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Breathing Problems (Singing Teachers)
Anyone help me on this! I have a 13yr old girl who has a lovely voice but she sings everything in a really breathy kind of falsetto. I’ve done a few sessions of work on her bridge/ speaking into lower range singing to encourage connection- but as soon as she goes back into a song or comes back after a few weeks – it’s back into falsetto- if she attempts to work through her bridge in any mode – less air/siren/on zzzzz/- voice completely disconnects.. any ideas at all would be great! xxx
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15 Replies
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Get her to shout everything she sings first – I find this helps. Also, sorry to sound like such an amateur, but what is the bridge?!
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i had that with a student.. I’ve been teaching her for like 2 years she still won’t sing in chest I’ve tried a few things i guess i sort of gave up in the end lol she did her grade1 and they picked up on it and mentioned in her feedback her chest voice was weak.. but over time her voice has developed around her head voice and it has got stronger.. i cant deny her voice does sound lovely and unique.. for her grade 3 i chose songs that complement this type of voice more.. i did do speech level and shouting with her but i just think some people genuinely think it “sounds better” in head voice and even though her confidence is built now with her performing and i think actually she probably knows how to use her chest voice fair play to her she resisted me constantly moaning and telling her to sing in chest i dunno.. just try and find a balance i would say based on my experience if that helps at all lol
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Eliza Jane Fyfe i see it as the mix of air between chest and head resonance hitting the vocal chords on the like middle pitches, dunno if theres an actual scientifically decided on or proven fact on this Matt Pocock prob has some ideas?
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I’ve got a few good blending exercises i could email you laura if you like or do you already have some? x
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This makes me want to discuss the mixed voice actually.. There’s a couple of students where I can’t actually tell the difference between chest and head voice… They blend it so well, although the problem with this is that it can lack strength either end at times
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i know theres a theory that there isn’t a difference between chest and head at all.. which i also kind of agree with in some ways but i actually think although you can blend the voice as classical singers do very well.. but there is a difference though.. lol
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have you tried using a “pharyngeal”/”nasty” voice? This can be sung in a /nae/ /nae/ sound over the melody, and then by singing the actual lyrics in a nasty voice/accent. The other thing I’d recommend is to only choose songs that stay below the bridge. The only thing worse than trying to get chest voice, is trying to get it AND mix it at the same time. Choose songs that stay below A4, and even ones that are predominantly below E4, to really get that solidness there before trying to mix it with anything.
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Thankyou ladies good solid advice- Kat Wells that’s a really good point re. I’m probably trying to cover too much at once ATM :/ thankyou so much for the help x
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Kat – do you mean the horrible twangy nasal sound? Nya nya nyaaa and miaow miaow miaaaoowww… I’m using this a lot at the moment and it’s a good ‘un!
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yep! thats the one🙂
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I feel sorry for my neighbours.
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Once again, Kat’s on it – that twang will work wonders for getting her vocal folds to be more active: although it’ll take ages for it to feel comfortable for her. I had a student who used to talk only in head voice – very light and lilting but not at all forceful or impactful – but eventually the chest voice came out!
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Once again, Matt’s on it!
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Hiya, I find that some of these issues can be helped by looking at how the student is breathing and supporting the sound. I work constantly with my students on connecting the sound to the body which helps to prevent a breathy tone and avoids singing from the throat. I agree with the ng exercises as well as humming, they are great to find good resonance. Also sing on kieu leading to the oo sound from the tonic, jumping up a 5th and then returning to the tonic down the scale. I find this really helps to blend registers as long as proper support is in use. Plus the K helps to release any tongue tension. Hope that is of some use!
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theres some good blenders on the vocalise u app x
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