A male student encountering some issues when singing (Singing Teachers)

[Matt Pocock]

Hey guys, it’s the rasp that’s causing the hurt! Any quality, be it breathiness or rasp, that a student can’t turn off spells trouble, especially one like that. I always say to students that ‘We love the rasp, but we don’t want it on by default because it narrows our options.’ It’s caused, as Chris said, by the over pushing of air through the glottis, causing the vocal folds to whack together with too much force, causing oedema and inflammation. I’d advise using light ‘twang’ exercises to get him phonating without any breathiness, then make that healthy sound the default.

[Eliza Fyfe]

So twang rather than yawny warm ups???

[Matt Pocock]

Ideally both – the yawn for the relaxation and the twang for the phonation! And very low-effort twang: a mosquito sound at most.

[Eliza Fyfe]

Thanks for your help all, have forwarded the info on to my student:)