Music Minute Monday: Vocal Placement Part 2 - How to Change Your Vocal Placement
The last time we talked about vocal placement, we talked about what it is & why you should care. With part 2, we’re talking about how you can use it and change it! To know why this is important, first you need to understand that there are six parts of your voice, all accessed by different placements. We can dive deeper in to the different ranges at a later date. For now, we’re just going to focus on how you can start training your voice to start accessing those ranges!
There are really two main factors in changing not only which range you’re singing in but also, what tone you’re using. 1. Mouth Shape, and 2. Tongue Shape.
Before you get too confused, I want you to try something first. Out loud, say the 5 vowels “A, E, I, O, U.” Now, do it again and pay attention to where your tongue is and what your mouth is doing to create those shapes.
Did you feel your tongue move? Good! That’s the first step in moving your placement!
In any case with singing, you want to create as much space as you can in your mouth. However with “brighter” vowels such as “ee,” your tongue naturally gravitates towards the top of your mouth to shoot the tone more towards your nasal cavity. To avoid sounding like a mosquito, you need to lift the soft palette, create more space in the front of your mouth (show your teeth!), as well as opening your jaw as much as possible. The combination of the tongue placement and more open space in your mouth allows for you to hit higher notes in either your falsetto, head voice, or whistle tone ranges.
With your lower ranges (chest/fry) you focus more on aiming for the “lower jaw” and allowing those notes to resonate forward while also lowering your tongue to help manipulate the airflow coming from the lungs to create a lower pitch.
One of the easiest exercises you can do to practice raising & lowering your tongue to reach different placements is a “siren” or a “yawn.” Start at the lowest part of your range and slowly start to slide up to the top of your range. **You’ll need to take a big breath before this as it’s all done in one breath!
Note: Keep in mind that your voice, just like your tongue and mouth is a muscle! It will take time & patience to master finding all of your ranges , and consistently!