2. POSTURE
1) Stand Straight
Standing straight
will help you
breath as much air
as you can because
your lungs will
have the maximum
space for air which
is very important
for breathing.
3.
4.
5.
6. The proper posture for singers
involves standing so their back,
neck and head are straight;
focusing their weight on the
heels or balls of their feet; and
situating their body into a
comfortable position. Poor
singing posture could lead to
many bad effects. Poor singing
posture -- in which the body is
slouched over -- can tighten the
stomach and cramp the lungs
so that the body cannot
smoothly inhale and exhale
breaths of air. This restricts the
airflow and inhibits a person's
ability to use the diaphragm to
sing.
7. Hitting Notes
For singers to hit the correct
notes and strike the right
melodies, they must stand with
good posture so the body is
straight, the limbs are
comfortable and the lungs and
diaphragm are free to stretch and
breath. When the diaphragm is
tightened by poor posture, the
voice might miss notes or hit the
wrong notes during melodies.
Inadequate postures can also
impair a singer's ability to strike
very high notes that are difficult
to reach.
8. Power
The strength and power of a voice depend largely on
posture. Tilting the body back and forth, positioning it at
an awkward angle or slouching the back can all muffle
resonance. In turn, even when a singer using poor
posture hits the correct notes, the notes and melodies
might have a relatively weak sound, soft volume and low
resonance. Furthermore, bad posture can inhibit a
singer's ability to hold notes for long periods of time.
9. 2) Stand tall and stand wide
Standing tall means standing thinking that you are I inch taller
than your real height. Standing tall will pull the lungs upward
giving more room for air that you breath. Standing wide means
you should feel free t o move at your sides. Have an illusion of
“wideness.”
10.
11. The shoulders should be back, the chin should be level
with the floor or higher to make it easier for the air to
travel from and to the mouth. The head should be at a
comfortable speaking position. It is important to
maintain proper chin posture when singing very low or
very high notes. The chin that is comfortably positioned
will ensure that the jaws remain properly aligned for the
best vocal training. This is singing with an open throat.
12. The shoulders
should be held back
down and the chest
held high but not in
a strained position.
When singing the
shoulders should
not go up and down
but it is the
abdomen that
expands and
relaxes.
13. Abdomen should be flat and firm, held in an expandable
position.
The diaphragm is a large muscle sheath that stretches
across the bottom of the rib-cage, nearly cutting the body
in half, separating the lower organs from the heart and
lungs. During normal breathing, the diaphragm naturally
flexes (or flattens) and contracts drawing air in and out of
the lungs.
14. Supporting the voice” and “singing from the diaphragm” means
flattening the diaphragm more deeply than during normal breathing
and maintaining the diaphragm in that flattened position to control
the release of air and the air pressure that streams across the vocal
cords for phonation. To sing better, a vocalist must learn to preserve a
reservoir of air in the lungs that supports and holds up a small amount
of air released across the vocal cords.
15. When breathing inhale just
enough air. If you inhale too
much air, the other organs will
stiffen depriving the muscles of
elasticity. Inhale just as much
air to a comfortable degree.
What is important is not how
much air you inhale but how
you emit the smallest possible
amount of breath. Fill your
lungs with breath. You will feel
your ribcage expand. Your
shoulders should not rise.
Raise your chest comfortably
high and force the breath
against it and hold it fast there.
16. Raise your palate high and but with uniformity and
prevent the escape of the air strength, without once being
through the nose. The
held back to the vocal cords,
diaphragm beneath reacts which will further regulate it as
against it and it furnishes
far as possible. The more
pressure from the abdomen. directly the breath pressure is
Chest, palate, the closed
exerted against the chest, the
epiglottis and the raised
less breath flows through the
palate all form a supply
vocal cords and they are less
chamber for the breath.
overburdened.
Only in this way is the breath
under control of the singer,
through the pressure against
the chest tension muscles.
From now on the breath
must be emitted from the
breath supply sparingly.
17. •
•
•
Thus, in shaping the passage for the
•
breath, the larynx, tongue, and palate,
which
•
can be placed at will, are employed. The
vocal cords, which can best be imagined as
inner lips, we have under control neither as
beginners nor as artists. We do not feel
them. We first become conscious of them
through the controlling apparatus of the
breath, which teaches us to spare them, by
emitting breath through them in the least
possible quantity and of even pressure,
whereby a steady tone can be produced. I
even maintain that all is won, when we
regard them
directly as the breath regulators, and relieve them of all overwork through the
controlling apparatus of the chest-muscle
tension.
Through the form prepared by the larynx,
tongue, and palate, we can direct the
breath,
previously under control and regulation,
toward the particular resonating surfaces on
the palate, or in the cavities of the head,
•
which are suitable to each tone. This rule
remains the same for all voices.
As soon as the breath leaves the larynx,
it is divided. (Previously, in inhalation, a
similar thing happens; but this does not
concern us immediately, and I prefer to
direct the singer's chief attention to the
second occurrence.) One part may press
toward the palate, the other toward the
cavities of the head. The division of the
breath occurs regularly, from the deepest
bass to the
highest tenor or soprano, step for step,
vibration for vibration, without regard to
sex or individuality. Only the differing size
or strength of the vocal organs through
which the breath flows, the breathing
apparatus, or the skill with which they are
used, are different in different individuals.
The seat of the breath, the law of its
division, as well as the resonating surfaces,
are always the same and are differentiated
at most through difference of habit.
18. If you raise your soft palate, you're
opening up your throat. Try it out,
and you'll feel your throat opening
wider. This allows more air passage,
and for more complex notes to
come out. It also helps with the
development of louder and stronger
Raise your eyebrows when
notes, with the help of breath
control, and it helps maintain the you sing. It's not so you
"round" sound you're supposed to look alive, it's because if
work towards, which makes you
you raise your eyebrows it
sound more rich and full. This can't
pulls your throat
hurt you at all, if you're singing
relaxed and just opening up. In fact, muscles higher. Work on
it's just about the best thing you can your breath techniques to
do for your voice and feels really
control how much breath
great, like a good run in the
you are letting out.
morning.
19. Position of the feet: The feet should be shoulder level.
The feet should not be close to each other because the
person will be swaying back and forth to maintain
balance. The feet should be slightly apart and one foot
should be a little forward to ensure perfect balance.
20. Position of the arms and hands:
In choral singing the hands just dangle
freely at the sides. However in solo
singing, the hands are used for
expression and emphasis.
21. Position of the Mouth:
Do not pronounce vowels in singing like in speaking. Position
the mouth in a oval shape. Do not tense the jaw or the tongue.
Drop your jaw freely and do not try to control it. It is important
to keep these areas relaxed. This will give you a smooth and
rich tone with tension. Before the sounds are released into the
air, it bounces back and forth on the walls of the mouth giving
it a richer more beautiful tone.
