Consonants Need Love Too Lori Lyford, CIF

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Consonants Need Love TooLori Lyford, CIF
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Consonants

• Are they the root of all EVIL and choppy singing?
• OR
• The carriers of passion, clarity and meaning?

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Our History

• Choppy singing MUST be cured!
• Target the dreaded consonants!!
• Minimize unvoiced or stopped consonants
• Sing from vowel to vowel
• Consonant substitution

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Consonant Replacement

• Examples
• f became v
• k became g
• s became z
• If they could see me now
• became
• Iv they good zee me now

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Smooth Singingat what cost?

• Unit - each part uses different technique
• Tenors - sing from vowel to vowel
• Bari/Bass - smooth out everything
• Leads - deliver the
  wordsmaybe
• Clarity - Mushy consonants causes loss
  of lyric clarity
• Ring - Minimized consonants produce
  vowels that cannot be
  fully expanded

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The Answer? Air Flow and Articulation!

• Incorrectly done, these can also be a big part of
  the problem
• Artificial and exaggerated air flow
• Breathy tone, unclear lyrics
• Over-produced, choppy diction
• Lip, jaw, tongue tension

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Artificially Connected SoundsorThe Nose Knows

• Cant articulate with your nostrils
• Loss of half our power
• Cant make true consonants with half the
  vocalized air going through your nose

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Getting Your Nose OUT of Your Business

• Find the valve
• Root beer burp
• Use K sound Kah, Kay, Key, Koh, Kooh
• Consciously direct sound out your mouth
• Test the sound

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Air Flow

• The breath is the ocean, the voice is the boat
  which floats on the ocean! Nature gave us the
  voice, we cannot change it, but we can educate
  the breath and learn to control it. This
  constitutes the whole method of singing.
• Vocal Wisdom-Giovanni Lamperti

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Bubbling to Move Air

• Why
• Increases AIR Flow
• Opens and relaxes the throat
• Brings tone to the front of the mouth
• Easier to articulate
• Easier to ring

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Bubbling

• How
• Use both lips
• Move bottom lip toward the top lip
• Firm the corners of your lips
• Vibrate the center of the lips
• Use the wet part of the lips
• Keep the air flowing

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Singing and Speaking

• Speak-Sing technique - Jim Casey
• Speak clearly, as if an orator
• Emote, be genuine
• Speak the line 3 times in a row
• With meaning and inflection
• Not in the rhythm of the line
• On the 4th time, sing using the same mouth and
  physical expression as when speaking emphatically

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Clarity AND Connection

• Matched vowels
• Natural, speech-like delivery
• Appropriate consonants
• Forward, clear, ringing sound
• Move AIR and SOUND away from you
• Just TALK to me

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• All this requires is
• practice, practice, practice,
• belief in yourself,
• and courage!!

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• Clarity
• always requires
• Courage