VOCALS
VOCAL COACH SHERI GOULD | Doug Doppler
Staying up late at night and talking past vocal
fatigue, or speaking over the table in a loud
restaurant. It might seem innocent enough, but
it can cause real damage (abuse) especially if
it’s done regularly or over a long period of time.
Abuse is generally something we do repeatedly
to the extent that damage is being done.
It might be clearing your throat, excessive
coughing, bad or otherwise harmful vocal
technique, yelling or screaming, speaking at
elevated levels for long periods of time (like
teachers), cheering at a sporting (or concert)
event, etc.
[WM] One of the other things we talked
about is the prevalence of bad and potentially
harmful vocal technique in pop music. Can you
describe some of the most common things you
see people doing that can cause temporary as
well as long term damage to their voices?
[Sheri] The biggest problem is a lack of
proper breath support. This causes people to
strain from the neck/throat. High larynx singing
is another culprit that seems to go hand in
Sheri Gould
In addition to being one of our most popular [Sheri Gould] There are three things to keep
columnists, Sheri Gould has been a presenter in mind regarding doing damage: overuse,
at countless events including [WM]’s Christian misuse and abuse. Overuse is easy enough to
Musician Summit conferences. To kick off understand but not so easy to remedy given
the year we wanted to do something a little most people’s lifestyle. It simply means using
different to serve the vocalists out there, and the voice too much without giving it proper
we’re so glad we did. The following interview is time to recover. There are brilliant singers out
chock full of great tips and advice to help you there who have fallen prey to this (think Julie
and your worship team get #BetterBySunday Andrews). It’s not that they don’t know how
- and beyond! to sing properly, they are just singing (and
otherwise using their voice) too much.
[WM] Sheri, you’re a ‘vocal presenter’ at
scores of conferences and events each Misuse usually covers things we might do
year, and when we spoke the other day you with our voices that cause temporary strain or
mentioned that more than anything, people are damage like doing silly things with our voices
interested in and concerned about vocal health. (for example making odd noises). Or using
What are some things that vocalists do that can improper vocal technique when speaking or
harm their voices when they’re not singing? singing, even laughing for long periods of time!
36
January 2019
hand with much of contemporary singing. This
causes lots of stress and strain to vocal cords.
And lastly, I think the one technique that is
hurting our singers more than any other, is the
technique of singing with air in the tone. A tone
with air in it can be a way to easily manufacture
emotion, and it’s such an easy technique that
literally anyone can do it. So it’s become a
widely popular way to inject passion into your
singing. But this technique is very dangerous
and harmful to the vocal cords causing great
strain and quickly turning the cords red with
injury. Over time nodules and other forms of
damage can occur. It’s akin to whispering and
whispering is quite hard on the vocal cords. So
singing with air in your tone is like whispering…
on steroids. It’s lesser evil cousin is “vocal fry”
which I’ll be writing an article about in next
month’s issue.
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