Okay, as promised to one of the taggers on my blog, I will write about how one can control the projection of one's voice during singing. It's a rather complicated issue to explain over a blog post so before I continue, the disclaimer first. (Disclaimer: All the below mentioned techniques should be practised in the presence of trained vocal teachers in a face-to-face setting as some things such as volume, projection postures, and accuracy of usage of the techniques mentioned.
As commonly acknowledged in the singing circle, there are three different platforms from which one can project one's voice from, namely, the diaphragm, the chest and the throat. I personally would like to call them "the three engines" of voice projections. All these three platforms use a variety of muscles to direct airflow when directed so if one is to train voice projection, one must first learn how to develop those muscles before a stable airflow can be trained to project a stable singing voice.
There are quite a few methods or techniques to develop those muscles and below are a handful of them which I know:
1) The Solfege Reciting Technique (Verbalized):
Recite the solfege syllables "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti" (or known lovingly as "doe", "ray", "me", "far", "sew", "la" and "tea") using the respective three platforms to strengthen the muscles required. The solfege syllables are to be recited as many times as possible in one minute, followed by a rest of another minute. The exercise cannot exceed more than 30 minutes. This technique would also help to improve note accuracy. For the diaphragm platform, the diaphragm muscles must be drawn taut and the solfege syllables have to come out without a break. For the chest platform, the diaphragm muscles must be not used and all the solfege syllables are to be recited using only chest muscles - for most people, reciting using the chest can only be achieved in a series of forced puffs, which is perfectly alright for beginners. For the throat platform, they are to be recited using by isolating and using only the throat muscles. Most beginners will find themselves out of breath after the first few repetitions. Stamina and accuracy are the prime objectives of this exercise.
2) The Solfege Reciting Technique (Non-verbalized):
This technique is the same as the Solfege Reciting Technique (Verbalized) with only one difference. The solfege syllables are NOT to be recited out aloud but are to be verbalized internally with the mouth closed. Clarity is not the concern here but stability of the internal verbalization of the solfege syllables is.
3) The Solfege Holding Technique (Verbalized):
This technique is used to hold the individual solfege syllable for as long as possible. For example, when one (using whichever voicing platform he or she is training on) says Mi. He or she is to hold the Mi syllable until the breath is completely used under a timed condition. Gradually increase the length of time one is able to hold each of the solfege syllable over a space of a few months (there is no shortcut to training those muscles). This exercise should also not exceed more than 30 minutes per session. Clarity of the syllable and development of the stamina of the muscles are the objectives of this exercise.
4) The Solfege Holding Technique (Non-verbalized):
This technique is the same as the Solfege Holding Technique except that this exercise requires internal verbalization of the solfege syllable. Stability and stamina of the muscles are the objectives of this exercise.
Application of the three voicing platforms:
Once the muscles of these platforms are developed adequately, the trainee should be able to enunciate and hold the notes within songs better. Assuming the three platforms as three different engines of singing, the trainee will have to activate the various engines accordingly to suit the variation within the songs whilst singing, which is not exactly easy to do. Some songs require only one engine, some may require switching of engines at particular intervals and yet others may even require all three engines to be used at different degrees simultaneously.
What differentiates between the voice projection between the novice singer and the accomplished one is not only the strength, stamina and stability of the three voicing platforms, but also the ability of the singer to learn to use one voicing platform to cover or supplement another voicing platform. Remembering that not everyone is blessed with three equally strong voicing platforms, such flexibility is needed to cover up weaknesses in the weaker platforms.
Also, the more experienced the singer is, the better and smoother the transition between one voicing platform to another is. For example, in the song 眼底星空 by 李圣杰 (song number 46 on the blog's main playlist), the transitions from normal voice to falsetto and back to normal voice requires Sam's excellent control of his voicing platforms as he overlaps his platforms (which I will not try to explain at the moment) whilst singing to transit smoothly through those changes.
This is also the reason why sometimes the singing competitions' judges commented about the depth of the singing voice, because some of the contestants are still not able to tap into the strengths and usefulness of the three voicing platforms. Jia you to all the CSS 2 contestants tonight and also to all the singing enthusiasts reading this right now.
Okay, that's all for now. I hope this answers the question from that tagger. I have to go to work now. Have fun reading and remember to only practise under full face-to-face proper guidance or risk injury to the platforms or the voicebox.
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