Vocal rest

Due to high vocal demands these last couple of weeks, as well as some illness that has been passed around, the issue of vocal rest has come up quite a bit. So let's explore just what vocal rest is, when it's needed, and how it can benefit you as a singer.

At face value, vocal rest is pretty self-explanatory: it just means resting your voice. But does that mean you have to be absolutely silent? In most cases, no. These days, about the only time singers are told to go on complete vocal rest (no singing, no talking, no whispering, etc.) is when they are recovering from vocal surgery. In most other cases (like illness or vocal fatigue), some light vocalization—like humming and straw phonation—can be good for the voice, as long as it is limited.

Since the vocal folds are made up of muscle and tissue, ANY vocal use can cause fatigue if it goes on long enough—even alongside an impeccable technique. When fatigue does occur, it's generally a good idea to reduce overall voice use so the muscles have adequate recovery time.

However, in many cases, it's not the singing that gets us into trouble. It's often all of the "extracurricular" voicing that causes problems.

A 2013 study published in the Journal of Singing led to some interesting discoveries. The researchers (Christopher S. Gaskill, Jennifer G. Cowgill, and Shenendoah Many) tracked six first- and second-year undergraduate students at the University of Alabama who were majoring in either vocal performance, music education, or music theater. The researchers asked each student to wear a vocal dosimeter for five days, which measured their total voice use during that time (singing and non-singing). Here is some of what the data reveal:

• "Most students accumulated much more nonsinging time than singing time."
•  One of the students reported a session of “singing in the car” that lasted for 23 minutes, which revealed a very large vocal dose within a short period of time. 

In addition, in one instance during the week, a tenor music theater student commented to one of the researchers that he had just come out of a rehearsal that had been vocally taxing because it involved “a lot of talking.” However, when they compared the dosimetry data from the rehearsal (which lasted 1 hour) to the time spent socializing immediately after the rehearsal (which lasted approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes), the student used his voice TWICE AS MUCH while socializing than during the rehearsal. Besides using his voice more during that time, he also spoke at a higher pitch and with greater intensity.

This data caused the researchers to conclude that "...the most vocally demanding times for students may often be outside of required singing activities, and that [students] may be very poor judges of their own perceived vocal doses."

So when students tell me they have put themselves on vocal rest, I always want to know if it is only their singing that they are restricting. As this study points out, all of the other vocal activities (talking, laughing, etc.) can actually be more vocally risky than singing.

Of course, we have to take care of our voices. We need periods of rest that allow us to recover from the high vocal demands associated with being a singer and actor. But we also need to be mindful of how we are using our voices throughout the day so we are not unknowingly adding to an unsustainable vocal load.

How has your singing been this week? How do you manage heavy vocal demands?

Now go practice.

Belting, Legit, and Mix...Oh My!

Vocal pedagogy sometimes suffers from the lack of uniform terminology. Although we all agree on what to call anatomical terms like larynx and diaphragm, when it comes to the words we use to describe technique, it gets more subjective. For instance, asking singers and voice teachers to define words like "support" or "head voice" would likely result in some pretty varied responses.

In music theater singing, a few examples of yet-to-be-absolutely-defined terms include "legit," "mix," and "belt." Maybe it isn't that important that we all agree on the definitions and sounds these words invoke. On the other hand, if teachers and singers can't even agree on how belt singing sounds different from mix singing, how will we ever agree on the vocal technique that allows us to create those sounds in healthy and effective ways?

To help address this conundrum, Dr. Lynn Maxfield and I set up a research project to see if singers and casting directors agree on what constitutes legit, mix, and belt singing. You can read our full paper here (it's free until October 23rd!), but here's a brief summary of what we did and one of the big things we discovered:

We asked four professional female music theater singers and seven student female music theater singers (college freshmen and sophomores) to perform a series of pitches in what they considered to be a belt sound. Then we had them sing the same pitches again but in a mix sound. Then we asked them to sing the same pitches once more in a legit sound. We recorded each of those sounds and played them (in random order) for five casting directors of regional Equity theaters to see if they could tell which style the singers were choosing.

In the end, the casting directors were able to successfully identify the style the singers were intending in a statistically-significant majority of the time. They had even higher percentages when identifying the professional singers' intended style than with the students.

These results should be encouraging for music theater singers since, even though legit, mix, and belt don't have set definitions, singers and casting directors may mostly agree on what those styles of singing sound like. Therefore, when a casting director asks a singer to "be more belty" or to "use more of a mix," the singers may be reasonably confident in what sound the casting director expects.

Now if we could just agree on how to make those sounds!

How has your singing been this week? How are you progressing toward the goals you outlined in the last blog?

Now go practice.

I dreamed a dream

Welcome to all new and returning students!

Like many of you (I would imagine), I always look forward to summer. I love sunshine and hot weather. I love to be outside. I love baseball—and my team (the Chicago Cubs!) has actually been worth watching the last couple of years. Plus, my birthday is in July. So in summer I get to do a lot of my favorite things.

I also look forward to summer because it allows me the time to do the things that get put off during the school year when I'm too busy. Over the last 3+ months I did a lot of reading, I took a voice science class, I did plenty of writing, and I attended three out-of-state voice conferences. These have all given me more tools to bring into another full year of teaching.

One of the things I learned came from a workshop led by Matthew Edwards, who is a voice pedagogy professor, author, and blogger. He advised us to help our students set goals but, in doing so, to make a distinction between goals and dreams.

For instance, for most of you "I want to be on Broadway" would be considered a dream and not a goal, at least for now. If you have never performed in a national tour, if you have no off-Broadway experience, or if you have no major credits at regional houses, then performing on Broadway is not the "next step," like a goal should be. That doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire to perform on Broadway. It just means that there are lots of steps between here and there that will likely occur first. Those steps can serve as a series of goals that can help lead you to your dream.

Let me be clear, this does not mean to aim low. You should definitely have both goals AND dreams. But goals are for short-term progress and can be constantly adjusted. If you set a small goal and then achieve it in two weeks, that's great! Then set a new goal and keep moving forward. That will often lead to more specific, tangible progress than if you are working toward a far-off dream with no achievable benchmarks along the way.

In addition, there is also a mental and emotional payoff for setting small goals. If you are constantly achieving your goals (however small) and then challenging yourself with new goals, you will feel more successful, which feeds your ambition and keeps you working hard. If all you have is dreams, then everyday is just another day that you did not achieve your dream. This can be frustrating and make you feel like you are making no progress at all.

For this first blog, let's discuss what your dreams are and what goals can help you reach those dreams. Consider dividing your goals into short-term (two weeks), mid-term (by fall break), and longer-term (by the end of the semester).

I'm really excited to be back in the studio and classroom working with you all again. As much as I love my free time in the summer, I love working with all of you even more. Let's have a great year!

Now go practice.

EDIT: One day after I posted this blog, Matt Edwards discussed many of these same ideas in his own blog. I encourage you to check them out here.

Goals are the benchmarks that set you on the path to achieving your dreams.

Seeking success

With graduation season right around the corner, social media will soon be swimming with videos of people in robes and funny hats pontificating about the secrets to success, doling out advice, and quoting Dr. Seuss's "Oh, the places you'll go!"

I actually really enjoy most commencement addresses. I love to hear people talk about what they feel is most important in life. Amidst the daily barrage of brainless blather, it's refreshing to hear sincere stories that are borne out of personal experiences.

I also appreciate good graduation speeches because I imagine they are immensely difficult to write. How do you put together words of inspiration without being trite or cliché? How do you give advice without sounding preachy or like you’re telling people how to live their lives? And how do you compose a speech that is entirely original and deliver it in a way that strikes just the right balance between engaging, funny, and profound?

The irony is that while we look to these speakers as templates of success, hoping they may give us something to emulate, they tend to emphasize the need to forge our own paths and to seek the answers within. In this regard, success is different for each of us and depends on how we define it.

One definition of success was made clear at a commencement ceremony I attended where the head of the faculty spoke at length about the need to "accomplish" and to "do great things in your field." Near the end of his speech, he told the graduates, "Stay in touch and let us know about all your successes...so we can brag about them!" He never once mentioned the importance of character, the need to build community, or how crucial it is to live a life of honesty and integrity.

A different definition was presented by the student speaker at my own college commencement ceremony. He reminded us that, while many people were hoping for our success, he was hoping for something else. "When you are faced with the opportunity to commit injustice that may result in your own financial or career success," he said, "I hope you fail. Gloriously!"

Here's one more definition:

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." ~Maya Angelou

Wishing you all success (especially you graduates). Thanks for a great year.

Now go practice.

Mythbusters

For the last four years I've been involved in the Performance Voice Conference sponsored by the University of Utah Voice Disorders Center. Twice I sat on a panel called "Vocal Health Mythbusters" with Ingo Titze, PhD, Marshall Smith, MD, and Kristine Tanner, PhD. The purpose of the panel was to discuss the many ideas surrounding vocal health and singing that may not exactly be based on fact.

Many of these ideas seem to make sense when you hear them. Since most of the physical mechanisms involved in singing are hidden inside our bodies, we can find ourselves assuming something is true just because it feels a certain way. While sensation is an important tool for singers, it's also important to understand what's really going on.

Here are some of the more common myths or misconceptions I have heard over the years (along with my responses). Most of them are things I believed at one point or another until I learned otherwise. And as Oprah says (via Maya Angelou), "Once you know better, do better!"

You must breathe into your diaphragm. 
When you inhale, your diaphragm engages and lowers, drawing air into your lungs, not your diaphragm. Your diaphragm is a muscle. You cannot breathe into it.

You must breathe into your stomach. 
When the diaphragm lowers, it presses on the contents of the abdominal cavity which can give a sensation of outward expansion along your waist. But, again, since the air is going into your lungs you are not breathing "into" your stomach.

You must stand up straight to sing.
Efficient alignment will generally benefit your singing. But the spine has natural curvature. If you straighten that out...ouch!

You should always sing with enough space to fit three fingers vertically into the front of your mouth.
Again, ouch! This may be true for certain notes in your range (I'm thinking specifically of your extreme top notes) but if you don't have a particularly large mouth, three fingers of space may make your jaw feel hyper extended.

Raise your eyebrows to keep from singing flat. 
Pitch goes up when the cricothyroid muscle engages and the vocal folds are lengthened. Your eyebrows are not connected to your CT muscle. [Disclaimer: There are elements of breath flow and resonance that contribute to pitch as well, but your eyebrows don't impact these either.]

Drinking water will help wash phlegm off of your vocal folds.
Only if your epiglottis fails you. Your epiglottis closes over the larynx when you swallow so that food and liquids are directed into your esophagus, where they head to your stomach, and not into the trachea where they would pass your vocal folds on their way to the lungs. If water is passing by your vocal folds, you are probably drowning.

Lift your upper jaw when you sing. 

Myth: Eventually you're going to have to grow up.

You only have one jaw, which connects to the skull at the temporomandibular joint and can move up and down when speaking, singing, and chewing. If you are moving your upper teeth, you are moving your skull, not an upper jaw.

Let the sound resonate throughout your head.
Please don't. That's where your brain should be.

Always sing with a lowered larynx and a high soft palate.
That depends on what sound you are trying to make. Some singing may call for a higher laryngeal position and/or a lowered soft palate.

What other vocal myths have you heard? What vocal myths did you once believe? (be honest!)

What are your practice goals for the last month of the semester?

Now go practice.

The more you know

Earlier this year, I was reading an opinion article in the New York Times by Lisa Pryor about the prevalence of pseudoscience in popular culture. Pryor, a medical doctor, described a phenomenon of cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. As she explains,

"In short, the less you know, the less able you are to recognize how little you know, so the less likely you are to recognize your errors and shortcomings."

Essentially, once we know a little bit about a topic, we tend to assume we know more about that topic than we actually do. I refer to this as knowing just enough to be dangerous.

This seems especially prevalent in our field. Since everyone enjoys music of some kind, many believe themselves to be experts on identifying "good" singing and "bad" singing, even if they can't articulate the qualities that cause them to make those assessments.

Intriguingly, the Dunning-Kruger Effect also accounts for the converse of assuming we know more than we do. As Pryor describes,

"For the highly skilled, like trained scientists, the opposite is true: The more you know, the more likely you are to see how little you know."

This makes sense, when you think about it. The more you learn about a topic, the more you begin to see its depth and the intricacies that require deeper understanding. In music theater, most people can enjoy COMPANY as an entertaining show. But you may have a more intense appreciation for its impact if you know Sondheim's work up to that point and can track his development as a lyricist and composer.

Pryor sums up what may be the take-away message of the article by saying,

"Most doctors, especially the good ones, are acutely aware of the limits of their knowledge. I have learned from those much more experienced and qualified than me that humility is something to be cultivated over time, not lost."

When I went to college, coming from a small high school in a small town, I was stunned to realize how much I had to learn about music and singing, which were the two things I supposedly knew more about than any other subject.

Back then, and still today, I find I learn the most when I accept and embrace that fact I can never know everything. This keeps me hungry and curious without being frustrated that I don't already know more than I do.

How has your singing been this week?

Now go practice.

Something's afoot

Maybe high heels and kinky boots look fabulous, but can they impact your singing?

To help find out, Dr. Amelia Rollings of Western Kentucky University conducted a study that has been published in the Journal of Voice called "The Effects of Heel Height on Head Position, Long-Term Average Spectra, and Perceptions of Female Singers." (Available free at this link until March 31st.)

For her study, she asked 30 university voice students to sing an excerpt of “Climb Ev'ry Mountain” from THE SOUND OF MUSIC while barefoot and again while wearing 3.8 to 4 inch high heels (Mossimo Vivian Pointy Stiletto heels from Target, if you must know). Dr. Rollings then measured their head angle, analyzed the acoustic output of their sound, and had the students fill out a questionnaire about what they felt while singing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results show that every single participant significantly changed the angle of her head when singing in high heels compared to singing barefoot. The acoustic data indicated "significant spectral energy differences" between barefoot and high-heeled singing (meaning there was a notable change in tone quality). And the questionnaire revealed that 70% of the singers were most comfortable—and felt they sang their best—while barefoot.

So, does this mean that singers should never wear heels while singing? Not necessarily.

Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller, co-author of What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body, believes singers can perform in high heels, but to do so requires some extra attention and practice. He writes:

Luckily, snowshoes are pretty flat.

"Adding height to the heel of a shoe will change the arc of the arch through which the weight of the body is delivered to the floor; the heel of the shoe becomes an extension of the heel of the foot. The ankle joint must rebalance so that it still remains the fulcrum at the apex of the arch, which will of course be taller and narrower. (The higher the heel of the shoe, the taller and narrower the arch.) The ankle joint must adjust so that weight is still being delivered equally back through the heel of the foot and subsequently the heel of the shoe to the ground, and also forward through the ball of the foot to the ground. (If too much weight is thrown onto the balls of the feet, the toes often grip in compensation, which is counterproductive.)" (What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body, p.256)

There are many performance factors that may interfere with our best singing, like staging, choreography, and even costuming. The point of a "dress" rehearsal is to allow actors to get used to moving and singing in costume (shoes included) to work out any peculiarities before being put in front of an audience. It takes practice and experimentation to find out how to keep vocal efforts balanced and expressive within these potential limitations.

Being aware of how high heels may unconsciously impact your singing can help you make appropriate adjustments to your approach. Then you're better able to get your performance off on the right foot.

How has your singing been this week?

Now go practice.