Sarah Boucher McKinney Ch. 11

What are the area of vocal technique that are most strongly dependent on the student’s ability to coordinate various functions?
1. extending the vocal range to its maximum potential
2. developing consistent vocal production throughout the range
3. developing flexibility and agility 
4. achieving balance vibrato

What are the 5 purposes McKinney gives for vocal exercise?
1.warming up the voice
2. extending the range
3. lining up the voice horizontally and vertically
4. acquiring vocal technique
5. correcting vocal faults

What are his recommendations for range for the warm-up part of vocal exercise?
they should start in the most comfortable part of your range

Summarize the recommended sequence of events for warming up.
1. Stretching
2. Release throat, neck and shoulder tension
3. Descending five not exercises, sequencing downwards to the lowest note you can comfortably sing
4. Arpeggiated exercises, starting with ones of limited range and building to ones with more of a range

What is the key to good vocalization?
being able to improvise based on what we are hearing

What is the first step in coordinating the voice so that you may start to work on range extension?
establish good vocal habits in the most comfortable range of your voice

What are the three factors which significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower?
1.  Energy
2.  Space

3. Depth

As you sing from the bottom to the top of your voice there should be a CONTINUUM of CAREFULLY GRADUATED CHANGES in the amount of ENERGY, SPACE and DEPTH.

What is meant by the energy factor?
Singing higher requires more energy. This energy should be supplied to your whole body.

What is meant by the space factor?

As you sing higher, you must use more space. The added space will allow the sound to resonate better, help in vowel modification, maintaining the proper laryngeal position, and adds richness to the upper voice.

What are the 2 sources of more space?
1. increase the mouth opening
2. increase the internal space in the back of the mouth

What is the depth factor?
As you sing higher you need more depth. This refers to actual sensations of depth in the body and vocal mechanism and to the mental concept of depth in tone quality.

What is meant by lining up the voice?
maintaining consistent tone quality

What approaches can one use to unify the voice?
1. through vowels
2. through registers
3. through resonance

What is horizontal vowel alignment?
being able to move from one vowel sound to another on the same pitch without a noticeable change of quality

What is vertical vowel alignment?
being able to sing vowels throughout the vocal range without any obvious changes of quality

How do we maintain the vowels’ phonemic identities and still produce them without noticeable change of quality?

changing its position within the phoneme

What are the two aspects of vertical alignment of the voice?
singing throughout the range on the same vowel and singing on a random sequence of vowels 

McKinney lists yet another aspect of vertical alignment.  What is it?
the ability to sing wide intervals without distracting changes of tone quality or dynamic level

What are the ‘secrets’ to the ability to sing high notes/
-always make a legato connection (unless the music says otherwise
-crescendo the lower note into the high note
-think down for the high note

What are the ‘secrets’ to negotiate large leaps down into the lower voice?
-relaxation of effort

What are the 3 majors types of exercises that use falsetto?
1. those that start softly in falsetto, then move down the scale until a transition into head voice occurs
2. those that are based on a loud falsetto sound and are either pushed over into modal voice on the same pitch or carried downward until a transition occurs
3. those that start low in modal voice and then jump two octaves into a fairly loud falsetto sound on [u]

The resonance system in adjusted in some way for every different ­­­VOWEL and every different PITCH.

McKinney state that many voices encounter a problem area somewhere between C4-G4.  What are the 4 explanations for the problem for males and the 2 for women?
Males:
1.the resonant frequency of the tracheal tree creates acoustical impedance at this pitch level
2. this area coincides with the first formant
3. this is the area where vowel modification plays a prominent part
4. this is the area where the transition into falsetto occurs
Females:
1. the resonant frequency of the tracheal tree
2. the area of the first formant

What is cover?
tone quality characterized as mellow, rich, round, and darkened, appearing in connection with a longer and wider pharyneal cavity

What is open?
an unpleasant spread or yell-like quality appearing in connection with a raised larynx and constricted pharynx

What are the steps to eliminating problems in the lower transition area in the female voice?
make sure that the brassy high larynx sound is not being used, vocalize

What is vibrato?
"a good vibrato is a pulsation of pitch, usually accompanied by synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness and richness to the tone."

What are the parameters of good vibrato?
"a good vibrato is a pulsation of pitch, usually accompanied by synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness and richness to the tone."

What are the 2 main causes of vibrato problems?

imbalance in the support mechanism coupled with tension in the laryngeal mechanism

What are the 2 causes of bleat?
pulling in on the abdominals, vocal folds not staying in continuous phonation

What is primary cause of straight tone?
laryngeal tension, or poor tonal modals

What are the main causes of wobble?
lack of physical exercise and lack of vocal exercise