Stop trying to FIX nasality (Watch this first)

Stop trying to fix your nasality. Recently I came across a post on Reddit. And the question was, how do I fix a nasal voice?

Now in the comments below, I saw people left and right offering solutions.

From blocking your nose, raising that soft palate, working on sound beams to even checking for a deviated septum.

That’s a lot. Especially when the person didn’t even share a voice recording.

If you feel like your singing is nasal, today I want to talk about why the first instinct should not be to jump straight in a try to fix it.

Rather I want you to understand what TRUE nasality is AND also isn’t. Give you a way to test for it and then also give you some suggestions to fix it, if you are dealing with true nasality.

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. In this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

The DIFFERENT interpretations of nasality

So if we’re talking about nasality. One of the first things you need to understand is we don’t all define nasality the same.

I’ve coached many students around the world, many whom tell me they feel nasal. But when we dived deeper, I noticed they were all referring to different things.

For some people, nasality was this overly bright/whiny quality to their voice.

For some, it was because they felt a buzz or vibration around their nose.

For others, it was just a gut feeling! They listened back to their recording and just thought they sounded different.

Why is this a challenge for you?

The reason is when you dive straight into solutions without taking the time to understand what the problem actually is. You can apply the wrong solution, waste a lot of your time and build up unnecessary habits.

It’s like trying to solve a maths problem when you haven’t even fully understood the question.

For example, say you listen back to a voice recording of yours and think your voice is nasal. You might see online that the easiest way to sing not nasal is to block off your nose.

But what if you weren’t actually singing nasal. But your larynx was just high which gives you this whiny quality?

See where I’m going here.

My DEFINITION of nasality

Okay Ivan, so you’ve mentioned that there’s so many different definitions of nasality. What even is nasality? I feel like I’m having a mid-life crisis.

So here’s how I define nasality.

When you’re making a sound and airflow goes through your nose.

That’s it.

For example when you hum. This is a fully nasal sound.

You can test this by simply blocking off your nose and holding out a note.

If you are fully nasal. You won’t be able to make a sound. For example on a HUM.

If you are partially nasal on an UH vowel, you will notice the sound get muffled.

Okay, I actually am nasal. How do I improve on it?

The first step is realising that you’re not trying to eliminate nasality entirely. Nasality is a necessity in singing. Certain consonants have to be nasal. For example if you’re saying the word MOM.

There is nasality when you make the consonant.

What we really mean by not singing with nasality, is making sure there isn’t too much nasality on sounds that DON’T NEED it.

For example, pure vowels like UH, EH, EE, OH, OO don’t need nasality.

So a little exercise here is simple holding out notes with those 5 vowels. And blocking off your nose. Does it get muffled?

Can you make it muffled and not muffled?

This will help you build control.

You can even try singing songs, and just focus on the vowel part of it. Can you sing it with the muffled and not?

Then you can bring back the words in.

Anyway that’s a wrap team! Hope you’ve found value out of this episode. If you did, please share this with a friend or on your social media. It really helps this channel grow and would mean the world to me.

Also if you’re looking for some tailored/specific help. I’ve got ways to study with me down in the description. Apart from that, my name is Ivan - I’m your voice teacher and I’ll see you next Thursday/Friday for our weekly episodes.

Take care!

Extra Links/Resources

🌍 Book Private Singing Lessons here: https://calendly.com/singingsimply 

🌍 Step By Step Singing Course: https://www.singingsimply.com/courses/singing-fundamentals 

🌍 Stream my music: https://linktr.ee/singingsimply

🌍 Business/other inquiries: [email protected]