(5-minute read time)
Although we are in the middle of winter, including both a covid and an influenza surge, I am not going to talk about vocal health. My social media feeds are full of tips and facts right now, so check that out if you are looking for ideas.
Instead … let’s talk about vocal flexibility!
This is one of those terms that means something different for everyone. So, for the sake of our short chat, here is my definition:
Vocal flexibility is the mental and physical readiness to vocalise with the full coordination and style that the instrument is capable of today.
This means that:
- the voice itself is warmed up to its supple best,
- your breath and resonators are primed for coordination, and
- your mind is ready to organise the whole organism to produce the musical phrases it has on its mind.
I want to make this practical, so here are three ideas you can try in your practice this week to discover what flexibility means to you and how to enhance it in your singing.
1. Fall in love with your warm-up
A flexible voice comes from being cherished, polished and tuned up, as though it were a priceless cello. Warming up can be the best part of your practice every day – where you and your voice listen to each other, celebrate what is stretching and growing, and take notice of what is different from yesterday (both better or poorer).
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Am I consistent or random in my choice of warm-ups, and how does this affect my flexibility?
- What could I add or subtract from my go-to list to give my voice the chance to open up and expand to its full range?
- What do I look forward to about each exercise? Which exercises do I avoid?
- Do the exercises I choose impact how long it takes me to get to a feeling of flexibility?
2. Stretch your toolkit
A flexible voice is agile, strong and able to navigate small and large intervals at slow and fast speeds, for short and long phrases. Using exercises, vocalises and activities that give you progressive challenges is a good way to feel like more of you is available when you tackle new song material.
Try these ideas to shift your voice from a “fixed mindset” of vocal limitation to a “growth mindset” of vocal possibility.
- Add in some chromatic interval exercises or song excerpts that include semitones, minor 3rds, 6ths & 7ths, and diminished 5ths.
- Use a song excerpt that features resonant qualities you would like to explore. eg. the intro riff in So What by Pink; or the intro riff in Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy.
- Take a song with balanced phrasing that you find comfortable and experiment with where you breathe. Try some longer phrases by skipping your normal place of breathing; or try breaking a long phrase up into shorter segments. How do you manage it mentally? Physically? How does the different phrasing alter the lyrical meaning? Yesterday by The Beatles lends itself to this activity well.
- Introduce yourself to vocal improvisation – whether in the form of RnB riffs or jazz scatting, improvisation can encourage your exploration of the voice and your coordination of it without making it about “good and bad” self-criticism.
3. Balance consistency with variety
There is a lot of neuroscientific research to support both a consistent and varied approach to practice. Sometimes we need a certain amount of repetition to embed something for retrieval in the future. But sometimes we need to have variety and fun = because the brain thrives on it! Does your practice session mix it up in a useful way? This might be from day to day or within the session itself. For example:
- Try allocating a small portion of memorisation to every practice session of the week instead of cramming it into one session at the last minute.
- Dedicate each day of the week to a different tool you want to build. eg Monday is for intervals; Tuesday is for messa di voce; Wednesday is for breath extension; Thursday is for improvisation; etc
- Pick three things you want to troubleshoot in a song and work with them a little every day for a week, rotating through them for 1-2 minutes at a time, a couple of times each practice session. Leave them extracted from the whole song until the end of the week. Trust your instinct for ways to break through the obstacles or ask your vocal coach for support.
Vocal flexibility is not a “one and done” achievement. It comes from the gentle accumulation of showing up often, paying attention to what your voice needs, and introducing it to new ideas regularly. Stretch it one notch at a time and respect its boundaries.
Let me know if any of these ideas helped you open a new pathway of flexibility!
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Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash