Transcripts
1. Intro: Hey, I'm Louis, vocal
coach and studio lead, and way too obsessed with
how the voice works. Welcome to my Skillshare class.
Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt like
singing isn't quite for you, that your voice is fine and all, but it's just a bit Meh. I totally get it, because
I was there myself. However, your voice is enough. You just haven't been shown
how to fully tap into it yet. This class is about helping
you get out of your own way. No fluff, no fancy
technique walls, finding you a real tone, not your singer voice,
because remember, folks, if you work with me,
you already know this singing and
talking are synonymous. Number two, getting more confident in what
you already have. And number three, starting a practice that's
actually enjoyable. Keep it real, honest,
beginner friendly. And by the end of this class, I want you to have uploaded
a video once before and one after of you singing even
just a simple line like, I'm feeling good today. Something super
simple, and we're going to compare the
differences at the end. So grab a bottle of water and preferably a quiet room,
and that's something.
2. What Does YOUR Voice Actually Sound Like? : So we're starting with a mindset shift, and
this is a big one. Most people think that
singing equals imitation. Maybe you want to sound
like your favorite artist, but great singing, great, true singing doesn't
come from copying. It comes from using
what we already have. Try this. Say, in a simple, chill, very relaxed voice,
Hey, how's it going? Now, what I want to do this time is extend the last going. Make it a little
bit more melodic. Hey, how's it going? Go. G. G. Notice how we're not really
doing anything different. We're just extending
simple vowels here. That that is your true
voice. That's you. And this is what I would
call the foundation where we can open everything else
up and expand from there. Think of it like your
default operating software. We're not installing this
fake, shiny new software. We're just getting rid of the blotware that comes with it. If you catch yourself mimicking
someone else's voice, say your favorite
singer, ask yourself, is this what I would sound
like when I'm talking? And if you no, then reset. Think about the technique. Going, go, go and try again.
3. Let's FEEL Tone! : Et's talk tone. And more
importantly, let's feel tone. Try this with me. Right now, what I want you to do is
I wanted to just do Mm. Mm hmm. As if someone's saying something that
you really agree with. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Now, don't push anything. Don't try and, you know,
create anything that you wouldn't ordinarily create.
But just ease into it. Mmm. Mm hmm. Hmm. Hmm, now, extend it. See the similarities
with going. Mm. Mm, Mmhmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Now, all I want to do is
I want to open the mouth. Don't do anything
else it's different. Alright, keep
everything the same. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Huh, uh huh. Ah, uh huh. Ah. Ah. Ah. Now, experiment with
different vowels here. Maybe Ah, doesn't
feel that great. Let's try oh instead. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Ooh Ooh. Ooh. Oh, Oh. You'll notice how effortless
this truly feels. Now, this isn't just nice and comfortable
in our chest range. We can go higher with this, too. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Like, you really
agree with someone. Mm. Mm. Mm. Ah, ah, ah. Now, as you go higher, might feel a little bit of
tension creeping in, but this is nice and
gentle and relaxed. Mmm. I'm just thinking
about agreeing. Mm. Ah, ah. When we start to open our mouth, we don't have to work harder. We keep everything the
same. We're not pushing. This is called resonation. We're allowing the sound to
resonate here and come out. So if I wanted to
create a little bit of a bigger sound, Mmm. Mm. Ah. Then open it wide, L a yawn. Ah Ah. Now, I'm louder, but I'm not pushing or changing anything. It's just wider. Ah, h. And that's
the big difference. If I was to push, this might not sound great,
but if it's a good example. Ahh. Oh, it sounds
quite throating. It sounds awful. I just allow
it to be nice and open, though, like the yawn. Ha, ha. I'm sighing into it, greeing. Ah, ah. Big difference. Now, why is space so important? Realistically, I could do a whole other Skillshare class discussing resonance
in and of itself. But for now, if we don't
create enough space, the sound begins to
exit through our nose, and this is where things
get really nasally, right? Really quiet up here
and awful sounding. This is why it is important that we not only create space
in the mouth here, but we keep everything nice and open and relaxed here, too. If we don't we get this. Hm. Huh. Huh. And you can tell it's
coming through the nose because if I do
this, it'll stop. Huh. Huh, haha. Close the mouth. Hmm. Hmm. If I open it slightly? Huh.
It's coming through both. If I open it fully, the sound
can come out of the mouth, very, very, very little amounts come through the nose
where it's unnoticeable. Ha. Ha. Ha. So we really for this exercise, we really want to be exploring the different shapes we can create not only with our mouth, but back here, too, keeping everything nice and
open and relaxed. So after our exploration of our shapes back
here and here, have a think to yourself. Where does it feel easiest? Were there parts
where it started to get a little bit shaky? Maybe you went up in range
and you started to get a little bit voice cracks
kicking in here and there. Keep all of this up here
because this is a clue of where your true tone truly lives. Oh
4. Supporting YOUR Voice: In the singing sphere,
we seem to talk a lot about breathing correctly
and breathing incorrectly, engaging your core and directing your breath to your diaphragm. It can often sound really overwhelming and quite
confusing at time, but it doesn't have
to be that way. It doesn't have to be mystical. So let's keep it
useful and grounded, and let's just fix it right now. For this exercise, I'd like
for you to stand tall, but stay quite loose, keep your shoulders draped
over, nice and relaxed, keep your chest pointing
to the ceiling, as well, and make sure that we're not allowing our knees
to tighten either, keeping really nice and relaxed. This is going to help
us really maximize our capacity when we start
to get those inhales going. Reason why we want to breathe in through the nose is so that we keep the air
moistened and not dry. Remember, whatever
we bring in air, food, drink, it passes
through our vocal folds. So we want to be treating
them as nice as we can, especially when we're doing
purposeful work like this. So making sure that we're
breathing in through the nose and that our breath goes to what
feels like the stomach area. So I like to imagine that
we've just had a big dinner, and we went. Big, big belly. It can help by pretending that we're pushing the air
to our lower back. So you're going to want
to put one hand on your belly button
and one hand on your hip and really just allowing the hip and the
stomach to inflate fully. This is what I would call a
deep diaphragmatic breath, and it is important that
we get this secured because this is the engine
to our singing voice. From there, once we get
a big diaphragmatic, deep breath in, why to start letting air out on a z sound? Like What you might have found is the stomach
begins to retract. If you keep exhaling
on this zi sound, you might even feel your core
muscles begin to engage. This is what we call support. Without support, it's like riding a bike with loose wheels. I'll come across wobbly, inconsistent and often pitchy. We don't have to work
extremely hard, though. You don't have to have an apex, but you definitely need to feel your stomach begin to tuck in. And what we're doing
here is we're sending a consistent flow of air
to our vocal folds so that they can vibrate at the
pitch we're asking it to consistently,
not inconsistently. You can imagine if we send
up an inconsistent amount of air that our vocal folds are going to vibrate
inconsistently, it's gonna sound really pitchy
like so. Without support. Mmm. With support. Uh, I added a little bit
of a brat in there, too. However, you should want it
to remain clean and steady. For all my clients, I always
recommend that they do this exercise until they
can exhale for 30 seconds. This is a good ballpark, because whether you're
asthmatic or not, it's not about the quantity of breath that
we're letting out. It's actually focusing more on how we're managing
the air that we have. So we get our deep
breath in. Then we go. Mm. By around 20 seconds, you might start to feel
the alarm bells going off that we're running
out of air and that the core muscles are
working real hard. This is where we introduce something called a
relaxed response. You're going to relax
more, relax the shoulders. Again, relax the knees, falling back into your
starting position and bringing any sort of tension that
crops up to our core. Really tightening up that core. As you're going along and you're letting
more and more air out, you will need to manage this
air more and more and more. Think of it like rope, right? We've got our hands here and the ropes coming
through like so, right? It's gone quite fast, and we're losing a lot
of rope right now. So we need to tighten our grip on the rope
coming through. We're not stopping it. Ooh. We're letting it pass through, but we are tightening
our hands on the rope there so
that we can slow it down and make sure
that we're dictating how much air we're
letting pass through. That is the function of
our support system there. So what I need you to
do here is I need you to do this over
and over and over, try and get further and
further and further, relaxing more as you
progress through, and engaging the core more
as you progress through. Relaxing and engaging whilst keeping the sound consistent. Try to get to 10 seconds, try and get to 15 seconds, and then try and
get to 30 seconds. Once you reach
there, I'd be happy, but you can continue
this work too, and further honing your
skill to manage your air. The movement should feel
lower and effective. And if it feels really gentle
with our core being firmly engaged and the sounds
consistent, then perfect. We're doing it correctly. Remember, the best breathwork
is quietly effective. Right.
5. Let's Actually Make Sound! : Alright, so with
fundamentals out of the way, let's actually makes the sound. Let's start with I'm
feeling good today. Speak it like you're
talking to a friend. I'm feeling good today. Try it different a little bit try
it a little bit lower. I'm feeling I'm
feeling good today. Try a little bit higher. And if you croak and you don't feel comfortable vocally with all these
exercises, that's fine. Don't think you're gonna
damage your voice at all. We're just exploring
what we have here. So let's go super high.
I'm feeling good today. Yeah, like, I'm
feeling good today. Really quite animated and open. Yeah, I'm feeling good today. I'm feeling good today.
I'm feeling good today. Pay attention to
where this feels. I'm feeling good
today. Now, once you've found something that
feels quite comfortable, let's focus on the notes that's
actually been said here. I'm feeling good
today. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Again, going back
to that gentle hum. Mm hmm, mm mm hmm. Mm hmm. Huh. Now, if you have a
piano available, let's try and put some
simple melodies to that. Mm hmm. I'm feeling
good. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. To Tom hmm. Mm hmm. Remember, I'm not pushing or doing anything different from what I've just said here.
I'm feeling good today. Mm hmm, mm. I'm feeling good. Mm hmm hmm today. Mm hmm. Again, keeping everything
nice and relaxed and open. I'm really finding my
natural tone here. Now, take some time to explore this further
throughout your range. Go a little bit lower than
you would normally speak. It's the whole
point here, right? Is that we're tying together our talking voice and
our singing voice. We're blurring the lines here. So, for me, I'm going to go a little bit lower. Let's go here. Um, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. And it
might feel really stupid. It might feel
really inauthentic, but that's fine. Mm. I'm feeling good, today. Ha. And explore how this might require you to
change the shape here. You might find that everything
has to be more open. Ha, I'm feeling good, today. Mmmmmm HHH, hah. Let's go a little bit
higher. Mmm mm mm Again, finding where this
is placed, okay? Be really gentle with things. Um, I'm feeling good
today, feeling good today. Ah, um, Mm hmm. I'm feeling good today. When you go higher, you might find that you don't
have as much power and warmth and the rich tone
that you had when you were down at the bottom
end, but that's fine. This is something that
we can develop on and build after we found
where it lived. I think the most
important thing to remember is that
throughout all of this, we're not diving into
a singing voice. We're not Oh, we're not suddenly in the
singing voice now. It's the same as
our talking voice. All we're doing is we're just
extending certain things, keeping things relaxed and implementing a little
bit of technique, being a bit more purposeful
with what we're doing. That's all we're doing here.
That's the difference there. The difference from
me talking and singing, there isn't much. The difference from
talking to singing, the difference from talking
to singing isn't much. So looking back at
our exercise work, have a think about
what was easiest. What felt really comfortable? What happened when
we felt a little bit uncomfortable when we were
pushing the boundaries a bit. But again, was it pitchy? Did we feel a little bit
of tension coming in here? These are all things to
store up here, again, that's going to help us find
our true natural voice. So, looking back at
that exercise there, have a think, what was
the easiest part of it? Was it maybe in my lower
range where I kind of talk mostly in that felt
a little bit comfortable? And alternatively, where
felt most awkward. Perhaps it was when
we were going up in range in an area that we don't really
talk in all that often. The answer to these questions tells you where to
put your attention to when you're starting
to develop your voice. Oh
6. Record, Review, Reflect: M so for me, this is where it gets a little
bit more personal. I need you to pick three vibes. So chilled, gritty, angry, soft, smooth, whatever
works best for you. And what I need you to
do is sing or sing. I've got something to say. Now, say it with each vibe. For me, I'm going to be doing
tired, joyful and bold. So I've got something to say. Tired. I've got
something to say. Joyful? I've got
something to say. Bold. I've got something to say. Notice the changes you've made that matched
each of the vibes. Now, with carrying
the previous rules that we've learned
in this session, let's try and sing whilst
keeping those three vibes. So, for me, tired. I've got something to say. Joyful. I've got
something to say. Bold. I've got something to say. Notice the changes you made on top of the
previous changes you made. So out of all those tones, have a think which one
felt most like you? There's no wrong
answer here either, but it does give
you a general idea of your vocal fingerprint. And just a quick note, you might have
noticed throughout this class that at the end, I'm asking you all of these
reflective questions. As singers, this is something we must do to ensure that we're making progress and making the correct decisions
throughout. Record, review, reflect. That is how you
grow as a singer. I.
7. I'm Feeling Good Today! : Alright. So here's
your class project. Something super simple
but really powerful. I want you to record yourself singing a short line
before the class, something really low
key and casual, like, I'm feeling good today,
something really simple. Then record yourself
singing the same line again after you've finished
all of our lessons today. Share both versions
here or even just jot down the main differences,
what was easier? What surprised you, and what was highlighted to you that you're really excited to
keep working on. And also just permission. Don't worry. This isn't
about perfection. It's about noticing
your progress, even within just one class, which, honestly, in my opinion, is the best part of
learning a sign.
8. There's Your Voice! : So that's it. The first
real step towards owning your voice and bringing the
real you out in your music. Remember, you don't need to
sound like kind of onee else. Your voice is utterly
unique to you. So use that. And trust me from
personal experience, the more you use it, the
more you connect with it. And the more you connect with it, the more you'll love it. So keep exploring,
keep practicing. I'm Louis Vox.
Thanks for hanging out with me today and
keeping your voice real.
Lewis Thomson, null
