Last night, I had a FANTASTIC vocal night. I was hosting karaoke at my regular Saturday night gig and I re-discovered a technique that I had stopped using for some time, called "articulating." Let me tell you, I had more fun using it then I've ever had before, because I was singing much better, and getting complimented and gushed over ALL NIGHT. Songs that I would normally consider difficult became EASY, and any stage fright I would usually begin the songs with melted away. I felt completely prepared and confident, and it was SO much fun. So I wanted to write about it so everyone else who's ever had trouble with singing could benefit from it as well.
I learned this technique from a teacher I had in junior high school, back when dinosaurs roamed the streets..... maybe it wasn't that long ago. The technique however, has been around forever. Vocally articulating means to over-emphasize the words you're singing when compared to speaking. Take how you would usually speak and exaggerate it times two. Open your mouth wider, longer, and keep it open wide while you're singing your vowels. Enunciate your consonants more.
That's the first half. The second half is to keep your face completely lifted while you sing. Your eyebrows should be raised and your eyes open wide like you've just found out you've won a small lottery. That, in combination with exaggerating and over-enunciating your words is the technique of articulating.
The easiest way to get into it is to first raise your face, eyebrows, eyes, cheekbones... (think, you've just won a new car!) and hold your face like that. Not in a greatly unnatural way, you don't want to cause yourself vocal tension as a result of holding your face too tightly. Then, sing your vowels with a wide open mouth, and enunciate twice as much as you usually would while speaking. This will allow the sound to flow far easier from your mouth, and it's especially great for high notes, because by opening your mouth wider you'll find that you won't be stretching to hit them. They'll come out naturally without you having to force at all.
One important thing to also remember when articulating is to pay attention to what your tongue is doing. Many people forget that tongue position is very important! The proper spot for it is resting at the bottom of your mouth, with the tip touching the back of your teeth. NOT floating in the middle of your mouth! To clarify, I mean to rest it only when holding a note. Obviously you need your tongue to enunciate consonants and please, use it! But when you're holding a note for any length of time make sure it's at the bottom of your mouth otherwise your sound will come out a little muffled and cloudy.
Here are a couple of tips to help you get used to articulating.
The first is to practice in front of the mirror. Look at yourself and practice lifting your face up first to get used to the feeling, and alter it as necessary until you feel comfortable. Then turn away from the mirror and memorize the feeling. Practice relaxing your face and lifting it until you can remember what it feels like to be properly lifted. (Again, lifted properly means to have your eyebrows and cheekbones raised and your eyes wide open like something has really surprised you.) Once you have that down, sing a song in front of the mirror and over-emphasize your vowels and consonants. Not to the point where it's really forced, just more then you usually would while speaking. It's similar to modeling, if you've ever watched a fashion show you'll notice when the models walk down the runway they're always exaggerating the way they walk, taking longer, over-emphasized steps. Same idea. Practice the two together, over and over, until it doesn't feel foreign to you anymore.
The second is actually an exercise to practice called the "Alphabet exercise". Write down all the consonants in the alphabet in the order they come in. What you do is this: Take the first consonant which is B, and quickly say, baboo baboo baboo, exaggerating the new "word". Then, move to the next consonant, which is C. Say, cacoo cacoo cacoo, using the hard consonant sound. Go through the entire alphabet of consonants doing this, one after another without taking breaks. This gets your face used to moving quickly and more openly. It's a great warm up and it makes your face more flexible, so articulating becomes easier.
Give it a try! I'm 100% positive you'll sing better and surprise yourself with the results.
Elisha Rae Ewonchuk is a recognized authority on the subject of vocal training. Her website, www.sing-like-a-pro.com , provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you'll need to know about singing, learning to become a singer and taking singing lessons.
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