Some concerns of Pop artists
For the most part
I see people from the professional pop world because they have serious stamina
and vocal issues so I felt that I would like to talk about this in an article. I
am going to take two examples to illustrate some of the problems and to show
that they can be addressed.
The first is male
lead singer from an excellent band. His manager brought him to the studio
because he was having more and more trouble sustaining high notes and lasting
through an evening. More and more dates were coming. This talented artist’s
confidence was dwindling under the pressure and the situation needed to be
turned around.
This artist sat
and performed at the keyboard so I asked him to sing and play. It was obvious
to me that there were certain ergonomic considerations to be discussed. I
worked vocally with him standing. You can feel the same vocal posture sitting
down.
His cords were not
coming together; too much air was blowing them apart making the muscles of his
throat very tired. His singing and speaking voice were affected. After I showed
him how to balance his physique differently his upper body dropped away much of
the tension that had built up. This made him feel much happier. By the end of
the lesson his tongue was so released that he managed the 2 octave cuperto
exercise. (This cuperto exercise is like a massage for the larynx. This has
been proved scientifically now through David Jones’ work with voice scientists
using cameras. The singer though can feel these benefits). Old vocal techniques
showed this young pop artist of the 21 century the way to vocal health – it is
a funny world! He gained a useful understanding of what to do to keep his voice
in working order, and further more realized that slight adjustments in body
posture in every day life benefited his throat by relaxing it. His vocal form
improved markedly and his speaking voice also cleared, he looked much happier.
Singers are like
athletes. Athletes need to find form. It is very difficult to find form if you
are not informed.
The second example
is a lovely girl who came with very serious vocal damage. She had only a few
notes left in the bottom of her voice so she had stopped singing in despair and
now worked long hours in a pressurised job. She came one evening every week. It
took a year to repair and the funny thing was she never practised except very
minimally. She thought carefully about the information though and I have found
in other instances that this works well and sometimes especially at first it is
a very positive way to proceed.
You can imagine
that she needed a lot of encouragement to rebuild her talent but once she began
to feel the higher overtones through the exercises that helped her release she
suddenly began to feel much better. She found a robust middle voice and notes
in a higher range as well that she never knew she had.
The cause of the
trouble in the first place was the chest voice, which she had been overusing.
It had been heavily overdeveloped and the whole voice had become so lopsided,
so to speak, that eventually it had capsized. Voices are a bit like floating
vessels - if you put all the heavy things in one end they are inclined to sink.
Every voice has a high register and a low one and there should be blending of
the two happening otherwise a hole develops in the middle which can get bigger.
It is well to take some contingency plans and become informed to stop that gap
widening.
Anyway this is the
end of the story. She decided to accept an invitation to sing at a friend’s
wedding. She and the bride between them chose a set of 10 songs. All the songs
were repertoire she never would have tackled before. It went very well. After
that, she felt very confident.
I know this seems
like a rather classically oriented website but it still has much information
that is relevant to a pop artist and is a free service.
Tina Turner is a
prime example of someone who knows what she is doing that is why she survived.
At the party in her home to celebrate her last big ‘O’ birthday she sang a
beautiful operatic aria just for fun – and why not!
Good luck with your vocal journey
Cathy Pope
Email cathy@cathypope.com