Also a taste of Chapter 16 in the Up Coming Book RAISE YOUR VOICE authored by Jaime Vendera
VOCAL STRESS RELEASE
Throughout the day, our bodies absorb a great amount of physical stress. Symptoms of stress include aching feet, stiff back, and headaches. Stress affects your voice, limiting your ability to sing open and freely. To reach and maximize your voice potential, you must release any stress that could inhibit the vocal process. The following series of exercises release muscle tension and prepare the voice for singing.
Vocal Stress Release was designed to minimize physical stress and create a positive physical state, to enhance vocal production. Vocal Stress Release should be performed before any vocal exercises are conducted. In addition, they may be performed at any time to relieve stress. There are seven parts to this series that should be conducted in the order in which they are presented in this chapter.
THE VOCAL STRESS RELEASE PROGRAM
DEEP BREATHING
This exercise helps to calm the mind and body. Deep breathing will focus your center of concentration, a practice that is invaluable for singing. Deep breathing stretches and relaxes the chest cavity, back muscles, and diaphragm, all of which are used for vocal control.
1. Inhale through your nose for eight counts, filling the lungs from the bottom up.
First, your waist should expand all the way around your body.
Next, your sides, back muscles and lower ribs will expand.
Last, your upper chest should expand.
This completes one full inhale.
2. Hold your breath to a count of four.
When you hold your breath, try not to strain. Sometimes you might catch yourself holding your breath very tightly, for example, when you grunt, or when locking your breath to pick up something very heavy.
When holding your breath, pretend as if you are still inhaling. This will keep you from locking your stomach.
3. Next, exhale through your mouth to a count of sixteen.
Empty your lungs as much as possible, ridding the lungs of any stale air. When exhaling, hiss the air out. This will tighten the stomach and back causing the muscles to ache. Don't worry, this is not adding stress, but strengthening the muscles used for breath control.
Try not to let your stomach fall in. Keep it expanded. This will help to further strengthen your diaphragm.
Do not skip this exercise. Deep breathing relaxes the body and serves as the basis for breath support, which is important for singing long phrases. Repeat the entire breathing process five to ten times.
NECK TENSION RELEASE
This exercise stretches out the neck muscles and releases tension.
1. SIDE TO SIDE:
Take your left hand and place it on the right side of your head, with your fingers pointed down towards your shoulders.
Gently pull the right side of your head towards your left shoulder. You should feel a pull in the right side of your neck. Do not pull beyond the point of pain! You only want to feel the stretch in your neck. Hold to a count of ten.
As you count, continue pulling your neck towards your shoulder with your hand. This will stretch out the neck muscles, making them more limber.
Repeat this process using your right hand to pull the left side of your head. After a few weeks, you can increase the count to twenty or more, for a deeper stretch.
2. BACK AND FORTH:
Allow your head to fall backwards until you are looking up at the ceiling.
Put your hands underneath your chin and gently push your head backward to stretch out the area of the larynx.
Hold to a count of ten.
Next, drop your head forward toward the ground.
Take both of your hands and place them on the back of your head and pull your head down, bringing your chin to your chest.
Use both of your hands to pull your head deeper into your chest until you can feel the muscles in the back of your neck stretching. As I said before, do not force beyond the point of pain.
Hold to a count of ten, maintaining constant pressure from your hands to enhance the stretch. After a period of time you can increase your hold count.
3. NECK ROLLS:
Start with your head hanging forward.
Roll your head to the right. Your shoulders will want to move as you roll. If you notice this happening, concentrate on keeping them still and straight. Allowing your shoulders to roll with your head will not permit your neck to fully relax and release tension.
When performing this exercise, allow your head to hang as far forward towards the floor as possible, as if gravity was pulling your head to the floor regardless of head position (forwards, backwards or to the sides).
Continue to roll your head slowly around your right side, then to the back.
When you reach this point, your head should be all the way back. You should be able to see the ceiling.
Continue rolling your head to your left side, and finally back to the front.
Repeat the process ten times to the right, then ten times to the left. By the time the neck exercises are done, your neck should feel pretty loose and relaxed.
4. NECK MUSCLE MASSAGE: Massaging the neck relieves tension in the neck and throat area.
Start by massaging the back of your neck. Use both hands to squeeze and release the muscles, loosening any knots or kinks.
Then take your thumbs and work them into your neck muscles in a circular motion until you have done this over the entire back of your neck.
Work your thumbs up to where the neck meets the skull, then down until your neck meets the back of your shoulders.
After the back of the neck is complete, continue on to the sides of the neck. Use the same massage process for the sides, as you did for the back of the neck. Use the left hand for the left side, and use the right hand for the right side.
After you feel that you have thoroughly massaged the sides, take all of your fingers and, starting at the bottom of the sides of your neck, slowly rub upwards until you reach the protruding part of the skull, right behind your ears, on the sides of your head.
5. THROAT MUSCLE MASSAGE: The front of the neck requires a different massage process.
Start at the collarbone and work the fingers of both hands down into the indentures of the collarbone.
Start on the outer sides and work towards the middle. Work your fingers in a slow circular motion being careful not to cause any discomfort.
When both sides are complete, place the middle and index finger of your hands into the indenture in the center of your collarbone and massage in a circular motion. Massage the front of your throat as you did the sides of the neck.
After the front of the neck is completely massaged, move on to the muscles under the chin.
6. CHIN MASSAGE: The muscles under the chin play an important role in singing, helping to maintain a low larynx position and an open vocal path. This area can hold a lot of tension. Use both hands for this massage technique.
Place your fingers up under your chin.
Massage the chin muscles by working your fingers in a circular motion, starting underneath your jawbones.
Massage the entire area of the muscle working your fingers towards your chin.
Next, squeeze and release the muscles under the chin to loosen any knotted muscles.
FACIAL TENSION RELEASE
1. JAW TENSION RELEASE: If you clinch or grind your teeth, you will carry tension in your jaws, making it difficult to sing openly and enunciate words clearly.
Start by pressing the fingers of each hand into the indenture in front of your ears.
Now yawn. Did you feel the indenture getting deeper in front of your ears? This is the temporal mandibular joint.
Massage the entire area, down to where the jaw line meets the neck, and up to the temples.
After you have massaged the temporal mandibular joint, press your fingers into the indenture and pull your jawbone towards the front of your face, stretching out the jawbone. As always, do not pull past the point of pain. Do this two-five times.
2. CRAZY FACE: This exercise relieves tension held in the facial muscles.
Start by yawning.
As you yawn, stretch both your mouth and eyes as wide open as you can, then stick out your tongue as far as possible.
As you stretch your tongue, it might feel a little sore. The tongue has a tendency to knot up towards the back of the throat. Stress is stored in your muscles, which produce knots and muscle spasms. The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in your body and it can hold a lot of tension.
Hold this facial position to a count of ten. I know this looks really funny, but it is the best way to release facial tension. Now that you have stretched your face, let's revisit the tongue.
TONGUE STRETCH
As I said, the tongue can hold a lot of tension, causing the back of the tongue to rise and knot up. A tense tongue will constrict the vocal path, making the opening in the back of the throat smaller.
A smaller vocal path results in a smaller, pinched sound. You need a way to help stretch out the tongue and loosen the knots. The best way to do this is to dry off your tongue with a towel or handkerchief, then use your hand to pull your tongue out of your mouth. If your hand slips, then you can also use a dry towel to hold on to your tongue while you pull. Pull down and out for a good stretch. As you pull, concentrate on relaxing your tongue, to stretch the tongue further. Do this exercise three to five times, or until you have released any soreness in your tongue.
DIAPHRAGM RELEASE
Due to poor posture, your diaphragm will slide up underneath the ribcage. This exercise relieves tension in your diaphragm by returning the diaphragm to its proper position. The proper position is right below the ribcage. Take your hands and massage your stomach downward, starting at the middle of the ribcage. You want a downward pulling sensation towards the stomach. Work from the middle of the rib cage down to the bottom of your ribs.
LIP BUBBLES
Lip bubbles relax and warm up the entire vocal mechanism. Performing this exercise increases blood flow to your vocal cords and surrounding muscles, preparing your voice for a vocal workout or performance. Lip bubbles are also known as motorboats due to the fact that the sound produced sounds much like a motorboat running in the water. This is similar to a horse pursing its lips and blowing out air. To produce this tone, purse your lips together, then force air between them. A consistent flow of air is required to vibrate your lips evenly. If you do not gain balance between your lip tension and the applied air pressure, your lips will not continue to vibrate.
After you can produce lip bubbles, apply tone to the exercise. Concentrate on the feeling of tone hitting and passing through your lips. Lip bubbles disconnect your mental connection to the vocal cords. The sound will feel as if your lips are producing it. This is the perfect exercise for relieving voice strain and preparing the voice for an intense vocal workout!
Starting on any note, produce lip bubbles while maintaining a consistent pitch for several seconds, then slide down to the bottom of your range. Repeat this exercise ten to fifteen times, each time starting on a different pitch. It's best performed when starting somewhere in your lower range, then working your way up to higher pitches. When your voice feels warmed up, proceed to the final step of vocal stress release.
GARGLING TONE
Gargling tone was previously explained in Chapter six, HYDRATING THE VOICE. Gargling tone is perfect for warming up. It works hand in hand with lip bubbles. Lip bubbles warm up and expand the cords, much like stretching out your body. The gargling tone relaxes and hydrates the voice, much like relaxing in a Jacuzzi. The same steps apply to this exercise as lip bubbles. Start by taking a small amount of water in your mouth, then tilt your head back, and gargle on any pitch. Sustain the pitch for a few seconds, then slide down to the bottom of your range. This takes consistent breath support to prevent from swallowing water while vocalizing. Repeat this exercise ten to fifteen times.
This completes Vocal Stress Release. You voice should feel warmed up and ready for your vocal workout. The only other thing you might wish to do is to perform a few mist inhales, and drink some water before your workout or performance. Now it's time to proceed to the voice strengthening exercises.
RESONANCE HUM
To perform the resonance hum exercise, simply close your mouth and hum until your teeth begin to buzz. This creates resonance in the mouth cavity. You'll soon discover that you can expand this feeling of resonance to the entire head cavity. Hum on any pitch that is comfortable to your range. Sustain the pitch for as long as comfortable. Don't force yourself to produce any resonance; allow it to happen naturally. This exercise massages the vocal cords and relieves any tightness. Perform this exercise at least 10 times on different pitches.
VOCAL CORD STRETCH
The vocal cord stretch is actually a fast continual version of an exercise called THE SIREN. Before you start performing this particular warm-up exercise as part of Vocal Stress Release, you must fully understand and have been practicing THE SIREN regularly. To perform the vocal cord stretch, sustain a full voice pitch. Next raise the pitch up as high as comfortable, then return to the beginning pitch. Continue to raise and drop the pitch as many times as you can on one breath. Make absolutely sure that the tone is full of resonance. Keep the buzzing sensation on your teeth, and follow the path of your core of resonance. Following the path will be further explained in the following chapters. Perform this exercise 10-15 times or until your voice feels loosened up and you are ready to perform.
This completes Vocal Stress Release. You voice should feel warmed up and ready for your vocal workout. The only other thing you might wish to do is to perform a few mist inhales, and drink some water before your workout or performance. (Now it's time to proceed to the voice strengthening exercises which are found in chapter 17. Purchase RAISE YOUR VOICE to find out what to do next!!!)
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