Here are a couple of suggestions to improve "head-type" resonances
monitoring :
1) high frequencies awareness
- use anatomical 32db attenuation earstops while vocalizing, going to
concerts, attending live wired (singing) performances, speaking to people in
noisy/smoky clubs (You'll be amazed they can actually hear you better, while
you're putting in less effort). It's because this device chiefly removes
bass and lower medium frequencies (alas dangerously boosted in an average
modern environment), allowing in turn for increased high frequencies
monitoring
- set an A 440 tuning fork into vibration, then gently apply its base onto
different parts of your head and torso : chin, lower and upper teeth, nose
base, ridge and sides, jaws, brow, temples, top of the head, occiput
downwards, neck ("scrape", sides and adam's apple), chest, solar plexus,
navel, groin (yes!), base of the spine, loins, spine upwards, scapulas,
shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingertips. In the meantime you're focusing on
the tiny tuning fork sinewave and mentally substituting it for your voice,
whithout actually singing. (More effective still with earstops)
2) singling out sound components
- vertically apply both outer hands edges (thumbs outwards) onto temples and
jaws so as to create a muffling panel in front of your ears. Thus you won't
be able to hear the outcoming anterior component of the sound, having to
concentrate on the posterior one
- do the opposite thing, cupping both hands from behind your ears (as if
pretending you had ears like a rabbit). Opposite effect is expected
- claw at both ears with both hands from behind, elbows lifted parallel to
your profile and heading towards your mouth (great for checking overtones
via bone conduction)
3) clearing resonance "shaft"
- concentrate on the vibration of your skull above your temples and towards
your occiput
(as if you had antlers growing or you were a rodent chewing)
- think that your "tonsils are smiling"
- think that your (hopefully not sticking out) ears are beeing both pressed
against your skull and spiky like a goblin's
- keep a "millpond" brow regardless all troughout vocalizing. Each time the
tentation to do so comes knocking at your door, open your eyes wide instead
4) developping focus/projection
- keep the pointing finger lightly in touch with your forehead between your
eyebrows
- look straight in front of you in the distance. Can't you see the gleam
over there ? you're nearing a village from the woods, or you're an orator
addressing a crowd
- imagine you're singing to people a yard away from you and they can
magically hear you without you having to push harder
5) sounding the surroundings
- think of a dot between your eyes as the top of a sound pyramide of which
base is freely expanding, then mentally raise this "top" as high as you can
- liken your head to an electric bulb radiating light all over spherically
(light=sound), this bulb is screwed to your body or mounted on a spring
(your neck), you can unscrew it, stretch its wire, perhaps even unhinge it,
but it remains connected to the battery (the body)
- feel the ground below your feet : your body is anchored, let your voice
sail
6) Getting emotional
- listen to a very "moving" aria most intensely, to the point of actually
crying. You sigh, you silently moan, perhaps tears actually well up. Try "A
te o Cara" (I puritani/Bellini), "Di quella pira" (Il trovatore/Verdi),
"Dein ist mein ganzes Hertz"...
I find it hard to explain why and how, but this does work wonders.
7) chucking it all
...And then, once finally back in sync with your true vocal self, forget it
all, break every rule, remember when you were a rumbustious brat carelessly
screaming from the top of his lungs...
BJJocelyn
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