From our Facebook Workshop Series

In a nutshell our workshop tonight was this: the more support you have, the bigger your range (how high and low you can sing) can be.

So to help illustrate what support is, think of a hose. When you turn on the hose, water comes out right? Right. But what happens when you bend the hose in half? What happens to the flow of water? You’re right, the flow is slowed down to a drippy drip drop. The goal in singing is to keep the water (or air when you sing) flowing so that the sound is supported.

Now think of two different chairs in your mind. One is a metal chair and the other is a swivel office chair. Now stand on the swivel chair. How do you feel? Secure? Do you feel like you can jump up and down and be ok? No way! Now stand on the metal chair. How do you feel? Much more secure right?

These two illustrations help us see that with the right support we can have a stronger sound and be more comfortable with taking risks as we sing.

Exercises to do at home to improve support with your voice:

• Lay on your back on a hard surface. Place two heavy books on your stomach. Now take a good low breath and pretend you’re a balloon that has a small leak and slowly let out the air.
• Monotone Singing. Choose a note, any note and count as high as you can while singing that one note just using one breath. Then repeat that and try to count higher and high each time.
• Listen to opera singers and be a copycat. Sing along and try to sing like they do.

Thanks for tuning in to our workshop series! Comment below or on Facebook with questions you have about performing and what you’d like to see or learn in the future!