VOCAL TIP #3: How
to identify and fix a nasal tone or voice
Singers and Vocalists often complain
about sounding nasal or having a nasal tone. The article talks about how
to identify a nasal sound and how to fix it.
Nasal voices are
caused by the improper flow of air whenever you speak. You may not know it, but
the nose is a very important organ in speech. Aside from the movement of your
mouth parts and the vibration of your vocal chords, airflow is very important
in producing speech sounds.
Illnesses like colds,
sinusitis and influenza can cause people to have a nasal voice.
You may be surprised
how the quality of your voice improves if you breathe properly. If you take in
too little air when you speak, you'll end up with a very exhausted, hushed tone
that comes across as a very nasal voice. If you inhale and hold in too much air
whenever you speak, your nasal passages expand and more sound resonates through
the space, giving you a nasal voice.
To check for nasal
voice, sing part of your favourite song and hold you nose. If you have
balanced, resonant sound, your sound won't change and you can successfully sing
while holding your nose. if the sound does change, you likely have a nasal
sound.
The irritating nasal
sound, or nasality in some singing voices is a result of a soft palate which is
not lifted properly. Your soft palate is the soft tissue on the rood of your
mouth. A soft palate that lifts helps create the ringing sound that you want.
If the soft palate doesn't lift, the sound is nasal. Exercise your soft palate
so that it lifts on command and you avoid that nasal sound.
To feel the soft
palate, pretend that you're snoring in your sleep. Snore with your mouth open
and take in air through your nose. If this only gets your nose quivering, put
your fingers on your nose and close off your nostrils. When you closed your
nostrils, try snoring again by breathing through your mouth. That quivering you
feel is your soft palate moving.
Keep playing with
that exercise, variously pinching and unpinching your nostrils while singing,
until there is no change in the sound between the pinching/unpinching and no
presence of air pressure into the nose when the nostrils are pinched. This will
train your mental concept of your sound, your ear's adaptation and sensitivity
to the output of that concept, and your physical/anatomical position into a
memorized habit that automatically excludes all conditions which allow
nasality. Bear in mind how it felt and looked to have your soft palate lift and
to have your tongue touch your soft palate. These movements, when coordinated,
keep your sound from being too nasal.
BlueTimbre is a Music
Education and Performance center in India. BlueTimbre also provides complete
end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. BlueTimbre management team
comes with a decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses,
music curriculum development, music education and performance.
“Eliminating Nasality in your singing”, Pamelia S. Phillips, November
2010
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