A Sturdier Voice
In my last post, I shared a bit of improv I did at Halloween on the trick-or-treaters.
But that was only the start of a journey!
I’d had a pretty quiet day on Halloween, and my voice wasn’t quite ready for the big projection and strength suddenly demanded. The tiredness that set in afterwards got me thinking about doing some more regular “training”.
Time to read through this one again…
As the voice is a muscle (well, sort of, there’s lots of muscles involved anyway) it should be possible to do progressive overload in a safe way just like one would do in the gym. Over time, even if it doesn’t enable any new range, the conditioning should make me able to sustain challenging voices for longer, with less fatigue.
Many muscles around the vocal chords!
In the middle chest voice, adding volume while not allowing the pitch to rise is easier when singing (context dependent of course) because you can hold notes and build the resonance until the walls are literally shaking around you. Ever been in a practice room with an operatic singer? Try it - you won’t forget it.
But when speaking, notes change so fast that you don’t have time to build the resonance. It’s the same with singing verses in songs, which (big generalisation incoming) tend to have quicker lyrics in the verses, and longer, higher notes in the bridge/chorus. So, it’s rarer that verses are sung with the most projection, but the choruses more often have those soaring notes, belted across a theatre. Basically then to get a low or middle chest voice loud, you need to get better at pushing more air thorugh while maintaining strong connection, a.k.a. talking very loudly (… a.k.a. shouting).
An actor should be good at a bit of shouting. Even Stephen Fry, one of the most erudite actors you’re likely to meet, is jolly good at it. Shakespeare has a whole lot of it in pretty much every interpretation I’ve seen.
But my parting thought is through the words of Douglas Adams.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the dastardly Vogon guard who puts Arthur and Ford into an airlock doesn’t much enjoy the actual minutes of his job, even though the hours are quite good. But he does enjoy the shouting, in particular the phrase “Resistance is useless!”
Just before dooming the protagonists to the imminent vacuum of space, he says, “I think if it’s all the same to you, I’d better just get you both shoved into this airlock and then go and get on with some other bits of shouting I’ve got to do.”
For the first time, I find myself rather aligned with this Vogon chap. Though I’m not certain my neighbours will appreciate my upcoming style of vocal training…
A Vogon. Very fond of beurocracy. And shouting.
Image credit: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) [Buena Vista Pictures Distribution]