we looked at the larynx in terms of position and how it worked in singing and how we can assess it and now I want to delve into how we can address and correct those issues so we're going to just do a quick review of the different positions and then we're going to cover what's the aim of these particular exercises and then we'll look at specific exercises to address the different larynx height issues that we might encounter and then what to do if the larynx is well managed so just to quickly review the main positions of the larynx that we're concerned about in singing is the larynx too high or too low or is it neutral and if you can remember if someone's singing with a high larynx you might find that the sound is very yelly or shouty they go flat in Pitch we might see the larynx going up we might see tension in the throat they might um not be able to control their volume and only have a loud volume available to them their voice might crack or break um if the larynx is too high if the larynx is too low then we might find that they're struggling to get vocal fold closure because the vocal folds aren't in the right position and they can't adduct so they can't come together at the midline and we can't get a pitch it will be a quiet volume possibly even breathy they won't be able to get the sound sort of to carry out over in in a projected way and you might even describe the sound as being like Hollow or woy the other two positions we talked about were neutral high and neutral low so the larynx does need to come up slightly in order to get a more belted quality and we'll talk about that later in the course but if it goes too high that's when we get in trouble so there is this spot it's like the sweet spot where it's higher than neutral but it's uh not too high that it's causing problems and the same thing can happen with the lower larynx you can bring it down to get a little bit more of a sort of more um darker sound but if you don't bring it too low then it's not going to impede your ability to create a strong sound or lower pitch quite often you'll hear the sound sort of in especially as you go into the neutral high place like it feels and it sounds strong it's on Pitch it's well controlled you can do it in a quieter dynamic as well as a louder Dynamic so you have some dynamic range and it kind of pings that's I can remember quite often when I was working with people who were trying to find that spot you know the thing I'd go oh did you hear that it sort of pinged it just resonates in a really vibrant way so it's not uncommon for a singer especially beginner singers to what's called track the pitch with their larynx so as they go higher the larynx goes higher and as they go lower the larynx goes lower so you might hear um the singer doing something like a and everything gets tight and yelly and pinched or if they're going lower a and suddenly the pitch or the sound disappears and so this is because the larynx is either tracking the pitch going upwards so it's following um the pitch you know by changing its position or it's going down as the as the singer sings in their lower part of their range now for the most part from my experience especially in the Contemporary world you're going to be focused on keeping a larynx from going too high that seems to be a little bit more common than the larynx going too low but that's not to say that you won't get it um so keep an eye out for the signs and really initially our aim is just to help the singer understand that they can control the larynx height and we need to help them understand how that feels how it sounds and um and also sort of get feedback from them in terms of whether they like that sound or not and if they don't like it what is it about that sound they don't like now if they've never had a strong sound it might be quite aggressive in in their head um quite often what we hear in our head's not the same as what people are hearing on the outside and so if they're not used to hearing a loud tone then when they get good closure and their larynx is stable and they're getting a strong sound it might feel really quite sort of affronting so we do need to get some feedback and and reassure you know if they're singing well and it's all balanced and there's um good vocal forclosure and the larynx is staying in a well control position then we need to help them understand that actually this is you know what good singing is and if they're not wanting it because of a stylistic thing then generally what I do is I'll say okay so when you're singing and Performing you sing the way that you're wanting to in terms of your brand or Identity or your style but when you're practicing and working your voice in between you need to be able to find that that balanced place and so that and come back to that balanced Place afterwards as well otherwise if we sing with a high larynx for too long it will end up with vocal fold issues and possibly the same with the low larynx not as much of a problem as hopefully you remember me talking about that so another thing obviously to look out for from your point of view especially when you're trying to find that neutral High position is are you noticing any vocal fatiguing any any heness of tone any loss of range are they complaining of losing their voice um doing this over a period of time or are they complaining of discomfort or pain so these are going to be obviously very strong indicators that whatever you think's going on is actually that the larynx is going too high when it comes to finding a neutral High position it really is going to be a matter of experimentation you're going to use your ears and your eyes and check in with the singer as you go it's really important you get the feedback from them as much as also noticing for yourself what's going on because if there's some kind of vocal fatigue going on like um horseness or loss of range um if they're complaining of losing their voice after singing in this way for a while or they're getting discomfort or pain around especially around the throat area then obviously it's problematic so you need to then pull back or stay more neutral for a while and then come back to playing around with finding that higher neutral position so it can take a little time and it can take some going down the wrong paths occasionally I remember myself going through that where I thought I was in a neutral High position but then I lost my voice after singing for about 10 15 minutes and I realized oh that was obviously too high for me so then the next time when I came back to it I tried to find a another position that wasn't as high as where I thought it should be yeah so that becomes a negotiation and also needs to be done as in a partnership between the singing teacher and the singer so that they can get the feedback they need as well as you right so getting started with exercises uh the first one is really just to help the student experience the different position that the larynx can be in so you're going to start by explaining why we want more control over the larynx and it might be that you've already assessed the voice and noticed some deficits and they may have already come in to the lesson saying that they've got some problems that they want to uh deal with and that might actually relate to where their larynx is sitting so say they're talking about they can't get through their transition without the voice cracking or only sounding yelly or just having to push through through you can relate that to the fact that this is because your larynx is coming up too high um if they're wanting to have more volume because uh they're losing pitch and volume as they go lower you can then say well this is because your larynx is dropping down as you start to sing in that lower part of your range so they start to see what the connections are and understand why it's important so that's the first thing and then I think the first step is really just to give someone that physical awareness of what is high what is neutral what is low so we're going to get the singer to place their fingers flat against their throat we're going to get them to identify the larger lump or the lumps that sort of stick out a little bit more obviously easier for males than females and then will'll get them to start by doing a swallow and noticing where where is the larynx at the beginning of that action so when we swallow the first thing that happens is the larynx will pop up and then it'll come back down again so we're just more interested in that initial movement up then ask them to begin a yawn so hopefully they'll notice that the bumps are going downwards so this is the lower position and then ask them to count 1 to 10 can just in their normal speaking voice or maybe just um tell tell you what their name is and assuming that everything is all right with their larynx in in the speaking context they'll realize that their larynx is just sitting there not really doing much in the way of movement now there may be some students who have a bit more movement in their lycs when they're speaking and that happens a little bit more with males and especially when they're um still going through the the um transition or the puberty they may have gone through but you know it takes until maybe the mid-20s for the male voice to really settle down and so there may still be quite a bit of movement and that's okay we're just looking to make sure that it's not extremely high extremely low so now we're going to get the student to experience the larynx height while they're making sound so still with their fingers at the larynx they're going to say this exaggerated ah a sound as in the word cat you might remember I Ed the example of Janice from friends um and Fran drna as examples of this exaggerated sound and then the next sound is experiencing a more a lower larynx so that's the uh sometimes I'll say especially if they're young say du you know du in that way where your your larynx is in that lower position and then ah as in father for the more neutral position so now they're starting to equate certain sounds with certain larynx positions and this correlates as well when we're singing um and sometimes actually we can go from one V into another so you might hear someone singing uh something like a uh like an a val ah and as they go higher their vow starts to change more towards a now this is um a strategy that the singer sometimes does automatically to get a bigger sound as they go up uh because their brain doesn't believe that they can get that sound as strong in the more R position a the other thing is that the vowels tend to want to go in a particular direction as we go up in pitch and as the frequency changes and you'll learn and understand that a little bit better when we delve into form so while you're doing all this make sure you're getting feedback from the student I don't tell the student what's going to happen I ask them what did you experience because if the student can figure it out they're more likely to remember it for themselves rather than if you tell them so I tend to do these exercises and get the student to figure out the answers then I'll confirm it or we might have to delve into it a little deeper to find out why they're not experiencing it that way and it might be that they're not really saying it in an exaggerated way enough and it might also be that perceptually they just aren't getting it you know some people are more auditory some people more visual some people more kinesthetic and maybe if they're not tuned into the kinesthetic side they might not notice the shift in their larynx until you point it out so the third exercise we can get the student to place their fingers on their larynx whilst they're singing and then feedback what they're noticing is happening in the different parts of their range so that might be on a scale so you might be doing the long [Music] scale and they're singing along with the scale and then they might notice oh as I go up my larynx is going up or as I go down my larynx is dropping so they're becoming much more self-aware about what the larynx is doing um during the singing process so say for inance inst they've been able to keep their larynx in a neutral position so you've been doing an exercise just an arpeggio um so it might be um n everything's working really well and then they get [Music] higher and things change so I'll go back to a key where they were able to maintain a more neutral Ln so say for instance it was was [Music] here and then I'll get them to do the next scale with exactly the same feeling and I'll say focus on the larynx staying in that neutral position that it doesn't go up under your fingers or focus on keeping that vow sound in the more Dopey position no and we might have to exaggerate it for a little while before it becomes easier to then convert that into a more normal sound and then I'll just toggle back and forward until their voice starts to understand what it needs to do it can take a little time you know it might take weeks sometimes even months depending on what's going on with the voice and what the original issues were so don't be afraid to go back to where it was working and then to the place where it's problematic and then back to where it was working and then back to the place where it's problematic until they start to be able to transfer that same coordination now if the singer is able to find the neutral position and maintain control of their larynx by just feeling what's happening at the throat obviously the next step is to take away the hands and see if they can maintain it anyway that's the job done really isn't it um but quite often it isn't as easy as that so say it hasn't just all fallen into place then we have a few more options so this one here exercise four is focusing on discouraging the larynx from going up too high so you can ask the student to imagine that they're going into a yawn as they're vocalizing and it might be right from the beginning of the scale so it might be no or it might be just as they're getting closer to the area where it's a problem just see what works um for the student you might ask them to imitate someone like Homer Simpson or Barney rubble's voice so that's a little bit more in that position so if that's they don't know those characters um then maybe find another character that has that kind of voice that they can relate to so might require a little bit of research from your end and so um you might just say imitate that voice as you're singing just pretend that you're that character as you're singing through that scale or through that song the other instruction might be make the sound Dopey um so as soon as people hear Dopey they go oh yeah I know what to do there and then they'll start bringing their larynx down you might even use a D sound [Music] like to really encourage and reinforce that larynx staying in the lower position now it sounds ridiculous uh it doesn't and it's certainly not how we want to sound ultimately all we're doing right now is working from a functional point of view to correct the um the issue which is the larynx coming up as the singer goes higher so we're using this to help reinforce a new type of coordination so create new neural Pathways and we will exaggerate initially and then eventually we will then progress to sounding more normal um and that's something you can you reassure the student on as well to say we're not going to be singing like this forever this is just whilst your larynx and your muscles and nerves are starting to get used to the idea of maintaining a more neutral larynx as you sing higher sometimes a singer might need a more physical action to trigger that larynx changing position so you could get them to drop their arm down as they go higher or bring their arm up as they go lower if that helps um to make that correlation you'll find that most consonants work well with this but if you stick to more headier vowels like e and ooh or more neutral vs like uh and o or even uh then you'll find that um that they work quite well to help reinforce that dopier sound so there are a bunch of exercises that will help discourage the larynx from going too high so if we need to discourage the larynx from dropping too far down as the singer is singing then we can take a couple of approaches the first one is get them to uh take a more spoken or speech-like approach so I I often say it's like speaking at pitch so they might use a sound like b or but or M or gut and I'll say just say the sound for me so just do but but but but but and and sometimes I'll do this where I'll get them to actually say but whilst I play The Melody of the scale and I'll do descending note scale is a good one here and I'll just get them to do but but but but but so they're just saying it and then I'll get them to do that a few times so they get used to how that feels and I'll say keep the same feeling but now add pitch bot bot bot bot bot and and if they take that more spoken approach then their larynx is probably going to stay in a more neutral position then the local folds have a chance of coming together or adducting so that they can get the sound and the pitch out another strategy is actually to replace the sounds with numbers because that's closer to actually speaking 5 4 3 2 1 in this instance cheser vows are probably a better option so a a a and we want consonants with less air flow so b m D we want to avoid the more frickative sounds as it doesn't give the vocal folds um much chance to close so the final exercise really is if everything's going well and they're doing it without any problems with the different scales that you're trying out on um you know if they're able to do this on a broken arpeggio for instance that often tells us that the coordination going really well and that they're starting to really gain control over their larynx because we're jumping from low to high to middle and um and so that's really putting everything to the test so if that's all going well you're happy with it they're happy with it it's time to apply it into song now sometimes that transition from a scale and a single sound can actually throw the singer off and if they go into Melody where you know the melody is going all over the place and there's lots of different consonants and and vowel sounds to deal with and rhythms and um sustaining notes and all that sort of stuff it can actually throw the singer off so what I would do is just take a small section of the song pop the hand back here and then apply the same principles of keeping the voice Dopey or in that yawn position if the larynx tends to go up or taking a more spoken approach if the laryn tends to go down and then I apply all of that into the context of singing the song so that's it for addressing and correcting larynx issues if you have any further questions then make sure that you message me you can either put it in discussions or in the um inbox also go and watch a few of the teaching clinics because there will be singers there that have variety of different issues and you'll start to notice when the tutor is working with the larynx and the particular exercises they might be applying to help the student address those issues