The Advanced Level covers all the techniques and exercises that you need to learn and practice regularly to improve your vocal range and enhance the quality of your voice.
The basic foundation of professional singing is breathing. In this Course I will teach you the right approach to breathing in preparation for singing. You will be surprised that my approach to breathing exercise is the exact opposite of how most singers do their breathing exercises.
You will also discover the different forms of vocalization and you have the opportunity to choose the one that suits your voice range and quality.
Cord abduction, smoothing out the bridges, and belting are just some of the techniques that you will learn in order to have total control of your own voice when you are singing.
The lessons on tone control, phrasing, vibrato control and vocal control will make you realize how most singers don't know how to control their voice properly. At the same time, you will learn how to really project your voice without straining your vocal folds.
Upon completion, you would now be ready to take the next step in your singing career by learning the lessons in the Professional Level.
LESSON 1: BREATHING
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Breathing is simply the inhalation and exhalation of air.
Normally, when we inhale we feel that our stomach contracts and when we exhale, we feel that our stomach expands. Logically, our stomach is supposed to expand when we inhale and contract when we exhale. To illustrate, consider a car tyre or a balloon. When you put air into the tyre we see that it expands, and when it's flat (no air), it contracts. The balloon gets bigger as you put air into it, and as soon as air is released, the balloon becomes smaller. Isn't this interesting?
Breathing is very important because it helps improve your vocal sustainability. An abundant supply of air with regulated outflow will help you sing sustained notes with ease.
Good singing is the result of good breathing.
Here are some of the topics we shall cover in this lesson:
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The proper and right way to breathe when singing.
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The proper and right way to breathe before singing.
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The different kinds of breathing exercises and how to choose the one that suits you best.
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The different body parts used for air storage.
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The best times to do breathing exercises.
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Holding and releasing of air when singing.
LESSON 2: VOCALIZATION
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Vocalization is the sound made by the vibration of vocal folds modified by the resonance of the vocal tract. In common terms of vocal sound production, vocalization is considered as speaking. In music, vocalization is equivalent to singing.
Generally, the basic process of vocal sound production is the same in both speaking and singing.
In vocal music, vocalization is the art of producing various voice inflections based on the vibration speed of the vocal folds. This process starts when the brain sends signals through the nervous system to the muscles of the head, neck and torso thereby producing inhalation prior to vocalization.
Vocalization plays a very important role in your quest to improve your vocal range. So how does it work?
In this lesson, I will be teaching you the different vocalization exercises that I have personally used over the years. You can use these vocalization exercises variably as you progress in your journey to improve your vocal range and enhance your vocal quality.
LESSON 3: CORD ABDUCTION
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"Vocal cord abduction" means that your vocal cords actually "shorten," thus leaving less of the vocal cord vibrating as you sing.
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As there is less area of the vocal cord vibrating, it's much easier for the cords to vibrate faster. This is a technique that is used by every singer that can hit extremely high notes easily.
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Here are some of the tips you can learn from this lesson:
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How vocal cord abduction can be the most powerful way of increasing your vocal range?
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How to let go of your voice as you first abduct your vocal cords?
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What exercises you can do to increase your vocal range through cord abduction?
LESSON 4: TONE (Reasonance) CONTROL
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Some singers force out notes to make them sound louder. In singing, volume is not always the answer. Quality is more important than volume. In order to achieve a better quality of your voice, you need to use the tone control technique.
What is resonance? The term 'resonance' means that you can use certain parts of your body to produce a much louder or richer voice to amplify your singing tone.
In this lesson, you will learn how to:
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Use your chest to amplify lower notes to produce a more robust sound;
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Use your head to reinforce a much higher or 'nasal' sound.
LESSON 5: PHRASING
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The term "phrasing" refers to the grouping of notes and/or lyrics and where punctuations and emphasis are placed. Phrasing can alter either the meaning of the words or the feeling it conveys to a listener.
When singing, it is important to think about phrasing so as to be able to communicate fully with the listener and bring your own interpretation to each set of lyrics of the song.
In this lesson, you are going to learn the following:
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How to sing a song with the right phrasing?
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How to sing a long phrased lyrics without taking a breath in between?
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Why phrasing is important to communicate to your listener when you are singing?
LESSON 6: VIBRATO
Vibrato is a method of altering the quality of a note once it has been sounded. It generally occurs on longer sustained notes and can be heard as a slight wavering of the pitch and volume of a note, that may be fast, slow or any pace in between.
Vibrato is a very personal thing and can add a lot of charater and warmth to your voice but it may take some time to develop.
In this lesson, I am going to teach you develop your own style of vibrato. I will also help you control it because if you over-use vibrato, it can be very irritating.
Here are some of the topics that you'll learn in this lesson:
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How to develop your own vibrato?
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How to produce a vibrato that suits your voice?
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How to control your vibrato?
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How to use vibrato to add character to your voice?
LESSON 7: SMOOTHING OUT BRIDGES
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What are "bridges" in singing?
These are the places where you make a rather funny sound like a flip as you move from lower to higher notes within your vocal range. These bridges cause changes in vocal coordination as you rise from chest voice to head voice. If this is done incorrectly, you may experience a tone which disconnects into a breathy falsetto sound as you ascend in pitch.
In this lesson, you will learn how to:
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move from your chest voice to your head voice without damaging your vocal cords;
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transition smoothly through the bridges without disconnecting into a falsetto.
LESSON 8: BELTING
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In the olden days of stage musicals, before the use of the microphones, most female opera singers used the belt technique so their voice can still be heard on top of the full orchestra accompaniment.
The essence of "belting," as it is commonly called, is the thick vocal folds that are working strongly, while the throat is held open; i.e. no forcing, constricting or yelling.
This technique must be used with extreme caution because it can sound irritating and boring at times.
In this lesson, I will teach you the belting technique in your own way of singing but will not highly recommend it if it doesn't suit your voice.
LESSON 9: VOCAL PROJECTION
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One of the most common questions of my students is "how do I project my voice?"
One of the ways to project your voice is by learning how to breathe properly. Breathing is defined as the alternate inhalation and exhalation of air during respiration.
Breathing greatly affects voice projection. Generally, a good breath control is essential if you want to sing safely and powerfully.
There are two very important body parts that we use when we breathe: the lungs and the diaphragm. The lungs are commonly used as air storage. Just underneath the lungs is the diaphragm.
In this lesson you will learn:
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How to project your voice without shouting;
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How to use your diaphragm to generate a powerful voice;
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How to use your lower abdominal muscles to push up your diaphragm to regulate your airflow so that your voice is rightly projected without straining your vocal cords.
LESSON 10: VOCAL CONTROL
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The term "vocal control" in singing refers to the control of volume of the sound that comes out of the singer's mouth. Most singers don't really know how to do this. There are some singers who are not even fully aware that the volume of their voice is too loud. One of the causes of this problem is the possibility of a hearing deficiency.
You will experience this when you put a set of headphones on your ears and then speak at the same time, you will be told afterwards that you spoke louder than usual. You become too conscious that you cannot be heard by the person you're talking to, so you tend to speak louder. But the actual reason is because you yourself can hardly hear your own voice.
One of the ways how to control the volume is to regulate your airflow when you sing. My breathing exercise called "Blow the Candle" is a good exercise to achieve this objective. By regulating the airflow, you are also reducing the volume of your voice.
In this lesson, you will be able to learn how to control your voice by regulating your airflow through proper breathing exercise.