Hello everyone....
I thought I'd let you know what I'm doing to learn to sing....and I started out completely out of tune to say the least!...maybe this will help out someone....this singing method was developed by Eugene Feuchtinger back in the 20's.
For me, imagining this and that to accomplish singing just wasn't working. I'm an engineer and telling me to sing in my head voice or chest voice (there just simply is no such thing as either one of those) just doesn't make sense to me cause my vocal cords aren't in those places...I mean I dont have vocal chords in my chest! I tried this and that system, SLS for 8 months, a bunch of others, ...nothin except lost voice at times and zero improvement. ..anyway, one day I happend onto the perfect-voice site.
My conclusion at this point is the perfect-voice method most definitely works as it is based on the physiology of your vocal mechanism. However, the book that is sold there is confusing to read and doesnt really get to the ABC of the method as the method is sprawled out over the whole manual. Anyway i found it none the less exactly accurate in medical description of the parts of your body involved with singing.
In a nutshell, this method teaches first the human anatomy of how singing is accomplished. Then it tells you how to train that anatomy to produce successful singing. This made sense to me cause I was dealing with real and physical things, not imagine this or that.
Here's the brief...the hyo-glossuss muscle (under your tongue) contracts (evidence of this is a groove in your tongue especially in the rear..the groove has no value to how you sound) and sets in motion other muscle events that eventually cause your vocal chords to stretch much more than the cricoid muscle could ever stretch them. This brings into play much more of your vocal chord and thus your voice sounds better and with ring/overtones (more material is vibrating). Also, this pulls your voice box up against your spine and you get more resonation of your voice.
On the perfect-voice website, view the animation (menu pick on the left) and you will see exactly the action and the wrong action. It takes a bit to get to understand the anatomy, but repetition helps out much. Also on the site, the DVD for 40.00 will aid greatly. I've viewed it hundreds of times and find I had missed major points from previous views, so repetition is the mother of learning always. Its a three way action; the hg contracts; the palate is held down; the uvula contracts a bit. You need to train certain muscles to work and others to not work is the main area of getting it right, but your goal is the three way muscle action.
Here's something that really helps out a lot for more instant "how to do it". If you put your index finger tip in your mouth and just rest your teeth on it, count slowly 1, 2, 3, etc. to 20 in falsetto (lower falsetto is best) and do it with NO MOVEMENT OF YOUR JAW...your teeth should never rise above or bite into your finger....your pronounciation at first will be terrible but dont move your jaw. You'll notice this forces the mid and back of your tongue to do the work (pronounciation), in other words, it forces your vocal attack to initiate with the hg muscles (remember that all muscles are in a pair, one on either side of the tongue, palate, etc). As time goes on, and I mean months of time, your falsetto will get very firm and your pronounciation will be more exact. Also, saying "ng" locates the exact spot your voice should originate from, your attack point. Say the word "sing", then say it without the si and in falsetto. I go "ng", "one", "ng", "two", in falsetto and pronouce slowly, like "sev-en". Anyway, doing this forces the correct muscle action of, and strengthens, the hg (the falsetto causes the hg to work hardest). It also forces the correct action of the palate (which should be held down when singing) and the uvula. I'm leaving out a lot of info here to keep it simple but studying the manual/DVD and website animation will tell you what you need to know. You also need to separately train your tongue to form the groove without moving throat muscles (your cricoid bone should not rise or fall when you make the groove) or the soft palate (should not rise), and it can be done cause I've done it, it took me about 3 months to get it right. You first learn to make the groove, then make it and dont move the cricoid, then make it and dont move the criocoid or the palate.
The first benefit for me was I stopped losing my voice, which used to happen on average once a month. The last time I lost it was for almost a 3 week stretch! Once I started the tongue groove exercises my voice loss was a thing of the past (have not lost it since August of 2005). Many others will tell you my voice has improved significantly over the past 1 1/2 years. But this method, like training to be a guitarist or piano player or whatever, requires daily practice and persistence. No pill can be swallowed and you're there...for my money you have to want to sing in the worst way to stay with this.
Also, you must sing with your speaking voice. As you HG strengthens, you're voice will improve by leaps and bounds, and it will be your own unique sound, not soundin like someone else.
There are no scales involved as scales only train your ear. If you have incorrect vocal action (basically thatz when you are using your muscles that you use to chew with to sing) then singing scales just keeps on using the wrong muscles. You need to learn correct vocal action first, practice practice practice till you get the vocal action right, then you can sing scales to train your ear with the correct vocal action. Now, singing scales with the right vocal action strengthens that action as well as trains the ear. You can have correct vocal action and still sing out of tune...
I care nothing about opera (the site is opera oriented) and sing only rock....I'm auctionmusic on singersshowcase if you want to have a listen. I'm not there yet but I'm always improving...I'm at the point where there are clearly ringing overtones in my voice more and more often (not all the time yet). Thatz one part of your training, is that you can sing a word from and hg attack, and the next word off the wrong muscle. Takes practice to get it right. But as time goes on and the hg attack is more frequent, your voice will sound most good and with no harshness.
As an engineer, and I needed concrete actual matter of fact method for singing. This is it hands down. I've studied this bit for bit and its most accurate.
Also notice I"ve not mentioned breathing or diaphram cause neither is all that important. very little breathe is required for loud singing with this method. And if the diaphram was so important, how come all the runners of the world are not the best singers as well...see...much of whatz taught just doesn't make sense, at least not to me.
Here's a common misunderstanding... how many of you think that spraying a throat spray in your mouth improves your singing?...if you say yes, then you dont know the most basic physiology of human anatomy, as you cannot coat your voice chords with a spray unless you inhale it (and you would choke and gage if you did), your voice box is in your breathing tube not your food tube. You spray and swallow, your chords get ZERO!....Drinking water HOURS before singing is the best way to prepare your chords. Water eventually gets to your chords but it does not splash over them as your drink (another common misnomer)....also avoid dairy products before singing, dont smoke or drink.
Hope this helps out....at any rate it is sure working for me but is a lot of work, not easy.....
russ
