Question:

How can I sing harmony–I keep singing whatever the other person sings!

There are some parts when I am supposed to sing the harmony, but I always start singing the melody without meaning to. Then when it’s time to switch back to the melody, I hit the wrong notes. Are there any Quick Fixes you can give me for this?

Answer: You have to focus on YOU, not the other person singing. It actually is a right brain thing, which hears pitch and notes, and the left brain is comparing you to the other person and cannot hear pitch. It is not your friend when you sing! Anyway, to get into right brain, try walking backwards or singing the harmony part on nonsense syllables. (You have to change them around–you can’t just sing “doo-dah” and expect to stay in right brain. You have to NOT know what you’re going to sing next).

Another Quick Fix: Get as far away from the other singer as you can while you are learning your part–it is another melody–NOT the same as the real melody–and you must let your right brain learn it. Then put your fingers in your ears while you sing close to the other singer–you’ll hear you and very little of them. Also, you need to listen to some country or folk songs and sing the higher harmony part–you will eventually distinguish it and learn to do it. It does take work though!

Question: No matter what I do my voice sounds HORRIBLE—please help me!

Answer: In some countries, in Africa and also the Philippines, no one thinks they sound horrible. It’s not part of their culture. They all think they can sing, and they do! (Also, everyone in Botswana, where I visited, sang harmony. They all knew how to sing it from a young age). Anyway, your mind is an incredibly influential force on how your voice will sound—all the tiny muscles and fibers actually tense or relax according to what you think. So—if you think you sound horrible—unfortunately, your voice will create that. Try thinking: I have a really cool voice and I’m getting better all the time!

Question: How do I sing louder? My voice seems so weak sometimes.

Answer: Try one of my Quick Fixes that is GREAT. It’s called “The Bag”. Get a bag and fill it with some heavy things—my purse works SO well!–and put it right in front of you. Sing the part of the song leading up to the weak section–when you get to it, lift the bag with both hands. If the bag is heavy enough, it will really help your sound. Now keep doing that till you can feel how much internal pressure is on your larynx, and on your sides. When you can duplicate it without the bag, you’re going to sound much better!

Question: Why can my boyfriend sing high notes so easily and sound good and my voice breaks and sounds awful?

Answer: Your boyfriend (and all male voices) are already using the correct muscles for “belting”. Girls are not. We are using head voice and have to learn to use chest voice. Also, if we do use chest voice and go up, we reach the limit of chest voice and the voice “breaks”. Here are a few Quick Fixes: keep the tongue flat, the mouth wide, the torso “hollow” and feeling like you’re still inhaling, the larynx a little lowered, and the knees flexible and soft. Practice all your high sounds in a little baby voice and get familiar with where that is located. Don’t be afraid to experiment and sound awful–it’s an instrument and needs to be explored without anyone, including you, passing judgment on how it sounds.

Question: I never get picked at the Karaoke Fest prelims. What am I doing wrong?

Answer: Here are some possibilities: you are singing in left brain. That means you are thinking about hitting the notes, technique stuff, how you look, if you’ll win. This is left brain, and it’s all about you. To actually move people to vote for you, you have to have it be about them. The right brain is in the moment, emotionally in the scene of the song, feeling every emotion just as if it’s happening and it’s real right now. It is also focused and intent on the audience (this should be ONE person in your imagination) understanding what you are communicating. You have to really WANT them to get how you’re feeling, and share those feelings with them. This is difficult for most of us, since we were told not to do this from the time we started having temper tantrums. To open your emotional instrument, though, (and that is what it is), you must be generous enough and courageous enough to let us see you at your most vulnerable. Elvis did it. You can do it.

Happy Singing everyone!

                            HOW TO DO THE “PHARYNGEAL”VOICE

Hey there, Everybody! Happy 2012! Have you heard the term “pharyngeal voice” before? If you’ve watched American Idol or The Voice, maybe you have. It is the “witchy” voice, the “twangy voice”, the “belt-y” voice. Think Aretha Franklin, Fantasia, Chaka Khan, Heart singer Ann Wilson. This type of sound used to sound “like cats singing”, to classically trained singers. Then came Robert Plant and lots of other rock singers, and it was obvious that they had managed to make a sound that normal voice lessons didn’t cover. Flash forward to all the singing competitions on TV and the Broadway shows popular now, and you see that you cannot sing current songs unless you know how to do a pharyngeal voice.

There is lots of controversy about how the vocal folds (cords) work in a pharyngeal voice (or twang)–most of the well-known coaches today advocate that there is vocal cord “damping”, where the back two-thirds of the cords are not vibrating. According to a new study, this doesn’t happen, however. What happens is the throat space “pharyngeal” space, changes. The air flow becomes LESS, and the throat space becomes smaller. This is exactly the opposite of what a singer might suppose happens when those big, giant, seamless high notes come out of your favorite singer.

One way of practicing this is Quick Fix #1. The Siamese Cat Exercise. I have demonstrated this on my Youtube channel, jilljaxxteaches. The video is called “Babette the Cat Teaches Belting.” In the video, I show you how to actually imitate a cat yowling, or meowing, and use your claws when you do it! (Seriously). This is a great sound to practice all your vowels on, and to experience the pharyngeal sound. Go up the scale with this–it will amaze you with the HUGE sound and brilliance.

Another way to practice this is with the Metallic Beeps, Quick Fix #2. which I show you how to do on my DVD, “Learn To Sing Better Fast”. (Available at my website www.learntosingbetterfast.com). These are produced with a lot of air pressure behind the lips, which explode out when you make the “beep”. The sound can be made up and down the scale, and is metallic in quality, not “singy”. Use the beeps on a phrase of a song you find difficult, and then substitute the words. Another good thing to practice would be shifting to right brain here, which I completely endorse if you want to have a breakthrough with your singing! This can be accomplished by THINKING of the vowel you sing, and how to form it, instead of the word. The right brain is in charge of this, and you will be surprised at how that can improve your singing immediately.

Another way to practice the pharyngeal voice is to (Quick Fix #3)feel your tongue in the correct position: fat, high in the middle, and with the sides touching your upper molars. The tip of the tongue can be tensed forward, pushing against your bottom teeth. Try singing the chorus of “Hopelessly Devoted To You” if you’re a girl, and “ Brown-Eyed Girl” or any Train song if you’re a guy. Know that the sound you’re going to make will sound bright, ugly, and arguably ugly. Don’t worry, you’re on the right track. And get your claws going–it’ll make the pharyngeal voice so much easier!

“Nine”, “Crazy Heart”, “Mama Mia”, “Sweeny Todd”—all these movies have singing roles and star actors who aren’t known for their singing voices. Dubbing an actor’s singing voice is not seen as necessary these days, when formerly almost no stars in musicals used their own singing voices (Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn). (BTW, I just attended a great class taught by Marni Nixon, who DID sing in those movies! She’s still fabulous!) Many actors now seem game to try their hand at singing—although Brad Pitt swears he never will.
The connection between singing and acting is that they are similar skills. “Really good actors have really good ears”, says Eric Vetro, Penelope Cruz’s vocal coach on “Nine”. “They have a good ear to mimic dialects and imitate characters.”
That said, it still takes quite a bit of practice to be able to skillfully sing a solo or belt out a higher note. You know (as a singer yourself) that the technique involved in keeping the ribs expanded and controlling the exhale to a tiny stream of air is a difficult athletic maneuver, not unlike a relaxed but controlled golf swing. Another skill that actually helps technique (it occurs in the right brain, which is a much better singer than the left brain) is that actors are expert storytellers. Expert characterization and emotional connection plus charisma can cause a great actor to give a great musical performance.
However, sometimes even that can’t carry the day, and I assert that it’s because Pierce Brosnan was using his left brain to sing that he sounded so memorably awful in “Mama Mia”. If the singer is in left brain, he is critical of himself and listening to himself. This causes tension and poor tone quality—which Pierce Brosnan and Clint Eastwood both demonstrated while singing in musicals. Clint Eastwood said “I vowed I’d never do that again”. He did though—in the song he wrote for “Gran Torino.” (Beautiful song, problematic voice). Clint and Pierce could both improve if they changed the brain they sing with!
Michael Dean, the chair of vocal studies at UCLA department of music, says that only 5% of people cannot improve their voices, and another 5% of the population have outstanding voices. “Everybody else in the middle can sing, but they feel that they’re terrible at it and that feeling makes them so vulnerable and so frightened to sing that when they sing, of course, they sound terrible.”
Daniel J. Levitin, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University and the author of “This is Your Brain on Music”, says that among early humans, singing was done as a group, in primitive rituals. “It’s only in the last 500 years in the West, since the building of concert halls, that we’ve seen a difference between a class of performers and the rest of us,” he says.
The idea that “you’re either born with a great voice or you’re not” is actually not true. That is just a notion that has been passed down in this country. In Africa, where I was lucky enough to see this phenomenon for myself, everyone thinks they can sing. And not just sing—they all know how to sing harmony parts! Hearing how to harmonize is seen as a natural ability that everyone has.
Since the brain is so involved in singing—more than with any other instrument—it makes sense that what you think about your voice, will be true for your voice. If you think your voice sounds awful, that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So even if you’re a movie star, you can feel vulnerable and frightened about your singing. Committing to the emotion of the song (the story being told by the song) can radically improve your voice. Singing Karaoke can also improve your stage presence and your focus, as well as your characterization. Singing in front of a group actually helps you sing better, because the energy from the audience can lift you to new performance peaks. In Karaoke clubs or on movie sets, like stone-age caves, singing brings people together. Jeff Bridges says he sings on every movie set and encourages everyone on the set to join in. “That’s basically what you’re doing when you’re acting,” he says. “You’re harmonizing. Singing and acting are basically the same thing.”
When you are in right brain, and concerned with the story you are telling the audience through song, then most of the time the correct breathing, pitch, and energy are present. If you are listening to yourself and comparing yourself to other singers, you’re in left brain and you might end up sounding like Clint Eastwood. And unless you’re after that kind of singing voice, you’d better think again—this time, in right brain!

As an early Christmas/Hanukkah present, I have wrapped up some new discoveries that will vastly help your singing if you try them. I love sharing new Quick Fixes with singers, and since you are singers–well, it’s all good!
As you may recall in earlier issues, I have discussed the amazing results when you switch to your right brain when you sing. There are two distinct hemispheres, right and left, in your brain. Your left brain is totally sure it is the Simon of your singing ability, and that it should be in charge when you sing. (Another characteristic of the left brain: arrogance! This brain has convinced left brain-dominant people that they can’t sing–and it may be entirely wrong.

The left brain assumes leadership of your singing because most of what we believe is us thinking, occurs in words. The left brain is the reader, the talker, the judge, and the one praised by school systems and our culture.
The right brain is the artist, the intuitive, the emotional genius, and, important for us, the singer. The right brain has it’s own personality, and it is shouted down by the left brain on a daily basis. Many people find it very difficult to surrender to their superior singer, the right brain.
Words are the tools of the left brain. The right brain is multi-skilled in physical movement, in hearing pitch, and pattern recognition (which is why you can think of a vowel sound and sing better. More on that later). The right brain can hear words and understand language just fine, but it cannot speak in words. In stroke victims who have lost left brain function, they can, however, SING what they cannot speak.
The left brain cannot recognize or feel emotion. The right brain hears pitch, feels emotion, and holistically and instinctively knows how to sing. You can already see that these brains would have a tough time singing anything, can’t you? They need each other, to be sure, but you as a singer need to know they are VERY different and you need to know when to tell your left brain to take a hike.
I have written on this topic before, but the more I teach right-brain singing the more I learn and the more amazing I find it. Here are some fascinating facts to consider, according to Adrienne Osborn, Colorado vocal coach and performer:
“Left brain: organized, analytical, judgmental, ego-driven, individual, critical, mathematic, language center, logical, aware of time, tends to rush, tends to live in the past and future, tends to get caught in cycles of thought, likes to classify, sense of personal identity, aware of details, multitasker, tells stories to make sense of our life.

Right brain: creative, holistic, aware of body language and tone of voice, naturally joyful, not aware of time, lives in the present moment, non-judgmental, non-critical, out-of-the-box thinker, aware of energy dynamics, intuitive, slow-moving, based in the senses, aware of the big picture, singly focused, thinks in images rather than language, open to new possibilities.
We all have both sides of the brain, obviously. But some of us let the left brain run rampant more than others. The right brain doesn’t get a chance to express itself very often.
It’s understandable. Western society rewards left-brain values: measurable progress, organization, classification, responsibility, science, mathematics, reason, being reliable and on time! Science and technology jobs generally pay more than creative jobs. We have grown up focusing on developing our left brain’s dominance.
But the left brain is where these things come from:
Negative mind chatter
Nervousness
Self-criticism
Fear of failure or fear of being embarrassed
Fear of behaving outside the box
Worst-case stories about what did or could happen… such as on stage”
When the left brain is in charge, it is critiquing your singing as you sing (it thinks) but actually it can only do that AFTER you’ve sung. By the time you’ve sung the note, if you’re thinking how that sounded, you will miss the next pitch too.

In any sport, you are coached that “the body goes where the eyes go”. (Or the skis, or the race car, or the tennis shot… you get the idea). In singing–the singing goes where the hearing goes. You must be able to hear the note in your head before your sing it–a right brain activity. If you are reacting to what you hear yourself doing, and criticizing it, or thinking in words at all, you are in left brain and you will not sing as well as you could. Reactive singing is “thicker and unwieldy” as Douglas Susu-Mago puts it–he is one of the premiere inventors of singing techniques on how to use the right brain. In his book, “Freeing the Voice From the Left Brain”, Susu-Mago says (Quick Fix #1)“To see if you are doing “reactive listening”, put your fingers in your ears. The degree of difference in feeling between “ears stopped” and ears open” is the degree to which your normal singing is encumbered by reactive listening. “If you are used to your left brain leading the singing, this will vastly improve your sound when you can’t hear it.
Quick Fix#2 for your stocking: Do not sing words–sing sounds. I do this by hearing the pitch in my mind before I sing it, or sometimes by hearing the vowel I’m going to sing before I sing it. Both put me in right brain, and my voice is magically flexible, right on pitch, and much different than I would sing if I listened to myself. The final stocking-stuffer Quick Fix is the right brain’s dominion: emotion. If you are open and freely expressing the intent of the song, you will be emotionally connected and giving your genius right brain the position of power–and thrilling your audience!
Have a joyous Holiday Season and give your left brain the night off when you sing!!

A singer just asked me how to be loud when he was singing the Blues.
To sing the blues, you have to be able to “belt”. Belting, sometimes known as “The Twang” or “soft shouting”, is a very specific skill. If you try to sing in chest voice (your speaking voice register) and go too high, your voice will break and you will not hit the note. Here are some tips so that doesn’t happen to you (it just happened to Chris Daughtry on the Star Spangled Banner at the World Series).
1. You must do a NOISELESS inhale and don’t raise your shoulders
(Chris did this bad habit and it cost him)—fill your lower belly up
with air.
2. Raise your cheek muscles by smiling.
3. Don’t let air escape from your nose (check this with your hand in
front of your nose).
4. Keep the sides of your tongue against your upper molars. (Do this
on every vowel—it will take practice but you can do it!
5. Keep your midriff STRONG and your back muscles WIDE the entire
time you’re singing. “Anchor” your torso and pull your lower belly in.

The sound you’re going to make is called putting “twang” in your
tone, and that’s a good thought to keep in mind. It takes time to develope and shouldn’t hurt your vocal cords. It also helps to practice “Meow”, really like a cat, up and down the scales. Use your claws when you do this! *Your hands, shaped in a claw position like a cat scratching). This helps the body get that it’s a downwards and tilting motion with the larynx.

6. Aim the sound at the hard palate–(it may sound too nasal to you, but keep at it!)

Hi Singers!
Take along another of my Quick Fix Check Lists before you go rock ‘em:

1.Keep your neck long, your knees soft, and your chest out so you can give your heart to the audience!

2.Think DOWN for any high note—your eyes should go down, your yawn muscle goes down, the air should go down into your lower belly—don’t allow any “up” thoughts!

3.If your breath is shallow because you’re a little nervous, inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts and exhale for 4 counts. Do this three times and make little circles with your thumbs and forefingers touching—this will ground you in your body.

4.If you’re still a little uptight, imagine you’re the King or the Queen, you rule, you own the place and all the serfs in it; they’re lucky to even see you let alone hear you, so keep that in mind as you thrill the masses!

5.When you inhale, do a “noiseless” inhale—don’t make any sound as you take a breath. This will do more for your voice than you can imagine—try it!

Happy Singing and remember: “You’re Better Than They Deserve!”–little confidence joke from my fantastic (and famed) choreographer, Alex Plasschaert. (we all miss you, Alex!)

Andre Donegan,` voice coach, has some good things to say to clarify what is meant by “phonation“. In case you thought it was another cell phone plan, here’s what he says: “Phonation is the creation of sound from air. A mostly mental process! If we wish to create a “good vocal sound“ we must first define that concept.

Good vocal sound is freely produced; loud enough to be heard easily; pleasant to listen to; rich, ringing, and resonant; energy flows smoothly from note to note: consistently produced; vibrant, dynamic, and flexibly expressive.
“Beautiful sounds start in the mind of the singer. If you cannot think
a beautiful sound, it is an accident if you make one. You must learn
to ‘picture’ the sound in your mind’s eye and ‘hear’ it in your
mind’s ear before it can become a consistent reality.”
This is easier to learn than one would think–working with an instrument, even a harmonica, can help a singer learn this skill faster. Play the note, then picture it, then hear it, then sing it. You will improve fast (which I heartily endorse, since my website is www.learntosingbetterfast.com!)
Another common misconception among singers about phonation is that if you open your mouth very wide, that will help your sound. The truth is, over-opening can cut down on your sound just as much as stiff jaws. Thinking of your mouth and throat as a sort of flexible amp, really works for me and my students. The mouth helps form the sound into words, which is created by the larynx and pharynx, to come out unimpeded and enhanced, like the bell of a trumpet. The pharynx and the larynx (love those words and please pronounce them correctly: fare-inks and lair-inks, not far-nix and lar-nix!) are involved in producing a good vocal sound The throat can really bring out the richness in your voice, especially if you lift your soft palate.(This is behind your hard palate–do the “snort” to feel it and relax it–just snort several times). The mouth delivers the sound that is produced, and it shouldn’t get in the way of the beautiful sound. Unfortunately, there is a culprit in the mouth that can thwart everything! (The secretly subversive tongue).
Most of us singers who are not born extraverts feel somewhat shy opening our jaws at all, though, and more shy pushing our tongues forward against our bottom teeth (the correct position for the tongue most of the time). I assert that it’s a subconscious thought: (“maybe if I hold my tongue back you can’t hear me make a mistake“) that inhibits the tongue from doing what it’s supposed to. As I always say to my students: Give the audience your tongue!
In review, to make sure you’re not tensing something (mouth, lips, jaws, soft palate, throat, tongue), sing a line of something challenging on an ooooooooooo. Then sing the same line on an “ah”. Try not to change your articulators much AT ALL, even though it’s a different vowel. Then try the words. Really try to FEEL (right brain) what you’re doing–don’t listen (left brain). Your jaws should be hanging down really loose; your lips should be “fishy” forward and flexible, and your throat “open” with your soft palate raised (yawn-y). The skill involved in all this is to keep your “amp” FREE. As soon as your left brain thinks (“oh, I’ll just hold my lips and throat open and stiff like this and I’ll sound like Kelly Clarkson”) you’re in for trouble.
I really recommend switching brains for singing–it’s such a great Quick Fix! One way to do that is to get so emotionally connected to what you’re singing (the whole point of singing, BTW!) and feel so much that you’re not hearing the left brain anymore. Another QF is to walk backwards as you’re singing. Do this when you’re not sure where you’re walking–don’t try to figure it out (left brain).
And one final bit of advice: please use both left and right brain when you sing next time: you’ll sound the best you ever have!

Earl Harville, vocal coach on The Modern Vocalist Forum:
(He is discussing Belting, a sound Rock, Pop, Broadway, and Blues singers all need)–
“There is still alot of debate in vocal teaching circles concerning the healthiness of belting. Even finding a consistent definition is tricky. It’s a sound that is often identified with Broadway or gospel singing. It is a big, loud, powerful sound that can be quite stirring. The potential problem with pure belting is that the chest voice range is pushed higher than is optimal, which can make a singer hyperfunctional. In my opinion, it is better to develop a strong mix or middle voice that can can be leaned into for more power. There is still alot of debate in vocal teaching circles concerning the healthiness of belting. Even finding a consistent definition is tricky. It’s a sound that is often identified with Broadway or gospel singing. It is a big, loud, powerful sound that can be quite stirring. The potential problem with pure belting is that the chest voice range is pushed higher than is optimal, which can make a singer hyperfunctional. In my opinion, it is better to develop a strong mix or middle voice that can can be leaned into for more power.

One exercise that can help in that area is the pharyngeal voice or ‘witch’s voice. The use of this device dates back to the baroque period and the training of the castrati. This ugly, bratty sound helps to bridge the chest into the middle area easily without pushing or straining. Use the sounds ‘nay’, ‘naa’, & ‘waa’ in your practice. As you ascend the scale, don’t get intentionally louder- the pharyngeal resonance will give a sense of more power without your help! Just keep the sound ugly without strain. Be sure not to jam the sound into your nose. It works wonders without taxing the voice.

A great scale pattern to start with is the octave arpeggio with the top note repeated:

nay- nay-nay-nay-nay-nay-nay-nay-nay-nay
1 3 5 8 8 8 8 5 3 1

The repeat of the top note give the muscles a greater opportunity to remember the proper response. From here, you can add the octave & a half pattern as well as the mixed octave scale. These two amp up the challenge by covering more range more quickly.”

I think the larynx must tilt forward, and even go higher, for some rock notes. This was discusssed at length among vocal teachers, so you can make your own decision here–larynx lower or higher! The one thing he doesn’t mention is how the lower belly must come in, and the rib cage stay out, as if still inhaling, for belting. VERY IMPORTANT!
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