Then we move into the vocal cords and the larynx.
So the air comes up, drives those.
Now, if you don't have much air and you start talking and
you start pushing air because you don't have enough air to drive it,
then everything gets squeezed and you get a tight sound, kind of [NOISE].
You think about it, that's an extreme example.
But if I have a good air under that [NOISE] I can produce a lot bigger sound
and it's easier to do.
So with breath support, relaxed larynx, easy sound, easy to do.
>> How do I know the larynx is relaxed.
>> Well, good question, because there's, again, big variety from person to person.
>> I mean, extreme example, I can, if I grab a hold here and
[SOUND] It wiggles back and forth.
>> [SOUND] >> Yeah, very good.
>> [SOUND] >> See,
it turns into a little rock in there?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, there's a broad range of normal.
>> Yeah. >> Some people are a little tighter
naturally.
Some people, just grab that and it goes all over the place.
>> Wow.
>> What we want is for that person, the most relaxed larynx we can get.
And so, you can kind of put your fingers here and
go [SOUND] you can kind of tell the difference.
>> Yeah. >> And you're, without any air underneath
it [SOUND] tends to help relax it.
>> Another question I've got, since we're right here,
is when somebody's very apprehensive, right, and
they're really tight, so they're not taking in a good volume of air, and
they run out, I normally associate that with them kind of running out of air.
>> Right. >> And trying to squeeze too much out and
not having a good force across vocal folds.
What's mechanically going on behind that wavy, nervous voice?
>> Well, now sometimes it is nerves, anxiety.
Public speaking [LAUGH] most of us don't like to do that.
And yeah, really?
[LAUGH] >> Why?
>> Yeah.
>> So there's, the nervous system can cause some of that
tremor and kind of instability.
But if there's not enough air under it, as you said,
say if I blew all the air out [SOUND] and then keep talking.
What I'm doing is I'm squeezing and pushing the vocal cords together to keep
getting more sound out, but I'm out of air.
Nothing to drive it.
So, eventually that starts causing some instability in the voice, too.
Combine that with the anxiety and
stuff, you get that, I really don't want to be doing this sort of thing.
So, it's kind of a combination.
Now, deep breathing we know can help relieve the anxiety and calm people down.
It also then provides the power for the voice as well.
>> Okay, so we've done air, we've done voice, but we got to get it out.
We want good sound coming out.
What do we do there?
>> Right, so part of that is just letting it come out.
People that kind of talk with kind of of closed mouth, the sound can't get out.
So you move your mouth a little bit more.
Again, relaxation.
You don't want to get tight.
So the difference between [SOUND].
Just letting the sound come forward, so using the air helps do that,
and the whole goal is to get the sound to be out here.
>> Yeah.
>> Not stuck back there.
So singers work on this forever and ever.
>> Yeah. >> To get that big opera sound, and or
whatever sound.
>> Well, that's wonderful.
So those are some great pieces
of advise based in sort of mechanically what's going on.
That's some great stuff on vocal production.
Thank you. >> You're welcome.
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