Emily C., McKinney, Ch. 11

Emily C., McKinney, Ch. 11

• What are the area of vocal technique that are most strongly dependent on the student’s ability to coordinate various functions?
• Extending vocal range to maximum potential, developing consistent vocal production/tone quality throughout range, developing flexibility/agility, achieving balanced vibrato. 
• What are the 5 purposes McKinney gives for vocal exercise?
• Warming up the voice, extending the range, “lining up” voice horizontally/vertically, acquiring vocal technique (legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals), and correcting vocal faults. 
• What are his recommendations for range for the warm-up part of vocal exercise?
• Start in a comfortable part of the range, avoid singing high notes until thoroughly warmed up. Start with limited range and then move to wider ones as voice becomes more responsive. 
• Sounds that require activation of jaw/lips/tongue/soft palate, and sounds that will stimulate vibration in head and chest. 
• Summarize the recommended sequence of events for warming up.
• General bending/stretching body exercises to loosen/tone muscles.
• Exercises designed to release tension in shoulders, neck, throat.
• Descending 54321 to activate articulators and induce resonance, starting on mid note of range and move downward. Continue down until reaching lowest note you can sing without forcing then return to mid note of range. Work upward by half-steps then. 
• Arpeggiated exercises starting fairly low and extend upward. 
• What is the key to good vocalization?
• The teacher/student needs to be able to improvise them on the spot for each student’s particular needs. 
• What is the first step in coordinating the voice so that you may start to work on range extension?
• Establish good vocal habits in most comfortable tessitura of the voice. 
• What are the three factors which significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower?
• Energy, space, and depth. 
• As you sing from the bottom to the top of your voice there should be a ______________________ of _______________   _________________   __________________  in the amount of _______________, ________________, and ___________________.
• “There should be a continuum of carefully graduated changes in the amount of energy, space, and depth being used.” 
• What is meant by the energy factor?
• As you sing higher, you must use more energy. Energy is the total response of the body to making sound. The dynamic relationship between breathing-in muscles and breathing-out muscles, as well as the amount of breath pressure to the VF and their resistance, as well as to the dynamic level of the sound. 
• What is meant by the space factor?
• As you sing higher, you use more space. Adding space helps resonator to vibrate at higher frequency, maintain proper laryngeal position, and help keep upper voice from whitening. Can help in vowel modification in upper voice. 
• What are the 2 sources of more space?
• Increase mouth opening, and create internal space in back of the mouth. 
• What is the depth factor?
• As you sing higher, use more depth. Adding progressive depth as pitch rises prevents thinning of sound and helps maintain proper laryngeal position and consistency of tone quality. Refers to actual sensation of depth in body/vocal mechanism, and mental concepts of depth for tone quality. 
• What is meant by lining up the voice?
• The ability to maintain a consistent tone quality. 
• What approaches can one use to unify the voice?
• Through coordination of energy/space/depth; through vowels, registers, and resonance. 
• What is horizontal vowel alignment?
• Being able to move from one vowel sound to another on the same pitch w/out noticeable change of quality. 
• What is vertical vowel alignment?
• Sing vowels throughout vocal range w/out any obvious changes  of quality. 
• How do we maintain the vowels’ phonemic identities and still produce them without noticeable change of quality?
• The tongue operates from a neutral/central position, moving to the positions for other vowels with ease and economy of motion. 
• What are the two aspects of vertical alignment of the voice?
• Singing throughout the range on the same vowel (like on “ah”), and singing on a random sequence of vowels (like in a song). 
• 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 to the high note from the lower note immediately preceding it. Crescendo on the lower note before moving to the upper tone. Don’t think of the upper note as “high,” and think of it as needing more energy/space/depth. 
• What are the ‘secrets’ to negotiate large leaps down into the lower voice?
• Relaxation of effort; connect smoothly and try to feel the lower tone more in the mouth; brighter/more compact in feeling than the upper tone. 
• What are the 3 majors types of exercises that use falsetto?
• Those that start softly in falsetto then move down the scale until transition into “chest”
• Those that are based on a loud falsetto sound and are “pushed” over into modal voice on same pitch or carried down until transition. 
• Those that start quite low in modal then jumps two octaves into a fairly loud falsetto on [u] or [o]. 
• The resonance system in adjusted in some way for every different ___________ and every different __________.
• vowel, 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: Resonant frequency of tracheal tree creates acoustical impedance at this pitch level; this area coincides w/ the first formant; this is the area where vowel modification plays a prominent part in male voice; this is where transition into falsetto can occur.
• Females: Resonant frequency of tracheal tree; area of the first formant. 
• What is cover?
• Tone quality characterized as mellow, rich, round, and darkened.
• What is open?
• Unpleasant spread or yell-like quality appearing in connection with raised larynx and constricted pharynx. 
• What are the steps to eliminating problems in the lower transition area in the female voice?
• Start on A/Bb above middle C and do 54321 , not applying too much breath pressure to voice or allow sound to lose focus/become breathy. Think brighter/frontal as descending. Choose a good vowel for you. Let there be legato and no sudden dynamic increase. 
• Start on A below middle C, using [i], siren slide up to A octave, then back down on 54321 to D. 
• What is vibrato?
• A pulsation of pitch, accompanied by synchronous pulsations of loudness/timbre, enough to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness, and richness to tone. 
• What are the parameters of good vibrato?
• About 5-7 vibrations per second, with pitch variation being one half-step. Intensity is about the same, with average variation between 2-3 dB. 
• What are the 2 main causes of vibrato problems?
• Excessive tension in laryngeal mechanism and unbalanced breath support. 
• What are the 2 causes of bleat?
• Pulling in on abs, and the support mechanism isn’t balanced. Grabbing/releasing. 
• What is primary cause of straight tone?
• Laryngeal tension (and tonal model of the singer). 
• What are the main causes of wobble?
• Lack of physical exercise and lack of vocal exercise. (Loss of muscle tone, slumping posture, sagging support muscles, flabby vocal muscles).