Why You Have Tension And Strain When You Sing

hi I'm Arden kwin voice teacher and vocal producer and today I want to explain why so many of you experience tension when you sing especially tension when you're going to reach those high notes in your range so I got an email from Frankie who lives in London and he's a member of my virtual voice studio and Frankie writes I have so much strain in tension and it will not go away I have watched hundreds of videos honestly it's not a thousand and when I push more to try to increase the pitch my voice flat down my throat strains and the pitch and the note hitting it just isn't there it's just one pitch and the more I push the more I strain and the worse I feel how can I eliminate this to hit new notes Frankie I'm so glad you wrote with your frustration because I guarantee you you're not the only one experiencing this you're experiencing the negative feedback loop of tension you may have noticed in Frankie's email he uses the word push a lot I tried to push my voice to my range I tried to push the pitch and my guess is that Frankie does not quite have a stable and efficient understanding of his support that he's doing a lot of pushing and pushing ain't support okay support involves stability push eliminate stability and wax air out of your body the way you know if you're pushing is by knowing what direction the muscles are going in if you are contracting your abdominal muscles and your back muscles when you go to make sound you're pushing and by contracting what I mean is taking the abdominal muscles and constricting them in so if that's what you do when you sing oh then you're pushing flex is different than contract flex expands contract pushes in okay we want to flex into our support Oh so the reason the negative feedback loop of tension is happening to Frankie is because he is literally taking all the muscles of his support the rectus abdominus otherwise known as the 6-pack the transverse abdominus the obliques the lower back and when the pitch Rises he's taking all of these muscles and he's pushing them to try to polish the pitch up and out because it has mine the pitch is up here so he's trying to take all his energy and all his breath and push it up in the direction of the pitch but what happens when you do that is that pushing in that can tracking of the muscles of the abdomen pushes a whole hurricane of air up towards your larynx and the body goes uh-oh there's a flood coming and I cannot make sound with that amount of air coming through my lyrics in my chords so all of these muscles around here perhaps the jaw perhaps the tongue begin to constrict to create a dam around the larynx to mitigate this giant flood of air that's coming up so therein lies the tension and the squeeze but what happens then is the body says well hey how am I going to possibly get the air past the cords when there's this giant dam in the way so then the body pushes more air so then the body constricts more to Dam it up and then you end up pushing more to break through that dam and constricting more and pushing more and constriction more and you get it therein lies the negative feedback loop of tension and then you are tight you're strained you're frustrated and it doesn't sound good so what do we do to break the cycle of the negative feedback loop the key is to find the opposition of your support so when the pitch Rises the energy of support descends okay I want you to feel your support flexing down and out as the pitch Rises it's that feeling of those muscles flexing and expanding away from the direction of the pitch so pitch going up energy and support descending I have a video on up board Joe abou Joe is the Italianate classical way of supporting air for sound it's what all opera singers learn when they teach Italianate opera classical technique but if you're not an opera singer you still should be using a POJO and it's kind of a shame that generally only classical teachers teach a POJO because it's really the most efficient way of supporting breath for singing so if you're a pops or a musical theater singer get to know a POJO watch the video on my channel on a POJO it literally means to lean it's the Italian word for lean and in my video on how to do it I explained how to use the muscles of support in this leaning fashion to create stability so go watch the video on a POJO to have a much more detailed understanding understand that the lower your support goes the higher your pitch can go and that will break this negative feedback loop of tension now there could be another reason that the body is creating tension that has nothing to do with the fact that you are not supporting your air or your sound properly we as humans we tend to physicalize our emotions when we feel something emotionally we take it on and it lives in the body and when it's a particularly difficult emotion that tends to manifest most often as tension in the body so if you have a good understanding of your support you understand a POJO you understand stability but you're still experiencing tension in certain places it could be that there are some ways that your thinking is sabotaging your singing meaning your thinking is sabotaging the body and not allowing the technique that you know to actually take root so what I mean by that is let's say you're a singer who does a lot of compare and despair so you have a lot of feelings of inadequacy around your instrument and your talent why is this singer get the part and I didn't or how come he can reach that note what I can't and you're constantly putting yourself down with the negative inner critic a lot of feeling of less than right that gets taken on in the body and when you sing believe it or not you're singing from that place of tension and trying to prove something so you push and you squeeze yeah or it could be a sense of fear perhaps high notes were hard for you earlier on and now you have technique and you understand your support but you're still carrying that old story that high notes are hard so when you go for a high note you have that old story that high notes are a heart and your body braces itself out of fear and you get the tension as a protective mechanism so there are ways to undo that by understanding the thinking behind the singing getting to know the stories that you have around your instrument your talent your career if you do this professionally my 4 month intensive is designed for that purpose to help singers get under the hood and understand how their brain is sabotaging their body because your body can't do what your brain is sabotaging and as singers our body is our instrument so we need to make sure that it's in tip-top shape and that this is not creating problems for us to actually get into our best efficient support so do what you can do the intensive if you want to work with me perhaps explore some mindfulness techniques perhaps explore therapy if that's your thing but really get to understand why you have the tension because understanding the Y can then undo what's going on but for today I'm pretty sure that what Frankie is experiencing is just an inefficiency in support and a lack of really understanding how to feel that sensation of flex in the body to get out of that push feeling and instead consider that idea of expanding down as the pitch rises so go check out the video on a POJO consider this idea of opposition as the pitch rises the support and the energy lowers and then with that start to create the trust that will allow the tension to dissipate if this has been helpful to you go check out my website art and kwin vocal studio calm I have a lot of other tips and technique exercises vocalizes motivational content for singers and while you're there be sure to sign up for email updates to become a member of my virtual voice studio you'll get instant access to a powerful video training called be a more consistent singer and you'll get first dibs on singing workshops and master classes as well as access to studio member-only tips tools and insights I don't share anywhere else remember I always say your voice is a unique gift that the world is just waiting to receive thank you for letting me be a part of that journey and for helping me create this can passionate rather than competitive community of singers here supporting each other as we reach our potential I'm Arden kwin

Channel: Arden Kaywin Vocal Studio

Views: 13,977

Rating: 4.9441538 out of 5

Keywords: Singing Tips, Singing Technique, Sing Better, Become A Better Singer, Improve My Singing, Technique for Singers, Sound Better Singing, Vocal Technique, Take My Singing To The Next Level, Advice For Singers, Breath Support For Singers, Breath Exercise For Singers, Breath Support Exercise For Singers, Expand YourSinging Range, How To Sing Higher, get rid of tension while singing, get rid of strain while singing, singing with tension, singing with strain, increase singing range

Id: 2O4yOLktfU4

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 04 2018