Vocal Style: Channelling Your Emotions Into Your Vocal Performance.

I have a favourite saying, "Be it, Feel it, Love it, Live it". What I mean by that is that a performer has to identify not just with the style of the music, but also with the lyrics and message he or she wants to convey.

This is easier for singers who write their own songs, but many mainstream top-40 artists do not, especially in Pop. Recently, I recorded a young artist who was covering Miley Cyrus's "Can't be Tamed" for a demo and that song requires a lot of staccato punch. The title of the song itself suggests strength, rebellion, power, self-esteem and self-worth. If that song is sung with softness instead of intensity, or without strong enough inflection, the message would be lost on an emotional level and infringe on the style of the accompanying music.

It took a lot of mentoring and vocal consulting in the studio to help the artist identify herself with the intensity of the song and channel that energy into her performance, as in reality the artist is a very soft and gentle person ... not that intense at all. This reflects the notion that, in a manner of speaking, real performing artists have to walk into a different role with every song. Much like an actor learns their characters and acts their roles on stage and in film, the singer/performer is ultimately a story teller through music.

Let's take Lady Gaga for example. I went to one of her concerts this summer and watched her very intently. I tried to see who she was through her performance and came to the conclusion that she is none of the things she portrays on stage, but she is a great actress who plays her role with absolute excellence. Obviously she and her team created the image she bears and the spectacular show that looked, to me, almost like a Halloween play with monsters and angels; full of liberty, sex, dance and what have you. It was very cleverly set out, covering absolutely every aspect of entertainment and catering to an audience of wide ranging ages and interests.

To pull off a performance like Gaga's, the performer does not necessarily have to be the character he or she is singing about, but they definitely have to channel the song's character, being, and emotions through their own intrinsic paths of artistic expression and overall performance.

Vocal Box Repair: Is There Such a Thing? And is it even possible?

Apparently there is! And yes, it is possible... however, difficult. For comparison, let's look at classical ballet dancers: Everybody knows that ballerinas have to have a certain arch in their feet, especially females. It is detrimental to their careers if their feet are flat and not properly arched, because it would be difficult to do pirouettes; circling 32 revolutions with one leg while keeping the whole weight of the body on the other leg when the flat foot cannot hold the weight.

Similarly for singers, the upper palette (located in the vocal box) also has an arch and curve. The deeper that arch is, the more the body of the voice will be projected. The palette arch isn't enough on its own though, as the sound also needs to be supported simultaneously by the lower abdomen and upper diaphragm, or else the whole lift of the voice becomes obsolete.

Singers can avoid cracks in their voice and letting their sound "fall down" by lifting their voice into the facial cavities, where the facial muscles will also have to be supported by the arch of the upper palette. There is a lot of coordination involved, like ballet, but it is not impossible.

Can a damaged vocal box be fixed? Yes, to varying degrees, based on the individual case. At the very least, it can be improved so that the sound will be much more steady, secure and at much less risk of falling and producing a crack. It is, however, very tedious and intense work.

Your pathway to recovery begins by retreating to the basics of speech. It requires attentive repetition of syllables and phrases, then vocalizing different combinations of sounds to train your control of duration and pitch. The purpose and use of different combinations of sound in musical performance and public speaking can be very different and can require more or less rigorous ways of applying the same technique.

In the end, all of the work will lend itself to a better quality, frame, and body of sound, and will be instrumental in achieving greater voice projection, tone, inflection, diction and overall clarity.

All of this, of course, requires a trained specialist who understands the mechanics of voice repair, is able to hear where the problems lie, and knows how to help you engineer the solution for your sound.

Are you a singer? Do you perform at gigs in the UK?

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