Your Body, Your Voice : The Key to Natural Singing and Speaking

This comprehensive, illustrated guide to vocal training focuses on the body as a whole—refuting traditional methods and offering invaluable holistic replacements. “Mystery turned into purest common sense. Indispensable.” —Alan Rickman, actor In this innovative book, Theodore Dimon, EdD, shows how each part of the vocal organ (breathing, larynx, throat, and so on) works as part of a larger musculoskeletal system that is often interfered with, and how identifying this larger system and understanding in a practical way how it works allows a person to train and improve the voice, whether speaking or singing. Traditional vocal training methods, says Dimon, cannot be effective without restoring the functioning of the musculature that supports the voice. Enhanced with over 50 detailed full-color illustrations, the book discusses the fallacy of traditional breathing exercises and explains that the key to efficient breathing lies in the expansive support of the trunk and rib cage. Investigating the elements needed to produce a strong supported tone, Dimon describes the importance of voice “placement,” or directing the sound to a part of the body in order to produce a fully rounded, resonant tone. He identifies harmful patterns of speech and singing, and offers helpful methods for reestablishing the natural function of the vocal mechanism. Individual chapters cover elements of the whispered “ah,” producing a pure sung tone, vocal registers, the suspensory muscles of the larynx, and more. Develop your vocal skills—whether for singing or speaking—in this comprehensive guide with over 50 illustrations and holistic techniques for vocal training and healing. Understanding the voice as part of a larger system: What interferes with it? And how can we restore it to its fullest potential? In this innovative book, Theodore Dimon, EdD, shows how each part of the vocal organ (breathing, larynx, throat, and so on) works as part of a larger musculoskeletal system that is often interfered with. Identifying this larger system—and understanding how it works—allows a person to train and improve their voice, whether for speaking or singing. Traditional vocal training methods, says Dimon, cannot be effective without restoring the functioning of the musculature that supports the voice. Enhanced with over 50 detailed full-color illustrations, the book discusses the fallacy of traditional breathing exercises and explains the key to efficient breathing lies in the expansive support of the trunk and rib cage. Investigating the elements needed to produce a strong supported tone, Dimon describes the importance of voice “placement,” or directing the sound to a part of the body to produce a fully rounded, resonant tone. He identifies harmful patterns of speech and singing, and offers helpful methods for reestablishing the natural function of the vocal mechanism. Individual chapters cover elements of the whispered “ah,” producing a pure sung tone, vocal registers, the suspensory muscles of the larynx, and more.“Mystery turned into purest common sense. Indispensable.”—Alan Rickman, actor The organizing principle of the voice Breathing The larynx The suspensory muscles of the larynx The problem of support Vocal registers (and the head voice) The singer's throat Placement Preventing the basic pattern of vocal misuse The five elements of effortless vocal production Elements of the whispered "ah" Producing a pure sung tone The voice and its total design. "Your Body, Your Voice presents the basic underlying design principles of the human voice, addresses harmful patterns of speech and singing, and offers techniques designed to restore the voice to its full potential"--Provided by publisher.