I grew up in an abusive family so me and my bro would always keep our voices down to the point where we are very breathy with our voices just so we wouldn't disturb anyone. Above that, my parents wouldn't let me leave the house so we would be talking this way for a very, very, long time. And up until now that's been the only way i speak. I'm only starting now to find resonance after so many years of struggling to communicate with ppl at work cause they would barely hear me even though i was standing right in front of them. So the struggle is real and it effects people more so than you would know. A breathy voice, to me, is more of a symptom of anxiety and tension in our lives that we need to identify before we start improving ourselves. Which means re-conditioning everything we know about speaking, breathing, overall the muscles we use when we speak. It's not an easy task
Thank you. It proves that singing, like everything else is tied to our early experiences and traumas❤. I’m glad you now have some more space to be… and ‘be with’ your voice
Hi Karyn, I love your videos because of the extent of medical knowledge you have regarding the voice. You have definitely done your research and I appreciate that you are not just throwing out medical terms based on a vague understanding of how the voice works. Well done!
THANKYOU, finally someone who explains clearly breathiness!!! I know it is non closure of the cords or folds, but when you explained the adduction isnt working muscularly, it made sense, especially showing it simply with your fingers. Finally a good clear explanation. Thank you so much .... now on to video 2
I appreciate your singing information very much! I do feel like I continue to sing not correctly and my sound does not produce clear tones. I am trying diligently now to not push. I push so much it is difficult to keep air and yet my vocal cords are not fully closing…so this is so insightful for me. I am taking notes for the several reasons why my chords are not closing as they might for better resonance and clearer sound with overtones. thank you!
Hi Karyn. Had to subscribe after this. Thank you for this video. I have always had a breathy voice when speaking or singing. You can even hear it on my videos. The breathy tone carried over into my music career because I did not have more than two or three professional lessons and preferred the unique sound I had naturally developed, fearing that a classical sound would interfere. Learning the proper way to sing would have been to my benefit and not interfered at all when it came to crafting my individual tone. I'm a little concerned that after fifteen or more years, I may have trained my singing voice to always sing with a breathy tone, and my belts are always raspy. While it sounds good right now for my indie-folk music, I worry about the future of my ability to sing in a healthy manner. Another issue I've had all my life is clogged sinuses and occasional, strange lumps in my neck that swell up like cysts when my sinuses are in pain. I don't believe I've ever had a clear passageway in the sinuses, as they infect almost monthly, causing my range to be inconsistent for my live performances. How much can sinus issues affect a singer's voice and technique? Perhaps this is just something that some singers deal with, but the sinus issues can give me cold-like nasal tones. The breathy tone may be unfortunately ingrained, but I feel as though there is so much I could do with my voice and just can't quite reach it with the sinuses blocked.
Welcome! Thank you for subscribing. I was a chronically breathy singer until my 40s and I've worked that out of my technique... unless I'm using airiness for intentional artistic effect. So, it's entirely possible to change our technical approach to singing, even after many years of singing in a different way. As for the sinus issues: Yes, chronic sinus troubles can have an impact on singing, though I don't believe they're inherently harmful - mostly just annoying. If you have chronic post-nasal drip - welcome to my world - you can get a lot of mucus accumulating on the vocal folds, which can cause a bit of inconsistency. Also, I think what you're describing is a 'de-nasal' sound in which the individual sounds like he/she has a stuffy nose all the time. This can impact resonance, especially desirable nasal resonance (as when we must pronounce N, M, and NG). I don't know if the breathy quality and sinus issues are at all related, but it's always best to try to manage symptoms as best you can. The lumps in your neck are probably swollen lymph nodes. They usually tend to swell when our immune systems are fighting off foreign invaders (viruses, bacterial infections, etc.), and you could ask your allergist if sinus infections will cause the lymph nodes to swell. (I imagine they would.) I have another video in this series that lists five exercises to help eliminate breathy-ness. I do plan to post five more exercises soon. Please let me know how I can help.
Thank you so much! I'll be seeing a doctor again soon to analyze why the opening of my ear has swollen so badly this time that there is blockage in my ability to hear in one side. It's also itchy, which tells me it could be irritated from the swelling or infected along with the sinus. These sinus problems are definitely getting in the way of my N, Mn and NG as you suggested, but even vowels are noticeably affected. I can tell because if I close one nostril, it doesn't sound incredibly terrible, but if I close the one that is less blocked, it's as though I have a full-blown cold or like I'm intentionally trying to sound nasally. Anyway, I'll be checking out your other videos. Again, thanks!
Like all the comprehensive angles and your own voice and style of presentation - also I'm sure you'd agree that nerves, tentativeness and lack of confidence can be a cause of breathiness.
Wow, I am a young female who wants to be a singer, and I'm between the ages of 10-14, I was feeling something, and I was like, my talking and singing is really breathy! And I was wondering if my voice was going through puberty! I think you're right and I am, I really want to sing "You're Gonna Hear Me Roar" but with a non breathy voice, I noticed when I was singing it seemed to be a little off from what I would expect thank you so much!
I sing good but i have a airy tone i can get a good amount on my of air in my belly but i use more a lot of air flow not enought sound of my voice any technique
Hi! Thank you very much for this great video! I was wondering, when is the next video coming out? Really excited for the exercises, i´ve been struggling so long with getting rid of breathiness with vocal coach too, have removed some but still alot of breathyness, struggling so much... Thank you!
I'm going to be doing some editing tonight. I don't have much time, though, so it will hopefully be up tomorrow. Please make sure that you subscribe and turn on notifications so that you'll know when it's posted. Thanks for watching!
I have published a few videos on vocal folds swelling, but not one on vocal fold lesions. (I wonder if Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials has.) The symptoms of vocal fold lesions (e.g., nodules) include unexplained changes in voice quality (e.g., rasp, breathiness, etc.), hoarseness, the inability to either phonate with a clear tone or phonate at all within a certain range of pitches (typically the upper middle and upper range), diplophonia (two tones being produced simultaneously by vocal fold vibration), the inability to sing softly within a given part of the range, vocal fatigue, and a need for increased vocal effort in order to phonate. If you have any of these symptoms and they persist, please make an appointment to see an ENT or laryngologist to rule out lesions. If you learn that you have a lesion (or other injury, such as hemorrhage, which usually causes a sudden loss of voice), you'll be given a treatment protocol that will include learning how to use your voice in speech and song better and changing certain behaviours of overuse, misuse, and/or abuse.
Does adding twang help? When you speak "Uh-oh" or an energized "Ah!!!" (with harder glottal onsets), what happens? I have a couple videos on the topic of glottal compression, and maybe they will help. The first (introduction) is this: th-cam.com/video/LCGxDJ-IZ6g/w-d-xo.html But this second video here has a three-part exercise that might help you achieve firmer glottal closure: th-cam.com/video/ANRrgR8632w/w-d-xo.html Let me know if these help.
Help me i don't know what happened 😭 6 months ago i went to karaoke and kinda abuse my voice and i got tight throat and 4 weeks later i got breathy voice to my singing and speaking voice now its very hard to live i hope anyone have answer its stressing me out i pray everyday
sounds like there was no chest voice, and the throat did all the heavy lifting. there is no answer per se, as it already has happened. over the last 10 months, hopefully, you allowed your voice to heal as much as it will. by now, it should be steady and mostly back on track. but I'm guessing, the damage has been done, and it's clear. have hope though, in that, if you're a vocalist, your voice will be better than before in a year or two through more experiences. however, it would have been even better had you not damage it, (probably) it's like a recurring injury, after a ballet dancer injures an ankle, that ankle is prone to future injuries at a higher percentile than the uninjured. even after fully healed.
I think it's a pretty sound (no pun intended!) program. There is a lot of scientific research that has gone into it, and I like that students are encouraged to explore the entirety of their voices, with all their modes and qualities. As for how the concepts are taught in a lesson situation, I wouldn't know. I've watched a couple master classes/seminars and have the book, but I don't really have a feel for how one-on-one lessons look/are conducted.
I only get this when I belt, I want to learn to sing Long Tall Sally by the Beatles, but whenever Paul belts and I belt, it sounds so breathy and not as loud, any thoughts?
I'm not sure if large tonsils would significantly impede airflow. They would have to be very large or swollen. I believe that the body has an incredible ability to adapt to morphological anomalies. If they seem to cause noisy breathing, then they might be getting in the way.
Now I know why I get lightheaded and weak when I sing any longer than a few minutes. Then again, I'm in my 50s and can't sing as long as I did when I was in my teens to my 30s. It's depressing.
Have you had any success with these exercises? it's hard to know what's at the root of your breathy singing without hearing and seeing you sing. If sing with twang or in a child's voice, does your tone become non-breathy?
@@singwisevocals i have a few videos in my channel. I think its just lack of support. Ive been incorporating the suspension, v shape breathing exercises for about a week now and also have been learning open throat and incorporated usig the straw and have been doing rasberry trills and buzzy sounds using "V". Singing has gotten much better since and my tone has gotten better. By my next video i should sound much better. Lol. Thank you!
I grew up in an abusive family so me and my bro would always keep our voices down to the point where we are very breathy with our voices just so we wouldn't disturb anyone. Above that, my parents wouldn't let me leave the house so we would be talking this way for a very, very, long time. And up until now that's been the only way i speak. I'm only starting now to find resonance after so many years of struggling to communicate with ppl at work cause they would barely hear me even though i was standing right in front of them. So the struggle is real and it effects people more so than you would know. A breathy voice, to me, is more of a symptom of anxiety and tension in our lives that we need to identify before we start improving ourselves. Which means re-conditioning everything we know about speaking, breathing, overall the muscles we use when we speak. It's not an easy task
Thank you. It proves that singing, like everything else is tied to our early experiences and traumas❤. I’m glad you now have some more space to be… and ‘be with’ your voice
What u went through doesn’t define your present situation as a failure. If anything it gives your voice ammo to become even greater. Cheers
@@tenesinsixtilievgreat words
Hi Karyn,
I love your videos because of the extent of medical knowledge you have regarding the voice. You have definitely done your research and I appreciate that you are not just throwing out medical terms based on a vague understanding of how the voice works. Well done!
Thanks for watching and commenting, Adam. (It was nice meeting you last week, too.)
THANKYOU, finally someone who explains clearly breathiness!!! I know it is non closure of the cords or folds, but when you explained the adduction isnt working muscularly, it made sense, especially showing it simply with your fingers. Finally a good clear explanation. Thank you so much .... now on to video 2
Thanks for this! Very helpful as I have a few female vocals students and they all have the similar challenges! :)
I'm glad this will be helpful to your students!
I appreciate your singing information very much! I do feel like I continue to sing not correctly and my sound does not produce clear tones. I am trying diligently now to not push. I push so much it is difficult to keep air and yet my vocal cords are not fully closing…so this is so insightful for me. I am taking notes for the several reasons why my chords are not closing as they might for better resonance and clearer sound with overtones. thank you!
Brilliant work! Keep it up!
Awesome and thorough explanation! Thank you!
Going to watch Lesson 2 right now!
Wonderful! Thank you for commenting. Please let me know if there is anything that I can help with.
Hi Karyn. Had to subscribe after this. Thank you for this video. I have always had a breathy voice when speaking or singing. You can even hear it on my videos. The breathy tone carried over into my music career because I did not have more than two or three professional lessons and preferred the unique sound I had naturally developed, fearing that a classical sound would interfere. Learning the proper way to sing would have been to my benefit and not interfered at all when it came to crafting my individual tone. I'm a little concerned that after fifteen or more years, I may have trained my singing voice to always sing with a breathy tone, and my belts are always raspy. While it sounds good right now for my indie-folk music, I worry about the future of my ability to sing in a healthy manner. Another issue I've had all my life is clogged sinuses and occasional, strange lumps in my neck that swell up like cysts when my sinuses are in pain. I don't believe I've ever had a clear passageway in the sinuses, as they infect almost monthly, causing my range to be inconsistent for my live performances. How much can sinus issues affect a singer's voice and technique? Perhaps this is just something that some singers deal with, but the sinus issues can give me cold-like nasal tones. The breathy tone may be unfortunately ingrained, but I feel as though there is so much I could do with my voice and just can't quite reach it with the sinuses blocked.
Welcome! Thank you for subscribing. I was a chronically breathy singer until my 40s and I've worked that out of my technique... unless I'm using airiness for intentional artistic effect. So, it's entirely possible to change our technical approach to singing, even after many years of singing in a different way. As for the sinus issues: Yes, chronic sinus troubles can have an impact on singing, though I don't believe they're inherently harmful - mostly just annoying. If you have chronic post-nasal drip - welcome to my world - you can get a lot of mucus accumulating on the vocal folds, which can cause a bit of inconsistency. Also, I think what you're describing is a 'de-nasal' sound in which the individual sounds like he/she has a stuffy nose all the time. This can impact resonance, especially desirable nasal resonance (as when we must pronounce N, M, and NG). I don't know if the breathy quality and sinus issues are at all related, but it's always best to try to manage symptoms as best you can. The lumps in your neck are probably swollen lymph nodes. They usually tend to swell when our immune systems are fighting off foreign invaders (viruses, bacterial infections, etc.), and you could ask your allergist if sinus infections will cause the lymph nodes to swell. (I imagine they would.) I have another video in this series that lists five exercises to help eliminate breathy-ness. I do plan to post five more exercises soon. Please let me know how I can help.
Thank you so much! I'll be seeing a doctor again soon to analyze why the opening of my ear has swollen so badly this time that there is blockage in my ability to hear in one side. It's also itchy, which tells me it could be irritated from the swelling or infected along with the sinus. These sinus problems are definitely getting in the way of my N, Mn and NG as you suggested, but even vowels are noticeably affected. I can tell because if I close one nostril, it doesn't sound incredibly terrible, but if I close the one that is less blocked, it's as though I have a full-blown cold or like I'm intentionally trying to sound nasally. Anyway, I'll be checking out your other videos. Again, thanks!
You're most welcome. Please keep me posted.
Like all the comprehensive angles and your own voice and style of presentation - also I'm sure you'd agree that nerves, tentativeness and lack of confidence can be a cause of breathiness.
i like the way you present information :) good job
Thank you. There is another lesson on how to fix breathy singing that follows this one and contains 5 exercises.
Wow, I am a young female who wants to be a singer, and I'm between the ages of 10-14, I was feeling something, and I was like, my talking and singing is really breathy! And I was wondering if my voice was going through puberty! I think you're right and I am, I really want to sing "You're Gonna Hear Me Roar" but with a non breathy voice, I noticed when I was singing it seemed to be a little off from what I would expect thank you so much!
I sing good but i have a airy tone i can get a good amount on my of air in my belly but i use more a lot of air flow not enought sound of my voice any technique
Hi!
Thank you very much for this great video!
I was wondering, when is the next video coming out?
Really excited for the exercises, i´ve been struggling
so long with getting rid of breathiness with vocal coach
too, have removed some but still alot of breathyness,
struggling so much...
Thank you!
I'm going to be doing some editing tonight. I don't have much time, though, so it will hopefully be up tomorrow. Please make sure that you subscribe and turn on notifications so that you'll know when it's posted. Thanks for watching!
How do you know when you have vocal fold damaged? Or vocal lesions
I have published a few videos on vocal folds swelling, but not one on vocal fold lesions. (I wonder if Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials has.) The symptoms of vocal fold lesions (e.g., nodules) include unexplained changes in voice quality (e.g., rasp, breathiness, etc.), hoarseness, the inability to either phonate with a clear tone or phonate at all within a certain range of pitches (typically the upper middle and upper range), diplophonia (two tones being produced simultaneously by vocal fold vibration), the inability to sing softly within a given part of the range, vocal fatigue, and a need for increased vocal effort in order to phonate. If you have any of these symptoms and they persist, please make an appointment to see an ENT or laryngologist to rule out lesions. If you learn that you have a lesion (or other injury, such as hemorrhage, which usually causes a sudden loss of voice), you'll be given a treatment protocol that will include learning how to use your voice in speech and song better and changing certain behaviours of overuse, misuse, and/or abuse.
bruh ever since i was abt twelve i havent been able to sing un-breathy (im 14). thank you for making this, i thought it was permanent
Nice video Karyn, I've got problems with my A sound which is too airy, I feel it very low in my larynx and weak. I also struggle to make a vocal fry..
Does adding twang help? When you speak "Uh-oh" or an energized "Ah!!!" (with harder glottal onsets), what happens? I have a couple videos on the topic of glottal compression, and maybe they will help. The first (introduction) is this: th-cam.com/video/LCGxDJ-IZ6g/w-d-xo.html But this second video here has a three-part exercise that might help you achieve firmer glottal closure: th-cam.com/video/ANRrgR8632w/w-d-xo.html Let me know if these help.
Has she made a lesson 2? I can't find it...
Help me i don't know what happened 😭 6 months ago i went to karaoke and kinda abuse my voice and i got tight throat and 4 weeks later i got breathy voice to my singing and speaking voice now its very hard to live i hope anyone have answer its stressing me out i pray everyday
sounds like there was no chest voice, and the throat did all the heavy lifting.
there is no answer per se, as it already has happened.
over the last 10 months, hopefully, you allowed your voice to heal as much as it will.
by now, it should be steady and mostly back on track. but I'm guessing, the damage has been done, and it's clear.
have hope though, in that, if you're a vocalist, your voice will be better than before in a year or two through more experiences.
however, it would have been even better had you not damage it, (probably)
it's like a recurring injury, after a ballet dancer injures an ankle, that ankle is prone to future injuries at a higher percentile than the uninjured. even after fully healed.
Such great stuff here.
Thanks, Bob!
I love you!! 😩
I'm glad you're finding value in my video(s).
You are just brilliant, your videos are SO helpful to my teaching.
That's very kind of you to say so!
Thank you
Hey Karyn, what do you think about Complete Vocal Technique?
I'm also interested in opinions on this.
I think it's a pretty sound (no pun intended!) program. There is a lot of scientific research that has gone into it, and I like that students are encouraged to explore the entirety of their voices, with all their modes and qualities. As for how the concepts are taught in a lesson situation, I wouldn't know. I've watched a couple master classes/seminars and have the book, but I don't really have a feel for how one-on-one lessons look/are conducted.
I have a horrible signing voice and I can't figure out why because I can the note but it sound horrible
How can i recover incomplete glottic closure?
ty for this video c:
You're welcome. Thanks for watching and leaving your comment.
I only get this when I belt, I want to learn to sing Long Tall Sally by the Beatles, but whenever Paul belts and I belt, it sounds so breathy and not as loud, any thoughts?
Big tonsils can block the air passage?
I'm not sure if large tonsils would significantly impede airflow. They would have to be very large or swollen. I believe that the body has an incredible ability to adapt to morphological anomalies. If they seem to cause noisy breathing, then they might be getting in the way.
Now I know why I get lightheaded and weak when I sing any longer than a few minutes. Then again, I'm in my 50s and can't sing as long as I did when I was in my teens to my 30s. It's depressing.
I want to chant like a buddhist monk but my voice is breathy😩
That’s what she said
always wished i had vocal coach in my youth. unfortunately singing isn't like riding a bike, do it wrong, and your voice will pay dearly.
I've been singing breathy all my life. I'm 30 now and I'm barely learning how to sing properly. I need a lot of help :(
Have you had any success with these exercises? it's hard to know what's at the root of your breathy singing without hearing and seeing you sing. If sing with twang or in a child's voice, does your tone become non-breathy?
@@singwisevocals i have a few videos in my channel. I think its just lack of support. Ive been incorporating the suspension, v shape breathing exercises for about a week now and also have been learning open throat and incorporated usig the straw and have been doing rasberry trills and buzzy sounds using "V". Singing has gotten much better since and my tone has gotten better. By my next video i should sound much better. Lol. Thank you!