2. (Continued) Transferring our character techniques to more ballad songs.
Mix Voice:
There are 2 bridges in everyone's vocal range - between belt and mix and between mix and head (or falsetto). These bridges are places our body shows us that we can't continue going higher with our voice while applying the same amount of pressure on our vocal chords or we will hurt ourselves. Audibly, it usually results in our voices cracking.
When extending a student's range - I work on building these bridges up so that the transitions between them sound a lot smoother. We do this by correcting their placement, taking the higher notes a little bit lighter than they want, and slowly building power on to the notes with a relaxed voice. We also work on the notes lower than the actual point we are wanting to hit and make sure that we can sing them applying lighter pressure to the chords (building control) so that the transition goes even smoother.
We are working hard on building Tatum's mix voice (her middle register), so that her high notes become something she doesn't have to think about. We have been doing this in our exercises for the last while. Today, we started moving her mix voice into her song even more.
With us freeing up the pressure that Tatum usually feels like she needs to put on her chords, we take one more thing that she has to worry about off her plate - to let her focus on placement and technique.
She did so awesome!! LISTEN TO THOSE HIGH NOTES!!!!!!!!!! wow.
Transferring techniques:
We're also working a lot on transferring the techniques that Tatum has worked so hard on - that really make sense to her - to a wider variety of songs. We're using each thing that comes easy to her and building on each one of them every week - in the process, building a way for Tatum to sing any song she wants effortlessly! (and having fun the whole time instead of consumed with worrying about different parts of the song)