VOICE TRAINING

 There are 4 basic steps of Training the voice:
1. Hearing.
2. Control of Breath.
3. Practice (Riyaz).
4. Physical and Mental Fitness.

Hearing:

Some people are born with an excellent 'ear' for music and are naturally talented, but most singers need to learn and practice the art before it becomes second nature.

Imitation is the first step towards learning. This statement applies to voice training, too. Concentrated listening is the basic requirement. By listening more and more, the brain creates and stores a mental image of the music. The notes, the tunes, the rhythm, the speed, the words, the volume, the tonal quality of the voice or instrument, etc. are stored in the brain. When we try to sing, this mental image co-ordinates with the laryngeal muscles to produce the music required. So, it can be easily understood that, the more we hear, the more we listen, there will be a better ability of voice production. We should listen with all the aspects in addition to basic tune (raga) and beat (taal); like, tonal quality, phonetic quality, time intervals (laya), the microtones (shrutis), expressional effects (bhava) of the voice, etc. The more deeply we listen, the better quality of music we will be able to sing. Also better the mental and physical co-ordination, better will be the voice production. Though this is the first, basic fundamental and unavoidable step towards learning, we should remember that this is not the only step. It is not enough by itself.

Control Of Breath:

The foundation of all good singing is breath control. It is a very important step towards voice development and projection. If we can master our breath, we can easily master our voice for singing. Breath Control gives depth, fineness, clarity, steadiness and confident phonation to the voice.

There are 4 types of breathing: Clavicular (shoulder), Costal (chest), Diaphragmatic and Abdominal. Clavicular breathing is useful to sing very shrill notes. Costal breathing is used to high-pitched notes. Diaphragmatic breathing is useful for every singer. When a singer cultivates this type of breathing, unnecessary and unwanted wobbling or shaking of voice can be controlled. Abdominal breathing helps to sing the lower notes effectively.

Breathing is the single most important element in singing. In order to control your voice you have to put out exactly the amount of breath you need for the sound you want. That breath needs to be as focused as a laser beam. How you exhale controls the quality of the sound, the volume, the pitch and the tone. How you inhale governs how you exhale. Remember that your lungs expand low down; your shoulders shouldn’t rise up around your ears, and allow your abdominal muscles to relax as you breathe in. You will need their support when you sing.  

Most people, as they walk around in their daily lives, inhale into their upper lungs i.e., their shoulders go up as does their chest. When the air is in your upper lungs, you do not have the kind of detailed control you need. A singer (or a swimmer or runner--anyone who has to control their air) should fill their lower lungs. This means that instead of a breath that is vertical, with your body expanding upwards, the breath should be horizontal, expanding outwards.

Put one hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your back, both at about waist level. Inhale by filling your lower lungs with air so that your stomach sticks out. Your hands should move apart, the air filling the space between them. As you exhale let your stomach go back in gently. Think of your stomach as a balloon that inflates and deflates. Your chest shouldn't move, not even an eighth of an inch. As you get better at this, your back will also move out when you inhale. Try putting your thumbs one on each side of your spine, at about waist level. Relax your shoulders. Now inhale into your thumbs.

Once you put the air in the right place, you must learn to control it with your diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle that sits below your lungs and causes them to fill and empty. If you exhale out all of your air down to the absolutely last drop, you will feel your diaphragm under your rib cage as it pushes up against your lungs. On the outside of your ribs you will feel your abdominal wall pushing in; inside your ribs your diaphragm pushes up.

Not only does your diaphragm need to be strong enough to push hard when you want lots of power, but it needs to have even more control and strength when you want to sing a fast and accurate lick, or a big jump in pitch, or very, very quietly. Building the strength and control of your diaphragm begins with proper breathing.

To strengthen the diaphragm, again put one hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your back. Inhale into your abdomen and exhale forcibly so that your stomach muscles push in and the air comes out rapidly. Repeat this; inhale, abdomen out, exhale forcibly, abdomen in; thirty times picking up the tempo as you get comfortable with it. Breathe through your mouth. As you go faster you may find that you've fallen back into the old habit of breathing vertically again. In that case, stop and start over by breathing slowly and gently into your lower lungs until you have the feeling again.

Initially you may feel that you can't get enough air, but that is because your lung capacity is small from disuse. All infants breathe into their lower lungs, but as we age and our stress levels increase, our breathing tends to move upwards. With practice you will find that your lower lungs stretch out and that your ribs in the back will loosen up and make room for the larger inhalation.

Be patient with yourself. After breathing vertically thousands of times a day all the years of your life, a new way to breathe takes lots of concentration. Remember that your voice is an instrument like any other. It takes time to learn to play it; time and patience and practice.

Practice (Riyaz):          

Everyone knows - 'Practice makes man perfect'. Practice should be divided in 2 types:

1. Trying that which we cannot sing but want to sing.

2. Repeating that which we already know and bring it closer to perfection. By regular practice of singing, we give physical training to all the muscles and the voice production system on the whole. This training will vary with the type of music chosen for singing. The aspects of the voice, phonation, articulation, pitch control vary with the style of music, so will the factors to be emphasised during practice vary.

The time period that should be given for practice will again vary with the time of the performance. In classical types of music where improvisation is a part of the performance, it is necessary to devote more time, even 2-3 hours at a stretch.

One important factor during practice is that we should, along with singing, hear our own singing, critically. We should listen to our own singing like a third party. This will help us to grow faster. We can thus find out our own mistakes and limitations and work over them. This rules out overconfidence. We should always remember that perfection is a word found only in the dictionary, it is an illusion. If we start thinking that our performance is perfect, then the growing, culturing and cultivating totally stops.

Practice develops the control over the vocal cords. Practice also develops confidence in the singer, which expresses itself in the voice.

Physical and Mental Fitness:

Singing is an activity of physical and mental movements. It is a synchronisation of our physical and mental state. So, physical and mental fitness are necessary for good and happy singing.

Please do not smoke anything! Eat and drink sensibly and regularly and keep the voice moist by drinking lots of water. Do not practice when you have a bad cold, you’ll only strain the chords. If you were a runner with a sprained ankle you wouldn’t run until it was better. When you are getting better, start with deep breathing exercises and gradually begin to use the voice. Do not launch into songs with high notes; warm up gradually with vocal exercises before getting to sing. Rehearse in a smoke-free atmosphere too. Make it a rule that no one smokes except during coffee breaks if they must!

Once you have a secure vocal technique you will find that an occasional rest, whether enforced or by choice, will do you do harm whatsoever. When your technique is really reliable you will be able to rehearse through most ordinary colds; only a throat infection will stop you.

The main problem with trying to work though a cold is that one doesn’t honestly feel like singing. It is hard work drawing the breath in and finding the energy to give the sound the necessary muscular support and it is then, when the diaphragm doesn’t want to expand, and the lower abdominal muscles go on strike, that the throat takes the strain! So, honestly, you’ll progress more quickly if you relax and concentrate on getting better rather than struggling on regardless.

So that our voice is rich with harmonics, all the resonators i.e. the air cavities in our body should be clean and healthy. This includes the lung cavities, pharynx and nasal cavities, which are directly related to singing.

These resonators should be free from coughs and colds, extra mucus and other infections, for a good voice production.

We experience that overwhelming emotions affect our voice controlling capacity. Negative emotions also affect the tonal quality of our voice. Negative emotions are a hindrance to the growth of voice production. Mental fitness leads to a better synchronisation of the singing activities.

Regular exercise, healthy and balanced diet and regular meditation or any tension releasing exercises are a necessity for our fitness.

We see people around us who have reached considerable heights without practicing these four steps. This tends many of us to become lazy or we lose trust of this path.