How to Support Right, Don't Sing Tight with Lisa Popeil
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00:27 Introduction to Lisa and the Upcoming Presentation
01:35 Engaging with the Audience and Setting Expectations
03:07 Lisa's Global Teaching Experiences and Vocal Techniques
05:10 Deep Dive into Vocal Support Techniques
08:50 Exploring the Anatomy of Singing
16:42 Separating Breathing from Support in Singing
19:02 Posture's Role in Effective Singing
23:06 Demystifying the Epigastrium and Vocal Support
26:36 Unlocking Vocal Magic: The Upper Belly Technique
30:07 Exploring the Lower Belly: Techniques and Exercises
32:37 The Four Main Jobs of Vocal Support
35:46 Rib Stability and Controlled Exhalation
42:56 Addressing Vocal Challenges: From Weak Voices to Vibrato
47:48 The Power of Posture and Support in Vocal Performance
48:19 Introducing the Big Five Coordinations of Singing
Introduction
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Philippe Hall: Hello everybody, Lisa and I have been chatting on here, um, trying to get, uh, guide her to get her screen share working with the Ecamm software here, um, but we haven't been able to get it to work, um, on, on both of our ends, so we decided that as disappointing as that may be, you've been waiting, and we want to come here and talk with you.
And we're very excited. Uh, I'm very excited to have Lisa here today. She is so excited to share a presentation with you, but guess what? You're just going to have to wait a little bit until the, the actual training event starts. And then we definitely Have that working. So we're not going to have any visuals, not all the visuals, uh, Lisa wanted to share with you today, but I think that, uh, I can do without the visuals because I love your brain and everything done for seeing, thank you so much for joining today, how are you doing?
Lisa's Health Update and Audience Interaction
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Lisa Popeil: Well, pretty well, but I am at the end of a horrible cold. So if for some reason I, you know, go into a coughing attack or my face goes off screen. It's because I'm having a very brief and disgusting coughing attack and I'll be right back with you. But I feel good. I just sound pretty bad. So just a heads up and a warning that that could happen at any time.
But at least I'm conscious and the The fever is gone and I'm, I'm very happy to share this, this, this as all of my work with, with people. Oh, people are writing in. How cool is that? Hi, Leslie. And I just have a quick question to, uh, Philippe. Well, we're gonna save a little time at the end, right? And so if people have questions, I or you know about the are they doing it, right?
Can I I'm hoping we have time at the end for um,
Philippe Hall: yeah, we have we have definitely the whole time anybody listening tuning in Thank you. And thank you for waiting. Sorry about the late start, but we're so happy you're here And if you have any questions, just put them put them in the comments. We can see them and see I got here Reina was like, nothing's coming.
Where's Lisa? And then Leslie said they're probably on a break and And Gail, I'm so happy to see Gail. Did you know that Gail was one of my first teachers at the university?
Lisa Popeil: So
Philippe Hall: nice to see her.
Lisa Popeil: Older. Are these older chats? Uh, no, these
Philippe Hall: are, these are like, um, a few minutes ago. Yeah.
Lisa Popeil: Okay. A few minutes ago before we started.
Okay. So we're here. We're doing here.
Philippe Hall: Cecily's there. A lot of great people here. Thanks for joining guys. So we do have ability to interact with all your questions on the screen. I'll blend them in.
Upcoming Training and Lisa's Global Travels
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Philippe Hall: Um, we're not going to be able to pop someone in the meeting and actually work with them, but that is exactly what we are going to be doing in the intensive training program.
That's coming up in just a few weeks. We will be definitely. Interacting with the singers, uh, a lot more. So I know you just had, you know, when I talked to Lisa, she was basically traveling around the world. Like I was at the height of my career and I'm like, Oh my gosh, how do you still have the energy, Lisa?
You were like everywhere. It
Lisa Popeil: was passion, you know, I mean, passion. You don't pick passion, it picks you. And all of the, the participants who are joining us today know what that feels like. That you sing sick, you act sick, you dance sick, you function sick. If it's, if it's something you really want to do, it's amazing how you can find the energy and with the, and enough skill behind you, and experience helps too, you can really surprise yourself, you know, and then you can, you know, Go to bed and stay in bed for a week after, but it's, it's, I mean, I've sung with every kind of illness you can imagine and, and, and pull it off, you know, so it's, it's, it takes your mind off of it too.
So I not only just presented in Paris, Istanbul and Athens, but next year I got invited to locations far, far afield, um, Kazakhstan and, uh, Bulgaria, a couple of cities in Romania and Azerbaijan. So I'm, I'm really happy to be able to talk in English to a new group of people who are interested in the latest and greatest and what works, you know, just vocal technique mostly is what they are because we're going to talk about that in the intensive is what's going on in the world and how do they think about what we know and what we don't know?
Our research. So we're going to talk more about that maybe in the podcast, that we are maybe not the intensive. I think we might do that in our future podcast. And there's a lot going on in the world that we as mostly Americans joining today, don't, don't, um, think about that is relevant to us as world, um, world citizens.
So again, I have this beautiful, um, presentation for you today. So I'm.
Introduction to Vocal Support Techniques
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Lisa Popeil: I want to talk about support. Should I just kick in? Shall I just start going? Yeah,
Philippe Hall: we're going to kick in. We'll just bounce some things back and forth. And I just think it, I just want to comment. I think it's amazing. You told me, you know, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and all these different vocalization methods people are using around the world and they, they do it.
And they've been doing it for a long time. But they
Lisa Popeil: sometimes have vocal problems because they don't have necessarily a vocal technique or a vocal rest protocol that can help them do, like in Azerbaijan, Mugham is fascinating and it's, it's a form of, it's belting basically, but they sing for so long at such high volumes that They, they do have vocal problems, so they can all benefit from, um, you know, just a tweaking of their vocal technique in terms of like what I want to talk about today, which is about a very methodical method to support.
So you don't just do it by putting your body underneath your sound or whatever that means to a person or just sitting up straight. That might not be enough. So I'm really looking forward to presenting at the Oxford Bicycle Music Academy for Mugam singers who sing high chest voice, Long periods of time with amazing skill.
Guys, if you haven't heard Mugham, check it out online. It's M U G H A M. Um, it'll give you a lot of, um, inspiration about what is humanly possible in terms of high chest voice. Amazing. It's beautiful. It's very moving. And very difficult on the vocal.
Philippe Hall: I'm going to check that out. I might have to tag along with you cause I've always wanted to go there.
Um, the earlier today I talked about, uh, passive, what I'm just calling passive support, you know, how we even get air in and create the subglottal pressure and I told everybody you're going to be talking about the, the active support side. I'm sure there's some crossover. But yeah, go for it. I'm excited.
We're all excited and looking forward to it.
Lisa Popeil: Oh, thank you. So, um, our catchy little, uh, title is support, right? Not tight. And let me pull up. Oh, let me, let me just pull up here. My presentation. I'll just read off of that. So I don't know if you guys know, but I've been studying the voice for a shocking 60 years and have been teaching for 40 years.
You know, age of the dinosaur stuff, we, Philippe and I joke about. So I've been experimenting. There she is. She's my hostess. Ah, see, I've been selling you already, girl.
Yeah. Oh, she's, she's so lovely. Um, Yeah, pushing the push, pushing the Mugam. Okay.
Detailed Explanation of Vocal Support
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Lisa Popeil: So we've all heard about support and I actually have come to the conclusion that it is active support, knowing exactly what to do and doing it for all your notes, not just loud notes and not just high notes and in any style from opera to musical theater, pop rock, jazz, R and B country, uh, is maybe the most important functional thing.
Any singer does. Uh, I mean, I, it's a little bit boring because it's foundational. Everyone wants to do the decoration part and the emotional part, but if your voice doesn't work for you, if it's inconsistent, if you feel like there are things you should be able to do, but can't do the vocal cords may not be able to do them by themselves that you, they, and I want to talk about that.
So what is support? What is this thing that we've all heard about? But it's never quite explained in a really, to me, satisfying way. Support is short for abdominal breath support. And it's the action of the thoracic and abdominal muscles which pressurize outgoing air to vibrate the vocal folds. And a lot of singers don't realize that the vocal folds do not vibrate themselves.
They can thicken and thin with the other laryngeal muscles. And They can close and open, but they do not vibrate themselves. And a lot of teachers teach that you've got to put more air through, but it's actually not the air itself that makes them vibrate. It's the pressure or the force of the air that makes them vibrate.
So it's like, how do we make How, what do we do specifically with our chest, our ribs, our upper abdomen, our lower abdomen, maybe our waist, that will pressurize this outgoing air so that the vocal folds vibrate easily with, uh, without having to warm up or guess or just feel lucky that day. You know, I used to feel lucky until I Experimented with millions of different support methods taught about in the world and have come up with one that I think is is just so reliable.
And I'm not saying the other methods don't work. Um, I'm just saying that this one is road tested and works for me and works for, um, every singer I work with in any style. And then I had a slide, um, about the diaphragm because there's still a lot of misinformation. With singers, uh, even in teachers sometimes about the location and function of the diaphragm.
And the problem with the diaphragm is that you can't feel it, see it, touch it. So it, but it's always working. Otherwise we wouldn't be alive. So the diaphragm is much higher in the body than a lot of singers think. You know, I've been over the decades, been taught that. Sing from your diaphragm, sing from your diaphragm, sing from your diaphragm.
I mean every, almost every body part, even some intimate parts, um, I was told to sing from. Which also didn't tell me what I was necessarily supposed to do with that area. I was just supposed to sing from my core or, or, or. Sing from your gut or push this out, but not, I didn't know how much cause you could overdo it too.
So the diaphragm sits, it's a thin dome shaped muscle and it sits below the lungs and it's job is to move up and down. Oh, thank you, Philippe. It's, but where it is, is, is really remarkably higher. And so when you're touching your, your, your abdomen, that's not your diaphragm. But it is a way to control, that was sweet, but it's a way to control your diaphragm, but it's not actually the diaphragm.
So, um, it's, uh, it's really thin and when it pushes down, um, it pulls, the lungs, by the way, are not muscle, they're just these sacks, and so they don't open them to enclose themselves. So when the ribs open, on the side and the diaphragm lowers, then that pulls the lungs open. And then when the diaphragm moves up and the ribs collapse, that makes the air go out of the lungs.
Knowing that doesn't help us sing better. It's unfortunately. So then I said that the most, okay, I'm going to, there's no agreement on how to teach support. I kind of already implied that the problem is that if the, if the posture and the support aren't useful, beneficial, or the cords aren't working well, um, you'll get compensatory tension and that can be so many different things.
It could mean, it could mean that your head is pulling, twisting, lifting, jaw could be overly tight, tongue can do all kinds of weird tight things, tongue root, uh, neck muscles popping out, getting red in the face, weird ticks in the in the face. Um, when you go for a high note, like one eyebrow goes up more, um, there's just so many ways we can have compensatory tension.
But mostly the worst one is when it feels like you're being choked and feel like you're having trouble getting the sound out. These are, well these supraglottal, supra meaning above, glottis meaning the, at the level of your vocal folds, that supraglottal muscles are trying to help because the cords aren't happy.
They're not getting what they need. So our job is to provide the vocal folds, and they're so small, I mean remember they're only about as, they're, if they're, Let me see. I'm, I'm not mirroring very well, but anyway, there's really small. It's smaller than you, we realize, and they deserve a lot of love and respect because they do so much for us, but they require a steady stream of subglottal pressure.
Otherwise, the other guys above the vocal folds will try to help. The worst compensatory tension that we have to avoid, especially if you sing a lot, um, Is vocal fold pressing or squeezing is maybe a better term. And that is a way for people to try to make their cords work when they're not getting the subglottal pressure that's right for that note.
Now, again, I said, naturally we, we might support for high notes and. Loud notes or chest voice, M1 high notes, but we need to support all of our notes, low notes, soft notes, head voice notes, all of our notes. Otherwise, um, there'd be some weakness or inconsistency or, uh,
Philippe Hall: compensatory tension. All right.
Compensatory tension, that term. It just resonates with me so well is that you can, it can, that's, we had a discussion earlier about, do we want to avoid all tension in singing? And. I said, no, I said, no, because if you have no tension, nothing's going on.
Lisa Popeil: Right. And that led me to my next slide, which is thank you for the lead in.
My next slide is relaxation is not the key to great singing. Um, so certain things have a job and other things should be relaxed, but. Relaxation. See, when I had compensatory tension, uh, my teachers would sometimes take me. On a lengthy, you know, six months of tongue relaxation exercises, which was boring and a waste in a way, because the problem was that my cords.
We're getting what they needed because my teacher bless her heart was not really able to show me exactly how to support. So that's why my tongue was tight. So doing lots and lots of relaxation exercise. I mean, there's a place for it, but to me, it's not a pedagogy. It's not a way you learn how to support.
Philippe Hall: Yeah.
Lisa Popeil: So I teach jobs, you know, this thing, do this with this body part, do this. And when you do it, it's kind of like learning to drive a car. You just put the key in and the car starts and you're singing instead of accidentally singing well, because you did bad. I'm just anti doing vocal exercises all the time as a way to sing better.
It has its place, but not as a substitution for knowing exactly what to do. So I'm very mechanistic because That's what worked for me is, is I just know, tell me what to do and I'll do it. And then when you do it, then you can start singing songs. And so another thing I wanted to mention while I'm, you know, have on my soapbox here is that I think it's important to separate two, two different terms.
I'll pull it over here. Two different terms. In singing pedagogy. And that's the use of the term breathing to include support. It's not good. I used to go from teacher to teacher, you know, so many years of lessons and they call it all breathing. They'd say, Oh, we have to start at the beginning. Let's get on the floor.
We have to work on your breathing. But my problem was not my breathing. It was my support. So I, I like to separate them in my mind that take breathing in singing means taking a breath in or air intake and how to do that quickly, quietly, invisibly. And so, but we're not going to talk about that today. So that's, that's breathing support to me is what are the actions I need to take to provide that support.
That outgoing pressure, as I've said, for the air that leaves the body when you are singing. So breathing for me as a singer is when I'm not singing and support is what I do when I am singing and not to conflate the two terms and call it all breathing.
They've spent their whole teaching careers calling it all breathing. So I don't expect them to change, but I hope you will. I hope you realize that students need to know, are we working on breathing? Are we working, you know, like taking, taking air in? So it's, you're not, you know, wheezing every, every phrase or taking it in.
So you're not, you're not chest heaving or whatever your goals are for breathing. Um, you know, how to breathe. Effectively for professional singing is very interesting. That's a whole workshop, a short one. It's not that hard and support is also going to be very easy. And I'm going to show you my, my, my, uh, method in a second.
So the foundations of. of functional voice. Everything else is decorative, but the cake.
Posture and Breathing in Singing
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Lisa Popeil: Um, okay, optimal inhale. Thank you. Um, I'm glad we're, you know, Philippe and I, we can't talk together enough. Really are like, just like we just could go. Um, it's so exciting. Um, so three foundations of functional voice or posture.
Don't do any of this stuff. Don't breathe without good posture. Don't support without good posture. Don't, don't sing without good posture unless they're paying you. to sing on your back or to sing slumped over because that's the character. But in terms of singing well with control, um, and, you know, do all kinds of things with your voice, postures is essential.
Again, boring, But essential. So posture support and breathing are the three foundations. So I teach posture from the feet up, but, um, the three takeaway keys I for good posture are have the back of the neck long, makes a big difference. It changes the spine. It changes the chest and gravity is always pushing down on us.
And we're always leaning over our laptops and our phones. So we have to fight gravity. like our lives depend on it. And so we're not just a greasy spot at the end. So we have the back of the neck long and the head on top of the body and the sternum should be high in the sternum. Can I jump
Philippe Hall: in there and interrupt you in your flow?
I just want, I have to do this because just two days ago, I had a client that he's, he says me, he's from another country. So I'm doing a really bad accent. I did this, I did this and I could sing so much better. Why?
Lisa Popeil: I know it's such a hack. It's such a simple hack that you can do this with, you know, a seven year old, uh, you know, you know, it just, it just works.
Cause it. It changes everything. Um, so I'm, I'm, I think having the back of the neck long, but soft is a great first step. Having the sternum high, making sure that the, that the, um, not just this, the top part, but that the whole, the whole sternum, the whole breastbone is lifted. So I use an imaginary hook. You take your fingers and you put a, like a hook under the bone.
We adjust my, my bosom there. And, and then you just, you just keep that up. But the, the third, the third thing that's important to remember is that you want to have your abdomen. That means your upper belly and your lower belly soft. Don't squeeze your belly just because you're lifting your chest. Cause they tend to haven't you found that Philippe, that there's that tendency when you lift the chest.
Now the bellies get tight thing, tight bellies, Tight neck. In fact, you can experiment with it at home right now where you tighten your bellies and you'll feel your throat grabbed. So we want a high chest but, but separate. Don't use your bellies to hoist your chest up. You can just do it yourself with soft, uh, soft belly.
So that's posture. Back of the neck long, Sternum high, soft, uh, soft, uh, abdomen and you guys have probably heard of the term epigastrium. I never used it, but it's a good, you know, epigastrum. Some people say, but epigastrium, it's an interesting area. It's this area. Um, it's this area, right, right, right in here, right in the center.
I spent an hour and a half with a, with a British anatomist once with his fabulous programming hands like what is that area, you know, and we, we didn't come up after an hour and a half in his hotel room at a conference. We never really came up to a conclusion. It's really simple. It's,
Philippe Hall: is that the area that's in front of the, the, the, not the, what is that nerve cluster down there?
It's like
Lisa Popeil: xiphoid process.
Philippe Hall: Uh, no, it's like there's the Vegas nerve goes down to behind this, this because I said to people saying the solar plexus doesn't even really exist. It's like behind this.
Lisa Popeil: Yeah. I don't really know what it, to me, it's guessing, you know, like what's a chakra, you know? So I've just never, figure that one out.
So I left it. But here's what what it's not. The epigastrium, this area, it's not an organ and it's not a muscle. It's rather a region of activity. And I think that's that really works for me. It's a region of activity. So when the diaphragm hang in there with me because I'm going to get a little technical people.
When the diaphragm descends, when it goes down, Which happens when you air comes in when you breathe in the diaphragm pushes this epigastrium area what I call the upper belly. So, by keeping the upper belly. Extended outward, firmed outward, it's a sign that your diaphragm is in a more lowered position. It, though, it is not technically the diaphragm.
It is the way to monitor. Diaphragmatic action and. Uh, and so keep it keeping the diaphragm lower longer than in nature will help is one of the main ingredients in producing outgoing air pressure. So we're going to come back to the upper belly in a second. I just wanted to introduce you to that term because you might,
Philippe Hall: I just
Lisa Popeil: checked, I checked myself.
Philippe Hall: Oh, sorry. Sorry. I interrupted you. I just checked myself just cause you know, solar plexus, a lot of people, what I meant to say was a lot of people are confusing that with a muscle. And it, the solar plexus itself is the nerve cluster back there. And you're talking about the diagastrum that's coming out.
And that's what people associate that area with. Because a lot of singing, uh, support, uh, A lot of teachers teaching support say you got to push out your solar plexus, which is right and wrong. We're trying to get a little clarity in exactly what you're saying. That area is coming out, but the solar plexus is actually a nerve cluster.
It doesn't move like a muscle.
Lisa Popeil: I'll write it down and check cause I never did. Actually, which is unlike me, uh, figure out what, what the solar plexus I didn't in my teachers didn't talk about solar plexus.
Philippe Hall: Um, it's quite prevalent today. Like so many people are like, put your hand right, right there in your.
And what you're talking there and push out and I find that can lead to that upper abdominal tension if it's really quickly if it's overdone
Lisa Popeil: and it's too much. So you don't just stick it out hard like a rock and you have to find the right amount to, uh, you know, the courts. I'm always feeling my vocal folds.
So they tell me. What is the right amount of pressure? Um, they, they determine the pressure rather than just some random sticking out the spot. Now, 30 years ago when I made my, my Total Singer video, I thought that the, that the, that this area, the upper, the upper belly, that the whole area was involved. But I, since we find it to what I call the magic spot.
And it's a spot for most people that's in the center area. It, mine built a little bit low. My spot is the, You have to find the spot that is, that goes out the most when you make a loud shh sound like this.
Most people's it's a little bit higher. Now, I've had a couple of people where it's like two dots that go out the most. And then I've had people with scoliosis where it was off to the side, their magic spot was off to the side. So, but again, I would always start here first and they make a loud shh sound.
just try to poke around and find the spot that naturally goes out.
Discovering Your Magic Spot
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Lisa Popeil: When we make a really loud shush sound. And in, in workshops that I do, a lot of people are self conscious and they go, no, you got to do it loudly. If you really want to discover your magic spot. And, uh, again, it's job is to gently firm out and stay out.
for the whole phrase, not go in at the end like it wants to. It's natural for, for things to collapse for the chest to collapse, the ribs to collapse the upper belly to go in. But so I'm really glad to hear though, that at least people are starting to, cause to me, it is the main, the upper belly magic spot firming outward means the main pressure controller for the vocal folds, but I haven't been hearing that in the, in the voice community. So maybe, maybe I'm helping maybe. Cause I've been talking about this for a long time now. Maybe I'm actually helping. I'm hoping I'm helping getting the word out that this is really important. If you want to solve a variety of vocal problems, let me check.
Okay. Just want to check the time here.
Philippe Hall: We're totally comfortable on time. We don't have any time restraints because you get to have the luxury of being the last speaker of the day.
Posture and Alignment
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Philippe Hall: So I wanted to point out that because the posture elements you talked about, That if that posture alignment is not there, that, that the solar plexus area, that magic spot, it, it, it can't, it gets, it like gets too tight.
Yeah.
Lisa Popeil: Now, if the upper belly is soft, it doesn't move. That's a problem. People tend to have quite weak voices. Um, if it goes in, they tend to get, um, it can't hold, there's, there's problems for each of them. The only thing is to just think of that upper belly magic spot going out as. like it feels like a trampoline there in the in the consistency.
Upper Belly Exercises
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Lisa Popeil: There's a little give to it, but it definitely goes out and in a lot of people, especially females, it's weak and it can be strengthened and should be strengthened by doing some simple What I call SHIP pattern exercises, which I can talk about another time that, um, that really helped to strengthen it. So it's, it shows up right away as a whole bunch of solutions to problems that you might think are caused by something else.
And we'll get to that. Now, I separate. I separate. To me, the abdomen is made of two, hello, two, um, parts, the upper belly separate from the lower belly.
Comparative Breath Support Strategies
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Lisa Popeil: And recently I've been doing, um, a lot of support, what I call comparative breath support strategies that have been taught around the world. And I'm always adding to that.
I saw one interesting, I was just on a cruise in the Mediterranean. I know, I know. I'm just, I can't believe my life. And I saw this really good singer performing and you know, not world class, but very good. And hers, she was Standing like this was kind of musical theater. She was standing slumped over, and then when she'd sing, she'd push down.
It looked very amateurish and distracting, but she sang great. So that was another example of how some people who are just very talented can do things that are technically wrong or less than ideal, and they still sound great. But as teachers, we want to teach the best we can. And so, and I just don't recommend slumping anyway, not a good look.
Lower Belly Techniques
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Lisa Popeil: So let me talk about the lower belly. And by this, I mean, precisely thumb on the belly button, hand below, not splayed out, but, but hand below. So it's really this whole area, kind of like a watermelon wedge. Like, there we go. And so, this, there's so many different methods taught. There's the do nothing method.
There's the out and down method, which is the worst, I think. Um, There's the in and up method. That's kind of accidentally makes them upper belly move out. So that's, I see that in the classical world's taught sometime. Um, there's the, uh, in and down method. There's my, my favorite as I'll go over in detail in a second is the straight in.
So it clutches straight in for making sound and relaxes for breathing. Support by going straight in. And it's the high note helper. It's less of a pressure controller. It's more of an airflow controller, and it's really good for easy high notes, whether you're doing M1 or M2, meaning chest voice or head voice.
Um, it makes high notes so like. Oh, my God. I never got that note before. You know, like,
Philippe Hall: I'm hoping so much that that everybody that I've talked about this subject is listening and just getting the confirmation again and again.
Lisa Popeil: I'm so glad that because there's still teachers out there's talking if they talk about the abdomen at all, because I still know certain there's a few well known pedagogies out there that are kind of anti support don't support the courts will take care of themselves.
Well, if you're one of those rare pre talented people, maybe that's true, but the rest of you might have serious vocal problems and vocal fatigue, uh, lesions on your vocal folds, um, inability to sing later in life. So, uh, the cords don't take care of themselves. They're too tiny and too fragile. And we have to.
Uh, keep them, keep them happy. So that's the lower belly action. So, uh, let me, let me move on. So the, to me, the, the proven road tested works on almost, I, I was would have been happy with a support method that worked for 9 people, but I found this works for 10 out of 10 people. So, uh. If, if you're a young teacher, um, give, give this a try.
Four Main Jobs of Support
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Lisa Popeil: So there's four, four main jobs of support. There's some extra ones for extra benefits, but the four main ones, it's simple, teachable, memorable, and more importantly, they work. Job one of support, keep your chest up this upper chest. Don't let it drop as air leaves the body. When you're singing, keep it up.
Just. Do it in the mirror because it'll lie. All these jobs will lie. They'll tell you they're, they're staying up and then you go, Oh, it didn't stay up. And even touching it, it'll lie. It'll, I'll see people go down like that. And they thought they kept it up. So mirror, mirror, mirror, mirror. So you keep the chest up, even as you're on your last dregs of air.
Uh, job two of support. Keep the, the side ribs.
Rib Expansion and Stretching
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Lisa Popeil: Well, I like to, and you probably talk about this, Philippe, I'm not sure, but it's kind of a rib setup, is that when you take air in, if you just widen them slightly all the way around sides and back ribs. Who else shows their, their bosom with impunity? Okay, I'm glad I, I'm glad I wore my good.
I'll show
Philippe Hall: my bosom with impunity as well here. Try
Lisa Popeil: your hands a little higher. And the reason is that the lower ribs, always the floating ribs, The ones I think Kim Kardashian just had removed. Anyway, that, I digress. These ribs will always move in and out a little bit. The ones that you want to really monitor are the kind of a nipple height.
Ribs so it's closer. Now, some people can't, aren't flexible and can't get their hands up there, but try, yeah, that's a good spot to, and then you widen them slightly simply by inhaling and telling them to wide, and then you keep them there. You don't have to have a hundred percent width, though. I did it for opera and you probably did it too.
I
Philippe Hall: do talk about that because I try and get singers, I say for about 97 percent of everything you're ever going to have to sing. You, you just need to find that comfortable expansion where you can stay there all day. And then you're going to have the extreme levels where you might need that.
Lisa Popeil: A little bit more.
Yeah. Or, or max. Yeah. And I have a big voice, so I, I need to, you know, maximize this little resonator that I have. Um, cause you know, you know, cause you got, you, you know, you don't have the big truck head either. Yeah. singer. So, so anyway, so we're going to keep the ribs, uh, comfortably widened and then their job in support is to stay there and not to accordion, not to collapse.
There's still our teacher, classical, older classical teachers who teach to Inhale, widen the ribs and then allow them to collapse for singing. And I just think it's not as good. So if you look like this, and you got to really keep those muscles strong so that they don't collapse. So
Philippe Hall: when you're doing the controlled exhalation on the sh you're working at, at the maintaining the expansion.
Lisa Popeil: Exactly. Maintaining the strength of the. inhalation muscles. So, um, yes. So maintaining the, the, the, the rib stability. So they're not, they're not collapsing even though they want to. And then there's the third and to me, the most important one, the upper belly magic spot and it's job is to gently firm out and, and stay out for the whole phrase like this.
And then it relaxes and it goes in. Interestingly, it goes in for breathing. Shh, shh, shh.
And to do that simple exercise, you actually have to crescendo at the end of it. Everyone wants, when they first start doing this, they'll all do this. the long part of it, they'll go shhhhhhhhhhh like a balloon that's running out of air. You want to maintain the pressure past the last note of your phrase.
Not collapse at the last note of the phrase. You know, the last note gets all uhhhhhhhh.
Philippe Hall: So I have a question for you on that. When, um, just because I'm aware that some people with that it's funny, I usually tell people that, you know, Also to go, go th three fingers up from your belly button and three fingers down from your sternum.
And somewhere in there you find the magic spot. But I agree, it's different. Every person. A little difference when you give, when you're recommending to sustain that, that outward push. Um, we, you are also, I'm trying to set you up for a response, but , how do you help them from um, not. overworking over tightening.
So the upper abdominal muscles around there aren't locking up at the same time.
Lisa Popeil: I'm just me. I'm not sticking it out hard like a rock. I'm just making a very strong sound. And as the teacher and the professional leaders, I'm listening. Did I hear the pressure in the airstream? Did it sound like the sound was filling the room instead of That it's
Philippe Hall: Yeah
Lisa Popeil: But I do think the magic spot is higher than that.
It's it's really close in my experiences It's closer to below the, the, um, the sternum and not, not, not as far down, but again, you'd have to poke around, but I've had success with it a little higher. And then the, but you know, sometimes I've had a student whose belly buttons were really low. And we'll see this sometimes it's like.
Yeah, it's like super low. And so for them, I'll, I'll, for the lower belly, I, you know, just like, where is it? I'll do it where I put the thumb. Here's the belly button. Hello. I'll put the thumb above the belly button. So I move the hand up a little bit. So the, The, the upper belly, the shuh pattern is great because it's four short ones.
It's shh, shh. Let me do it sideways. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Wait, let me, sorry. I'm like, you didn't know how to change the mirroring because it's not mirroring. Let me, here's the long part for the, I'm off on the count of five. Shh, shh, shh. Then you release it for breathing. So you kind of hold it extra long to train the belly to stay active past the last note, instead of going relaxing on the last note of whatever the, and this strengthens it.
And then, and then before you know it, like, you know, a day or a week, it just does it by itself, but I always monitor it with the fingers too. So the upper belly works like a wall. It just stays out. Um, and then relaxes for breathing. But the lower belly works differently. Mm-Hmm. . And that's who gradually clutches in.
And there's always more inner inwardness than you'd think there would be, considering how many organs are in there. But it, you know, I always can get a little more in sh sh sh. And here's the long one off on the count of five sh.
And I'm doing a complete release in between each one as part of the exercise. And this is a great warm up exercise because this is the driver of the vocal folds.
Philippe Hall: That's amazing.
Lisa Popeil: I just wear your vocal folds out, um, and then I'm going to, I'm in when you want the driver to, you know, you want the machinery to warm up.
So then the cores go, okay, I got this. So there's the clutching action of the lower belly and against the, the wall action of the, of the upper belly. And the whole time the rib cages is, uh, expanded. Cecily, uh, training rib expansion. I find it's helpful to have students stretch the back. Yes. Um, Oh, a lot of people are tight.
Interesting. I, I haven't found that. Um, one of my favorite stretching exercises, and maybe Cecily, you've seen me do this is that I call it the, I dream of Jeannie, which really dates me, but, um, that was a popular show in the sixties. And what you do is you take, you do like a little backbend. And you put your, oh, thank you, Philly.
And you put your, your hands like there. And then you, you inhale through your nose and you try to aim it to the upper back like this. And then, oh, I'm making faces. And then you exhale slowly as though through a straw as you continue to stretch the upper back. I want to show it again. It almost worked a little bit.
It's very unnatural for those ribs. To stretch and stay stretched. So that's part of a whole stretch series. I really love stretching as, as a vocal warmup and, you know, particularly the sideways stretching with breathing, you know, that's a whole breathing workshop. Um, the upper chest, you know, leaning backwards, putting your fists in your pits.
I mean, there's all kinds of things that make a huge difference. As warmups rather than just black in the way.
Philippe Hall: I love that stretch. I have never tried that, but I, it. It's it's really liked it like between the shoulder blades. I dream of genie. I'm going to think of that now, but very
interesting to exhale and maintain it.
It actually, you know, I've been sitting here for seven hours straight, so it's very, it was very, it felt really good right now.
Lisa Popeil: You felt like, Oh, I should, I need to do that. So thanks for mentioning that, uh, Cecily, give us a chance to explore that. So.
The Importance of Support
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Lisa Popeil: Okay, I'm sort of wrapping things up here. Um, so here's a warning and it's, it's, it's, uh, so not fun in games.
If you don't support, you will likely squeeze your vocal folds at some point and like that they swell. And when they swell, you get hoarse. And when you get hoarse, you get lesions, you know, when they swell, you can get, uh, polyps, um, cysts, lesions. and surgery and scar tissue. And that's not, we want to make sure our students, we never want to have one student who has a vocal problem.
So whether they're touring, even if they're, they're old. Um, so there's the compensatory tension aspect, but more importantly, We need to be the protectors of our clients vocal folds and our own. So that's why this is, is not just fun and games. It's, it's, it's super important. And happy vocal folds need precise subglottal pressure to close and to vibrate with maximum efficiency.
And when you do your posture and support, it's amazing. What kinds of problems it can fix. I mean, like seemingly random problems like register breaks, sometimes they're fixed just by posture and support. You don't have to do three months of, of exercises, necessarily a weak voice. I'm working with a, um, a famous actress right now is experienced weak voice.
And I realized. No one ever told her about posture and support. I'm also going to work with her immediately on vocalis contraction exercises and closure exercises to build up strength in the laryngeal area, but always without pressing the cords or just whacking them together. Uh, breathiness, if you, you know, if you're experiencing breathiness and you don't want to have it, you know, if it's like not an artistic choice, but it's actually like a flaw in your technique, Do posture and support and see if you can't get those cords to close as your brain has asked them to do.
Limited vocal range. Like, I should have higher notes. Why don't, do the lower belly extra in. You'll find that those high notes just pop out. Pitch problems. Even some people have pitch problems because they're, they're, don't have enough airstream. Most students I work with, Philippe, under pressurize the vocal folds.
Mm hmm. It's very rare. I mean, occasionally we'll get some overachiever who, whatever you tell them to do, they'll do it 150%, but that's rare. Most people are, they approach things with fear and a sense of trepidation. And so everything's on the weak side. Uh, vibrato problems. If somebody doesn't have a vibrato where it's inconsistent, posture and support will help them control their vibrato.
And I also have a whole. exercises and techniques that, uh, fix vibrato problems of all sorts, including having none, um, and, uh, vocal fatigue. If you want, you know, I toured, I don't know if you guys know, but I toured with Weird Al Yankovic, uh, uh, um, 2019, which was, uh, one of the great experiences of my life.
And, uh, well, a bunch of oldsters that were, You know, just rocking it on stage to, you know, like quarter million people. And so I got to see firsthand, um, not myself, cause my gig was pretty easy. I only had to sing backup for an hour and a half and dance my little tushy off center stage. It was so fun. Um, but to, you know, work with Alice, I, I worked with him over the decades, you know, what, what helps him keep the freshness of his voice for all the crazy things that he would put his voice through, uh, you know, and he's.
He's not 20 anymore. And he, he was amazing. Other topics we can talk about, you know, vocal fold deduction control, demystifying vocal registers, belting techniques. And there aren't, there isn't just one belting sound contrary to popular belief. It's not always blasty loud and resonant. Uh, it, there's different belting sub styles, um, comparing different vocal styles, difference, that's kind of what I'm known for, but I'm.
I've done so much on it, I'm like moving on, uh, but, you know, what's, what are the differences between, uh, uh, opera, operetta, legit musical theater, uh, uh, pop, rock, jazz, country, and I've also taught people in India, you know, because I've studied Indian voice, so there's, there's, there's lots, there's lots, it can get as deep as you want, But it all to me starts with posture and support and everything else is, uh, is decor or culture.
So I think that's it. I mean, there's waist support. That was a great, great
Philippe Hall: wrap up and it's a perfect segue into. into what we're doing because I, I too have sung so many different styles professionally and that was always my passion. Um, you know, Gail Lockwood and Jan Sullivan, that's who I started with.
And they just instilled in me this belief that you can sing anything with your voice. And I did it. I did it professionally. For 30 years all around the world.
Upcoming Intensive Training Event
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Philippe Hall: And so the big five coordinations of singing, that's our intensive training event coming up here in just a couple of weeks where we are going to be training your coordination and skill level.
In all of these articulations or coordinations, what can the vocal folds do actually by themselves? What, what do they need the air for? Finding the precise amount. Like you keep saying amount of sub glottal pressure for the sound you need, and that's how the big big five, um, are coming together because.
If you can't get the exact right amount of subglottal pressure, what use is it going to be for you to do some of the other things? And then, like you said, again and again, something else will compensate. You'll get the compensatory tension And then you won't be able to execute even if you have the right formula, right?
You can't Execute the formula with without the balance of these so we're going to be working on that for four weeks I'm super excited to learn more, um from lisa and her her vast experience and and you can see how This is just the surface, right? We're going to get into some meat and have some wonderful classes.
We're going to be able to work with singers more individually in our private zoom meetings. Lisa will be able to share her screen. It's just going to be a lot of fun. So for, for you, Lisa, how, for, for what kind of singers do you think this kind of intensive training event that we're doing. Who's it going to be most beneficial for?
Lisa Popeil: Well, I always try to keep things simple. So there's something for everybody. Um, though I can get as science y as anyone might want, I think it's, it's more memorable to have takeaways. Um, takeaways that the people can try right away at home by themselves and see instant results. So, um, my goal as a teacher has been, um, Um, try to take the mystery out of singing and though I can try to be impressive and use lots of Latin terms and I want people to go, Oh, I got it.
I can do that. I couldn't do that before. And now I can. And so I think I really enjoy speaking to. To voice doctors, speech pathologists internationally at their conferences and, uh, but explain things in a way that that even with their, their knowledge, they can, it's easy to understand. So, um, Some, some of its rehabilitation, uh, and some of its vocal technique and some of its artistry.
Sometimes I, not as much, but I do get asked to present quite a bit on what are the, the hallmarks of vocal artistry. But that's not what this, the, this month year intensive is about. It's about the, the mechanics, having a deeper understanding of, of, of how things function and how to make things work well.
So I'd say it's for anybody, even, you know, teenagers. Who are have the passion for learning about voice like like you and I have
Philippe Hall: well, thank you so much for that I absolutely agree and we know that artistry obviously that's that is The whole purpose of learning technique is to be a free artist Right to be able to combine these skills as you increase your skill level you can combine things in Much more efficiently, you'll be able to sing for decades.
You'll restore, you know, your vocal health, protect your voice, so many advantages.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Philippe Hall: Thank you so much, Lisa, and I know you all enjoyed this. So remember, if I put everything in the description, if you, the links in there, how to, how to sign up for this event, We've got, um, the coupon codes for each teacher in there, and just click the link.
If you have any more questions, reach out. It's been a joy, and I can't wait to start our intensive, and if you, oh, let, let me also just say, Lisa's mentioned it, yeah. We're going to have a lot of fun together. Um, I'm going to still secretly try to tag along to Azerbaijan, but, but we are also doing a podcast where Lisa is going to talk more about these, what's going on in the world, and I think that's going to be very fascinating, fascinating podcast.
And before then we, we get to work with Lisa and all these other great teachers on a weekly basis for four weeks. And please join us. Have a lovely day. Thank you to everybody that's tuned in. Alexandra has been, um, really diligent today. She's been here for almost every presentation. So bless you. I know it's probably one in the morning where you're at.
So thank you so much for listening everyone. Thanks again, Lisa.
Lisa Popeil: Thanks everybody. Bye bye. See you soon.
Philippe Hall: Bye.
