded, and invigorated.

Recommended Exercise for Singers

Swimming

One of the best exercises for singers is swimming. It conditions your heart and lungs, strengthens your abdominal and rib muscles, and increases your breath capacity.

Martial Arts and Yoga

Both of these can help with stage anxiety. Body alignment, breath control, power confidence and energy will also improve. Yoga can further help with strength, balance, mental clarity, concentration and relaxation. Tai Chi, a fluid Chinese martial art, can teach you to center your energy while building a sense of connection to the breath.

Many studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory (the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex) possess greater volume in people who exercise as opposed to people who don’t.

What’s good for the heart is good for the brain . . .

Aerobic exercise improves brain function, but also acts as a “first aid kit” on damaged brain cells.
Exercising in the morning before going to work not only spikes brain activity and prepares you for mental stresses throughout the day, but also produces increased retention of new information, and better reaction to complex situations.
Hitting a wall or mentally exhausted? Try rebooting with a few jumping jacks for your brain improvement exercises.

Active brain cells stimulate a better blood supply so cells get more oxygen and nutrients. With increased connections, cells get more stimulation and generate more activity.

Breathing is a function that is fortunately controlled by our bodies autonomic nervous system. Autonomic control means that our body can effectively regulate respiration without us having to consciously think about every breathe we take. Basically, for the majority of our day our diaphragm and lungs are on cruise control.

Early Morning Sequential Vocal Warm-Up

Structure your vocal warm up to include movement to stimulate circulation, engage the diaphragm, and jump-start the brain with exercises that make the brain think.

Body movement to call on the diaphragm to be more efficient – taking it out of cruise control.
Establish head voice, mixed voice, chest voice
Differentiate resonators from articulators
Aural training and intonation

Continue reading 7am Children’s Choir Rehearsal?

Ach! The Noise, Noise, Noise!

Digital decibel sign in Shanghai, China

photos and video attached ~

One question I often get from Americans: Is China noisy? Is it noisier than living in the states?

I am amazed that even though I live in midtown Zhuhai, a city of 1 million plus residents, it is very quiet. The only sound I am hearing when the sun comes up is the rooster that lives a couple of blocks away!

As I am out and about, I see no TV monitors in waiting rooms. There are no TVs playing annoying talk shows in hospitals. There are no monitors playing loud music and commercials at gas stations or on buses. There is no Muzak playing in restaurants. One can actually have a conversation with friends, the main reason I dine out. There are large numbers of people just about everywhere I go, but comparatively speaking I experience a more quiet environment than in the states.

We often talk about keeping our voices healthy. But, we forget that this includes protecting our hearing too. Surely, all this constant over-stimulation elevates our blood pressure and causes many other unhealthy responses. For now, let’s stick to how this noise can bring about hearing loss . . .

Any sound above 85 dB (decibels) can cause hearing loss, and the loss is related both to the power of the sound as well as the length of exposure. If you have to raise your voice to be heard by somebody else you are listening to at least an 85-dB sound.

Eight hours of 90-dB sound can cause damage to your ears; any exposure to 140-dB sound causes immediate damage (and causes actual pain).

Environmental Noise

Whisper Quiet Library 30dB

Normal conversation at 3′ 60-65dB

City traffic (inside car) 85dB

Jackhammer, 50′ 95dB

Subway train, 200′ 95dB

Power mower, 3′ 107dB

Rock concert 115dB

Sound Levels of Music
Normal piano practice	60 -70dB
Fortissimo Singer, 3′	70dB
Chamber music, small auditorium	75 – 85dB
Piano Fortissimo	84 – 103dB
Violin	82 – 92dB
Cello	85 -111dB
Oboe	95-112dB
Flute	92 -103dB
Piccolo	90 -106dB
Clarinet	85 – 114dB
French horn	90 – 106dB
Trombone	85 – 114dB
Tympani & bass drum	106dB
Walkman on 5/10	94dB
Symphonic music peak	120 – 137dB
Amplifier, rock, 4-6′	120dB
Rock music peak	150dB

The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4 – 43%, in rock musicians 13 – 30%.

Statistics for the Decibel (Loudness) Comparison Chart were taken from a study by Marshall Chasin, M.Sc., Aud(C), FAAA, Centre for Human Performance & Health, Ontario, Canada.

What Can You Do?

Since voices tend to produce a more pressed phonation –

Avoid talking over noise whenever possible. Turn off the fan, buzzing lights, computers, etc. when talking.
Wear an earplug in at least one ear. It can help your voice avoid speaking too loudly.
When you can, use sound makers (whistles, hand claps, etc.) rather than a loud voice.
Use personal amplification or room amplification when coaching or teaching to minimize voice overuse: Chatterbox.usa.com / Independentliving.com
Avoid loud public spaces, especially places where amplification is over-used.
Search out restaurants where acoustics are kind to the ear. I find Asian restaurants to be more considerate in this regard.
Get intentional about it! Encourage a quiet household by lowering your voice, take turns talking, keeping the TV and music speakers at a comfortable level, schedule a silent time every day, move away from loud sounds and closer to the person to whom you are speaking.

What else can you do as a teacher?

Talk to your administrators about the importance of classroom acoustics adding acoustic panels to the ceiling and walls and carpeting to the floors. These materials help decrease the reverberation or echo of sound in the room.
Minimize the noise from fans, lights, overhead projectors, and sound coming from other classes especially while teaching.

Continue reading Ach! The Noise, Noise, Noise!