Archive for category Voice
Sipping the Soft Palate Up
Posted by Eric Armstrong in advanced, Blog, Voice on May 6th, 2012
If you’ve been looking at this site, you’ll know that the three Voice warm ups ( Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced ), you will know that each warm-up features a step that’s about the soft palate. It turns out that my posts on the soft palate are the most popular posts on the site! So in honor of this special interest by my readers, I thought I would write another post on the topic.
Today, we’re working on sensitizing the lift of the soft palate that happens when we sip through tightly rounded lips. If you were to imagine that you were sucking on a small cocktail straw, the air comes in through your mouth and definitely not through your nose. Making sure that the air comes in through your mouth ensures that your soft palate is closed, and the greater the suction we make, the tighter the soft palate will be.
Sipping, it turns out, also activates the movement of the arytenoid cartilages, that swing the vocal folds wide. This helps to open your throat, and you can then activate your external intercostal muscles to breathe down into your lower side and back ribs. So as you sip, imagine that your “straw” directs the breath down and back, rather than up and front into your sternum.
Now let’s add some voicing to our sipping.
- Sip down and back through tightly pursed lips
- Leaving your lips pursed, try to keep the feeling of lift in your soft palate, and breathe out on a narrow column of air, as if you were trying to blow out birthday candles (do this for 4 or 5 breath cycles)
- Now “ooze” a voice sigh on the vowel “oooooo” /u/ through that tightly pursed lip shape, all while trying to maintain the sensation of a lifted soft palate
- Make sure that each inhalation through your pursed lips connects your breath into your lower torso, and that you maintain that lifted feeling in your soft palate
- With each sound, slowly unpurse your lips more and more, so that you are alternating between pursed-on-inhalation and less-pursed-on-exhalation until you get to completely-relaxed-on-exhalation. Try to keep thinking “ooo” /u/ while you do this
- Finally, try doing this same experience with a rounded version of “EEEEE” /y/ (as in the vowel in the French word “tu”), that slowly unrounds to regular “EEEEE” /i/.
Now try a few “ooo” /u/ phrases like
- “Who are you?”,
- “Blue goo on my shoe” or
- “Eunice blew a tune through her new flute.”
Between each one, be sure to sip to lift your soft palate.
Now, speak some text you know, or count backwards from 100 by 3‘s (100, 97, 94…) and without sipping, try to keep that lifted feeling. Learning to keep that feeling of lift in order to maintain a bright, forward focused sound is challenging, but it is learnable with practice. Float your soft palate, and focus the sensation of vibrations in your face bones, and you’ll be on your way !
Muscles and structures of voice
Posted by Eric Armstrong in Blog, Uncategorized, Voice on May 3rd, 2012
I searched Twitter for #voice #speech and came up with this great link to a PDF of a slideshow by Berkeley’s Keith Johnson for his linguistics 110 course. It features images of anatomical structures involved in breathing and voicing (aka “phonation”) that nicely shows how the intercostal muscles work during breathing and the intrinsic muscles of the larynx work during sounding. Of course what the slides leave out is the expert storytelling a lecturer does to accompany such slides. I have a website dedicated to anatomy and physiology of the voice which you can (dare I say should?) check out at the Journey of the Voice. Enjoy!
Voice is like a Car
Posted by Eric Armstrong in Blog, Voice on April 26th, 2012
Found this great little movie with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, done by the National Centre for Voice Science. A simple review of how the voice works.
Throat Clearing Blog post from Joanna Cazden
Posted by Eric Armstrong in Blog, Uncategorized, Voice on April 20th, 2012
This is great. Joanna Cazden, who is an LA-based SLP and Voice specialist, published a guest post over on the “Speak Schmeak” blog. My favourite part:
A vague feeling of phlegm or “something’s in my throat” can be a leading symptom of acid reflux irritation, long before you experience regular heartburn. Cut back on coffee, alcohol, and heavy meals before bedtime; try a quick-acting antacid before long meetings; and arrange for a throat exam with an ear-nose-throat specialist (laryngologist).
Neck Stretching
Posted by Eric Armstrong in advanced, Voice on March 25th, 2012
In this post, I’ll be reviewing how to do neck stretches. The goal here is to stretch out your neck muscles prior to beginning your voice work-out. There are muscles on all sides of your neck, so we need to stretch the front, sides and back of the neck, slowly and carefully so that we don’t injure ourselves.
Begin by standing or sitting very tall, with your shoulders wide in the front and in the back. Keeping your lips together, let your jaw drop, so that there is plenty of room in your mouth. The idea here is to relax the mouth, so that as you stretch the neck muscles you are reinforcing the good patterns in jaw and tongue. Speaking of the tongue, let your tongue relax in the bottom of your mouth with the tip behind the lower front teeth.
Side Stretching
Drop your head over to the left, and reach your left hand up and over the top of your head so it rests just above your right ear. In all of these exercises, it is important not to pull, but to merely let the weight of your hand assist in maintaining the stretch. Now reach your right hand down and away, as if you’re reaching for something just out of reach with your finger tips. Hold this position for 20 seconds. Now, drop the left hand from off the top of your head, and let your right arm relax while your head floats back up to the centre.
Repeat to the right.
Back-Side Stretching
Just like you did in the last exercise, drop your head over to the left to begin, but then turn your nose toward your armpit. When you reach your left hand up and over the top of your head, this time it will rest just behind your right ear. Now reach your right hand down and away, as if you’re reaching for something just out of reach, but this time reach with the heel of your hand, as if you’re trying to put the palm of your hand on a table top. Hold this position for 20 seconds. Now, drop the left hand from off the top of your head, and let your right arm relax while your head floats back up to the centre.
Repeat to the right.
Front-Side Stretching
Similar to the last exercise, drop your head over to the left to begin, but then turn your nose upward to an 45 degree angle. When you reach your left hand up and over the top of your head, this time it will rest in front of your right ear, on your right temple. Now reach your right hand down and away, as if you’re reaching for something just out of reach, but this time turn the palm of your hand up toward the ceiling. Hold this position for 20 seconds. Now, drop the left hand from off the top of your head, and let your right arm relax while your head floats back up to the centre.
Repeat to the right.
Back of Neck Stretching with your Head to the front
Drop your head forward, with your chin near your chest. Place your hands on the back of your head and interlace your fingers. Press your head upwards, into your hands, while resisting the movement with your hands (so your head does not move). Release the pressure, and see whether your head drops any further toward your chest. Repeat 5 or 6 times.
Front of Neck Stretching with your Head Tilted Up
Start by thrusting your jaw gentle forward into a mild underbite position. Lift your chin (by tilting your head back) until your neck is stretched out. Now turn your head to the left. Hold for 20 seconds. Now move your head to the right, and hold that stretch for 20 seconds. Release the neck by backtracking through each step: turn the head back to mid line, bring the chin back down to the horizon, release your jaw.
Rotation Stretch
The final stretch is to rotate your head to the left, as if you’re trying to look behind you. Hold that position for 20 seconds. Bring your head back to the midline and then turn your head to the right for 20 seconds. Do each side up to 5 times.
NEXT STEP: Breath in the Pelvic Bowl
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