Big5 Fundamental Coordinations of Singing - The Universal Magic Keys to the Singing Kingdom
===
00:27 Exploring the Big Five Fundamental Coordinations
01:57 The Importance of Developing Isolation in Singing Coordinations
04:28 Announcing the Big Five Virtual Voice Summit
05:23 Voice Activation: Beyond Warm-Ups
07:09 Deep Dive into Airflow and Air Pressure
08:03 Mastering SOVT Exercises for Vocal Improvement
15:10 Understanding Nasal Consonants and Air Pressure Balance
19:12 Addressing Nasality in Singing
23:19 Tackling Vocal Tension and Range Improvement
28:00 Preview of the Big Five Voice Intensive and Virtual Summit
30:21 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Philippe Hall: Welcome to the Voice Vibe Podcast. My name is Philippe Hall. I'm your host.
Exploring the Big Five Fundamental Coordinations of Singing
---
Philippe Hall: And today we're going to talk about the five, five fundamental coordinations of singing. So, what are the big five fundamental coordinations of singing? Well, let's have a look. They are air flow and air pressure, vocal folds, your pharynx, your tongue, and your embouchure.
Now the magic thing about the Big Five is they are like the fingers on your hand, all right? You see, you can't take them off the hand. They're always connected. However, they can move independently quite a bit, and they can do lots of different shapes. Right? A lot of hand signs. So, that's your hand. Those are your fingers.
What happens in your singing if when you move your thumb, your pinky, all the hands spread at the same time? Or you only want to move the pinky, which is really hard. Just try moving your pinky. Well, what's going to happen is, if you can't move your pinky and the other three fingers go with it, oh, or your thumb sticks out, or another finger, can you do the, can Live long and prosper Vulcan sign, you know, if you can't have control of the individual fingers, you don't really have control of your hand.
Now, all of these work well together. So if you're not getting a visual image of this, because you're listening to the podcast, just imagine now you have your fingers closed. on both hands and your thumb. So you have no more opposable thumb. Now try and pick up any kind of glass. You can do it, right? Now try and pick it up with one hand.
with a flat hand. Impossible. And this is how the big five coordinations of singing work. See, if you don't develop isolation between each of them, they can't cooperate together as well in order to help you sing what you want to sing. Okay?
The Importance of Individual Coordination in Singing
---
Philippe Hall: So this is the key. If you want a belt, If you want to mix, if you want to sing rock, if you want to sing opera, you have to combine these in different degrees.
That means the big five coordinations of singing are universal. They're universal. They work the same for every style. of singing. So if we're going to sing, I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky. That's a different combination of the, of the big fives.
And we have a different combination, but they're all the same. So what happens? We go,
we're singing rock. It's a different combination of the big five. Are you getting my point? So when Billie Eilish sings her songs and it's very low and kind of breathy, she's combining the big five in a different way. Okay. Bruno Mars is combining the big five in a different way. Find every singer you love to listen to.
They are using the big five. So if you want to gain control over your singing, you have to develop coordination of each of the big five. So you, it's like your hand. Imagine, do you, do you even think for a second that your hand coordination, finger coordination is as good as someone that speaks sign language all their life?
No, they don't even think about it. There's so many signs going on. You can't even think about it. Follow if you're learning in the beginning, right? So this is a skill they are all skills and you need to develop them. See i've thought a lot about this Because i've done belt workshops make voice mix voice workshops and there are formulas you see I can teach you how to combine them the right way.
I can teach you I can tell you how to play the piano But until you develop finger dexterity, you won't be able to do it. So the most beneficial thing I can do for singers is talk to you about the big five.
Announcing the Big Five Virtual Voice Summit
---
Philippe Hall: And I'm have this, this is now we're going to have some promotion. So hang on a second, because we've got the big five.
Event coming up. All right. This is a virtual, a virtual voice summit and it's coming up this Saturday, May 25th. That's why I'm plugging this right now. We have six, seven, including myself, different presenters, and we're going to talk to you all about the big five and how, how they can help you with your singing.
So, You can register today. Just go to the link. If you don't find the link in this video, it should be there. But if it's not, there's going to, it's going to be all over in the other videos. And just follow me on, on Instagram. And, uh, you will also have that. So you find the link, find the link on my website, big5virtualvoicesummit.
com. Click sign up. You'll get sent the link to join and just enjoy it. Okay.
Voice Activation: Beyond Warm-Ups
---
Philippe Hall: All right, great So let's let's get into another piece of extremely valuable Information. All right, if you're following me, you know, I just dropped this absolute gem of a video to activate your voice. This is a full length instructional video on how to warm up your voice.
See, I don't use the words warm up. I use the words voice activation. And this video is amazing because. I teach it took almost three months to finish this video. It's very detailed You're going to learn every muscle you have to activate i'm even going to show you what they look like and their names And then i'm giving you specific exercises in this instructional video that will give you a daily complete voice warm up Routine.
All right, and then I cut all the exercises together so you can just hop on this channel and click that video and warm up your voice All right, so that is Gold, please. Please watch it. And before you use the exercises only Video, make sure you've watched the instructional video. All right, so let's talk about what's coming up We're going to talk about um on saturday at the big voice Virtual summit we're going to talk about Mixed voice, how to fix your mix.
We're going to talk about lengthening your vocal folds. We're going to talk about how to support your voice, getting control of your air flow. I'm going to talk about how not to run out of air when you're singing. And we're also going to talk about transitions. It's, it's going to be amazing. So please, please attend.
Deep Dive into Airflow and Air Pressure
---
Philippe Hall: I want to talk to you today about About each of the big five. Okay. So when we get to the big five, we have the airflow and, and air pressure. Now, you might use different words for this, but air flow is the, the speed and the gentle speed or, under pressure, speed of air that's moving through your vocal folds and helping them to stay in motion.
Alright? So, air must move through the vocal folds for there to be sound. You know this. Now, if you don't have very much air moving through the vocal folds, you can hear the quality of my voice is changing, so I'm, I've got a lot of restriction in my throat and I'm not letting the air out. Ah, this is one of the best, best effects of doing SOVT exercises properly.
So here's a big, big tip for your SOVT exercises. Big tip incoming, okay? What are you thinking about? There are different elements, but what's the main element you should be thinking of when you do an SOBT exercise? Just think about it for a minute. What is possibly, possibly, for me, the most important reason to do an SOBT?
It's to balance your air flow and your air pressure. So, what are you thinking about? An SOVT is a semi occluded vocal tract exercise, semi occluded, partially blocked, you're blocking off the exit of the air and the sound. And guess what? That always creates a noise, a sound. So if you use an SOVT lip trill, that's the sound.
And did you know you can train your airflow control and stamina without making any noise? a vocal sound just using SOVT. How
long can you do it? Now you see I'm demonstrating to you, some people get a lot of facial tension when they do an SOVT. Their lips are tight, their face is tight. Well, if you put your fingers just on either side of your mouth and just gently push up a little bit, gently, then it works quite easily in a very relaxed way.
So you're not having to concentrate. Or use any extra muscles. You can use both fingers, and you can also even push your lips together. You just find the sweet spot with your fingers where your face is totally relaxed. And you're getting that sound. Okay, that's the sound of the occlusion, the semi occlusion.
Why is this sound so important? Why? Why is it so important? This sound is your airflow monitor. It is telling you constantly if your airflow is even. If while you're doing SOVT,
it sounds like a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Very cool. You know, Harley, not what you want in an SOVT. Now, what if you choose another SOVT like a fricative void consonant? An F. Guess what? Your airflow speed monitor is your F. The sound of the air helps you monitor the speed, also helps you monitor the intensity.
If you overpower it, guess what? Now we're back to Air, pressure, air flow and air pressure, okay? So the pressure that you exert controls also the air flow. So if you add pressure to a slow release of air, you are going to intensify or decrease the pressure inside the system. You alter the flow of the air.
So we want to be subtle when we do that. Great. So monitor the sound of the semi occlusion, which could be a, uh, uh, f s puffy cheek sound. And even if you're using a straw, you'd breathe through the straw, you blow air through it. It's giving you a steady stream of air. Why is a steady stream of air so important?
And why does it help you train your breath control, your stamina? Why can it help you sing longer notes? Because you have to control the release, you have to maintain it very smoothly. So, you're learning to release air at a, in a controlled manner at different levels. You're learning to release a lot.
You're learning to release a little and if you're working on your breath control so you don't run out of air Then you are going to practice these without the voice even how long? Can you sustain?
How long can you sustain a? six
That can just be a simple practice. Do two, three of those a day. You'll be amazed how much longer you learn to sustain them. And over a couple weeks time, you'll find you have more air when you're singing longer notes. So it's, they're wonderful exercises, even when you're not using your voice. Let that sink in.
You can use an S O V T E exercise to train your breath control without even using your voice. Okay, now let's say, well, I kind of want to sing something, right? I want to sing something, so. If I want to sing something, I need to activate my vocal folds. Now, vocal folds absolutely love a steady stream of air.
Why? Think about it. Think about it. What makes the voice move? Air. If your airflow is fluctuating,
do you think it's harder or easier for the vocal folds to stay in motion? Much more difficult. You see, the voice loves consistency. The fewer changes, the better. So you can make those changes gradual. So when we develop airflow control and being able to sustain a nice release of our airflow. Then, we give our voice absolute consistency of flow.
And when the voice adducts and comes together, it resists the air flow through its oscillation. Open close, open close, open close. And it only needs as much air pressure as it needs to stay in motion. Okay? And that creates the internal air pressure. We have air pressure balance. We've got to Think of that.
This is another reason that SOVTs work really well as an exercise because if you put too much pressure It's going to push back. You'll lose the sound.
Mastering Nasal Consonants for Vocal Balance
---
Philippe Hall: Okay, another great exercise to train your internal air pressure balance is to use It's a nasal consonant, like a mm, an M, mm, or an N, mm, Y. Hmm, let's think about it.
Why could that help me control my internal air pressure? balance. It's a completely occluded vocal tract exercise. All right, you're blocking off the escape of air. Now the air and sound have to go out through your nose, which is a lot smaller space. So all that sound and air is hitting the lips or the tongue and it And you're building internal pressure.
We want this. We want this. It's called supraglottal pressure. And when the supraglottal pressure and the subglottal pressure come into balance, then our voice is like pushed in between two magnets. In between those two magnets, there may be forces going on. But the idea of this example is, right there, there's less turbulence.
There's less turbulence. There's less, less pressure fluctuations that can disrupt the vocal fold movement. Okay. So if you're using
an N and you do some sirens, I'm making that look easy. People try it. Not that easy. So you're going to have to balance the smoothness of your flow and the internal air pressure and not exceed it. If you are under, it will sound like this. The voice is just going to start flipping back and forth real quickly.
If you're over pressuring, You're gonna feel tight and strain pressure and your voice is also gonna crack. So when you get the balance,
Now you're in balance and you could do the same thing. on a note.
You just found balance using a nasal consonant. Same thing on the M, same thing on the NG. They help you find the air pressure balance. They're not that easy to do when you get into your passaggio and above. Because you have to balance the pressure. You can't push too hard, and you can't have not enough.
If you're under or over, it doesn't work. So they're kind of magical. And there's different benefits as well. You're learning to release tension in your tongue, your jaw, your lips. And also activating nasal resonance and pharyngeal resonance. There's a lot of advantages to this. So, to work on your airflow, SOVTs are really great.
To work on your air pressure balance, start with a nasal consonant. Start in your normal speaking range. Then work it up with a glide, a siren, and back down. Work it up a little bit higher. It will help you build your range and balance your pressure.
Addressing Common Singing Questions
---
Philippe Hall: So, I've got a couple comments. So, yes, thank you. Thanks for that.
We've got, um, literally gold, gold advice. Appreciate that. Uh, should air be coming out your nose while singing? Great! Excellent, excellent question. Out your nose while singing. If this question is referring to when you're using a nasal consonant, the answer would be yes. Because you're blocking off your mouth with that um, n, uh, ng, um lips.
Then all of your air and sound is coming out. Now, if you are singing, it depends on the sound. Maybe if your nasal port is Is open a little bit in the back and you're singing in a language like french or any other language that uses nasal consonants You're probably gonna have that nasal port open slightly if I sing
Then we're gonna have a little bit of opening of the nasal port So there will be a little bit of air coming out if you're not Singing you're not trying to sing a nasal consonant and you don't want them as much nasal quality The best tip is, plug the nose. And let's, let's just do an experiment on that.
It might be hard for, for you to hear, but let's experiment with it. I'm gonna try and open my nasal port even more. Let me just think for a second.
Okay, I'm uh, there's a part pour it open
Demonstrating on the spot live. Okay, that was nasal port open. Uh, uh, uh. Kind of has that sound. I'm alive.
That's the sound it will be if the nasal port is open. Now let's plug the nose and listen to the sound difference. I'm alive. I'm alive. You can hear there's a clear sound quality difference. So for the majority of your singing, responding to this question right here, you don't want air and sound coming out your nose.
You want the nasal port closed, which is backward, the soft palate, part of the soft palate and the soft palate, the velum, the uvula, they're going to lift up and they're going to close the nasal port, and then your sound's going to come right off your hard palate. Again, I, that's a whole nother topic, but if you want some nasal quality in there and a lot of singers use it, then you're going to have a slightly open nasal port.
So what would the difference be if I do? La volente. Sometimes it's really nice. La volente. La volente. So sometimes it's nice. to have a little bit of the nasal port opening in a head voice.
But you've got to be careful because it's going to color your sound. Okay. Sometimes it's nice. You raise the soft palate a little bit. You sigh. It can soften the sound up a lot, but if it's wide open, you're going to have a
You're going to be completely nasal. So to get rid of nasality, tone it down. Make sure the nasal port is closed. Plug your nose. Two fingers. Pinch. Whatever you want to do. That will help you get rid of that. Again, for the majority of your singing, we don't want the nasal port open. Most singers, you're not using it.
It can be used as an effect. Alright. Cool. Cut. Great. Keep the questions coming. Thanks. Can even a bit of tension on the throat be all right when you are trying to improve your vocal range? Aha! Great!
Introducing the Big Five Voice Intensive and Summit Speakers
---
Philippe Hall: Well, let's jump back here. Okay, let's see if I can pop this back. Onto the big five overview. So what are you talking about with your throat?
Hmm. That's why we're going to do big five intensive training this year. First one that's coming up is the, in this, um, is coming up in June and it is going to be all about airflow, air pressure, and the vocal folds. So if you have, if you have too much tension, then you're not going to be on an efficient path.
But some singers. We'll describe this with a different word. Are you going to experience activity? Are you going to experience internal pressure? Yeah, you are. You're gonna feel like you're working sometimes? You're working? Yeah, you are. Now, if I'm not talking, if I don't feel anything in my voice, my this is completely comfortable.
I'm talking, right? You're talking every day. It's completely comfortable. Now, if I want to say, oh, I am doing too much. I've got to relax when I say, when I'm speaking.
And it's actually going to be much. Much worse for the voice. So completely getting rid of tension. Is not helpful. And if you will go to this, how to activate your voice full length video. I'm gonna talk a little bit in there about what I call active dynamic movement. Okay? Don't, don't forget to register for the Big Five Virtual Voice Summit.
All right? Active Dynamic Movement. is tension in motion. We have, we use tension in singing. We use tension in speaking. Tension, muscle tension is not a bad thing. You can't move without muscle tension. Your voice can't move without muscle tension. So, make a clear difference in your mind between Static muscle contraction, locking, holding, that is debilitating tension for singing.
Remember this? One of my favorite catchphrases. When motion stops, Singing stops. Okay, if the vocal folds stop moving, sounds done. If your body muscles tighten up, sounds done. If your throat sound is done. Yeah.
The air stopped, the voice stopped. If motion stops, singing stops. So your muscles must tense. That's the only way they move. They contract. There's just different kinds and I have an entire course Dedicated to this it's called dynamic movement Potential dynamic movement potential. So I'm going to speak a little bit about it in that full length or active voice activation video But it basically means tension in motion muscles working and moving it's very very You efficient.
And in fact, all modern athletes use active, dynamic stretching, dynamic exercises, because why they get better performance. So you've got to use dynamic motion in your singing. Now, if you want to know what that is, you know, just keep following me and stay tuned and check out my course because it is so valuable.
So is it okay to have a bit of tension in your throat? You yes, yes, yes, yes. You should have tension all the time. Notice I'm changing the definition of this. Tension is when I say tension. I don't mean tight and hold. I mean, stretch, stretch and release like this. Okay. It's like these exercise bands. Is there tension in this band?
Yes. Is it flexible? Yes. If I hold it out, and I'm just trying to hold there, now there's no movement, so there's no motion, and that is tight. We don't want motion and tension in singing to lock up and become tight. It's got to be stretchy, just like this, the whole time. All right. Great question. Um, so yeah, guys, I love questions because it helps me clarify.
Cool. Let me jump back here to our teachers coming up here this weekend at the virtual voice summit. I'm going to learn from myself, Philippe Hall, and we have, I'm like going to creep around here. This, this amazing lady right here, her name is Lisa Popiel. She speaks all over the world. About the voice.
She's a researcher. She's a vocal coach. She was a professional singer. She's so much fun. This is one of my favorite guys right over here. Matt Edwards is like my brother from another mother. When we talk about the voice. Oh, it's just so great because everything's aligned. He's brilliant. And you got on the bottom.
Oh, I can't, you're not going to see my fingers right below me as we are a good man. Um, I love this guy. He's, he's brilliant. He's a young singer, very passionate about the voice. Um, he is, has some great training and he's doing amazing work. And then we've got Laura Chapman, who is, you've probably seen her, Box Tape Studios on social media.
She is very, very innovative on how to put vocal exercises and training things into just the melody melodies of different songs. So she's like, she's training you without you thinking she's training you. So she's very fun. And then we've got, uh, Kaya, Kaya Hirstadkarni, who is, I've been working with Kaya for several years.
She's lovely. She's from Norway. She's living in England. She's a singer songwriter, been producing events. She is, um, headed up vocal, vocology and practice, head of education for a couple of years. Really just lovely, extremely knowledgeable. She's got this whole bag of tricks. So she's gonna, she's gonna work with you on helping you figure out what compression is.
Vocal fold compression. What is that? Oh, people are so confused about it. And then we've got Rush Dorsett. You probably saw on this Voice Vibe livestream podcast a couple weeks ago. Rush is absolutely lovely. She's gonna help us access our voice through the mind. Through the body, connecting the mind and the body to free up the voice.
All right. So we've got this wonderful, wonderful, um, summit coming up on Saturday. And that summit is just the preceding event for our, for our big five voice intensive coming up this summer. All right.
Final Thoughts and Encouragement
---
Philippe Hall: So in the meantime, until the virtual summit on Saturday, I know there's a lot of plugs on this, on this podcast, but listen up, you've got to check out how to activate your voice.
Check out my how to activate your voice video. I'm like a weatherman. I have to move and I think it's gonna be this one No, check out my how to activate your voice the full length instructional video. You guys gonna love it There's nothing like it on Utah YouTube. I swear there's nothing like it so I want to create content for you that is usable and please Please never give up on your singing dream You can get the voice and the, you have the voice.
Let me rephrase that. You have the voice. You can learn to free up your voice. The big five coordinations of singing are literally your key to singing success. Because, They're used, this is just basically the design of your instrument. You have to be able to coordinate them, like you coordinate the fingers on your hand.
If you move your, your index finger and the next finger always moves with, that would be like, that would be like singing high, getting louder and always using twang. Or, that would be like, always every time you smile, you put on more air pressure. It's just, if the coordinations are linked in a negative way, they are debilitating.
They'll keep you locked out of your singing heaven. Locked out in heaven! So, we've got to use the dexterity of our voice in developing the individual coordination of the Big Five. Then you can combine them more effectively to do amazing things! Amazing things. So please, it's the most valuable thing I can give to you, is helping you develop your Big 5 coordinations.
I will give you the recipe for mix, I will give you the recipe for belts. Classical singing, country, all these things, distortions even, everything combines the Big Five. I think I've driven that home enough. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I will see you next time on The Voice Vibe. Thanks for tuning in everybody.
Bye bye.
