Support isn't ALWAYS the answer (Singing Lessons For Beginners)

So you’re struggling with singing higher.

BOOM... more support you’re told

Maybe you’ve got a bit of jaw tension

BOOM... breath from your diaphragm more says one singing expert

Maybe your voice is a bit more nasal.

BOOM... FLEX that belly.

Today I want to share with you all, why I don’t really think SUPPORT is the answer for everything. And if you’ve been trying to “get it” or “understand it” for some time without any results. It might be because the answer is something else completely.

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. On 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.

Anyway, let’s dive in.

First of all.

Managing your air is importantly. I’m not trying to disregard this.

Without good airflow “supporting” the voice. There would be nothing for your vocal folds to vibrate against.

What I am trying to point out, is there are a plenty of you who feel stuck with your support.

And yet you keep bashing your head against the wall thinking it’s the solution.

You might even think that maybe you’re just not getting it.

But there’s a good chance, you might just be looking in the wrong area.

I mean have you thought about it like this?

How does support actually help with high notes?

Like at a pure physiological or mechanical level what actually happens?

For a lot of us when we think of singing. Most of us approach it with a very simplified imagery.

It’s “I blow air”

And this air passes the vocal folds causing them to vibrate.

Now we spend a lot of time optimising for this. Working on our breath support. Which is important.

But what we don’t realise is if we look deeper as you’re blowing air.

There are ADJUSTMENTS at the vocal fold level.

1) They STRETCH to adjust pitch.

2) They CONNECT or come together to adjust volume.

Now why is this important?

Say you’re struggling with the high notes. There’s a bit of tension.

But you’ve been told SUPPORT SUPPORT SUPPORT. So you follow this advice and spend weeks, months trying to tweak the airflow.

But you keep running into this same ceiling. The same invisible problem.

Now for sure,

A part of the problem could be that you’re blowing incorrectly. Maybe the support needs work.

But there could very well be another reason.

What if your vocal folds were just clumsy?

And when you’re trying to sing higher, they don’t stretch that well. Or maybe they do stretch, but you start doing a lot of extra stuff like pushing air, squeezing the throat.

So really no matter how you BLOW air, if those cords aren’t stretching. Those high note will feel hard.

And this is backed up by reality. There are many videos on the internet showing the pitch change process. Just search “vocal folds changing pitch”

When the vocal folds change pitch, they STRETCH, LENGTHEN.

This should start to show you that support is just ONE piece of the puzzle. Now it’s the easiest one to focus on and blame because so many of the other adjustments are so much finer and can’t be seen.

So what am I suggesting?

If you’ve been working at your support for a while and you’re not seeing results.

I want you to switch to this lens. For support, just making sure you’re blowing air, but then let’s focus on adjusting at the vocal folds level first.

1) What does it feel like to stretch the vocal folds and change pitch WITHOUT anything else changing

What sensations can you notice? This is going to be our guess if it’s actually happening. Since you can’t always see the voice.

2) What does it feel like to connect the cords and adjust for dynamics WITHOUT anything else changing

Now if you have no idea what I’m talking about. I highly encourage searching through this podcast and searching the term “stretch”. Episode 129 is a good one to watch.

Anyway! That’s all. If you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

Extra Links/Resources

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

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