the vocal gym revolution

Every 121 lesson, I found myself thinking the same thought:

I can give you tips but, really, for you to make progress I wish that you had a place to practise. At best, this would allow you to take ownership of your voice and become your own coach and, at the least, you'd gain a deep awareness and vocabulary so our lessons could be optimised.

Then the vocal gym began to evolve...

When lockdown started, I made a pledge, to offer a daily free guided warm up to my community to stay in touch and to help keep up your vocal stamina. In five months, our community grew from 300 to over 11,000. 

During this time, I began to form the structure of the Vocal Gym: the result of twenty years of work on the voice: both as a singer (going through rehabilitation) and a vocal coach.

The voice is a muscle that needs constant practise yet practise is near impossible without guidance. Our voice is an ambiguous concept to many of us and we don't know where to begin or whether what we are doing is taking us in the right direction. I spent ten years trying to 'practise' and often doing more harm that good.

The aim of the vocal gym is to give the singer ownership of their voice and a route to vocal freedom. It is there to guide you as you learn what to strengthen and what to release, and to provide an affordable alternative to 121 lessons. It is there to provide structures, focused and consistent practise.

Below, is a detailed overview of WHY and WHAT happens inside the Vocal Gym. Keep reading for more information... The AIM: take time for practise so, when you perform, you can give over to the music and the story. 

In our launch we are offering Sing Space All Access for free when you join us (worth £39.99) - giving you an additional 30 hours of professional training a month plus 20 sessions in the vocal gym (Mon-Fri 10.30am available on catch up)

JOIN THE VOCAL GYM

THE THREE PARTS TO THE  VOCAL GYM	WHAT WE DO, HOW WE DO IT,  WHY WE DO IT AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
Set up (10 minutes)	Each session starts with a guided meditation including mindfulness, alignment, stretching and vocal massage. ​Body Scan: identifying areas of tension and bringing awareness to the fundamental areas of your vocal system breath, resonance, adduction, jaw and tongue release and a free larynx  Alignment to release muscles and to allow the voice to work with efficiency. Stretch and massage are often ignored in place of vocalising yet can reap even higher benefits to the singer. to target areas of tension and to heighten awareness. ​WHY? The set up might be the most important aspect, bringing us into a place of mind-body awareness, increasing the speed with which new habits can be formed and practise can be incorporated into performance.
Vocal Health (10 minutes)	Using SOVT exercises commonly recognised in vocal rehabilitation to  aid vocal health Closed mouth exercises to reap the benefits of ​sound waves back pressure, using soundwaves to aid muscle and ligament flexibility, vocal fold alignment, breath and body connection, resonance awareness, jaw and tongue release and a free larynx.
Technique and Exploration (10 minutes)	Taking your practise further as we explore tone, range, register breaks, vocal postures, stylistic choices, musicality and more.

DAILY FOCUS	WHAT WILL WE COVER?
Tone	Seeking the colours within one note, playing with the infinite spectrum of choice available to a singer.
SOVT	“SOVT teaches my body what singing should feel like.” Wednesdays is SOVT focus in the Vocal Gym. Using Oren Boder ’s straw of course. We’ll be using the straw to explore resonance, body engagement, breath, aduction, jaw and tongue release and a free larynx.
Jaw Release	If I could gift singers one wish, it would be to remove all jaw tension! Monday in the vocal gym is Jaw Release day. We’ll be discussing why the voice is so much more efficient when we stop interfering and looking at jaw release from a few angles: Massage Alignment SOVT Transferring work to the articulators (tongue and lips) And, of course, imagery and mental strategies to play with!
Tongue	The tongue is one of the greatest influencers on acoustic shaping, resonance awareness, breath and body engagement, jaw release and the free movement of the larynx. Often feared and blamed for tension, Fridays in the gym are for exploring this magnificent muscle
Resonance	​What our brain perceives as “sound” is really different types of vibrations. Can we switch off our ears today in the vocal gym and tune into feeling those vibrations and how they travel, bounce, multiple and can be felt sympathetically throughout much of our body?
Vowels	We're not talking AEIOU here, but the infinite spectrum of open sounds we can make to boost tone and harmonics. A vowel is the result of many aspects of your vocal system: from your jaw,  to your larynx position and the inside of your vocal tract. Mostly, vowel sounds are created by tongue. On vowel focus days,  we'll be exploring 'good' vowels and 'naughty' vowels, and what you can do to aid your vocal ease and power.
Vocal folds	Exploring onsets (aspirate and glottal) and the playing with the muscle layers of your vocal folds
Consonants	Utilising the SOVT benefits of consonants and exploring how to release tongue tension by exploring the articulators (tongue and lips)
Placement	Playing with resonance again but this time, we
Primal sounds and emotion	Engaging the the efficiency of the voice by utilising your body's primal knowledge of vocalisation and your prm=imal need to to connect, express and inform.
Musicality	Exploring the momental within a time signature and how this can free the voice,  and engage the the physiology of your vocal system. Exploring the ear and the surrounding music to explore tone and colour.
Breath	Breath flow, support and body connection, pressure management and release.

Why repetition?
​The core of the vocal gym is based around repetition. 

Every exercise was crafted during years of coaching to pick sounds and note sequences that - within their specific order - warm up and work out the voice, balancing muscle engagement and release. Below is list of our exercises which, as we gain familiarity allow us to use each session to focus on a different aspect of vocal production (list of focus below)

EXERCISE	WHY WE DO IT
Unvoiced and voiced fricatives	Coordinating engagement and release but utilising these sounds that engage the body - breath response.
Lip Trills	The ultimate exercise - offering more benefit to vocal health than voice rest as we reap the SOVT benefits
Puffy cheeks	Taking the vocal health and SOVT exercises one step further as we explore pressure management, jaw release and resonance.
Aspirate onsets and slides from the bass	Opposing the urge to tighter as we prepare or move higher, gaining familiarity of our larynx and tongue position and exploring onsets.
"Tilty" woahs	Enjoying the body's natural mechanism to lengthen your vocal cords and exploring boosting lower harmonics, larynx position, tongue position, jaw release and so much more.
Wee Wee	Exploring sympathetic vibrations and the sensation of a wider vocal tract as another way of moving seamlessly through register breaks and attaining 'belt'
Tongue led consonants	Freeing the jaw as we explore the athletic freedom of the tongue  and lips.
Hey Hey!	Exploring the 'yell,' posture, whilst playing with body stability, jaw release, vowel shapes and harmonics.