Sharon and Peggy wrote:
> Sharon Szymanski <szy@n...> wrote: > >Ed brings up a point that I have often wondered about. I have heard countless folks advocate the dropping of the jaw for various reasons in singing but have found personally, that this actually pulls me out of position and distorts the vowel and tone. Instead, I prefer a sense of moving the jaw more toward the back (creating a sense of "overbite")which seems to create more lift in the palate and a nicer sense of space where I seem to need it for higher notes. Any thoughts on this from the peanut gallery? > > I think this is an example of the sort of thing that's different for individual singers, and the feedback of a teacher is helpful as to whether the dropped jaw is working as hoped. In my case, a relaxed jaw-drop is helpful. But before I figured out how to do that, I'd hold my jaw open, which added tension, and didn't do any good. I now go for a "dog-face" feeling when I drop my jaw, which I think is similar to Sharon's "overbite" idea. (Before I studied voice, I thought singers were crazy, the way they talked!) > ++++++++++
I agree with Peggy that individual singers have different needs akong this line. I know some people (even professionals) that do what I call "crocodiling" -- i.e., they pull the jaw open so far that it distorts their resonance space and keeps their vowels from matching. Actually, in these cases the jaw is so far open in the front that it ends up being tight in the back and the throat is more closed. (This is the sort of thing that Sharon referred to.)
Generally I teach students to do virtually nothing with the jaw and let the work be done inside the mouth and throat. I often use the "pencil in the teeth" tehnique to help them get the idea at first.
Just this week, however, I had occasion to make the slightly unorthodox suggestion to a student that he let the lower jaw come slightly forward on his [i] vowels. This worked miracles! For the first time he was able to find enough resonance space for that vowel, and it happened because just letting the jaw do this new little thing unlocked it at the back and helped it be more relaxed! It worked so well for this student that I tried it with another, who had the same problem, and it helped him, too. So, one never knows what will work with whom. This is why it is hard, if not impossible, to learn to sing from books!
> --- > Dr. Diane M. Clark, Assoc. Prof. of Music > Dept. of Music, Rhodes College > 2000 N. Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 > 901-843-3782; fax 843-3789 > dclark@r... http://www.rhodes.edu > > > >
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