Transcription
And uh whatever stream you're joining us on, we're now broadcasting onto YouTube, into multiple Facebook streams as well. So we'll let everybody gather in. We have a special guest tonight, Maddie Tarbox. You can learn more about Maddie at maddietarbox.com. Uh, one of my colleagues at Shenandoah University, an amazing voice teacher, performer. I'm pumped to have her here with us tonight. So let's let a few people have drawn in and, uh, we'll get started here in just a second.
You're in Utah, right?
I'm in Utah for two more days.
And how is the weather in Utah?
It's good. Over the past couple days, we, um, there have been a lot of fires in California and Colorado and stuff like that, starting to affect the air quality here.
Is it really? I said, so it's all, it's blowing all the way over to your side of the country, huh?
Yeah, we've got the basin here and it all just like comes on in and it gets trapped by the mountains and stuff like that.
So that's crazy. It is a crazy thing to be in Utah and be a singer, either in fires or in the winter.
It is crazy. Yeah, it's weird. I, I remember when I was in, uh, Seattle for a voice conference and I got a chance to, um, like, they, it was when they, Seattle was having its fires and it was really crazy to be there and to be seen, like, all the smoke off in the distance and how it was coming into the town. And we went up into the Seattle, um, what is that? That needle, the needle thing. And then to, you know, see it off in the horizon. And I, I haven't seen fires like that before. I mean, you couldn't see the flames, but just to see the hovering smoke and realizing, wow, this is, uh, this is bad news.
Yeah, the haze. It's not fun. I even woke up my voice this morning. I was like, oh, I'm more clammy than normal. There's some smoke in the air.
Oh, what's those good things? That's crazy stuff.
Well, I am very thankful that you're able to join us tonight. Um, Maddie's got a bachelor's degree in musical theater. She has an MFA in acting from University of, uh, Central Florida, right? UCF. And then she got her master's degree from Shenandoah. She was an assistant faculty in our summer institute this summer. And, uh, I'm just thrilled to have her here tonight to get a, a different perspective on some of these questions that come in from singers around the world. So I'm gonna give you, uh, one of the most common ones to start this from Amy. And we get this question all the time. There's so much confusion about how to breathe while singing. And, you know, I've talked a lot on the show that there's multiple ways to look at this. And so I thought it would be great to get, you know, a different perspective. So, uh, tell me a little bit about, you know, your thoughts on breathing for singing.
Yeah, um, I usually subscribe to the idea that obviously there's no one way to breathe. I assume that's been talked about a lot on here. There's no one way to go about this. Um, so I don't like to get in the way of my students' breathing. I don't like to micromanage it unless it is in their way. Is usually what I run into. I don't do a lot of breathing exercises with my students unless it's something that they struggle with in general. So until it's in their way, I kind of leave it alone. But there are a couple things that I will tell my students. Facts. Um, important things to know about breathing in general. Um, we'll lead with the, with the, there's no one way to breathe. That's for sure. And really important for them to, um, to hold on to. Um, the only reason air goes into your lungs is because you made room for it. Is usually one of the big things that I share with them. Is the only reason air goes into your lungs is because you made room for it. Therefore, the opposite is true. Air leaving your lungs is going to happen when you collapse rib cage and allow the airflow out of your system. So if you have a long phrase and you need the air, maintaining your inhalation posture in some capacity is going to be really important throughout that. Um, more air though, more air is not always better. Because one of the big things that we share as well, um, some big things in regards to more normal sweaters, the longer elastic, usually whatever you take that big and you deal with the elasticity, elastic recoil of the lungs. And that ends up putting a lot of subglottal pressure onto the vocal folds and stuff like that. Um, especially if you don't have that sensation of maintaining that inhalation posture within your stuff like that. Those are some things that are important for them to be aware of. Um, in addition to that, if you're, if you're taking in the idea that more air is not always better for taking constant breaths and very consistent, quick breaths, sometimes you can crowd your lungs with too much air that eventually turns into carbon dioxide and you feel like you're suffocating anyway. Um, they'll think you're a little crazy at first if you tell them to take fewer breaths. But if the air is turning into carbon dioxide, but the lungs are full, you can't get fresh oxygen. And that's going to end up being a problem, cause a lot of tension and anxiety and all of those kinds of things along with the singer as well. And then the last big important thing for them to consider when I'm working with them is where, where you want to release to allow the air to come in. So this is probably what's most common that comes up. I would imagine that they're like, where do I take in this air? And those kind of things. So the low diaphragmatic breathing, the thoracic breathing, down into the cornea cage, uh, dorsal breathing, clavicular breathing. You have all of these options of places that you can release to allow the air in. And that's where I don't really like to get involved a ton because different body types have different breathing needs. I assume you talk a lot about that as well, right?
Yeah, we've talked about that some. Can you describe that a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely. So different, uh, I work with a lot of students at Shenandoah who are dancers and have very, um, fit body types and all of those kinds of things. And oftentimes what winds up happening with these smaller frames and very fit frames is the muscularity on the body is so hard that it doesn't want to, if you're trying to get a belly breath in, that release of the abdominal wall is very hard for them to be able to do. So encouraging a belly breath, say, in one of my smaller dancers or very fit dancers, it's not always going to be the strongest method of breathing for them. They'll find more tension in that, more discomfort, and all of those kinds of things as opposed to say, some thoracic breathing that can be really helpful in just allowing the rib cage to swing by and stuff like that. Um, while we know more robust people do have an easier time with, uh, with a lower belly breath and stuff like that because there's more space, not quite the muscular rigidity.
Yeah, so let's say if you have like, you're talking about somebody who has that muscular rigidity. So I get a lot of singers that'll come and they breathe in and it's like they've, they've gotten used to that beach body thing of like sucking it up and they tighten up everything. So if somebody's struggling with that, what are some of the tools that you use to try to help them let go? I liked what you said about making space for air. That's a really good way of thinking about it, right? I like, but how do you help somebody start to find that if they're struggling, you know? Um, if you've got this like muscular, you know, beach body thing that you're dealing with, some of the things that I'll do, I'll start with literally just getting the rib cage stretched out. I subscribe to a lot of rib cage things and I find it immensely helpful for the students that I work with and stuff like that. So, uh, stretching out the intercostal. Sometimes the intercostals are just when I'm so tight throughout here, your intercostals are the muscles that are in between your rib cage, right? And they both help you inhale and exhale depending on the set of intercostals that you're utilizing. So making sure that those are able to be stretched and open and stuff like that, that'll help a lot just to get it stretched out more open for them. Um, even I found recently with some of my students, even just deep breathing exercises. It sounds like an oxymoron, sounds like it should be very, very simple. But we don't, oftentimes we'll run through a phrase and they're totally out of it, but they have no idea just how much air can be put into their lungs because they don't stretch it out on a normal daily basis. It's not something that we do as humans in general. So getting them aware of, um, the space that can be in there through, I'll even just have them breathe in through a straw, that kind of thing.
Oh, yeah. Just to feel the strength that those intercostals do have and can lifting, can open, and all of those kinds of things to get them more aware, I suppose.
Yeah, the stretching is a really good point, especially because if you have somebody who's a dancer.
Somebody chimed in and said, yes, so good, so true. Belly breathing and small, hard dancers. I think they're talking about those, how firm those muscles can get. And if all they're doing is crunches and other activities that are about pulling things down, you're right, then we have to try to counterbalance that by doing the opposite. So getting, uh, some stretch. So you're talking about like side stretches, correct?
Absolutely. Yeah.
Don't think about the stretch as being equally as important as the muscular contraction, especially for singers. Um, it causes a lot of grief in regards to the comfort of your breath and the labor of your breath and stuff like that.
Yeah, yeah. I was talking actually with a teacher a couple days ago who was talking about getting all the tensions out of the way that we create. And, you know, I think that's similar, is that we create so many tensions in our body that then prevent us from just letting the air in. And then once we can stretch some of those out of the way, we may find that's enough instead of having to think hard about doing, by thinking of letting go instead of trying to force it.
So absolutely. Yeah. So lots of things for you to think about, Amy, is, you know, like what Maddie said about making room for the air, expanding where your body wants to expand, and realizing that your body type is different than other body types to let that happen. And to do some stretching and deep, almost meditative breathing to start to increase your body's ability to expand. I think, Maddie, don't you do some yoga as well?
Oh, yeah. Every once in a while, I'll do, I'll engage in a little more yoga and stuff like that. Yeah. I'm secretly a runner though. That's my, that's my best.
Yeah, but a lot of singers I've heard talk about using from, uh, you know, the yoga to do some of the things that you're, uh, talking about a little bit.
Very much so. Yeah. And that's just us talking on the inhale, realistically, let alone how to manage the air on the way out is a whole other set of things that we deal with, right?
Yeah. So what, talk a little bit about what's involved with that. So, uh, we got to a little bit of it a second ago in regards to the only way, if, if the only way to get the only way to get air into the lungs is to make room for it. If you're trying to maintain it, you have to maintain that inhalation posture. You must maintain the space if you want to keep the air in your lungs. But there's the other portion of it of managing epiglottis as well. And there's a whole slew of things that you run into in regards to bottle closure, registration, the quality of the sound that you want, the vocal folds, and all of those kinds of things that come into play. And I wish I could tell you there's one way to do that, but of course, that's not the case. Of course, it's entirely dependent on styles. You like to say the efficiency of your vocal folds and what the ultimate goals are for the song of singing.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about that a little bit is about the, um, differences between operatic singing where you're trying to get your voice to project acoustically versus microphone-based singing where the mics, you know, 10 inches away from your mouth. We're using different strategies as we release that air as well, correct?
Oh, very much so. I think it's probably why I have the, um, the mindset of I don't like to get involved in my students' breathing as much unless it's in their way because I teach more contemporary styles and the demands on the breath are not as much for contemporary singers, most of the time, comparatively to operatic singers for sure.
Yeah. All right. Lots of good information. Uh, thanks for writing in, Amy. So next up, we have another one that's kind of similar to this because it deals with breath, but in a different way. And Brandon's asking, what can I do to make my voice less airy? So what would make a voice sound airy to us?
That's exactly where I would start is how to make your voice less airy. You do have to address what's making it airy. You can, I will check first. I mean, it can follow some sure that I think that's important to check on if you're dealing with modules or age-related, um, physiological demands and those kinds of things, theological limits. That's something that can be in play. Like a teenager, 14-year-old girl is going to have more airiness in her sound naturally, and that's going to be more of a physiological limit for her because of where she is and vocal development and stuff like that. But if you're not dealing with either pathology or physiological limit along those lines, it, I, it usually winds up being a weakness of the adductor muscles, the muscles that bring your vocal folds together in order to get firm closures, firm glottal closures. So, um, your vocal folds would not have as firm enclosures. So I, I sometimes call them slacky. I think that a lot of slack going along with them and stuff like that. So the air is able to fly through more easily and you get a breathier quality of sound without that firm closure and strength. So, um, that, those are the things that you'll run into and what's most common for breathy sounds. Uh, how to fix them is a whole other story and a whole other slew of, um, warm-ups and exercises and things like that. My go-to to start with is usually, um, onset staccato work, onset and offsets to power work and stuff like that. So what I mean by onset and offset is the moment the vocal folds come together and the moment they park when they're done phoning. So we have a slew of options for your onset. You can have a glottalized onset, that's very, very firm, kind of sound fry your onset into your sound as well. You, on the other side of that spectrum, you can utilize a breathy onset that's obviously going to add more airiness to your sound. Where I like to work our smooth staccato, smooth onsets with staccato break. So offer, uh, whatever you call bicep curls for your muscles and stuff.
Oh, yeah. The ability to repeat and strengthen that muscle repetition after repetition after repetition. Um, making sure that that onset and offset are very smooth and clean. It's really helpful in regards for my students in cleaning up their, uh, and cleaning up correctness and sound for sure.
It's really gentle too, staccatos. Yeah, because if you do them too harsh, you can end up with other problems, right?
Yeah, sometimes what I'll run into also is the, um, the breathiness can show up because a student is trying to be loud. So like, if breathiness is present, you think, I have to be louder to get rid of this sound. Sometimes I don't know if you've ever run into that. And in reality, that winds up oftentimes just pushing more air into it, um, and making it more breathy and less efficient than all of those kinds of things. So I'll often tell them to back off volume a time too, at the beginning. Make sure clear is more important than loud for sure. It has to be clear first before you can add volume to it and have it be efficient for sure.
That's a great, uh, uh, saying. It has to be clear or clear. You said clear is more important than loud.
Clear is more important than loud. I love that. That's very true because, yeah, once they find clear, loud is fairly easy to get to once you find clear. But if you're trying to add loud on top of a breathy voice, that's where we're gonna run into some trouble for sure.
Yeah, that's a great point. Well, and I think a lot of singers too, uh, get some misconceptions about what loud, how loud loud actually is because everything's running through a microphone. And if they aren't used to listening to, you know, things through the, uh, voice off mic, they start to think that the micro, or that microphone sound is the real sound. And most of the time, it's not. Most of the time, the mic is, uh, you know, enhancing the sound a little bit as well.
So much. I grew up, I was probably 13 when Wicked came out, and that was my like, musical theater, I must do this thing. And I didn't understand that at that time that listening to these broadcast recordings, that is, it's so manufactured. Um, and the volume, especially, it sounds so, they're giving loud out of 10 all the time, you know, when in reality, it's right there, right on top of it, you know?
Yep. Absolutely. So this next question, uh, kind of comes into that a little bit because we were talking about abduction and abduction, like you were saying, is how the vocal folds come together. And that's also part of registration. And we've talked about registration on the show many times, but, you know, I think it's always important for singers to hear multiple ways of explaining this. So Tracy's asking, you know, a common question is like, what, what is the relationship between these two terms? We hear a lot of chest and head. So can you kind of define it in the way that you would explain it to students?
Yeah, um, so I, what I got into with a lot of my students is that everyone is experiencing their registers in their way, and it's oftentimes very different. I have students who don't experience register shifts at all. I have no idea what you're talking about when you talk about head voice or chest voice. And there are some who, and I would hear what I would call head mix, feel like it's more of a pure head voice or whatever it is. Realistically, there's so many different things that they're experiencing. It's a lack of consistency in terminology is usually what winds up creating issues along those lines. So, uh, what I usually wind up telling them is, uh, you have a muscle that controls the chest force qualities of sound and the muscle that controls the head qualities of sound. You have your thyroid noise that contracts the vocal folds to make them thicker and fatter. I keep using biceps. This is the thing that attracts them to make them bigger and better and stuff like that, right? Um, then you have, and the antagonistic muscular pair of it. This is how they, what, what is the relationship between head voice and chest voice? They are an antagonistic pair. One contracts, the other stretches, which would be your tricep, realistically. The other stretches. That's your, uh, hypothyroid muscle that stretches the vocal folds longer and thinner to create lighter, fluffier, just vibrating on the edge kinds of sounds. Oftentimes, so if you've got one muscle that contracts like a bicep and one muscle that stretches longer and thinner, those are going to be two different qualities of sound. What's interesting about belting and mixing and all of those kind of things is the really hard thing about it is you're trying to do both at the same time. You're trying to stretch and contract at the same time. And that's what makes it such a high-level skill that is studied for years to become really, really efficient with it, you know?
Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, that's a lot of, it's because it's a, like you said, it's a high-level skill. It's a motor skill, right?
Yeah, right. Very much.
Yeah. It's much, I mean, some people obviously have incredible talent and gift and all of those kinds of things, but truly motor skill, even for them, takes time and repetition and practice and so much work in order to get it to a point that you can perform eight shows a week of Defying Gravity or whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah. Good for sure. Um, Bella asked a question here that I think is, uh, uh, it's probably fun when we have live questions to answer as well. And, um, I think this kind of goes into some of the stretch, weakness, and, you know, over tensing of muscles. Uh, she's asking, what do you suggest for relaxing tense neck muscles, even when using good breath support? Now, there's several things in here that you talked about with like over breathing plus tensions. Talk to us about that a little bit.
Yeah, sometimes I'll even just get students. This is where you get the, have the student lay down on the floor thing to get them to relax some of their postural muscles. Oftentimes, what I'll see is a kind of reach, right? That's fairly common that we'll run into. Um, and they become much more aware of their neck trying to reach when gravity's trying to hold it down, and they get to relax up a little bit. That can be immensely helpful for them. Other things, even just like taking your pinky, your thumb to be aware that this is reaching as well. The awareness, I think, is step one. Aware, even that you're tense at all has been a lot of my journey as a vocalist too, is not even knowing that you're holding stuff. So creating the awareness first and foremost is huge. Of what free even feels like. Um, I have students that I will have them just keep their head in motion as they sing in general. That will loosen them up a fair amount. Um, obviously depending on the student. Um, I'm trying to think of some other exercises in general that I will engage in, but those are, those are first and foremost. Those are good.
Talk about when you're laying on the, uh, laying on the floor. So is it a hard surface? Like you want them on a hard surface, right? Not so off bed, not a soft bed, but I having them on like rigid, hard and stuff like that.
Is slightly uncomfortable in my setting. Mostly what I look at though is making sure that their knees are up, right? So that, so their back is relaxed and all of those kinds of things so they can be comfortable as they relax there.
Yeah. And I think that one of the things you mentioned is once that, I mean, those postural muscles that, uh, Bella's talking about, a lot of times are engaging. Like you said, they're, uh, trying to move their head. And it's this connection where the cervical vertebrae meet the thoracic vertebrae down here, right above your shoulders. If you bend over, it's that little hump that's in the back, right? And instead, we want to be moving our head from the AO joint, which is the bone that your skull connects to. It's right in between your ears. Like if I stuck a rod through your ears, it would go through that AO joint. So it's back here that we want people to be moving, right? And not here, is what you're talking about. And if you're on the ground, laying, you're not going to do that with your head because gravity is shoving your head down to the ground and it's uncomfortable. So essentially your body kind of like learns what it's like to sing without engaging those muscles, right?
Absolutely. 100%. That occipital joint back there. I think that gets into some kind of Alexander work here and there with like, just making sure that you even know where your body connects. Oftentimes, our awareness of the joints in our body are so out of whack because oftentimes I'll ask my students, where do you feel like your neck connects with your spine? And they usually point to here as opposed to way up in here. Yeah. And even just knowing that this is a spot and you have like a bobble head on top of that spine is very different awareness for sure.
Yeah, that's a great point. Um, I think though too, some of this may also go back because she's talking about when using good breath support. But as you mentioned, sometimes people breathe too much and when we breathe too much, that can cause tensions as well, right?
Definitely. For sure. Sometimes it's usually around like a big high note. We get really anxious. We take this huge breath because we have to prep for the huge high note. And those kinds of things. And it usually winds up being something along these.
I was going to say, I can see your sternocleidomastoid muscle like bulging.
Yeah, as soon as you. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So, uh, making sure that that they get to experience that true form of relaxation. Meditation can be immensely helpful just for the awareness of what is relaxed. What even is it for us Americans? Does anybody really know? That's hard to find. I like engaging in like the, I don't know, I just had dental surgery face. All of that kind of stuff. It usually winds up leading to other muscles in there. And then just making neutral sound with it in general to know what it feels like to get your vocals to come together without force, without tension, without extra work that you don't really need.
Great stuff. Good answer, Bella. I hope that helps a little bit. Um, you know, like we said, like checking to make sure that you're moving from here, you're not jutting your head forward. Try laying on the ground and singing. I think if you lay on the ground and sing, you're going to become real aware of what's trying to fight with you. And then also try a little bit less. Like it could be that you had to really work on your breath support at one point in time and you're now really working at your breath support when you don't need to as much. And it could be that all that extra work is what's helping, uh, create a ricochet effect upside up into your body and causing you some of those neck tensions. But, uh, yeah, great information. Thanks for the question, Bella. Um, next up, we have a question from Tony. And this is something I think that I remember when I was a young singer, I was just so confused about. Is what parts of the body are actually involved in changing the tone quality of the voice? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, when questions like this come up, this is when I dive into like the source filter work. Have you talked much about source filter?
A little bit.
So source filter, the source being your vocal folds. Your vocal folds vibrating, that's the source of the sound. Um, when you remove the filter, which is the vocal tract, they sound mostly like a duck call. In some, there's not a lot of tone quality to them, aside from maybe pressy or breathy, which we've talked about a little bit. Um, so the tone quality is mostly made in your filter, in your vocal tract.
Yeah. Uh, it's immensely malleable. It can do so many different things. What's that in the vocal tract? Can you define what that is?
Yeah, from your vocal folds to your lips, that track right along in here, from the vocal folds right out to the edge here is going to be your vocal tract. Actually, too, I realized I got a mop. You have it. Yeah, it's right there, right? So that's the vocal that Maddie's talking about, and that's the opening of the lips and this tube right here. That's the vocal tract.
That's correct. Guy. Yeah, for sure. So the vocal tract is immensely malleable, like I was saying. Um, I've only recently become more and more in awe of the fact that we can even make the sounds that we make as humans for language. It's so cool. It's so cool. Um, but even just vowels, consonants, all of those kinds of things, you're using your vocal tract in so many different ways on a daily basis to change the tone quality. A vowel can be considered a tone quality of your voice, realistically. So oftentimes for singers, the questions come up about bright or dark or twangy or all nasal. All of these kinds of things, those are all made in the vocal tract. So bright, uh, things like retracting your lips are going to give you a brighter quality of sound. Raising and moving the tongue farther forward is going to give you a brighter sound. A higher larynx is going to give you a brighter sound. Warmer, darker sounds are usually made through lengthening and opening the vocal tract further, bringing the lips forward, opening the pharynx. The pharynx, which is the space behind your mouth and your nose, right back in there, just above the vocal folds. Um, nasality is created through the lowering of the soft palate, which is that soft tissue right behind the roof of your mouth. Do you have that one, Matt?
Yeah, I got this little guy right here. It's the little uvula that's right here. That's the back. If you see that uvula in the back of your mouth, that's attached to that soft palate right there. Yeah. And if we lower that guy, you're gonna get nasality in the sound. Um, lowering the larynx in general is going to also give you warmer qualities of sound. Toner attraction will make the sound warmer, those kinds of things. Um, and any combination of those things is also fair game, which is what's so cool about, um, contemporary music. Any music, but really the contemporary music, I feel like we're experimenting with so many different kinds of sounds and stuff like that. I very much enjoy listening to it.
So it sounds like a lot. So the, the, the technical thing is that you have the soft palate, the lips, the larynx, they're all moving around and that enables your vocal tract to get shorter, which makes things brighter, or longer, which can make it warmer, or narrower, which can make it brighter, or wider, that can make it longer. But you're saying a lot of that comes back to vowel quality, right? So that's why there are interactions on the inside, but a lot of singers can just warm up, think of a more closed vowel, or an open vowel, or a warm vowel, or a bright vowel, right?
Absolutely. Um, it's my job to know what your vocal tract is doing and all of those kinds of things. It's your job as a singer to have awareness, but predominantly tell a story. That's your job. It's that. And sometimes focusing on, is my larynx, uh, doing this thing? Or is my soft palate doing this thing? Can become particularly technical and get students stuck in their head, I think, is what you're referring to.
Yeah, sometimes it's, everybody's different though, right? People really, they respond really well to thinking about the actual technical, but then other people like that simplistic version of just thinking about quality, right?
Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah. So lots of options there. But I think what you mentioned is important, is that idea of the source filter idea, is that we have registration, which we talked about earlier, and it's that registration combined with what's happening in the vocal tract that ends up giving us all those different vocal qualities, correct?
Yeah, very much so. Yeah. Great. All right. So one of the next questions that, and we get asked things like this a lot, like what Zack is asking, and a lot of students have a problem with this, is accepting their voice for what it is and start improving. And some of this gets into more of a mental game because this is not as much about actual technique, but doing some of the mental and artistic work to get to this point. So what are some of the strategies you use to help your students?
Yeah, this is such an important question, and I'm so glad that it's here. Um, this is to me, uh, foundationally in a lot of what I like to call thought management. Um, their thoughts are immensely powerful. The sentences that go through our brain that we believe or don't believe, wind up, um, influencing our feelings, how we feel about things, which influence our actions, which influence our results. So if you are thinking about your voice on a consistent basis, it's not good enough, I don't know enough, I'll never get better. That will lead to a feeling of probably despair and depression and all of those kinds of things. That leads to the action of inaction, most of the time. That gives you a result of nothing at that point, realistically. So what thoughts are you subscribing yourself to is so, so, so important to consider. Now, I understand that it's not as simple as jumping from, oh, my voice is terrible, to, I have the most beautiful voice on the planet. You have to believe the thought that you're telling yourself. It's so crucial. Um, so trying to make that jump is unrealistic and too much, usually for us to handle. So I usually suggest to my students finding the things, the neutral things that you can believe about your voice. My voice laughs. My voice, um, gets to greet my family members. My voice is capable of expressing my emotions. My voice can go high. My voice can go low. Simple facts about your life that lead to feelings that are more productive, inspiring, potentially. You get to feel inspired by the fact that your voice gets to express emotion. I promise you, it does. Hopefully, that's an inspiring thought for you. Or my voice is unique, unlike any other, is a thought you might be able to subscribe yourself to. Um, that will inspire. That then leads to, um, actions that hopefully make you want to improve, accept your voice for what it is, and then start improving. That gives you results that bring you joy at the end of the day, that just allow you to express yourself as an artist in a way that you would not be able to if you just sat there and kept hating your voice. Bottom line, for sure.
You know what's interesting? I was, uh, I had a conversation with a psychologist earlier this week, and he was talking about paralinguals. It was a new term. I had to look it up, but essentially it's like the inflections and the, you, the way that you deliver your words. And what he was saying was that we only get about 10% of the meaning of what somebody is saying to us from that literal words. That it's things like the paralinguals and the body language that are actually what communicate more to us. And, you know, from the psychology point of view, and that's really fascinating because that's kind of tying into what you're saying, which is your voice is capable of expressing these emotions and using different tone qualities to do that. That I think so many singers get obsessed with trying to get a right sound that they actually put themselves in a box because if that's true, what we're learning, you know, the psychologist is saying about the paralinguals, if you only deliver one tone quality, you're missing out on all of those nuances that a listener would use to interpret your state of being, right?
So much of our training and voice leading up to this has artists who trust themselves and trust their voices and trust the very unique qualities of sounds that they can make. And I think that's immensely powerful. We know that all of the greats are not trying to be like someone else. We know that they're being, they're creating their sound, being themselves, you know?
Yeah, yeah. Jan said, my acting professor always said, we memorize emotions, not words.
Isn't it? Yeah. Right. I love that. That gets you out of your head.
In a really big way. Yeah. It does. So cool. Good. All right. So the last question, people are always asking some variation of this, and I think it's great to give singers lots of options. So what are some of your tips for how to warm up your voice?
So, um, we know, I imagine you've talked about this at some point. We know that the warming of the voice is the literal, like, increase the temperature of your vocal folds first, so that they can, before you go and stretch them, before you go and engage them in highly intense activities, increase the temperature first. So where I'll usually start with that, and I assume this comes up a lot, is lots of, um, I shouldn't even say lots of, semi-occlusive vocal track, uh, exercises like hums and G's, straw formation, lip buzzes in a really easy range, just to get the vocal folds to come together with friction and literally heat up, literally increase the temperature. Um, after that has happened, then I always think it's important to go for a stretch. Go explore some head voice and some falsetto and all of those kinds of sounds. Take that work out that crypto thyroid for a sec. Take it for a stretch. Um, and then, uh, I like to make sure that the filter is free because I deal with a lot of filter tension myself, and I like to make sure that my tongue, in particular, is free before I dive into things. So some tongue agility exercises and awareness exercises, making sure my jaw is free, that I'm not dealing with constrictor muscle issues, and all of that kind of stuff. Depends on the issue of the student, I would say, as well, to make sure that they're set up in the way that they need to be set up with the tasks that they're dealing with at that time in their lives. Um, but something else I found immensely helpful in regards to warm-up these days is what I'm calling the neurological warm-up of the piece that you're doing. I find that even if it's just a quick 30 seconds of something that you do, whether it's in your voice lesson or in your show or whatever it is that you're going to perform, there is power in making sure the neurological pathways are awake and present and here for that day. Um, it makes a big difference. There are a number of actors that I know who in their mic check will have, you know, the sound guy queue up whatever section, 30-second section of their song that is as the final step to their warm-up. To not because the vocal folds need more warming, they're, they're good, they're fine. The vocal folds are fine, you're good. But I think there's power in making sure the neural pathways are present and here for us in that day.
Yeah, so we're learning a lot more about the brain recently.
So much. So much. Yeah. And I think it's interesting because our knowledge of the singing voice is continually changing. And there are some things that we used to think were actual muscular changes that I think we're now starting to understand are more neurological changes. And the brain's controlling that muscle. And so you are strengthening a connection, but it's more of the neurological changes that are probably happening, neurological adaptations, more than muscular adaptations. I think it's going to be interesting. I think we're going to find out a lot in the next 10 years, uh, yeah, with some of the new technology we have available, what's actually happening when we're strengthening our voices.
It's interesting. You think about like, you talk about motor skill in general. And so curious to, uh, follow the research in regards to, okay, so what percentage of the motor skill, realistically, is the muscle or is the neurological pathway and all of that kind of stuff?
So cool. Because we know in like strengthening the thyroid retinoid, used to be believed that that muscle would bulk. And then we're not so sure about that anymore, is that correct? In the recent?
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. From the rats, they've been doing research with rat models. And literally, they have a way to get rats to vocalize. It's an ultrasonic vocalization. But then they check to see if there's any development of that thyroid retinoid muscle. And they're not necessarily seeing what they were expecting. The hope was is that we could use, um, you know, some of that information to help people who might be having muscular atrophy from aging or having something, uh, that might be happening along the way because of something like Parkinson's disease or other neurological issues. And, um, you know, so then they did some research with choir singers to see if choir might help. And they weren't seeing what they had hoped in terms of muscular gain, but they saw a huge quality of life improvements, which is definitely important. But, uh, yeah, there's some emerging work. It's Dr. Aaron Johnson at NYU Langone. And I follow his work because he's, uh, really kind of leading the way on trying to understand what is actually happening as far as muscular adaptations in the larynx.
Oh, so cool. I love it. Well, Maddie, it's been a joy to have you on here tonight. Thank you for coming and joining us.
It's been a pleasure to be here.
Any, uh, final thoughts for singers?
Oh, final thoughts for singers? Love your voice. Do the work. Um, know that, uh, there's no such. I, I actually just, I've been working on a welcome packet for my students in my studio. And I've put together like the five things I wish I knew when I started training. And of course, I'm not going to be able to remember them all now. But some of them lying that there's no such thing as beautiful singing. All, all sounds are an opportunity for discovery. I think as soon as you can subscribe yourself to that, there's a lot that opens up for you. A lot. So go out, get singing, do the practice, and have fun.
That's awesome. Great. Well, a couple shout outs. Catherine Green, thanks for stopping by. Ed Green as well. We're looking forward, and I was gonna say looking forward to seeing her, but we're online, unfortunately. And, uh, yeah, Patricia Campbell, hey, thanks for stopping by and checking out the show tonight. Um, if you found a lot of this information interesting and you're wanting to learn more about what's actually happening in your voice, I'm just releasing a brand new course. It's called How the Voice Works. You can check it out at this link. We have a special launch price. It's only $47 right now. It's four hours of 4K content. We filmed it in an award-winning studio out in Hollywood. It's got a 100-page workbook with it, full of medical animations from Bluetree Publishing. Guys over at Bluetree are awesome, and they lent us a lot of animation or licenses, a lot of great animations and illustrations. So if you want to learn more about some of the things we're talking about tonight, be sure to check that out. The regular price is $199, so grab it while it's $47. If you teach any kind of class this fall and you're stuck trying to figure out what to do with your students during COVID, we also have some special group pricing just to help out schools. We know a lot of people are hurting, so we're making some basement bargain discounts to try to help, especially high school teachers and, you know, college educators who are looking for a way to fill in some of the time while they're online. So if you're interested in that, check out the website, send us a message, and I will fill you in on the rest of that. If you want to learn more about Maddie and her studio, she's located in Washington D.C. when she's not in Utah, and of course, now thanks to the internet, worldwide. But you can visit her online at maddietarbox.com. So Maddie, thanks a lot for coming today.
Thank you. Everybody for stopping by and your questions. It's always great to have people here joining us every evening.
And I look forward to seeing you next Thursday on voicelessons.com Thursday Night Live. Good night, everyone.