I’m pouting. The first time I tried to create this post (ouch, uncorrected typo was “pose”), it was lost (yes, I “saved”). So I’m not inspired to re-write a useful little piece on vocal support and sound production. Suffice to say, to do this work safely, you support and vocalize like a singer. Pavarotti to his students (no lie): “you squeeze and push like with the bowel movement, yes?” I said beautiful things about the lightness and relaxation of the throat, and likened believing that one’s voice comes from the throat to believing in one’s Ego. Stop clutching at that notion. So when I’ve done other things and am no longer grumpy I’ll say more.

In the meantime, talk to a singer. It [the Vocal Sequence] should feel strange and “not me”-ish. We sometimes laugh at the way opera singers “speak” lines not set to music in a performance. But consider, you can hear them. If you want to play with frequency spread and find mixes which “carry,” you vary the speed of the air passing through your column (through pressure) and try bouncing the vector of sound off different surfaces in your sinuses and skull. Any master of stage performing is going to have some instinct for this approach if not a good deal explicit training. The Method and film acting have almost eclipsed the pleasures available within this sonic world (as far as mass consumption goes), but it still works because it involves the rudimentary physics of how to be heard in a space. Yes, I’m one of those who is reluctant to use miking in a production, except when you want to create mindblowing special effects–then I love it. But just to be heard? Please. Whenever you feel like pushing the throat to accomplish something, let that Frankie Goes to Hollywood song play in your head, you know the one, the disco sex manual from the Eighties (not Two Tribes).