Tension Relief and Taking Care of My Voice

This week we are approaching finals which unfortunately means that assignments are starting to pile up.  I also have a couple performances coming up with my a cappella group so the lack of sleep combined with the constant singing of our upcoming Christmas show has my voice feeling rough. With the big week I have ahead of me I wanted to set aside some time to evaluate and take care of my voice. Recently it's been hard to find time to give my voice the proper attention it deserves. I forget that she is a muscle and just like athletes rest and recharge after a workout, it's important that you give your voice the same treatment. I have been studying a lot of Physiology recently so I was inspired to focus my exercise on soothing and strengthening my vocal cords.

I started with some SOVT (semi-occluded vocal tract) exercises, these are exercises that: reduce strain, improve vocal fold closure, improve breath support and promotes clearness of your tone. I use to do these exercises all the time in high school before a performances. My favorite of these exercises is the straw-bubble method. I love this because you can truly do this anywhere and it is great for practicing breath support. I took a glass of water and stuck a straw in it and blew bubbles into the water. I always try to release my breath as slow as possible and see how long I can blow bubbles for. The sound of the bubbles are always so relaxing and a wonderful way to clear my mind while balancing airflow in my vocal chords. The song I am soloing on for competition this year relies heavily on maintaining good breath support. By slowly releasing air into the water I am testing just how much air I can release in one single breath without putting any tension on my vocal chords. After a couple of rounds I can start to get this warm and tingly feeling in my chest that is similar to what I feel when I am focusing on resonance. Out of curiosity I put a hand to my chest but I wasn't able to feel any resonance. The next round I attempted to blow into the straw with a hum and was able to feel the resonance in my chest. I then explored different pitches blowing into the straw. The lower I went I wasn't able to blow into the straw and hum at the same time. However the higher pitches allowed me to maintain sound while blowing the bubbles. I was surprised at first because I thought my chest voice was going to be the easiest to maintain, however my upper register ended up being much easier to sing while continuing to circulate the air through the straw.

Overall I felt so much  more relaxed and grounded after my exercise. Singing after felt so much easier and sounded less strained while being able to keep the rasp that in my opinion gives the song attitude and life. 

 

Clash and Crunch

 This week my friend Sean invited me to help him work on a song he was arranging for one of his music classes. The song is called Oscar Winning Tears by RAYE. I immediately agreed. This is a song we both fell in love with after seeing it last competition season. He gathered a group of people from our a cappella group and another on campus to practice for the recording next week in the MUB. I am a Mezzo-Soprano on this arrangement which is really fun for me because I usually sing alto, so I got to play around in my upper range. With this arrangement we got to play around with crunchy notes which was so cool. This inspired me this week to explore the nature of clashing harmonies.

I think that when we think of music and sound we tend to think of swelling orchestras and what I like to call "pretty singing".  Now it's interesting think about because what makes a sound "pretty" is really subjective and up to the listener. I find myself associating "pretty" with pure tones, higher pitches, and light vibrato. Does this make lower, raspy voices (like my own) worse? Of course not. But I feel myself associating those qualities to having a good singing voice. Our brains also like order, so we tend to gravitate toward harmonies that lock and sound correct. When we hear notes that clash our brain automatically senses that something is wrong and it can feel like it doesn't sound right. However we are still creating music, and just because it sounds different doesn't make it wrong. This is what I had to ponder on as I played around with clashing harmonies. They can end up making interesting effects in the music. It might not be aesthetically pretty but we can end up making some really cool sounds. I found that the more I played around with the sounds the more I grew to love the crunchy feeling of the cord. We talk a lot about how we express emotion through music and these cords I found to carry heavy emotions, and also more complex ones. I found that these cords provide new avenues to express feelings such as confusion, desperation and turmoil that you don't get to feel as much with pure tones. Playing around with these chords honestly gave me relief coming off a huge test week and I honestly got to channel some of that stress through these chords. 

Below is an attached clip of me and a friend playing with clashing harmonies. There was also a very heavy presence of resonance and buzz in this chord which made it fun to sing.

Music as Worship

During week seven we were required to take a look at our classmates blogs and I was able to stumble across Ana's post that described using journaling as a form of worship. It was a beautiful post and it inspired me to dedicate one of my blog posts to how I use my voice for worship. 

I went home this weekend and was able to be with my family which was so refreshing. At lunch we got to talking about a scripture that popped up on my mom's phone as a devotional, Micah 6:8. The scripture talks about walking through life as a follower of christ being just, loving, kind, and humble. My sister had mentioned that when we were younger she would wonder if what we were taught to believe in was true. My dad answered that is the point of faith, you have to believe even when you can't see it or be certain. I thought about this scripture and thought even if it what I believed in didn't up being true, would it be so horrible to walk through life being just, humble, loving and kind? I love the God I believe in not out of obligation, but because of who the bible says he is. I was raised to believe in a kind and loving god, who is merciful. I aim to embody this in how I treat and interact with others on a daily basis. It truly breaks my heart when others have not been shown this version of the lord.  Growing up religious God has always been a part of my life. I have always felt most connected to him when I sing. Worship was always my favorite part of church. My siblings would always complain if they played extra songs after service, but I loved it. I am always the person with their arms thrown in the air singing their face off. It might look crazy, but it feels right.

On Sunday I decided to play around with worship music. I started by listening to my playlist of my favorite worship songs. I started to sing along and let the music carry me away. I completely turned my brain off and sang my heart out. That's my favorite part about worship, I never have to think. It truly comes from my soul. I knew this week I wanted to try songwriting but that concept is very scary to me. I love to sing but creating music is a whole different process. I knew that starting with worship music would be the best way to approach this. Instead of writing down lyrics, I just sang from the heart. It honestly felt good to just freeform sing and worship. It grounded me and allowed me to feel connected to God. This song is very experimental and honestly is just some thoughts and feelings I have about my God. It's far from perfect so I encourage you to listen with your heart more than your ears. I will attach a cover of a worship song and then my experimental clips. I hope you enjoy :)