2. Thin Fold This is a light whispery vocal tone suited to your mid-high vocal range. It is the voice you are more likely to use when casually singing along to a CD/radio It is low volume and bright in timbre The sound seems to come from the throat with no abdomen stress It is more likely to be used in studio performance or intimate performance
3. Thick Fold Suited to mid/low vocal range It has a richer tone with more resonance You need to use abdomen and vocal muscles to produce sounds It is closer in timbre to your full speaking voice It is more likely to produce vibrato
4. Twang Imitate a child’s ‘nanana’ voice Sing a song using this tone There will be slight muscular stress around top lip/nostrils The vocal sound will seem to resonate in the nasal passage It especially emphasises singing in American accents or with an ‘attitude’ Listen to: Hank Williams /Bob Dylan Cyndi Lauper / Madonna John Lennon / Liam Gallagher
5. Aspirate Expel breath slowly using ‘hah’ sound Combine the breath with an “Ah” musical note. Sing a song with your hand in front of your mouth. You should feel your breath on your hand. There should be a slight sexy whisper quality to your vocal tones. Listen to Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ or Norah Jones
6. Belt Quality Your full, most powerful voice Imagine you are shouting ‘hey!’ across a noisy bar. Now use this voice to sing the ‘Hey hey hey’ from ‘Satisfaction’ by The Rolling Stones There will be muscular stress in your neck and abdomen There may be a slight ‘growl’ to your vocal tone Listen to: Aretha Franklin’s “Freedoms” in ‘Think’ Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ Bono ‘Beautiful Day’ (chorus) Freddie Mercury ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ (2nd verse)
7. Head Voice/Falsetto Similar in tone to Thin Fold voice but used for your upper vocal range. Naturally adds aspirate qualities to the tone. The voice most likely to be lost when suffering with a cold! Listen to Smokey Robinson / Bee Gees More likely to be used sparingly by female singers to just emphasise key words: Whitney Houston / Mariah Carey / Alanis Morissette
8. Growl The classic blues/rock voice actually constricts the vocal chords to create a ‘raspy’ quality. Imitate a dog growling. Now try singing with some of the same vocal quality...... Or make the slight friction noise you use to clear your throat, sing using this noise.... There will be tension/pain at the back of your throat. You are deliberately damaging your voice if over used. Keep well hydrated in the hours leading up to performance. Tom Waits / Rod Stewart / Janis Joplin / Tina Turner
9. Attack There are a variety of tones you can use at the ‘onset’ of a vocal line: Aspirate attack: breath sound first Glottal attack: a vowel sound “oh…uh” Creak attack: a slight crack/groan Growl attack: an aggressive roar
10. Release There are several ways of releasing vocal tones: Aspirate decay: the tone fades into breath Glissando: a slight fall off / upward push Compressed: no fade. An instant decay. Creak: the tone cracks / falls apart Burst release: an extra syllable of expelled air ‘uh’
