Pharyngeal Vowel Exercise

Pharyngeal Vowel Exercise:

Excerpt:

The next step is to work with the pharyngeal vowel exercise that I designed years ago. I have found it works with approximately 95% of singers. Have the singer sing a 5-tone descending scale with the tongue between the lips imaging the vowel space straight back behind the tongue. Then have the singer place the tongue inside the mouth and sing the five basic vowels in any sequence KEEPING the pharyngeal vowel space behind the tongue root. You will find a large, resonant, yet body-connected sound results. Vocalizing with the tongue between the lips in the middle register demands a body connection and this is a good way for teachers to vocalize any student who has difficulty with this concept.

Causes of Vocal Fatigue

Causes of Vocal Fatigue by David Jones (2001) VoiceTeacher.com.

Causes:

(1) Smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages.

(2) Belting: using too much chest voice pushed up to high in the scale.

(3) Using a technique with a tight solar plexus during singing.

(4) Singing with a high larynx.

(5) Singing with a low soft palate.

(6) Singing with a forward jaw position.

(7) Singing with the vocal cords too far apart or too squeezed together.

(8) Pushing too much breath pressure through the larynx.

(9) Incorrect posture; dropped chest or hyper-extended chest.

(10) Singing with the head posture pushed forward from the spine.

(11) Use of mouth vowels instead of pharyngeal vowels.

(12) Unsupported singing; lack of connection to the resistance of breath pressure in the lower back and abdominal muscles.

How Did You Get Started as a Music Producer

Hello Conrad,

My name is Kaylee and I am doing research for my 8th grade school assignment. We where asked what was our career choice and I chose music producer.

I wanted to know how you got started as a music producer and what advice can you give me? I have been taking piano lessons since I was seven and music is just a big part of life.

Thank you for my time,
Kaylee

**********

Hi Kaylee,

I got started as a music producer by doing a series of telephone on-hold music libraries for GTE and Contel. That was my first “pro” production assignment. This was back in 1989 – MIDI had just been released. The telephone company wanted classical music but didn’t want to pay royalties of MUZAK fees, so I sequenced Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mozart on my computer. At the time there were no midi libraries available like they are today, so it was a little cutting edge for corporate use back then. It started with one full length CD and ended up being a four CD library that was sold by a third company. By the time the project was done I had used all the money from those projects to buy computer gear. Inadvertantly I had started building a recording studio.

For the first CD I just did the programming and a seperate engineer and studio did the mix-downs. By the fourth CD I was doing the mixing and engineering myself.

My advice is to get serious with your piano lessons – study theory and as many styles as you can. If there’s a style of music you don’t like, that just means you need to study it more. Keep your eyes open for the opportunities that are around you. If you don’t see opportunites, then study and practice until you do.

Hope that helps.

Conrad

More Urban Legends

The last few months I’ve received an increase of urban legend emails. The downside is the people sending them to me don’t realize they are urban legends. Usually they are sent from people wishing to do good in the world. Just a note that if an email includes a phrase similiar to “forward this to all of your friends” then it is suspect and should be checked. This particular one I’ve seen before, but it only took four seconds on google to check it’s validity. Google.com – it should be your best friend if it isn’t already.

When I receive an email like this I always remember back to several years ago. A friend sent me an email and said I had to forward it in order to receive a free Disney vacation from Bill Gates or something like that. Of course, the email said the sender had an attorney look at it and “it’s really true”. At the time I emailed my friend to let them know it wasn’t true and they got very mad at me. I think they wrote me back and said something like “Fine. I was trying to be nice. Me and my family will be going to Disneyworld, suit yourself.” Well folks, they never got a free trip to Disneyworld and they still don’t talk to me because of my response. So maybe I should have learned a lesson back then.

What irritates me about this particular email is it’s incorrect quoting of the Koran. It then uses that false quoting of the Koran to insinuate a prophecy for the current conflict between the US and the Middle East. If you want to make these tie-ins, please at least quote scriptures correctly. Please check your sources. It’s easy and it’s free.

Info on the latest one received can be found here:

http://www.all-lies.com/legends/religion/koran.shtml

The link above will give you the background on this….well…… lie.

The email circular starts with a listing of many biblical events which are said to have taken place in Iraq. Then the email continues with the following:

BEGIN EMAIL CIRCULAR

Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible. No other nation, except Israel , has more history and prophecy associated with it than Iraq .


And also, This is something to think about: Since America is typically represented by an eagle. Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages…

The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible)

Koran (9:11 ) – For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace.

(Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?!

I BETTER NOT HEAR OF ANYONE BREAKING THIS ONE OR SEE IT DELETED.

This is a ribbon for soldiers fighting in Iraq . Pass it on to everyone and pray. Something good will happen to you tonight at 11:11 PM. This is not a joke. someone will either call you or will talk to you online and say that they love you. Do not break this chain. Send this to 13 people in the next 15 minutes. Go.