Sirening for vocal range and a healthy voice

Sirening

I don't know who invented it but Jo Estil championed it. Sirening. Say the word sing then hold on to the ngggggg

Singggggggggg then gently use the Ng as a siren. Use it to explore your whole vocal range. 

See how high you can go. See how far away you can make the siren or how quiet you can make the siren. 

As you go higher with the siren you will notice that the back of the tongue pushes against your molars. To point out the blatantly obvious this means your tongue is nice and high at the back right out of the way. 

Try it on a 5 note scale. 

Why we siren

A: To lift the soft pallet.  The soft pallet lift puts a lovely brightness in the sound. When the soft pallet is down we get that dull nasal froggy sort of sound. 

B: To practice bring our vocal chords together gently. 

When we get carried away as singers ( and I am guilty of this)

We tend to smack our vocal chords together. This happens when we try to hard. We push. 

When we bring the chords together that's called adduction . When you smack the chords together that's know as over adduction. Bringing the vocal chords together gently is something that can be practiced. We can do that through sirening. 

3: Extending the vocal range.  When you siren you'll find that you can coax the voice into going higher and higher. You can steer it into pockets you never realised you had. Some times a student is having trouble with high notes and I will ask them to siren. Higher and higher. I then point out that " you just sirened an octave higher than the note you are having trouble singing .