ah suspect a strangle H yes luchano I do suspect
the strangle hello everyone I am back uh I've been kind of out of commission for the last month
uh teaching rehearsing and uh actually putting together a brand new premiere of a stage very
reum and also unfortunately sick I've been out of commission for the last three weeks or so
with a really horrible case of bronchitis uh but we're back now and this time I I want to do a
more in-depth video specifically about the topic of Paso and how to sing in the pagio I feel like
this topic comes up all the time with my students this seems to be the most difficult concept to
comprehend and to grasp which ironically enough if you understand this concept it allows you to
open up the upper range of your voice The Voice is not one voice from top to bottom we do not sing in
one position and this goes for all voices soprano Meto tener baritone basis all of them our job as
singers is to give the illusion that the voice is one from bottom to the top but it's just that it's
an illusion the audience wants to hear one unified voice but the singer internally is actually making
coordinated decisions to shift gears constantly between the registers of his voice singing is
actually very similar to driving a manual car for example we're constantly shifting gears as
we get faster and faster and faster it's the same way with singing although from the outside
if you shift correctly it seems like the car will run smoothly like it just runs from one speed to
its top speed at a very smooth way it's the same thing for the singers as we Ascend in our range
there's constant shifting and maneuvering in order to continue to ascend in a manner that looks
unified to the audience so when we're talking about singing in the pagio and through the pagio
okay we're talking about an actual lenal movement in which the larynx tilts this is the covered
position that we may be so familiar with this name covering the sound this is that motion the
lenial Tilt if we don't make certain preparations so that the larynx is free to make that movement
then we just won't be able to sing through our pagio it's just that simple it will not feel good
it will feel forceful it would feel like if we're reaching as we Ascend Higher and Higher and we
will feel like our high range our high register is completely closed off as if there was a lid or
a ceiling put in our high in our high range along with this lenal movement there is also a position
that we need to prepare this yawn position that I speak so much about in my previous videos in
which the pallet races the larynx lowers the tongue stays forward so it doesn't fall back
and now we're in this open throat position so anytime anyone says sing with an open throat
open throat means the yawn position as if you're yawning this position is also the head voice okay
this is very very important if you talk in the yawn voice like I'm talking now this is actually
the head voice you can describe it as very gentle very Hollow very smooth and flexible like I could
go really high and really low and really high and H we need to add this element this head voice in
the singing voice gradually as we Ascend and then we need the other side of the voice as well the
other register which is the chest register this is the register we're most familiar with because
it's the register we speak in the problem that most singers run into when they start singing
opera is that they want to sing Everything in Pure Chess voice nothing is well supported
here it's all supported here and as they ascend instead of letting go they want to force more
and shove sound more it ends up sounding like a scream it doesn't work a lot of singers who
try to take that register to the extreme top is what we will called belting which you also
need to know how to do that in a healthy way because just yelling at the top of your lungs
with just pure chest voice is not the healthy way to sing you're going to feel fatigued
you're going to feel like you've reached the plateau in your range everything is going
to sound squeezed everything's going to feel like we're choking or strangling and there
will be no sort of security and consistency As we sing that we need for our own confidence
to get up on stage and know that we can sing this high note but the most important thing of
all is that if we sing this way without really understanding the Leno of movement the mixture
between the registers and what really is the optimal way to sing through the pagio then we
are not singing in the operatic style that's as plain as I can get it's not Opera now as I send
through my range I'm going to make it pretty obvious so you can hear the moment where this
L lenal tilt happens this covered sound happens [Music] [Music] not this no no no no no that's me not changing
anything and trying to sing Everything with chest without without the lenal Tilt impeding
the larynx from making the lenal [Music] Tilt no yes no yes okay so now that we have sort of
an ear and we heard what the covered the Tilt sound is supposed to sound like compared to just
continuing on singing Everything open ah and full chested ah without the lenal Tilt I would like to
break it down literally range by range as we get to the middle voice and going through the pagio
as we continue to ascend to the higher range so I like to think that I have in front of me like
two nodules right kind of like a DJ in which here is my chest voice nodule I can go from zero
to 100 and here is my head voice nodule another 0 to 100 so I would say anything from a low a
and even lower than that if you have those low notes as a tenor to middle C it's all in the
chest parl speaking range in which the chest nodule is about 100% And the head voice the yawn
position is at zero okay there's no reason to prepare the low notes right
you don't need that no no no it's very I don't need to
think space in the lower range there's no need to you could sing
it exactly as you're speaking it [Music] par poot is a great example because
every time he would go towards the lower part of his range he would
always sing it very bright very par it was always fully chested
no need to force but it just just like you're speaking a a e o no need to
modify vowels between low a and middle C there's no need to modify vowels
there's no reason why we need to do anything funky with the with the words the
words should be clear and very speech-like now from middle C onwards something does
happen we need to start relinquishing the amount of Chess voice we have in the sound
and start to look lower that nodule of chest voice that's at 100% lower it at least
10% from C to D and you have to mix in that head voice the 10% so right now we're
at 90 and we're at 10 for the next D so if we're in middle C ah and we want to
sing a d flat add a little no head voice and as we keep on going higher
and higher in our middle range entering the Pago we want to start relinquishing
a little bit of that chest you know in your face open Sound and have more of that yawn position
we're starting to now prepare okay there's no need to have a complete open throat in middle
C and D flat because it's still a little bit low we want to though start preparing that
position so that we do gradually create space as we approach the pagio in F G so again
if I'm at 100% in middle C as we go up to F natural so I am relinquishing that a little bit
of that chest voice and starting to add starting to prepare that y position it's no longer ah a
it's no longer that it's letting go of the chest nodule bringing that nodule lower like you would
bring down the volume of a of the radio bringing down that chest register lower and increasing
the nodule of the head voice of that yawn position now as you do this though keep
in mind we never want to give up chord closure if you don't know what I'm talking about
I have made plenty of videos talking about cord closure we always need that clean glotto attack
Ah Ah that's the squalo that's the resonance even though you're letting go of that chest
register that squeo that clear core closure should still be present in the sound even as
you're adding that yawn position that head voice a a so now that we're up to an F natural and
we're somewhere around 60% chest 40% head voice as we approach F sharp
and G one thing we don't want to do is continue to open our mouth wide a no if anything it's the opposite and this is
key you must gather your mouth at the front so you allow for opening in the back in other words
to be able to sustain that open throat position that yawn position we cannot open our mouth ah
to the extreme we have to keep this small and gathered in order to open the back oh if this is
my face and these are my teeth and my mouth okay like this if I open the front of my mouth as I
sing through the pagio wide open then the back is closed see in order to have that yawn open
throat position the mouth needs to be closed it's kind of like a seesaw you cannot have
both you cannot have this wide open and this open it's just like a seesaw where one person
has to be in the top and the other person has to be in the bottom and if the other person
drops then the other person is in the top and that person is now on the bottom you cannot have
both you cannot have the mouth completely open and an open throat that would mean that you
dislocated your jaw an atomically in order for us to maintain that open throw position
these needs to be also very small and gather it's a it's a very seesaw situation if we
open it Clos if we close we open if it opens we close if we close we open we want that
open throat position but the more I open my mouth I can't I can't I cannot maintain my
pallet uh raised and I cannot maintain my laring low it's impossible and I see this
all the time as singers approach F GNA they want to open so wide and I tell them
do the opposite it's going to force you to try to find a different way to sing in that
range if you close your mouth but still do the yawn position internally so what I'm doing is
literally but inside with this small gathered if you do that you will find that now you have
this space in the back of your throat and it's different to what you're probably used to
it's going to sound different it's going to sound Maybe funny and funky to you that's fine
because this is the first big gear change in our [Music] singing when this is small and gathered you will find the sound going through the
open throw position if this is open you can't do it you have to experiment
like I always say and understand that there is a different way to phonating there's always
a different way of phonating that you're used to one that you're not familiar with it is a
very different concept singing like this and singing like this are very different concepts
the U vow or the O vow is usually a good vow to start with to understand this concept because
the U and the O Naturally by Nature create this sort of mouth position oo o oo o which is the
position that we want to maintain when singing the pagio very disciplined very polished very Noble
sound which Pavarotti also talks about this Noble sound no one of the ways that I learned to do
this is by literally grabbing a little cap from your water bottle or juice
bottle or whatever just a little cap about the size of a quarter and
putting it in the front of your teeth naturally you will create that shape of the
mouth like this small and gathered and you're not allowed to open your mouth if you open your
mouth the cap will fall off off your mouth if you keep this in your teeth and small the
idea is as you maintain this in the front of your teeth you don't have to bite it hard just
maintain it in in the front of your teeth very gentle like so as you ascend it's going to force
you to really find the yawn position the open throat position because you're not allowed to
sing the note the way you're used to which is opening ah no it's going to force you to find
the lenial tilt position this would be a wrong example no this is the right [Music] example so when I sing this
octave as far as movement and position of the mouth I don't change anything
okay I don't Pento up either you sing the bottom octave don't change anything
sing the the upper octave all in one [Music] breath this will force you
to find that yawn position that tilt that we need to sing through the [Music] pagio small and gathered and the funny thing
is that if you look up any old school tenner you will find them always in this position
this is not me Googling pavaroti in an oos mouth by the way okay this is literally
just Google Pavarotti Google J Google Boni Google Bing Google wle they're always
in this small gathered position especially when they're singing in the pagio there is no
operatic role that I can think of especially in Verdi donetti belant rolls in which you
can open the pagio and live you will die [Music] my [Music]
[Music] [Applause] book you oh from [Music] my [Music] de and you must get used to this gear shift
when tackling these phrases that go through the pagio and back down through the pagio
and back down for example a musical phrase like [Music] this which is literally going
through the pagio through an open position cover Precision back to open Precision
you must be able to understand and have the coordination and navigate through
these phrases that are written through the [Music] pagio open to cover to open to cover open covered open you must get used to this gear
shift which happens by creating the open throat now the wonderful thing about
this is that as you practice this idea as you relinquish that chest register and
keep adding more of that head voice a and always approach it in a very gentle
sigh gentle singing smooth and soothing oh as you master singing through the pagio
then you're also going to experience a sense of release and a sense of opening and you're
going to feel like that ceiling that Plateau that you had before by saying everything open
is no longer there you're going to feel more flexibility in the voice as far as the vibrat
the breath the air everything must always be supported everything must always have that chord
closure the vows must always be clear okay which is also something I didn't mention if we're doing
the even the cap exercise on an O an A or an U don't ever let the vowels get dark because you're
already creating that yawn space so if on top of that yawn space that open throw space you're also
darkening your vowels now we're in the ingat now we're in the world of of fake dark and we don't
want that always bright vowels always clear cord closure but we're doing that in an open
throat space e a e e a e e a e e a e o oh I'm thinking really bright ooh it's just that
I'm doing it in a yawn space so it has already that covered quality to it this is the trick to
being able to sing through the pagio and navigate to the upper register as you ascend into the upper
register you guessed it you start to let go even more of that chest voice and more more more of
the head voice you're going to feel like it's almost like a string that stretches thinner and
thinner and thinner and thinner as we Ascend and that is the connection to the core sound it gets
thinner and thinner and thinner so that it never gets too weighty it never gets too much fatigue
here or we feel like we're lifting something heavy when we sing the top it should always feel
like we're gliding like this effortless approach to the top like we're soaring through to our
high register not like we're lifting through that's not good so middle SE to a natural we're in
that middle voice range in which we need to sing through the pagio and we're relinquishing the
chest voice with and and adding more head voice and we're we're gradually creating more Yaar
space and we are letting the larynx tilt from a natural to B flat High B high C and higher now
we're in our high range we already in the Tilted position oh we already in that tilted position this
is now the range where we can go from very small to now opening the mouth again
not incredibly not completely incredibly wide but we can start opening the mouth as
we continue to sing through the higher range since we're already in the Tilted position
we're already golden and prepared for the upper range all we have to do is sustain that
position sustain the cord closure sustain the brightness of The Vow maintaining that yawn
position in which the larynx is still low and the pallet is raised and we start to focus
the sound and thin the chest voice by the time we're in the high register B flat High B high
C the chest register Nao has gone down to like 10% 20% and the head voice takes over completely
it's 80 90% 80% head 20% chest High SE 90% head 10% chest the connection is always there we
never disconnect and sing falsetto that would be incorrect but it should feel like falsetto
and that is because the head voice is now taken over oh oh this is how we create this illusion I just
changed like three gear shifts as I Ascend it to the top but to the audience it will sound
like a unified voice one other thing to keep in mind of is remember the lenal position
must be low but it must never be compressed if you're compressing your larynx because you're
trying to get this open throat sound and this open throat position but you're compressing the larynx
that's your mistake number one you will tire out because you're using all the musculature in
your neck to bring and keep your larynx low no your larynx must always be floating a floated
larynx is what we want which is a flexible Larn okay you can see my LX pretty well from here
in a low position yes but also enough space for the larynx to jiggle to be free we don't want
it extreme we don't want it to jiggle all the way up all the way down because that is a vocal
crack that's what happens when you crack when you crack is because your larynx shoots up like
a [Music] Yodo laryn is just shooting up I always like to say the larynx is like a pet you can't
grab a poor little puppy or a poor little dog and put it in this tiny little cage and constrain
it into this tiny little area never let it move never take it for a walk never give it food
you're just keeping it super tight in the spot it will Rebel it will break out it will not like
you the larynx is the same way don't keep it in a cage in a tiny cage you have to give it its
space you don't want it to run away that would be the larynx running away you want to give the
larynx a a an amount of space that has a limit so that he doesn't run away but enough space
for it to play for it to walk for it to have fun that's when you will find a much released
feeling to the sound never compress your larynx and never let It Jiggle to extremes it's allowing
it to jiggle in a controlled area all right so these are some of the tips and ideas and
suggestions and Concepts that I like to give to my students that I thought of today that I
wanted to share with you all as far as singing through the Pago and how to be able to sing
in and through the pagio uh which is a very very difficult concept especially for teners
because it's the most uncomfortable point in our voice it's the breaking point in our voice
and if we don't do it correctly it can lead to a vocal disaster like always these are my my
observations my experiences you go ahead and try them if they don't work for you you can forget
about them and I wish you the best of luck in your own vocal studies if you liked what I have to say
and you tried it out and it helped then I am super happy that I was able to help you in some way uh
give the video a like subscribe to the channel I will continue to keep making these videos as
much as I can and as much as my schedule allows me to and I wish you all the very best in your
vocal Journeys Chia Chow for now until next time