3 Tricks I Use for More Tone · Rock Singing Success

3 Tricks I Use for More Tone

If you tend toward a basic "choir boy" / naive head voice like me, you need all the tone help you can get. With these tricks I find resonant spots everywhere.

#1 this is easy. Turn your head to the 1 o'clock or 11 o'clock position, chin a little lifted. The formant shift especially on high notes is quite tasty. I've seen performers do this in live shows a number of times.

#2 coordination building. Ever make funny sounds or impersonate characters with odd voices? I learned to mimic the voice of characters like Stitch from "Lilo & Stitch" or Meatwad from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" - I think its a narrowing of the vocal tract at the back of the tongue (?), I feel it way in the back just above the glottis. Overdoing it sounds doofy/quacky, but ~25-50% adds a nice layer of brass to most vowels, and it pairs great with cry mode to make high note access easier. Balance is key!

#3 more coordination and some strength building. Soft palate position is a HUGE tone knob, as I'm sure a lot of you have discovered. Some coaches train to keep the soft palate closed all the time, which seems to help volume level for no-mic performance, but the nasal cavity is an AMAZING resonator when used carefully. Sometimes I have to really push my soft palate open (edging vowels especially), and its easy to get too nasal at lower pitches. But a lot like the cartoon-character throat narrowing trick: a little does a lot, balance is key, and it stacks great with cry mode. I also find soft palate opening to invite a bit more wind at the expense of more strength in the core and throat to keep things stable.

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