Transcripts
1. Trailer: There I'm Edward Atkinson. I have three degrees in music
from Indiana University and Mercer University
and 20 years of teaching voice and
conducting choirs. This class is about the
foundations of singing, but it is unlike anything
you've ever done before. You will learn
through experiencing sensations first and
labeling them second. Every day is only
5 minutes long. A carefully layered
progression of skills. The course is
structured based off of my 20 years of teaching
private students. The reason it's only 5 minutes a day is to leverage
what's called encoding, which is memory consolidation that your brain goes
through at night. It's basically where your brain takes everything it did during the day and then transfers it
into your long term memory, and that is actually
where skill is created in the brain and in the
nervous system is at night. So with 5 minutes a day of
incredibly focused work, you can see incredible results. I have over 1,000 students who have gone through this
with me in person, and now you get the
chance to do it online. Everything you learn
is going to be through an experimental mindset and
also what's called Kaizen, which is continuous small
improvements over time. In only 5 minutes a
day over four weeks, you're going to gain pitch
control, breath control. You're going to
learn about fmation, inhalation, apago, how to
combine all of those three, you don't need to know
any of those words because they want to
walk you through with sensation and exercises
first and the labeling second and the labeling
doesn't even really matter because singing
is an athletic event. As part of your project,
you're going to create what's called
the Singer's toolbox. Every single day, you're
going to write down one insight that you took
away from the lesson, and at the very end, you're going to
share that project with everybody
else in the class. That process is
going to help you, and it's also going to
help all the other singers taking this class
alongside with you. Choir snack is 5 minutes a day, giving you the kind
of skill growth that used to take hours a day, access to elite institutions and hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Instead, you get to do it
here for next to nothing. I can't wait to hear and
see how much you grow. Let's get started.
2. Overview and Learning Outcomes: How would you like your
voice to never get tired? How would you like to
never run out of breath? How would you like to know
that your instrument, your body will always be reliable and do what you need it to do when
it's called upon? You were going to learn why
you were capable of training your instrument and
changing and growing and transforming into
a better singer. How to teach yourself to sing, how to breathe better, how to make sound more freely, how to nourish and support that sound and how to
tie it all together. Today is going to be short.
This is just the intro. We're going to go
over only two things. Thank goodness,
you are not fixed. Your body is not fixed, your talent is not fixed. You may have heard the
term neuroplasticity. This is the ability
of the brain to form and reorganize neurons
and synaptic connections. In plain English, what this
means is that you can learn, unlearn, and re learn at
all times in your life. Now, some days you're gonna
feel stuck and things feel hopeless and nothing's
working, and that's fine. The wonderful thing is
that that is a feeling, but neuroplasticity is a fact. And I love that because you and I are both built for growth. We are built for change, we
are built to adapt over time. The key, of course,
is to learn how to practice and how to
trigger these changes, and we're going to get to
that in just a second. Let me share a personal
reason why I know you can change and
grow and transform into a singer who
can breathe more deeply and sing more
powerfully and more freely. When I was young, I was
bullied for wanting to sing. And that's hardly
an uncommon story. I ended up becoming ashamed
of my voice and my body, and I actually refused to sing for about ten
years of my life. But thanks to some
extraordinary teachers and some courage of my own, I was able to go from
I literally couldn't sing a scale to save
my life all the way to singing concerts
for thousands of people in America and
leading professional choirs. And the reason I share
that is that I have walked the walk from
absolutely ground zero, both experiencing the
emotional difficulties of singing to having absolutely no skill
and talent in singing all the way up
to this other level. The other reason is
that I have taught over 3,000 students to
transform their voices. So I know both through
my experiences as a student and as a teacher
that this is possible. If you're willing
to take some risks and to keep doing
that consistently, you are going to love where you end up at the end
of this course. Let's talk about how to
teach yourself as a singer. Five things. Design
your environment, graft your new practice habit
onto an existing habit. You are your own teacher,
the singer's growth formula and the singer's toolbox. How to be successful in teaching yourself as a singer comes
down to those five things. Design your
environment. Set aside a space where you're
going to practice. Make it your practice space. And it can absolutely
be a shared place. It could be your living room,
your office, your bedroom. It doesn't really matter,
but name and claim a space that you are regularly going to go back to to do
your practicing. And then do something
to improve it. It could be as simple as picking up a few pencils off a desk, putting out a flower
or a picture, but do something to
claim this environment. Our physical environment sends so many signals to our brains, and we want to do
something that's going to claim this
environment and say, This is where I learn, and this is where I
practice as a singer. Number two, you already
have 1,000 daily habits. Breakfast, lunch,
your morning coffee, your second morning coffee, your afternoon coffee,
whatever it is. You've got a lot
of habits already. Most of what we do is habitual. And what I would love
for you to do is to pick an existing habit and then tack on this
new practice habit either immediately before
or immediately after. Let's take, for example, lunch. You could say, every day
I eat lunch at noon, and at 11:45, I'm going
to do my choir snack. It's going to make it
easier to remember, and it's also going
to reduce friction in your day for actually following
through on the practice. And now for one of the
most important questions you could ever ask yourself, what actually causes learning? What is it that causes
transformation for a singer to go from singer A to
singer B with new abilities? That's a good question, but I'm going to
rephrase it for you. What does not cause learning? Watching this video does
not cause learning. Watching any video does
not cause learning. The learning is
found in the doing. It is in the movement
and action of the body, followed by the adjustment
and the presence of mind that you bring to experimenting
and to application. The learning is in the doing, not in the watching. So with that understanding, I'm going to throw
something your way. You are your teacher. I am just a guide. The
primary teacher is always you because you are the person engaging in the actions
that cause learning. I'm here to facilitate that
and to make it as easy as possible to remove obstacles
and to light the path, but you are the teacher
because you are the one doing all of the things that
cause the learning. Okay, but none of this matters
if you don't know how to practice in a way
that has real impact. So I'm going to give you the
singer's growth formula. Set your mind, learn
through touch, set your intention,
adjust volume. Blah, that sounds complicated. Let's break it down because this is critical. Set your mind. The starting place
is always gratitude, gratitude for the gift that
is your body and your voice, and also as part of
setting your mind, remembering that you
are the teacher and it is through the
doing and the risk taking and the courageous things you do that cause the learning. If I was to ask you, which of the five senses, do you think is most involved
in learning to sing? Most people are going to say auditory or hearing,
but it's not. It's the phenomena of
the sense of touch, the sense of physical sensations in the body and
learning to bring your presence of
mind to those and to make adjustments and to
map those body sensations, that is where the
learning happens. And it's also not through words and it's not
through concepts. It is through the sense of touch and your presence
of mind to that that's going to teach
you and change you and transform you.
Set your intention. It's really important that
whenever you do an exercise, you don't simply barrel through it or steam
roll through it, you know why you're
doing the exercise. So you can say, I'm about
to do this exercise to try to achieve freer breath
or a deeper inhalation, but to set an intention
before an exercise. Adjust. We make adjustments. If something's not
working, forget it. We go to something that
is volume of repetitions. Because simply put
your instrument, your muscles, your
nervous system, your organs, your brain, are going to do really well
whatever you do the most of. So there's a simple
fact that volume of repetitions is going to
be what trains your body. Maybe this still seems
a little complicated. Set your mind, learn
through touch, set your intention,
adjust volume. But we can simplify
it even further. Be grateful, be
purposeful, be consistent. Guess what? You don't have
to remember all of that. You're going to
learn it as we go. The last thing here
is what's called the Singer's toolbox. There are 100 different ways to get to the same end result. And your body is different than my body is different than
everybody else's body, not only our DNA, but our biological history and the things that our muscles
remember and the things that our muscles have
already been trained to so one exercise might
work wonders on Larry, and that same exercise might
do nothing for Martha. So what you do is this, grab yourself a notebook and title it My Singer's toolbox
or Edwards toolbox, or whatever you want to call it. But the point is
to have a toolbox. And every time you come
across an exercise that just hits the mark for you, it's gold. Write it down. Over time, you're
going to end up with this gold mine of exercises that you can reference and lean on and turn back to whenever
you run into trouble. So, look, can you do this? Can you transform your body and your instrument as a singer? Yes. Vocology and
neurology say yes. I say yes as a student
having done it, and I say, yes, as a teacher, having helped thousands
of people do it. And the next step is
for you to say yes, for you to understand that
you can transform your body. Lastly, I'm gonna
leave you with this. If you could flip a switch
and have a voice that was more powerful and more free than you ever had
dreamed of before, what would you want
to do with it? What would you want to sing? I'll see you tomorrow. No
3. Peppermint Patty 1.1: Hello, and welcome
to your first snack. Let's take a moment
to be grateful for our bodies and
our instrument. Remind yourself, my singing and my voice is a
gift to others. Pop quiz, which of our senses do we use the most when
we're learning to sing? The answer is touch. Singing is physical.
It is an athletic act. And let's set our
intention for today to experiment and to notice the things that help
me breathe deeply. So right now you're standing in your practice
environment. Looks nice. Now, if you would for just
one moment, close your eyes. Imagine for just one
moment that you're wearing a giant wooden barrel
around your torso. It's a bit strange, but
we'll roll with it. It comes right up
to your armpits. It has a couple of straps
on your shoulders. It goes all the way around your back and all the way around the front of your chest with a big gap between the
barrel and your body. You feel like you've
got to waddle a little bit just to hold it up, but it feels okay. Now open your eyes, put out your arms to make
that shape of the barrel. You're gonna feel like you need to tuck your shoulder blades back just a little bit to be
able to support this barrel. Can you feel how big the sides of your
torso feel right now? What do the sides of
your stomach feel like? Keep your awareness
on the sides of your body as you're
breathing in this position, imagining that big
barrel that you're supporting with the straps on your shoulder and
that tall posture. As you breathe in
through the nose, feel that that breath sinks
down into your ankles. And breathe out
through the mouth. Take one more deep breath into the nose and another
out through the mouth. Poof. No barrel. But you do still
have the memory of those sensations of the way the breath felt as it sank into your body and also of the
sides of your body as you imagined lifting up
that giant wooden barrel. Take a mental note of how
the sides of your body felt as you were supporting
that giant barrel, and then let's find a wall. Lean against it at
a 45 degree angle or whatever feels safe to you. In this position, breathe deeply through the
nose as if someone just opened up a York
peppermint patty right underneath your nose. For the remaining
couple of minutes, make sure that all of
your breath in is through the nose and all of your breath
out is through the mouth. Now, personally, I want a little bit more of
that peppermint smell. So I'm going to breathe
even more deeply and feel that peppermint smell get into the bottom of my lungs. While you're breathing
in and breathing out, let's see if we can
get the wall to take a little bit
more responsibility. See if you can let your
arms become bracers. See if you can feel that
the palm of your hand starts to take more of the
tension and support the body, and then let your
legs and how they're sticking to the floor support the other part of your body. See if in adjusting
your position, the arms and the legs are taking over as much of
the tension as possible so that the middle of
you is free to take in as much of that peppermint
smell as you possibly can. Breathe in through the nose, peppermint patty, breathe out through the mouth,
enjoy the exhalation. Breathe in, letting the arms and the legs support the body. Breathe out. Keep a
very calm cadence of that breathing into the
nose and out to the mouth. As you breathe out
through the mouth, slightly purse your lips, just a little bit to
control that exhalation. The more you can
transfer the weight of your body to your hands
and to your feet, the more free the abdominal
muscles are going to be to let your
stomach out of the way, which is going to let
you get a deeper breath. In this position,
where do you notice expansion in your body and
more freedom and release? And where do you notice
engagement in the muscles? And now we resume a
standing position. Stand as you normally
would and breathe deeply into the nose,
out through the mouth. Do you notice something? In this position, the body
doesn't feel quite the same. Can you map the difference
between breathing while leaning against a wall and breathing while standing? It's a little harder
to breathe deeply. It's a little harder to let
the stomach area relax. And the sides of your body probably feel a little
different while standing. Interesting. While
you remain standing, take a second and see
if you can recall those body sensations while breathing and leaning
against the wall. Do you remember how
the way your hands were against the wall and
your feet were against the floor took away some of your body weight so that it was a little bit
easier to breathe? Do you remember how that peppermint smell went all the way down into your toes? There are two takeaways
for you today. When you're standing, so many of your muscles are engaged,
which is fantastic. It helps us to sit
and to stand upright. However, it gets in the
way of breathing deeply. We don't have to figure
this all out right now, but just tuck that
away that the act of standing can actually make it more difficult
to breathe well. If anything was especially
helpful for you today, write it down in your
singer's toolbox. We went through the barrel
breath, the wall lean, the peppermint patty smell, and if none of it worked,
that's okay, too. Either way, I'll see
you tomorrow. Oh
4. Rib Expansion 1.2: Welcome back. I've got a
question for you today. What is it that
makes a breath good? What makes a breath
a singer's breath? What is the kind of
breath that enables you to sing freely and
more powerfully? It's a good question,
and for now, I want you to just store that
in the back of your brain. Let's get started in
a standing position. Stretch upwards to the sky. Twist your torso gently
in both directions. Fold over, hinging at the hips and slowly breathe your way back into
that standing position. Stretch to the sky, twist your torso while remaining
in this standing position, breathe in while flapping
your arms like a chicken. I promise you I
wouldn't ask you to do anything I won't do myself. As you're breathing
in and breathing out with this arm motion, can you bring awareness to
the sides of your body? Do you notice any different muscles are getting activated? Now, let's breathe in with our arms extended and
palms facing downwards. Keep the arms extended
while you breathe in through your nose and
out through your mouth. In through your nose, that breath is going all the
way deep into your body, down into your toes and
out through the mouth. Same thing in this position. Bring your awareness
to the sides of your body. What do you notice? What do you feel on the sides of your body in this position
while breathing in and out? Now we're going to
move positions. Fold your body over
and let it hang, relaxed in this
folded over position. While you remain folded over, breathe in deeply
through your nose, taking in as deep a
breath as you can, and letting it out slowly
through the mouth. Feel the expansion
of your body as you breathe in and the release
as you breathe out. Can you bring awareness
now to your lower back? As you breathe in,
can you feel all of those back muscles being activated and then
you breathe out? Bring awareness to your ribs, to the sides of your torso. Can you feel what's going
on in your back and your ribs as you breathe
in and you breathe out? Isn't it just absolutely
extraordinary how much of your body is involved
by simply inhaling air? Now we're going to move back to that standing position and just breathe in a
relaxed manner. Into the nose, out to the mouth. As you do this, think
about the expansion you just felt in your lower
back while folded over. See if you can recreate
that feeling in the sides of your body around the ribs as you're standing. Now, it's perfectly okay. If your body doesn't
know what to do yet and it's a
little bit confusing, that's perfectly normal for
this stage of the game. About the expansion
you just felt in your ribs and in your lower back when you
were folded over, and attempt to recreate that
now that you're standing, and maybe it works
and maybe it doesn't. But either way, we
can observe and adjust because we experimented. So we're going to
go back to that folded position one more time. With your body folded over, breathe in deeply like you're breathing in that smell
of the peppermint patty. Bring your awareness
to your back. Bring your awareness
to the expansion of your body and the feeling of how it moves as
you breathe in. Now move to standing again with your arms extended and
your palms facing down. In this position, breathe in through the nose and attempt to recreate that sensation of the low back and rib expansion. Always take your time
when you're breathing. The only person who's
going to rush you is you. So here's a tool
for your toolbox. You have a number of breathing
positions that you've already tried a wall press, standing with your arms
extended and palms down, standing while flapping
your wings like a chicken and folded over while
breathing in deeply. If any of these was particularly effective for helping you
create a deeper breath, make sure you note that down
in your singer's toolbox. The other tool is
this moving from one breathing position
to another and trying to transfer or recreate
that sense of really deep inhalation in
one position into another. It is a fantastic way
that learning through transference to create a
permanent sense memory in your body for breathing. Take this awareness with you. You can also simply practice this when you're
stopped at a red light. Try to draw on a deep
inhalation where you feel your back expand and your ribs expand and
the stomach let go. Simply attempting that
a couple of times a day will help develop
the sense memory. That's it for today.
Thank you for your time, and I can't wait to
see you tomorrow.
5. Uninterrupted column of air 1.3: Welcome back. Yesterday,
I asked you a question. What makes a good breath? What really defines
a breath that allows you to sing freely
and more powerfully? And I asked you to tuck it away, but I didn't give
you any answers. I'll tell you this
about singing. There are thousands of things to work on with
the singing technique, and every single one of them improves when your
breath gets better. You can think about all of the skills of what
it takes to be a singer as branches growing off of the
tree trunk of breath. So let's get back
to it. What makes a great breath for a singer? I'm not going to
tell you with words. I'm going to show you that you
already know how to do it. Let's get really comfy and lie down on the ground
with our back flat, facing up and with
our knees bent. While you're lying
down in this position, I want you to bring
awareness to your stomach. Can you just take a
moment to appreciate how amazingly relaxed your
abdominal area is right now? Put one hand on your
stomach or two. Someone just opened another
York peppermint patty. And while lying on the floor, you are breathing that
in as deeply as you can. As you fill up your lungs
to maximum capacity, can you feel how
unimpeded your breath is? It's just amazing. There's nothing getting in
the way of your breath. See if you can draw in 110% of your lung capacity breathing in through your nose. And then a long exhale
out through the mouth. Keep noticing how incredibly relaxed your abdominal
muscles are. Now, while you're on the ground, I want you to turn
over face down. Your legs will extend flat, and you can use
your arms to make a little rest for your forehead so that your spine
can stay neutral. In this position, I
want you to breathe in deeply through
the nose again, inflating those lungs
as much as you can. And did you notice that? Can you feel what happens
in your lower back? Your back is again
involved in breathing. In this position, continue
to breathe in deeply through the nose and then
out through the mouth. Again, your stomach is
completely relaxed, but now we can also feel our back muscles really
involved in each inhalation. Again, take a moment
to appreciate how extraordinary your body is and the fact that right now you are taking
the singer's breath. You've done it. You've just performed the singer's breath. You didn't need a definition. You didn't need
to understand it. Your body can already do it. You were born with it.
Our bodies are miracles. If we want to, we can use some words to describe
what just happened. It is drawing in air to your body into the bottom
of your lungs unimpeded. The abdominal muscles
aren't in the way. The rib muscles are
not in the way. The back muscles
are not in the way. And that's it. While
you keep breathing, I'm going to give
you one more twist to this a visualization. Visualize your breath
as having a color. Let's say that the air that you are about to inhale
is the color yellow. Then you can visualize that air moving down
into your body, the same way that
you could visualize colored smoke moving
through the air. Let's bring it back. What
is this good breath? This singer's breath
we keep talking about. On the inhalation, your rib muscles move
outwards and expand. Your stomach muscles are totally relaxed and just
get out of the way. Your back muscles, same
thing, they're moving, they're expanding and you have
a four dimensional breath. It goes down into
the body and it goes out as the stomach releases
and gets out of the way, and then it goes back as the back muscles release
and get out of the way, and then it goes left and right as your rib muscles
get out of the way. But why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to do
this while we're standing? And then why is it so
hard to do when we're rehearsing or we're singing
live in front of people? Here's why. When you stand, all of these muscles that
we just talked about, they have to engage to
keep your body upright. So how can you acquire the
ability to breathe that deeply while standing up or while singing
a piece of music? By doing what you're
already doing. Breathe in a position that is easy to get
a fantastic breath. Then move to standing, and then go back to
where it's easy and then move to standing.
Think about this. This is only day
three. You already understand what the
singer's breath is. You understand how to train it, and you already have
a growing toolkit that works just for you. Give yourself a high five, go eat a York peppermint patty, and I'll see you tomorrow.
6. Lip trills 1.4: Welcome back. It's
already Snack four. You've already done
the hardest thing, which is to make
time and show up. So you're halfway to
success. Let's get into it. Standing or sitting, we're
simply just going to exhale warm or hot
air like this. And that's it. The same
way you would breathe out as if you're trying to see
your breath in the winter. One more time exhaling
warm or hot air. Now we're going to
take that same feeling of warm or hot air, and we're going to
give it a lip trill. Now, let's take a
deep inhalation, and we're gonna do a long lip
trill on one sustain pitch. The Last step is we're going
to do a lip trail on 151. Feel free to pause the
video and do this in whatever range or pitch
set works best for you. C to G to C. It's an easy
place for most people. Let's take a second.
What did you feel in your larynx while you were
exhaling the warm and hot air? What did you feel in your larynx while you were doing
the lip trill? Now, some of you might
felt completely free and easy and felt no sensation
in here, which is excellent. Some of you also might have felt no sensation during the
warm or hot air exhaling, but then felt a
little tightening once you started to lip trill. Your voice will be at its most beautiful when the larynx
feels completely undisturbed, the same way it feels when you exhale warm or hot
air like this. Now we're going to move down
onto the floor in that face up position that we were in yesterday with your knees bent. While you're lying
down on this position, I want you to take all the
time in the world that you need to breathe in
deeply through the nose, to fill up those lungs, and to breathe out slowly
through the mouth. Take your time as
you teach your body that this is what a great
inhalation feels like. Once you feel that that
inhalation is just fantastic and it feels
refreshing to your body, I want you to take one
more deep inhalation and follow it by a long lip
trill on one pitch. You can pause the
video here and give a long lip trail after
that wonderful inhalation. Now we're gonna take
just a quick moment to recall those sensations. What did your larynx feel like? What did your throat feel like? As you inhaled and as
you did the lip trill. How did this feel
different lying on the ground versus
sitting or standing? I've got an important
takeaway for you today. Nobody gets good at
this stuff overnight. Everything in your life
that you've mastered, you have acquired slowly. That is simply how
neurogenesis works. The same goes for all of
the great singing skills. Something you could put
into your singer's toolbox today is taking singing or lip trill exercises and attempting them in
different positions. You're doing great work,
and I can't wait to see you tomorrow as
we wrap up Week one.
7. The sky is blue! 1.5: Welcome back. You've
made it to Snack five. We're going to start
with the sequence today. Ground, face up,
ground, face down, wall press, standing with
arms extended and standing. In each position, all that
we're doing is trying to find a good inhalation and
we'll try that for four or five times and then
move on to the next position, and again, try to find
that great inhalation. Start on the ground, face up. This is the position
where no muscles of your body are having to
fight to keep you upright. Take in as much breath
as you can into your lungs and a long
exhale through the mouth. Enjoying the freedom that you feel in your abdominal
and stomach areas. Once you feel comfortable with these sensations and that
you're really breathing well, switch into a face down
position using your hands to create a little rest for your forehead so that
your spine stays neutral. Again, breathe deeply
through the nose, feel the back expansion, feel how free your stomach
and your ribs are enjoying deep inhalations
through the nose and long exhalations
through the mouth. Try to memorize this sensation. Because we're about to try to recreate it in a
different position. Lean against the wall at roughly a 45 degree
angle, again, breathing deeply
through the nose and long exhalations
through the mouth. See if you can recreate
those sensations of the free abdominal area and the rib expansion and
the back expansion. Feel free to wiggle
around a bit and adjust your body to get to the place where that inhalation
is a little bit freer. Don't expect for this breath to feel just like it
would on the ground. Simply do your best to
recreate those sensations. Once you feel comfortable that you've done your best
in this position, move to a standing position
with your arms out, breathe deeply through the nose, long exhalation
through the mouth, seeing if you can again
recreate the sensation of the free abdominal area and the back expansion
and the rib expansion. Lastly, just stand in
a relaxed position. And again, see if
you can recreate those wonderful
sensations that you felt when you started
with the ground breath, deep inhalations freely
through the nose, down into your toes
in the bottoms of your feet and a long
exhalation through the mouth. Now, here's where many
students might make a mistake, which is to rush things. I've made that mistake. I think everybody probably has. Remember, it takes time
to layer on this skill. Your nervous system
has to adapt, your muscles have to adapt. So here's what I would
encourage you to do, which is to pause this video for the next three or 4 minutes and try this again on your own. Taking your time with the
ground breath, face up, face down the wall press, standing with arms extended,
and then just standing. In each position, you
take your time to get the best inhalation you can and then slowly
move to the next, get the best inhalation you can, and then slowly
move to the next. Get the best inhalation you can. You get the idea.
Remember, you're training your nervous system and you're training your muscles
and it takes time. So now in either a standing
or sitting position, we're gonna try something new. Well, we're going
to say the same phrase three different ways. Each time started off
with a great inhalation. The sky is blue, water is wet. Please say that phrase in
your normal speaking voice. Now we're going to say
it in a little bit of an obnoxious voice. Let's say someone is 35 yards that way and you've really got
to get their attention. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Your turn. Lastly, we're going
to say it like we've stepped halfway
into a musical, and we need to say it a
little bit sing songy. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Your turn. Totally
silly, I know. We're going to repeat
the sing song voice one last time except let's take that vowel for wet and
let's make it really long. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Go. You sing as you speak. Whatever you can do in
your speaking voice, you can do in your
singing voice. They're the same instrument. They feel like the universe
is apart, but they're not. They're the exact
same instrument used in slightly different ways. You sing as you speak. This is a radically
important idea that can make singing simpler
and more fun and freer, and we're going to get
to that next week. Now let's just recall a
couple of sensations. As you went through
normal voice, obnoxious voice,
sing song voice, how did your larynx feel? Did it feel a little
bit tighter in one? Maybe it felt free
in all of them? I just want you to
simply recall what did your larynx feel like as you
went through that exercise? Also recall doing the sequence
of breathing positions. Which of the positions
felt the very best? Which of them was the
position where you could feel things were getting a little bit more difficult? I'm also going to leave you with one action step for
your next rehearsal. Before every sound you make, whether it's a warm up or
singing a piece of music, I want your intention to
be on your inhalation, on taking breath into
your body and bring your awareness to your
stomach and abdominal area. Simply, every time
before you sing, try to recreate that feeling of freedom that you felt when
you did the ground breath, facing up or facing down. Every inhalation, freedom
recreating that sensation. You're doing great work, and I'll see you in the next snack.
8. Week 2! Longest hiss ever 2.1: Welcome back. First off,
I'm glad that you're here. The only way to make progress
is with consistency, and that is exactly what you're doing by showing up today. You are putting in the work on the actions that
actually matter, and that's going to get your
progress. Let's get to it. We're going to begin
today by reminding your body of what a good
inhalation feels like. Start by lying on the
ground, face down. Have your forehead rest on your arms as you draw in a deep, deep breath, bring
your awareness to the sides of your body. Feel how they expand
with each inhalation. Feel that as the breath
comes into your body, your back expands and
your sides expand. Slowly move so now
that you're facing up. Make sure that your
knees are bent so that your back is neutral
and flat on the floor. Place one hand on your
stomach and breathe. Deeply. In this position, your stomach and your
abdomen are so free and the sides of your body expand so much with each inhalation. Maintain a steady,
deep breath in through the nose and a slow breath
out through the mouth, feeling that
incredible expansion on both sides of your body. Now slowly stand and
lean against a wall. Again, in this position,
breathe deeply. Try to recreate the
sensations and feelings that you just had on the
ground in this new position, breathing deeply
through the nose and out through the mouth. Again, with each inhalation, feel the sides of your body as they expand outwards
as you breathe in. Lastly, we will stand with
our arms stretched outwards. Recall that feeling
of the breath, how free the abdomen felt when you were breathing in while
lying on the ground. Let the abdomen go, let that stomach fall as you
inhale through the nose. And feel that expansion
in the sides of your body and enjoy that long breath out
through the mouth. Can you feel how
readily the sides of the body want to expand
on each inhalation? Your body is starting
to get used to a deeper and deeper inhalation, and that's wonderful work
because everything else you do as a singer depends
on the inhalation. And now we're going to do our
exercise where we go from normal voice to obnoxious
voice to sing song voice. Using our phrase, the sky
is blue, water is wet. But here's what I want you
to focus on your inhalation. You're saying this phrase three times with three inhalations. Focus on each inhalation, not the making of sound. Focus on remembering
in your body how free and deep that inhalation felt while you
were lying on the ground. So here we go three times
and your focus is on the inhalation before each
time you say this phrase. Let's go. The sky is
blue, water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The focus on the inhalation is actually more important
than focusing on the sound. And that's going to
make a little bit more sense as we go along. Remember, if at any point in any of these
practice sessions, if something is really
clicking for you or if something is really
challenging for you, write it down in your
singer's toolbox. So quick sidebar. We've been talking
about inhalation, drawing the air into the body. But what happens
after inhalation? The air leaving
your body, right? The thing that actually
makes singing happen. Wonderful way to think about the air leaving
your body is this. A column of uninterrupted
spinning air. There's a little tunnel that
goes through your body, and moving through it is this column of
uninterrupted spinning air. Not only does that make a
beautiful sound as a singer, it feels good in your
body to sing that way. And that is one of the
hallmarks of great singing is that it feels good physically
in your instrument. So let's play around
with that a little. Grab your phone or a watch or a timer and your
singer's toolbox. And what you're going to do
is you are going to create the longest sound that you
possibly can and time it. Then you're going to
write that time down in your singer's toolbox.
Pause the video now. So with that written down, I want you to cup
your hands together with a small space
between your thumbs. Now, for this exercise, you really only need to
do a couple until you feel your abdominal muscles and diaphragm really engaging. Bring your cupped hands with the thumbs up to your lips
and breathe rapidly through this small space
to quickly engage your diaphragm and your
abdominal muscles. Let's go. Now, here's something
I want you to be aware of about those muscles
that you just use. Your six abdominal muscles that people think
of as the six pack, they do not all contract
at the same time. The bottom set of abdominal
muscles are actually contracting independent of the other top
abdominal muscles. That's it for today.
Tuck it all away. And we're going to go deeper
tomorrow. See you then.
9. Kick out muscle 2.2: Welcome back. Let's get
lie down on the floor, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. In this position, breathe
deeply through the nose, inflating your lungs
to maximum capacity, and then a nice slow breath
out through the mouth. Remind your body of
just how freeing and relaxing it is to take
in this deep inhalation. As you breathe in
through your nose, bring your awareness
to your back and how incredible it is to feel the expansion in your back muscles as
you draw on breath. Shift slowly to a
face up position with the knees bent so you
can keep a neutral back. As you again draw in the maximum amount of breath
that your lungs can hold, feel how free the abdomen is, how quickly it moves out of
the way with no hesitation, and again, how your back expands
and your sides, as well. Take your time with these,
and if at any point, your breath is feeling just incredibly enjoyable
in this position, feel free to pause the
video before we move on. Next, we're going to slowly move into the wall
lean position, leaning roughly at
a 45 degree angle with your hands
bracing on the wall. Here, simply remember how you
were breathing moments ago. With each inhalation,
the abdomen gives away and lets your
lungs fill up with air. Let your body remember exactly
how it felt on the ground. Enjoy each inhalation
through the nose and enjoy each exhalation
through the mouth. Move slowly into a standing
position with your arms out. And again, remember
the sensation of how it felt on the ground, either face up or face down, how free the stomach moves, how the sides expand
and the back expands. Doing your best to remember those body sensations as you
breathe in in this position. Next, we're going to move
to our silly phrase. The sky is blue, water is wet. We're going to do it three
times speaking voice, obnoxious voice,
sing song voice. And just like yesterday,
your focus is going to be on what precedes each
of those phrases, which is the inhalation. Speaking obnoxious, sing song. Let that take care of itself. I want you to focus
on what happens just before the inhalation. Let's go. The sky is blue, water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Thank you. Did you notice when
you focused on the inhalation and not on the making of sound that
anything was different for you? Perhaps you felt
something was easier. Perhaps nothing's locking in
yet. Both of those are okay. But just take a
moment to reflect on how it feels to make sound, not focusing on the
making of the sound, but focusing on the
inhalation instead. Now, yesterday,
we briefly talked about air leaving your body. What if we think
about that air as kind of like smoke as
air that has color. Pick a color that is
energizing to you. It could be a favorite color or just a color that seems
vibrant and alive to you. Perhaps that's a brilliant
green, a bright yellow. You choose your color.
Close your eyes and imagine a beautifully
colored smoke moving through a tunnel in a
column of spinning air. That's a nice image. So if there's any visualization
or things that we talk about that
really help things feel concrete and really
stick in your brain, please make sure to write those down in the Singer's toolbox because those can be an incredible tool for you
for the rest of your life. Bring your hand to the middle of your abdominal
muscles, and now cough. Just like that. Can you feel the
abdominal muscles cave inwards when you cough? Now I want you to move
that hand lower to roughly the belt area about 2.5 " below your belly button. And cough again. Do you feel your
abs poke outward? If you didn't, pause here
and cough a few times. As you're poking into
those abdominal muscles, it might be 3 ". It could be 2 ", but some are roughly there until you can find where the ab muscles actually kick outwards on that cough. Sometimes it helps
to press a little firmly into the
abdominal area to make sure you can really feel
that outward movement of the lower abdominal muscles. Support your singing. Sing from your diaphragm, sing as if you're inhaling. Stand proudly as you sing. Sing from your toes.
Sing from your feet, breathe into the ground. Or apago. Everybody is talking
about the same thing. They're all trying to get to the same thing just from
different perspectives. What is that thing? The
power source of singing. What it is that produces and
sustains sound as a singer. The thing that actually makes powerful and free singing that every single
one of us wants to be able to do that
little kickout muscle or that little apago muscle. That's the thing.
With your hands, you just felt what is actually the power
source of singing. Now, don't worry
about mastering this or trying to understand it all or anything
like that at all. Please put all those
concerns to the side. The only goal for today was to find that muscle,
and you did. So good job there. Leave the rest of the
questions just for now. Good job today, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
10. Backpack with belt 2.3: Come back. Today, you're
going to need a backpack, a belt, and something heavy
to put in the backpack, maybe five, six or seven books. Feel free to pause
this video and go grab those materials
before we go further. Let's warm up our instrument. Start by lying
down on the floor, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Bring your awareness to your abdominal muscles,
to your stomach, how freely it moves
out of the way as your lungs inflate as you
breathe in through the nose. And you breathe out
through the mouth. In this position, none of your muscles are having to
keep your body upright. They're all relaxed, happy
to help you breathe deeply, enjoy each of these
deep breaths. Shift slowly into a face up
position with the knees bent. Keep that breathing going
deeply through the nose, and out through the mouth. Keep your awareness again
in that abdominal area, how free it feels. There's basically no
tension at all in that part of your body when you're lying down on the floor. You're not fighting gravity. It's fantastic.
Enjoy these breaths. And then move into your
wall lean position. Take your time, no rush, breathe in deeply
through the nose, letting those abdominal muscles, the stomach just hang out. They don't need
to fight gravity. Your arms are doing
that for you. Your legs are doing
that for you. But the abdominal muscles, the stomach with
each deep breath in through the nose,
let it hang out. Let it fall into the ground and then enjoy that breath out
through the mouth. Move to a standing
position with your arms extended as you breathe
in through the nose, feel the stomach
fall to the floor. As you exhale, bring your awareness to
that kickout muscle, that lower abdominal muscle
that you felt yesterday. Again, breathing in
through the nose. Everything falls to the floor. As you breathe out
through the mouth, just bring your awareness to those lower abdominal muscles one more time. Standing. We're going to say
our silly phrase. The sky is blue, water
is wet three times. I don't want you focusing
at all on the sound, which is speaking voice, obnoxious voice,
sing song voice. That'll take care of itself. Focus on the
inhalation. Breathe in. The sky is blue, water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is Blue. Water is wet. While
you're standing here, let's go ahead and find that kickout muscle
one more time. Bring your hand to
the middle section of your abdominal muscles
and give a little cough. And then bring your hand or press your fingers
in to the abdomen, about 2.5 " below the belly
button and cough again. Anyone who says Sing from the diaphragm might not actually know how
the diaphragm works. Have you ever been
frustrated by that phrase or any other phrase
that someone tells you, either a conductor
or a voice teacher, you would hardly be
the first person. So, pull at your bicep
and then contract it. Easy. That's a voluntary muscle. You tell it to contract,
you squeeze it. Good to go. Your diaphragm
is not a voluntary muscle. You can't just in the
middle of rehearsal, tell your diaphragm
to get working. It's not altogether bad because we do want to sing
from a diaphragm. Absolutely. You can't just tell yourself to
do that, though. The diaphragm is
a unique muscle. For all intents and
purposes, as a singer, as a human being, your diaphragm is primarily an
involuntary muscle. So how do we get to
the place where our body's actually doing the
things we wanted to do? Have to focus on the muscles
we can voluntarily control. Forget singing
from the diaphragm because you cannot
voluntarily control that. Move your focus to that
little kickout muscle, the power source of singing. So now it's time to
grab that backpack and the belt and
the heavy things. So fill the backpack
with the heavy items and then thread the belt through one of the
loops on the backpack. Put the belt around your waist
and then fasten the belt. Bend at the knees and get
into a half squat position, but make sure that that backpack is hanging in the air and
is not touching the ground. You should feel it in
your legs just a little bit that you're having to work
to support this backpack. Now, in this squat position with this backpack
hanging off this belt, I want you to let go of all
of the muscles in your torso. I want you to breathe in deeply through the nose and
out through the mouth. Let your legs do
100% of the work. Your legs might be
screaming for help. They're doing all the
work, but the rest of your body can relax. Let the backpack help you. It wants to help. The gravity, that sensation of the backpack pulling
down into the legs. Let that be a reminder
of the legs working, of them doing all the work, and the rest of your
body, let's go. Now we're going to
multitask here, pull out your phone or a stopwatch and
we're going to make the longest SH possible in
this squatting position. So you might need to
stand for a second, give your legs a break
and go back into it, but we're going to squat with the backpack not
touching the ground, breathe in and make the longest SH sound
you possibly can. Time yourself, pause the video
and do the exercise now. Awesome. Make sure to write down your time in your
singer's toolbox. So stand for a second. Relax those legs. While you do, bring your awareness to
that kickout muscle. Use your hand to find
it in your abdomen, about 2.5 " below
the belly button. That's the power source. Now, as you were making that
long SH, it was engaged. It has to be because of the way that the backpack is
pulling down on your body. Weight of the backpack
in this exercise is causing you to have
that muscle engaged and to support the exhalation to support the air moving
steadily through the body. And that is your
goal as a singer. Have the power source
of your singing, to have the thing that supports the air leaving your body, to be that low. It's not here. It's not here. It is all the way down
in that kickout muscle. That is where you want
to feel your support. Let me say that a
little differently. The highest place in your body from the floor going
up that you want to feel any kind of muscular
contraction is that muscle. Don't need to master
anything today. We just need to know it and to be able to find
it in our body. All right, you've done
great work today. Tomorrow, we're going to use that backpack and belt again, so keep them around, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
11. Finding the power source 2.4: Come back. You've done a
few really important things this week that
don't have anything to do with concepts or words. They have to do with
actually doing the thing. You can now show and remind your body what a deep and
free inhalation feels like. We've practiced that all
week, doing that sequence, starting from the ground, moving up to a
standing position. You can show and remind your
body how to make a column of uninterrupted spinning air
with your longest SH sound. You can show and remind your body of where
the power source of singing is by finding that little kickout muscle at
the bottom of your abdomen. You can teach yourself with deliberate practice
setting an intention, doing the exercise with focus, reflecting on what just happened and then making adjustments. You can help map your
progress and hang on to the most important things that happen along the way with
your singers toolbox. That is absolutely golden. Being able to talk
about something conceptually has its place. But as a singer, we're
interested in doing things, and actually being able to sing and achieve the type of singing
that we want to achieve, and this is the path
that gets you there. Again, today, we're going
to need the backpack, the belt, a couple of heavy
things to put in there. So please pause the video
and make sure you've got your materials together.
Now, let's hop in. Start on the ground, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Breathe deeply through
the nose as you show and remind your body of what a
deep inhalation feels like. Breathing deeply
through the nose and out through the mouth. Slowly turn face up
with your knees bent. Again, breathe deeply through
the nose and show and remind your body what a deep and free
inhalation feels like, deeply through the nose, out through the mouth. Slowly move to that
wall lean position, breathe deeply through the nose. Show and remind
your body of what a deep and free inhalation feels like deeply
through the nose, out through the mouth. Stand with your arms extended. Breathe deeply through the nose. Show and remind your body of what a deep and free inhalation feels like deeply through the nose and out
through the mouth. Now it's time to
grab that backpack, the belt, and the heavy items. Fill up the backpack. You might want to experiment
with the weight. You can go a little
heavier if you feel like you need a
little bit more of that. If it was too heavy last time, takes him out, but please
feel free to experiment. Thread the belt through
a loop in the backpack, put the belt on and fasten it, and then move to
a squat position, making sure that that backpack
isn't touching the ground. In this position, let your legs and the weight
of that backpack, do all the work of
holding your body up. Your torso and everything else in the body
can relax as you breathe in deeply through the nose and out
through the mouth. Remind your body of that deep and free inhalation
and out through the mouth. Your kickout muscle
is currently engaged. Now in this position, we're going to use our silly phrase. The sky is blue, water is wet, and we're going to
do it three times. Speaking voice, obnoxious
voice, sing song voice. What are you going to focus on? Your inhalation. Let's go. The sky is blue, water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Awesome. Now stand to make it a little easier on your legs
and take a moment. What felt different this time versus the other times you
did it without the backpack? Did the breath feel different? Did it feel more powerful? Maybe it felt stuck. Maybe it felt confusing 'cause
there's too much going on. Just see if you can identify the differences between how it felt before and how
it felt this time. Write down those differences
in your singer's toolbox. Grab your stopwatch or a phone, and then back to the squat. In this position where
your torso is free, but your legs and that backpack are doing all the work
and keeping you upright, we're going to make
again, the longest SH sound we possibly can. And what are you going to
focus on the inhalation. Pause the video, and let's
do the exercise now. That's it. Make sure that time got written
down in the toolbox, but you are done for the day. You are putting in
the work 5 minutes a day adds up to tremendous
progress over time. Keep at it, and I'll
see you tomorrow.
12. Do it all at once! 2.5: Welcome back. It's the
last day of the week. This has been a big week, and we introduced a
lot of new things. Don't expect all of it to
have made sense right away. If it doesn't okay. We're going to keep slowly
building on things, and slowly over time
it all comes together. Today, again, you're going
to need that backpack belt, couple of heavy things. So pause the video and make sure you have those
materials now. Let's warm up. Start
lying on the ground face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. In this position, breathe
deeply through the nose. Show and remind
your body of what a deep inhalation feels
like in through the nose, out through the mouth. Slowly turn over so that your face up with
your knees bent, breathe deeply in
through the nose, out through the mouth. Remind your body that this is what a wonderful
inhalation feels like. Slowly move up into
the walling position, and you guessed
it deep breath in through the nose and
out through the mouth. With each inhalation in, that stomach and abdomen
falls out of the way into the floor just the way it did when
you were lying down. And when you're ready, move to a standing position with
your arms extended. Same thing. Deep
breath in through the nose and out
through the mouth. Each breath in remembering exactly how that
felt on the floor. And then out through
the mouth. Now it's time to grab your backpack. Make sure it's got
something heavy in it. Thread the belt through
a loop, put the belt on, and fasten it and make sure that the backpack does
not touch the ground. Remember you want it
heavy enough so that it feels like you're working when you're in that squat position. Now, remember, in this position with the weighted backpack, your kickout muscle is engaged. We're going to speak
our silly phrase. The sky is blue, water
is wet three times, speaking voice,
obnoxious. Sing song. I want you to just focus on
what happens before that, the inhalation.
Inhalation Inhalation. Let's go. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Awesome. Again, just
like yesterday, can you recall or notice
any differences between how it feels with the
backpack versus without? Think about places in your
body that feel different, perhaps more engaged, perhaps looser. Think
about your breath. Is there anything more
powerful or less powerful? Think about the feeling
in your throat. Is it tighter or is it
more open and free? Write down those differences, anything that you can notice
in your singer's toolbox. Yes. Grab your stopwatch or
timer or your foam, and we're going to go back into the squat position to make our longest SH sound possible. With that backpack and the
legs doing all the work, you're going to have
a deep inhalation, making sure it's nice
and loose in the jaw, the lips, and the tongue,
longest SH possible. Write it down in your
singers toolbox. Let's pause the video
and do the exercise now. What we're going to
do next is just a little bit different
from what you just did. In a second, we're going
to go back to that squat, but we're going to make
a different sound. Hoo. You're gonna start with
a beautiful free inhalation, a long uninterrupted SH, which is going to transition
into an ooh vowel. Don't time yourself. We're
not going for length. I want you to focus on
one thing the inhalation. Give yourself the deepest, freest inhalation
you possibly can and let the shoo take
care of itself. Alright, back into the squat
position with that backpack. Let's go starting off with
that deep inhalation. So the only thing I want you to focus on
is a deep inhalation. Let the rest take
care of itself. Before we wrap up a super quick summary of what
you've done this week, you have solidified
how to show and remind your body of what a wonderful deep
inhalation feels like. You found your power
source, the kickout muscle. You've learned new exercises to train your body like using a weighted backpack to
engage that kickout muscle. You've used this
long SH sound to practice continuous
uninterrupted flow of air. You've used your singer's
toolbox to practice noticing, to practice reflection
so that you can better adjust the next
time you do an exercise. And perhaps most importantly, you haven't repeated exercises, you have gone deeper with them. Here's your action step
for you this week. In rehearsal this week,
wherever you're singing, I want you to set your intention that each time you inhale, it feels just like that breath when you're
lying on the ground. Awesome job. I'll
see you next week.
13. Week 3! Straw singing 3.1: Welcome back. It's Week three, and you have already
come so far. Let's keep building
on your progress. Today we're going
to use a straw, so please take a moment to pause this video and go grab one. We'll start today with
reminding our body of what a good
inhalation feels like. Start on the ground lying face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Breathe deeply in this
position into the nose, feeling the expansion in your back and then out
through the mouth. Remember, we are
reminding our body of exactly what that
great inhalation feels like in through the nose, big expansion in the back, and then out through the mouth. Turning over face
up with our knees bent into the nose deeply, and then out through the mouth. Bring your awareness to how free the abdomen and stomach feel in this position as you
breathe in through the nose and out
through the mouth. Slowly move upwards to the wall lean position and
breathe deeply into the nose. Do your best to recreate
the sensations of exactly how it felt while lying on the ground
just seconds ago. Your stomach and abdomen are completely free as
you breathe in. And then you breathe
out through the mouth. Take a couple more
breaths in this position until we move to we are standing upright with
our arms extended. Breathing in through the nose, and then out through the mouth. Each inhalation is an
opportunity to remember and to practice exactly
how the inhalation felt while you were
lying on the ground, letting go of the abdomen, letting go of the stomach, letting those lungs
inflate fully, feeling the back
expand as you breathe in deeply through the nose
and out through the mouth. Now, let's remind
ourselves really quickly about that kickout
muscle and how to find it. Place one hand on your
abs as you cough, And you'll feel the abs cave in. Move the hand down to about 2.5 " below your belly button, roughly in the bell
area, and cough again. These muscles will actually
kick out when you cough. Now, remember, the ceiling
for muscular engagement or contraction or
really any sense of effort is right there
at the kickout muscle. That is the power
source of singing. Everything above it is
free and loose and easy. Now we're going to
use our phrase. The sky is blue, water is wet. Speaking voice, obnoxious
voice, sing song voice. With each inhalation,
I want you to try to recreate that inhalation you felt while lying on the ground. Let's go. The sky is
blue, water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Awesome. Quick sidebar. We've
talked about inhalation, drawing breath into the body. We've talked about exhalation, which is that column of spinning uninterrupted
air leaving the body. Let's talk about what
we're really all after singing or making sound. What is the difference
between exhalation, air leaving the body and singing, actually
making a sound? The answer is your vocal folds. When your vocal folds come
together to make a sound, your sinuses, your
nasal passages, your skull, your chest cavity, all of these reverberate to create the sound that
leads to singing. So we've done inhalation. Breath comes in, exhalation,
breath goes out. And there's this third word
I want to throw your way, phonation, which literally
just means making sound. And that can mean
speaking or singing. We are going to make the longest so sound that we possibly can. We're going to take our
time with the SH because it helps to get the breath moving
in a steady column of air, and then we'll move
into the ooh vowel. Grab a watch or your
phone and time yourself, making the longest so sound
you can on a sustained pitch. I'll demonstrate one time. Hoo. And then I'll stop
'cause you don't need to hear 30 seconds of that. But make that oh last
as long as you possibly can and then write it down in your singer's
toolbox. Your turn. And now it's time for you
to pull at the straw. For what we're about to sing, it doesn't really matter
what pitch you start on. Just keep it easy somewhere
in the middle of your range. What we're gonna
do is sing through the straw on a one, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one scale pattern. I'll
demonstrate one time. Mm. O goal here is to keep the sound continuous between the pitches so
that you're always making that buzzing sound
as you sing the scale. Your turn. If you have a few
minutes, go back and do the straw exercise
a couple more times, or you can sing
through the straw on some other scales like one, three, five, three, one, or other patterns that
you're familiar with. But practice with
that straw a little bit if you've got a couple
extra minutes today. It's Week three. We're
just getting started. Thanks for showing up, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
14. You sing as you speak 3.2: Welcome back. We're going to
need that straw again today. So pause the video
for just a moment and make sure you
have that nearby. To start, we are going
to warm up and remind our body of what a deep
free inhalation feels like. Lying down on the floor, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms, taking a deep breath
through the nose, inflate your lungs to the maximum capacity and then breathe out
through the mouth. With these, always feel free to take your time in one position, maybe take a little bit
of extra time so that it feels really good and you feel confident before you
move on to the next stage. Next, move into a face up
position with your knees bent. One hand on the stomach, breathe in deeply
through the nose, maximally inflating your lungs, and then breathe out
through the mouth. Bring your awareness to the
abdomen how free it feels. The kickout muscle
isn't engaged. The primary abdominal muscles that you're used to
feeling are not engaged. Everything is loose and
easy as you breathe in. Next move to a walling position. And here, as we breathe in
deeply through the nose, maximally inflate those lungs, feeling the back expansion, feeling the abdomen
and the stomach melt away into the floor as we breathe in through our nose
and out through the mouth. Lastly, move to a
standing position with your arms outstretched, breathing deeply
through the nose, feeling everything
melt away maximally inflate those lungs and then breathe out
through the mouth. Next is time to grab that straw. What we're gonna do is alternate between using the straw and not singing oi. Allow
me to demonstrate. Mm. Your intention here is to make the singing part
of the exercise as connected and fluid between the vowels as it is when
you do it in the straw. So when you do it
with the straw, you're making this long
line of continuous sound. And same thing when
we're doing oi oi oi, long line of continuous
sound that is totally unbroken. Your turn. Now, I've got a tip for you. Your lips don't really have to move when you're moving
between the vowels, ooh and E. Now,
when we speak them, especially as Americans, we might go oh very
far forward with very narrow lips for the oval and very spread for the Eval. However, the only muscle
in your body that has to move is
actually the tongue. So we're going to do
it one more time. And when you sing i oi oi, I want you to try to
make it look like this. So that the only
muscle moving between those two vowels and
E is your tongue. Alright, let's try that
exercise one more time, alternating between straw
and singing. Your turn. Now, let's say, as
you do the exercise, you still feel a little tight, maybe a little tight
in the throat, a little tight in the jaw, a little tight in the face. A couple of quick tips
to help you fix that. As you're doing the exercise,
walk around the room. Or walk around the room
and swing your arms. Large muscle movements
will help distract your body so that your singing instrument
can remain free. So we're actually not going
to sing anymore today. One of the most
important things you can ever learn as a singer is this that you sing as you speak. Whatever you can accomplish in your speaking voice correlates immediately to your
singing voice. I'm going to say this
again because it can't be overstated
in importance. You sing as you speak. Whatever you can figure out and fix in your voice
and make easier in your speaking voice translates immediately to your
singing voice. We're going to go back
to our little phrase the sky is blue, water is wet. Here's your challenge
to speak the phrase, but to keep the tip of
your tongue against the back of your bottom front
row of teeth like this. That tip should
always be touching, except when you're doing
a couple of consonants, it might flick out of the way for a millisecond
and go right back. It is always going to be
touching those teeth. The sky is blue, water is wet. I want you to imagine
there's a little glue on that front of that tongue
right up to the teeth, and it's going to be
stuck there except for a couple flicks it
away, and that's it. Your turn. I want you to try it one more time and keep monitoring the tongue, making sure it's
touching those teeth, 99% of the time as
you say that phrase. Anyone else tired of
that phrase? I am. Let's try a different
one. Let's try saying speak your mind, not just your words. Remember, our intention
here is to keep the tip of the tongue against the back of those teeth 99% of the time. Let's go. Did you notice what happened with
the R on the word words? Your tongue wants to retract into the back of your
throat when you do that. So instead of saying words, maybe you need to say words. Now, it changes the vowel shape when your tongue is touching
the back of your teeth. Try that one time.
Speak your mind, not just your words. That tongue is always
touching the teeth. Go. Why is this important? The tongue is a huge muscle. What you can see is only
a fraction of the tongue. It actually goes all the
way down your throat. If you move the tongue
even a half inch forward, it creates a huge volume of
space in your instrument. I'll make it even simpler. Get the tongue to touch
the back of your teeth. Good things happen
to you as a singer. Write that down on
your singer's toolbox, and I'm going to
see you tomorrow.
15. Water is wet 3.3: Welcome back. This week you've
been trying new things, learning new things, growing. Let's build on that momentum. You're going to need
this straw again today, so take a moment and go grab it. We're going to start with our
familiar warm up reminding our body of what a deep and
free inhalation feels like. Lie down on the ground, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms, breathe deeply through the nose, inflate those lungs
as much as you can, then breathe out
through the mouth. Keep your awareness in
the lower back and how much it expands on
each inhalation. Enjoy the breath in, enjoy the incredible
expansion in your back, and breathe out
through the mouth. Move to a face up position
with your knees bent. One hand on the stomach, breathing deeply
through the nose, feeling how unimpeded
that breath is as the abdomen
and the stomach give way and let those lungs inflate as you breathe
out through the mouth. Move to the walling position and breathe deeply
through your nose, letting the abdomen
melt into the ground. And then breathe out
through the mouth. Moving to the standing position with your arms outstretched, we breathe in through the nose. Everything melts into the
ground free and unimpeded. The breath enters your body. You maximally
inflate those lungs and breathe out
through the mouth. If for any reason, it feels like it's taking your body a little bit longer to warm up today, pause the video and take a
few minutes in one position that feels really good and
then move on to the next one. So now it's time to
grab your straw. Again, we're going
to sing through the straw and then
just sing normally and alternate back and forth
on ii, on one pitch. Remember, you really
only need to move your tongue to move between
the vowels ooh and E. I'll demonstrate one time. Mm Mmm. Now, your intention here is when you get to the
singing part of this. You want to recreate
that connection between the vowels the same way you felt it when you were singing
through the straw. Your turn. Remember, if anything
feels tight, you can always walk while
you're doing the exercise or swing your arms or
walk and swing your arms, and that might help you
release some of the tension. Now we're going to move on
to a bit of an experiment. It might go terribly. I might go wonderfully.
Both are great. We're going to
give you feedback, but put on your scientists cap because we're
going to experiment. You are going to experiment
with the vowels, he oh, oh. You're going to sing each one on the same pitch preceded
by an SH sound. Sha Sha Shi Shu Shoo. What's your intention? To simply be present to your instrument. How does each vowel feel?
One might be easier. One might be harder. I
just simply want you to be present to
your instrument. I'll demonstrate one time. Sha Sha Shi Sha Sho This is an experiment. Let's go. Uh now my
question is this. Which of those vowels is the
easiest for you to sing? Which of them feels the
freest in your instrument? Maybe you need to go back
and sing them one more time to answer that
question, and that's great. Pause the video and do that. Once you have an answer, I
want you to write it down. In your singer's toolbox. Every singer's
anatomy is different, and every singer's history and set of habits with their
anatomy is different. No two singers are the same. The vowel you choose is
going to be your vowel at this particular point in
time as a singer for you. We're going to use it tomorrow,
but for now, we're done. Thanks for the work
that you're putting in, and I'll see you tomorrow. M
16. Straw + backpack 3.4: Back. It's day four. You've been trying new
things all week, and today, we're going to
start joining them together and solidify
a little further. We're going to need
that straw again today, as well as a backpack, along with a belt and something heavy like some books
to put in the backpack. To start today, let's warm up. Starting on the ground, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Breathe deeply through the nose, feeling the expansion
in the lower back and breathe out
through the mouth. Take your time in
this position or any of the other
positions when it feels particularly good and
move on when you're ready. Next, we'll move to
a face up position with your knees bent, breathing deeply through the
nose, inflating the lungs, feeling how free
the abdomen feels, breathing out through the mouth. When you're ready, move
to a wall lean position, breathing deeply
through the nose, feeling how free the abdomen is, feeling the expansion
in your lower back and breathe out
through the mouth. Lastly, stand with
your arms extended, breathing in deeply through the nose and out
through the mouth. With each inhalation,
your abdomen melts away. You feel your lower back expand, and then you breathe
out through the mouth. Now it's time to grab your straw and reference
your singer's toolbox. What was your easiest vowel that you wrote down yesterday? E, or Ooh. Whichever one it was,
we're about to use it. You're going to sing that vowel through the straw
and then just sing the vowel and then
sing the vowel through the straw and
then sing the vowel. All on the same pitch. I'm going to use A, but you use whichever vowel you
wrote down yesterday. I'll demonstrate one time. Your turn. Couple of quick tips for this
exercise and any others. As soon as things
feel tight, stop. Singing should feel free
and easy all the time, and that's what we
want to practice. We want to get that
into our body, and we want to practice
freedom and ease. So as soon as it feels tight, stop and make an adjustment. What are some
adjustments you can use? Walk while you sing, swing your arms while you sing, swing your arms and
walk while you sing. You can even bob your head a little bit as you're singing. You can also kind of
scramble your lips and your face to make some kind of silly over exaggerated motions. The whole point of all of this
is to get out of your head and into your body because
the body is the instrument. It's really important to know that you cannot think
your way to good singing. Singing is never
about the right order of mental commands. It is about doing. Singing is something you do, not something you
think your way to. All right. Back to the exercise. We're going to add the backpack. Set up your backpack, put
some heavy things in it, loop it through the belt,
fasten the belt to your body, and get down into
a little bit of a squat where you should
feel like you're having to work to hold up this backpack that is not touching the ground. Your intention here is
to let the weight of the backpack draw down
your center of gravity. Let it feel like it's drawing
the power source downwards. It's also going to automatically engage that kickout muscle. So what I want your
intention to be as we do this same exercise,
straw, vowel, straw. Vowel is to be aware of the
power source of what is sustaining the sound and your singing as at
the kickout muscle, 2.5 " below the belly
button or even lower. Feel the weight of that
backpack and let it draw your sense of the power
source low into the body. Let's do the exercise now. Straw, vowel, straw, vowel, all on one pitch
with the backpack. Let's go. Now, let's take
a quick moment to reflect. First of all, there's a lot
going on. You've got a straw. You got a belt on.
You got to have your backpack hanging
from the belt. A whole lot of things. As best as you can in this zany setup that
we've got going on, I want you to bring your awareness to what it
felt like in the body. Where was your sense of power of what sustained the breath? How did your throat feel
while you sing to the straw? How did your throat feel
while you sing the vowel? Think about the sensations you feel in your body,
in your instrument. Does any of it feel different than how singing has
felt in the past? If any of those questions or any other questions have come to mind and you've got an
insight or an answer, pause right now,
take a moment and write that down in
your singer's toolbox. And then one more time, we're going to do the same exercise, straw, vowel, straw,
vowel with the backpack. Let's go. Awesome work. You're showing up,
you're doing the work. Great job, and I'll
see you tomorrow. O.
17. All together: straw, backpack, squat 3.5: And back. It's the
end of the week and we're going to draw
everything together. Just like yesterday, we're
going to need a straw, a backpack, a belt, and something heavy to
put in the backpack. To start, let's warm up. Start face down on the
ground with your forehead lying on your forearms and breathing deeply
through the nose, feeling the expansion in the back and the
expansion in your sides, and then breathe out
through the mouth. Take your time at this stage or any other stage
in the warm up, pause the video
and keep breathing until you feel ready to
move on to the next stage. Slowly turn over into a face up position
with your knees bent. Breathe in deeply
through the nose, maximally inflate those lungs, feel the expansion in your sides down
through the abdomen. Everything feels free and
easy in this position. Breathing out through the mouth. Move to a walling position, breathing in deeply
through the nose, feeling the stomach and the
abdomen fall onto the floor, feeling your lower back
and your sides expand with each breath in and breathing
out through the mouth. Standing with your
arms extended, breathing deeply
through the nose, feel any abdomen fall
into the ground, feeling your sides
and your back expand, and then breathe out
through the mouth. Now it's time to
grab your straw. Remember your easiest vowel
that you wrote down in your singer's toolbox
two days ago. That's what we're going to use. We're going to sing that
vowel through this straw, then just the vowel, through the straw, then just the vowel. Your intention is
going to be to sing that vowel just the
same way as you sing it through the straw with that column of
uninterrupted spinning air. I'll demonstrate one
time. I'll use A, but you use whatever
vowel is easiest for you. Mm h Your turn. And now, just like yesterday, we're going to add
the backpack to that. Grab your backpack, fill it
up with something heavy, loop the belt through it,
and attach it to your body. Get down into a little bit of a squat position where you really feel the weight
of that backpack, and then we're going
to do the exact same exercise with the
same intention. And the intention is to
make the singing vowel feel just the same as the
straw vowel. Let's go. Stand for a second, just
to give your legs a break, and I'm going to tell you
what we're gonna do next. We're going to experiment
just a little bit. We're going to sing your
favorite phrase the sky is blue, water is wet with the backpack on one
pitch, just like this. Muskia we. Your turn. We're gonna
do it one more time. And here's what I
want you to focus on. I want you to sing
the phrase the sky is blue water is wet with that
same continuous motion, that continuous
buzzing, that column of uninterrupted air that you felt while singing
through the straw. Let's go. We're gonna do
it just one more time, except this time, we're
going to sing the sky is blue water is wet
through our straw, meaning only the tongue is
going to make the motions for the vowels and then actually sing the phrase. I'll
demonstrate one time. Mmm Musk Blue Water is wet. We're gonna do that one time
with the backpack. Let's go. Awesome work. Take a
moment to reflect. Did anything feel different? Has anything improved? Has anything gotten worse? Has something gotten easier? Did something get harder? What kind of sensations did
you feel in your instrument? Always take a moment to reflect. And if you have any insights, write them down in
your singer's toolbox. You've done some really
important things this week. You've experimented and
learned and tried new things. We've been putting
together our skills of inhalation, exhalation, and phonation and support or apago all together
at the same time. Here's something
you can bring to your next rehearsal
or practice session. Your tongue position. Keep the tip of
your tongue against the back of your bottom
front row of teeth. It solves so many problems
because that half inch of movement can open up two or three square inches
of space in your instrument. You're doing great,
and I can't wait to finish it all up
together next week. See you then.
18. Week 4! Appoggio 4.1: The week four. This week is
going to be all about tying everything together and about deepening everything
that you've learned. Today we're going to need
a straw, a backpack, something heavy
like books to put in the backpack, and a belt. Let's get going. First, let's
warm up our instrument. Your intention with each of these exercises is to simply be present
to your instrument, to your body, as
you draw breath in, and as you exhale. With each exercise,
I want you to fully inflate your
lungs by breathing in through the nose and have a controlled exhalation
out through the mouth. And I want you to go through the exercises and for you to set your own intention with each position as we
go through them. First start lying on the ground with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Set your intention
and then breathe. When you're ready, turn around face up with your knees bent. Set your intention and breathe. When you're ready,
move slowly to a wall lean position and set your intention. Then breathe. Lastly, you'll move to a standing position with
your arms outstretched, set your intention,
and then breathe. Super quick sidebar. What
is a good inhalation? It is drawing breath into
your body unimpeded. Your lungs inflate fully, your abdomen and stomach just
drop, get out of the way. Your lower back inflates,
your side inflates, it feels free, it feels
invigorating, it feels inspiring. It's the breath you already
did while lying on the floor. And why is it so
hard standing up? Because all these muscles
start to engage to keep your torso upright.
So how can you fix this? By doing what you've been
doing by starting on the ground and sequentially moving up into that
standing position. Pull at your straw
and remember what your easiest vowel is that you wrote down in your
singer's toolbox last week. We're going to sing that
vowel through the straw. Then just the vowel,
through the straw, and then just the
vowel on the pattern, five, four, three, two, one. You can start on any pitch wherever it feels
easy in your voice. Your intention here is to focus on the buzzing
in the straw that is continuous through the whole exercise and to recreate that when you
move to the vowel. I'll demonstrate one time. Now, remember, if
at any point you've noticed something or
you have an insight, write it down in your
singer's toolbox. Next grab your backpack, put something heavy in it, loop the belt through it,
fasten the belt to yourself, and get ready to get down
into that squat position. We're going to do the same
exercise on the 54321, straw, sing your favorite vowel, straw, sing your favorite vowel in the squat position with
the backpack. Let's go. Quick sidebar. What is support? What is apago? What is breath support? What
is sing from your diaphragm? What is the power source
that sustains your singing? It is leaving all the
muscles of your upper body free and loose and supple and available and
flexible and the ceiling, the highest place
in your body where there's any sense of contraction or any sense of engagement
is in that kickout muscle. We're going to go back
and do the straw, sing, straw, sing exercise
with the backpack, and your intention this time
is to let the weight of the backpack draw your sense and bring your mind down
into that kickout muscle, which you're going to feel as the power source
of your singing, that really low
center of gravity. Let's go. Awesome work. Now, do you remember from
the very first week, how to teach yourself? Intentional action,
reflection, adjusted action. Awesome work today. Now,
today has been about remembering some
of the things that we've done over the
last three weeks, and we're starting to
put them together. If anything took you a little
bit longer to remember, or maybe it didn't click. Don't be afraid
to take a moment, write that down in
the singer's toolbox, maybe write down what your
sensations were inside your instrument
and what you think you might be able to do
to fix it next time. But for now, I'll
see you tomorrow.
19. Mastering the power source 4.2: Come back. Today is going
to be more about deepening, not broadening what
we've learned so far. Again, today we're going
to need the straw, backpack, something
heavy, and a belt. To start with, we're going
to warm up our instrument. You are going to set
your own intention as you move through
the sequences. I'll simply tell you
what position to be in. Your intention could be to bring awareness to the abdomen. Or awareness to the sides of your body or awareness
to your lower back. Or your intention could be to breathe as deeply as possible. But maybe pick one
of those, only one, and keep that intention for all four positions as we
move through our warm up. To start with lie down, face down with your forehead
resting on your forearms. Set your intention and breathe. Shift slowly into a face up position with your knees bent. Set your intention and breathe. Move slowly into a
wall lean position. Set your intention and breathe. Move slowly into a
standing position with your arms outstretched. Set your intention and breathe. Now grab your singer's toolbox and your watch or a
phone to keep time, and we're going to make
the longest SH sound we possibly can. Let's go. Write down your time in
your singer's toolbox. And maybe take a moment to flip back through
your singers toolbox. Has your time changed? Now, if you think you
can beat your last time, take a moment, pause the
video and try one more time. And I'll tell you,
you will get a longer time the more relaxed the jaw, the lips and the tongue are
as you do the exercise. Next, pull out your straw and remember your
favorite vowel, and we're going to sing that
vowel through the straw, sing the vowel, through
the straw, sing the vowel. We're going to do it
on a 54321, 54321. Let's go. I'll
demonstrate one time. Your turn. Next, grab your backpack, put something heavy in it,
loop the belt through, attach it to your
body, and we'll do the exact same exercise
in that squat position. I want you to let the backpack draw your center of gravity, draw your sense of power down lower and lower
and lower in the body. Let's go. Next, what we're going to do is to
take the backpack off. Simply undo the belt, put it on the ground,
and we're going to repeat the same exercise. Straw, vowel, straw,
vowel on 54321. I want your intention to
be to trust your body. Your body is a miracle. Trust your body that it is going to know exactly what
to do. That's it. Let's do the exercise. Now we're going to
reattach the backpack, put the belt back on, go back into the squat position
and do it one more time. And your intention here
is going to be the same as it was last time you
were wearing the backpack, which is to let that
weight draw downwards, your sense of gravity and your sense of the power
source of your singing. Lower and lower in
the body. Let's go. Awesome. And for the
last time today, take off that backpack,
put it on the floor. And we're going to do
the same exercise. And this time, I want
your intention to be on taking the most wonderful, deep free inhalation you possibly can before
each time you sing. Deep inhalation, straw,
deep inhalation, sing and so on. Focus just on that deep
inhalation. Let's go. And now it's time
to take a moment to reflect on what you just did with the backpack and
without the backpack, focusing on the lower
sense of gravity and the lower sense of the
power source of your singing. And then also when you focus
just on the inhalation. Where did you see progress? Where did you feel
anything was different? What are your body
sensations when you do it one way
versus another way? Take a moment to reflect on that and write down
your reflections, even if it's just one sentence
in your singer's toolbox. Now, I want you to remember that your anatomy and the history of your anatomy is
completely unique to you. Even if there were two
people anatomically identical as they go through
life, their nervous system, the way that their
muscles interact, all of the habits that
make up how singing works as a person are going to be
unique to the individual. So be patient with yourself, give yourself grace
as you go through any process where you're
learning and adapting over time. There are going to be
moments where you say, This worked wonders for me, and then moments where you
say, This did nothing for me. And both of those are valid. Something I like to remind myself in my own
growth journey is that adaptation is the
default state of my body. I'm always trying to learn
just simply by default. Over time, as you
incrementally make efforts, with reflection,
with intentionality, you will see progress. Awesome work today, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
20. Straw-sing-straw 4.3: I'm back. Today we're going
to need all the same tools, straw, backpack, something
heavy, and a belt. You are going to lead
your own warm up today. The images will be
up on the screen. Move through them at the pace
that makes sense to you, and I want you to set your intention of where you're
going to focus, your mind, what you'll bring your
awareness to as you move through each of
the four positions while you breathe deeply
through the nose and out through the mouth.
Start your warm up now. Okay no no better crystal not some bets not. You've got another chance
today to beat your time. We're going to make
the longest SH sound we possibly can pull at
your phone or a timer. And when you're done, write your time down on your
singer's toolbox. Go for a personal record. Let's go. Pull at your straw
for the next exercise, and we're going to
do something just a little bit different
than last time. We're still going to
sing on our five, four, three, two, one pattern. Except halfway down, we're going to switch
to the word cup. We're still going
to use our favorite vowel about halfway down, switch to the word cup.
I'll demonstrate one time. Your intention here is to move from your favorite vowel
into the word cup, moving as little as
possible with the tongue, with the lips, and the jaw. Let's go. We're gonna
try it one more time, but let's walk through
something real quick that might help. Simply go from your favorite
vowel into the word cup, but in your speaking voice, moving as little as possible with the lips and
the tongue and the jaw. E. Almost nothing moved, right? E C And let's do the exercise one more time. Straw, favorite vowel to cup. Straw favorite vowel
to cup. Let's go. Now, using the straw is an incredible way to teach
yourself how to sing. There's this buzzing that
you can feel in the straw. When you're singing,
it's easier to feel that connection
between vowels, between pitches. It's awesome. I want you to go
one more time doing this exercise and see
if you can connect between your favorite
vowel into cup as smoothly as it feels when you're singing
through the straw. Let's go. Good work so far. The last step is, we're going to incorporate
the backpack. Get that backpack, put
something heavy in it, loop the belt through it,
and attach it to your body. We're going to do
the same exercise, except in a little
bit of a squat, letting the weight of that
backpack really help us feel the support the
power source going as low as possible in our body. Let's try it. Awesome.
Take a moment to reflect. Was there anything that you felt different now that you
added the backpack? And we're not just singing
our favorite vowel. We're moving to words as well. So did the backpack change anything that you
felt in your throat, in the breath, in
the body sensations? Take a moment to reflect and write it down in
your singer's toolbox, any kind of insight
that you get from that. Lastly, today, we're going
to sing the same exercise, straw favorite vowel to cup, straw favorite vowel to
cup with no backpack. So place the backpack on the floor near you and
let's do it one more time. Intention here is going to be feeling that same low
center of gravity, that low power source that you felt when you did
have the backpack on. Et's go. Awesome work today. You've done a fantastic job. Don't forget to reflect, write down any insights you have in your singer's toolbox, and I'll see you tomorrow.
21. Discipline beats talent 4.4: I'm back. There's today
and then tomorrow, and then you can say, I
finished this course. You should genuinely feel proud of having
made it this far. I've been teaching
for over 20 years, and it is absolutely true that regular committed
discipline wins out over talent every time. You've been taking
the actions that matter that move the needle. What I sincerely hope for you is that this is
just the beginning. This is just starting
the wheels turning. I've seen singers
completely change their abilities with
5 minutes a day. But we're not done
yet. For today, we're going to go a little bit
deeper with our exercises. To start, you're
going to warm up. You are going to
be the one to set your intention and to breathe. Take your time going
to the warm up, achieving the best inhalation
that you possibly can, focusing on one intention
for all four exercises. It could be your abdomen, your sides, your back, or something else
that's important to you that you've really
connected with as you've gone through
the course as you try to achieve that
deep inhalation. Pick your intention and
then start the warm up. Something I've got
to remind you of. If you're ever in rehearsal
and you're struggling, maybe something's tired, maybe a note's
feeling difficult, maybe a vowels
feeling difficult. 90% of the time, it's going to be
drastically improved if you simply take a good inhalation. Now I want you to
go for the longest SH you can possibly make. This is your second to last
chance to make your PR, the best possible time ever, grab that phone or
watch and let's go. Next, I want you to pull at your straw and remember
your favorite vowel. We're going to sing on our
five, four, three, two, one pattern going from straw,
singing, straw singing. Except halfway down, you're
going to move to a word. What is that word? I don't know. Yesterday, I gave you cup. Maybe it could be paint, maybe it could be desk, but I want you to pick a
one syllable word that you're going to move to
halfway down the scale. I'll demonstrate one time. Mm Ask. You pick your word halfway
down the scale, move to it. Your intention is to
take the best inhalation you possibly can before
each time you make a sound. Let's go. Next, I want you
to grab that backpack, put something heavy in it, loop the belt through, and
attach it to your body. You're going to get down
into that squat position where the backpack is hanging. You feel that weight,
but it's not touching the floor and perform
the same exercise. Straw, favorite vowel
goes into a word, straw, favorite vowel
goes into a word. Let that backpack help you. Let it draw your
sense of gravity, your sense of where
the power sources of your singing lower into
the body. Let's go. Take a moment to reflect. Did you feel any difference
between doing it without the backpack
and with the backpack? I want you to do it with
the backpack one more time. And if you felt like it
really wasn't helping you get lower with
your sense of gravity, with that sense of the
power source of singing, maybe add a couple of
books into the backpack. Sometimes a little bit of extra
weight will help you feel that engagement in
the kickout muscle even better. Let's go. Now, take the backpack
off, put it to the side. We're done with it for today, and we're going to sing the same exercise without the backpack. Your intention,
the best, deepest, freest inhalation you
can possibly make before each time you're
producing a sound. Let's go. Awesome. Take a moment to be grateful to be grateful
that you get to sing, that you have this miracle
of an instrument, your body. Take a moment to appreciate what a blessing it
is, your voice. Awesome work this whole week and today, and I'll
see you tomorrow.
22. Congratulations! 4.5: What a journey. You've walked
this path together with me, and I want you to take a
moment and just think about where were you on day one
and where are you now. Everything has not gone according to plan.
I guarantee it. It never does. But some
things have gotten better, and some things might
still be unclear. I do want you to walk
away, of course, with as much development
as possible and also with something truly special
how to teach yourself. Intentional action, reflection. Adjustment. Repeat. As human beings,
we don't naturally gravitate towards
intentional action. We don't naturally
gravitate towards careful reflection or
adjusting our actions. It takes a lot of
cognitive effort and willpower to do that. But doing that just a few
minutes a day will get you a tremendous length
down the growth journey. Something else, I really
want to make sure you walk away understanding. What do you sing with
your mind or your body or what parts of the body are the most important for singing? I've been asked a lot of
questions about this, and the answer is all of it. It's your mind, your body, and your soul, but they
don't all play equal parts. Singing is primarily
athletic, not academic. It is 90% athletic
and 10% academic. Writing a definition and being
able to chart the biology of the singing instrument does very little to make
you a better singer. Training as an athlete does. If you want to get
really good at free throws, what do you do? You learn the
proper form and you practice it over and
over and over again. Being able to write
academic treaties on the way that the biceps contract while you release the basketball that's
cool knowledge for sure, but that's not going to make
you better at free throws. The intentional action and
the deliberate practice, that is what will make you a
better free throw shooter. And it's such an
important distinction because as singers, things feel vague, right? Because we're singing
with air that we can't see and everything is
internal, so we can't see it. And it's very easy to
default into thinking that singing is all
about mental commands or hearing a conductor
or a voice teacher say the right thing that
unlocks something inside our body. Throw
all of that out. Get out of your head
and into your body. Singing is athletic first,
and academic second. Think about how you've
learned during this course. It's been about
doing things first. And labeling it second. You bring awareness
to your body, to your body sensations. You have the mind muscle
connection that you develop, and only then do you
label it or define it? I want you to be able to
take that same approach as you continue forward as
a singer in rehearsals, in your own practice, because you've already proven
to yourself that you can train yourself and train
your body in this way. You've learned to train
your body to have a deep and free inhalation using that inhalation sequence. You want a column of spinning air uninterrupted
leaving the body, practice with your
longest SH in the world. Do you want balanced phonation
where your vocal folds are healthy and the air is
moving freely? Use a straw. And then you've
learned how to move incrementally forward
by combining exercises, by going from a
straw to singing, and then a straw to singing on a vowel
that goes into a word. You've learned how to take
all of the ideas of sing from your diaphragm and
breath support and to actually be able
to do something with it, which is to focus on
the kickout muscle because things like
your diaphragm are involuntary muscles. Sometimes we can simply remind ourselves of that, and
we'll be successful. But if we can't grab a backpack because it will cause
the muscle to engage, which will help the rest
of the torso free up, and you'll be singing
better before you know it. We've peppered in some singing
techniques like keeping the tip of the tongue up
on the back of the teeth, keeping your lips loose, only moving the tongue
for certain vowels. Are you gonna remember all that? Probably not, but that's okay. Whatever did work for you if it was just one or two things, as long as you noted that
in your singer's toolbox, you can remember that
and come back to it. And speaking of, you've started a habit with your
singer's toolbox of reflection and then taking a new action based
off of that reflection, making adjustments over time. And what we're
going to do now is grab that singer's toolbox. Take a moment and open that. We've worked on a
bunch of stuff, inhalation,
exhalation, phonation, articulation, which
is the lips and the tongue and the jaw.
Here's what I want you to do. Flip back through the
pages that you've written, and I want you to put a
big star next to whatever really stands out as a particular exercise or
a particular insight, where something really clicked
or resonated with you. Here's what you can do
with that. In six months, maybe something feels
like it's gotten a little off track
for you as a singer, you can go back and look at that one thing to help remind you of how to
get back on track. This is the beginning for you. There is nothing to
stop you from taking this little daily practice
habit and continuing with it. You don't have to keep
inventing new exercises. You can take the ones that were working and keep going
deeper with them, working on your intention, focusing on one thing at a time, and deepening your
skills over time. Four or 5 minutes a day. And maybe you can't keep
the practice going, and that's okay, too. You can take whatever you've
learned here and apply that in your next rehearsal in
your next practice session. And what you can also do is
share what you've learned. If you're with another singer who's also taking this course, you can share back
and forth what really stood out for you or what
your challenges were. Teaching others and sharing
what you've learned is actually one of the best
ways to master a skill. And what I really want
to say is thank you for your time and for your
talent and for your trust. My teacher, Virginia
Ziani taught me to sing is to thank
God you are alive. I hope I've been able to
share some of that with you, stay in touch and happy singing.
Edward Atkinson, Teacher
