Straw Phonation

I am always on the lookout for vocal techniques that will help my singers sing well and take care of their voices.

Singers, whether choral or solo, are often called vocal athletes, and like any athlete they need to warm up their voices, take short rest breaks, stretch the vocal folds, and cool down after an evening’s rehearsal.

The primary purpose of the vocal folds is actually to keep foreign matter out of the esophagus and lungs.  Making noise is secondary (that may be a surprise to you but it’s what scientists recognize), and a several-hours-long rehearsal is a bit like running a long race; care is important!

I recently discovered a simple way to care for the voice from a local voice teacher—straw phonation!

I’ve been using it in rehearsal, and the singers tell me they can feel a difference.

Singers hum through a straw, first in what we call sirens or glides (humming from low to high and back again through their full range), then in accented waves.  They can also hum a tune, especially a tune that takes them through a wide vocal range.  It’s important to keep the jaw relaxed and not hang onto the straw with your teeth.

Basically, it stretches the vocal folds, spreads them apart so they don’t vibrate together quite as often, and in ways I don’t yet understand reflects energy back to the vocal folds and aids the act of singing.  And speaking!  Those who speak all day long, such as teachers, can use this as a vocal break.  It’s like an athlete stretching his or her muscles during training; it’s good for the muscles, keeps them warm and limber, and gives them an active rest.

And it also seems to appeal to MCE’s sense of play.  If you want to see a bunch of adults become kids again, give them a straw!  It brings a smile to their lips and a light to their eyes—which is also good for singing!  And for the spirit we bring to our performances!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic Director and Conductor

Master Chorus Eastside

Taaallll Mouth!

Right in the middle of Monday evening rehearsal, and without interruption: we're singing these complicated Gaelic/Irish songs, and Linda is trying to get us to pronounce vowels vertically, a tall mouth, not the horizontal slit Clint Eastwood and Americans often use.  British/Irish style.

Midway through one of these I must not have been doing the "tall mouth" and Linda moves in front of me, continuing to direct all of us, and presses in on my cheeks (kind of like getting a dog to open its mouth for medicine!).  Taaall mouth!  The vowel!

It was difficult to keep singing, much less keep that tall mouth, as I was laughing so hard.  But ... message received, and I recall it vividly now while singing.

Very instructive.  Oh, we keep learning!

Bill Stanley, Tenor