5 Key Basics For Beginners! [Text Guide for Beginners]

Why & What:

Yesterday, a question was asked on my server about basics. It made me realize I've spent a lot of time talking about higher level and advanced techniques. I decided to make a simple write-up covering very basic considerations that students of all levels can grow from.

I often find one or more of these issues present in beginners voices who feel stuck. These mistakes can blend together and create a dissatisfying vocal experience for the user who is stuck on these snags. I would argue these are some of the most important fundamentals to actually have the freedom to practice your voice and technique, despite not being feminization specific.

Five Key Basics  for Voice Alteration:

1. Practice somewhat louder than you would normally speak.

Voice practice is intimidating and shyer individuals will have a tendency to withdraw the sound to a quiet and low amplitude level. We want to drive the vocal folds and produce rich sound. This allows us to have the clearest hearing potential of our voice and resonance. Operating at lower amplitude levels also builds a behavioral ceiling for volume which makes it hard to increase. Whereas, if you practiced at an increased volume, decreasing is easier. Lastly, lower volumes create a ripe ground for mistakes.

2. Sustain longer than you feel comfortable at first.

Onset is how your sound is produced and attacked. Many beginners have a weak and unstable onset. If the onset is not stable, listening and practicing resonance will be too inconsistent. Our vocal folds and lungs need to coordinate together to form a stable generating sound. Consistent and reliable onset is like controlling for a variable so we can figure meaningful things about a different element in isolation (resonance). Poor onset forces variance with every exercise repetition. In some cases, the voice is completely unpredictable if onset is poor enough. It will help every vocalist at any level to practice onset from no sound to sound. 

My key for onset is first beginning with a ultra faint and soft hot air leak, "H". It shouldn't make sound but you should feel you are lightly exhaling hot air. Experiment with that. Try to hold the air back with the vocal folds and contrarily, try to let it move through the vocal folds breathy and freely. Now to onset, start with a gentle leak of air (almost no sound) then gain volume and blow the air out harder with the "H" (glottal fricative). You should run out of breath quickly doing this--don't overdo it and get lightheaded. At the peak of that movement, try to touch the vocal folds together. It should be like a baton handoff in a race. We take a tiny impulse of exhale -> ramp up lung pressure and closure a bit (we hear this as volume increases) -> fully touch the vocal folds and engage phonation. Instead of running out of air like before, since the phonation starts, a lot of air is being held back and the delicate vocal fold vibration can occur. We are trying to achieve a quick, reliable, steady, and comfortable onset. Learn to onset with any resonance or pitch. Then work on onsetting with different vowels. Then modify those vowels with R1 or R2 techniques to onset with desired sounds. 

ex: https://clyp.it/ljbm1llh?token=fc915ba82bd18d8e84f854e3d8e4d387 

3. Voice clearly and consistently as possible.

This is often related to poor onset but it can manifest differently. Often times I see students "give up" near the end of an exercise. This: https://clyp.it/zw4fy4pz?token=0707efdd574e1b834b2c753d0255b64d 

It's a very awkward behavior and induces a ton of variability. In many cases, a student will have good resonance or a decent sound but this perpetual "ending before its done" destroys their practice. Catch yourself if you do this! We must be disciplined in our muscular and behavioral practice. Focusing and applying the attention to avoid that will quickly cause it to require less attention in the end.

 Also if there is unwanted fry, experiment to remove it. If there is a drifting pitch, work to stabilize and strip it back to basics of making a single pitch (onset).

4. Remember to fully reset. 

If you finish an exercise, good or bad. Stop and reset. Recollection what you are doing and what your goal is. Sometimes people get in these fast practice loops of doing something over and over. Many times they won't be resetting all the way. So if they at first did an amazing R1 move of +1000 Hz, they may be stoked and do it again only getting to 800 Hz but don't fully reset to "commit" to the whole movement. Use intention. If you are trying a specific movement, make sure it goes as far as you'd like before initiating onset/voice etc.

5. Create sounds that are interpretable: 

If you're trying a specific sound or vowel, refine it into almost a caricature of itself at first. Say the sounds as if over emphasizing but still natural. Combined with good volume and onset above, you should get clear snapshots of resonance to then manipulate and bend how you want. Inconsistent, shaky, and quiet volume are all traits that make it harder to interpret, manipulate, and expand on your voice. These can be added as style or qualities later on, but they can't be a part of your foundation. https://clyp.it/whalywpl?token=b3c6d680bc03350224011bb03e41702b 

Conclusion:

I hope this is helpful for many of you out there! While we spend a lot of time discussing higher level feminization techniques, it's crucial to not ignore the basics. If you feel you can't make a clear sound to begin with, perhaps spend a few practice sessions focusing on experimenting with the basics. Remember: Always make a clear, full, disrupted sound!

tl;dr  relevant info on beginner and common snags that can disrupt your practice