The Power Of 'uh' Part 2 - Singing 

No WAY... Hey Carl, I just found that if your voice feels crushed, gritty, or crackly, doing an OO with a lowered larynx and slowly making it louder with your lips in an extremely small fish-like pucker quickly opens the throat back up! :D For the longest time I couldn't figure out why my midrange was crackly, but my the range was fine, and after a few songs, the midrange got clear again. This is what was happening (after thinking about this a lot): Before karaoke, I would warm up the falsetto incorrectly, causing a vocal split on the notes that it was attempted on. After a drink, my voice would start to loosen up and I would try a low song. That went well. Then, soon after, I tried singing a higher song and it was awful. However, by the end of night, I could sing in that range and above with absolute freedom. The cause? As I got drunker, I would start cheering for other singers more, and by whooping "WOOOOOO!", the strangled notes I was unconsciously doing that on would open up. Because I never even thought to cheer on the middle notes around C4-F4 which is my primary belting area, they remained messed up for weeks or months on end as I continued to avoid the OO vowel for fear of it causing the voice to become breathy, as well as warming up incorrectly. Since OO is a curbing vowel, the higher you can do it, the higher you'll be able to sing in Curbing (what you call "mixed voice"). Today after trying to sing "Would" by Alice in Chains, I got frustrated by the thin and creaky vocal cracks, and started doing a messa di voce on the OO vowel with every note I could think of that was giving me trouble. To my astonishment, the creaking was gone after a few minutes! In The Tenor Voice, Anthony Frisell mentions that OO is the vowel that opens the throat the most, and states that OO can almost magically heal any tired or pressed part of the voice. And he is right! If Overdrive helps with this at all, it does it indirectly- because it uses less twang- but that made is not even possible without a strong OO on the notes you attempt it on. So if your voice ever cracks on you or is unintentionally gritty or wobbly, try "WOOO"-ing on those notes and I swear it will re-balance whatever is out of whack! Incidentally, OO is the vowel that increases your vocal range, as well. My biggest problem was twang, and this definitely fixed it- I can increase twang without engaging distortion. Never new you could do Curbing with this much twang. It's crazy. Must have had an irregular vibration on the notes that weren't working. Whatever it was is not there anymore. You would think a problem like that would take months to fix!

Omg I'm nearly 40 and this is the best singing advice I've ever received. Suddenly I've got more control and confidence in a what I'm about to sing. Thank you.

You changed my bad habits completely, I was used to using the muscles under my chin, but with the "uh" I find a nice clean sound and helps me let go of these muscles, and I dont feel tension anymore. A lot of teachers emphasize on the breathing to try to make the throat to relax but I have a bad habit of breathing and immediately depressing my larynx and using neck muscles so I have to sometimes breath very little diaphragmatic and just sing, even though I dont get the larynx position low as I would want it to be but its huge improvement and I feel extremely free!

I've got a lot of bad habits to undo (what you're talking about at 6.30). I created a lot of tension I need to rid of now. It is tough, people, I'm telling you. It's been a massive struggle to the point where I couldn't even do a hum without my voice breaking. My closure went up in the air. Now I'm going back to basics looking for it...Wish me luck, hehe. I hope my voice comes back because I've written so many songs and who's going to sing them..? Thank you for this lesson! I had to simplify it though ;) but I can hear the closure finally. I've missed this feeling so much, the ease. I am master of overdoing things, whether doing some exercises too hard or too lightly so I need to be careful..I wish you all here best of luck!

Outstanding explanation!!! So helpful!!!

You are absolutely right every thing comes after the right kind of squeeze of vocal cord.

2022.....this video still has legs. Man this is so helpful

Thanks Carl. Really valuable information. Cheers Michael

Thank you thank you thank you

Thanks Carl, this helps a lot..

This video helped me so oo oo much to bridge the passagio some how and I suddenly found release n the high pitch though wobbly DID connect! WOW!! 😁😊

Superb video - Thank you - Great information

Thanks for this, it's massively helpful Carl. Deceptively simple exercise.

You are my favorite vocal coach by far, you've helped me a lot, thank you

Superb advice ✨👍

I have comments and questions for you. The way I envision learning to sing is like making a very delicious cake. There are the basic ingredients you need to make most any sort of cake and without them...no cake. Then there are certain spices, embellishments to add flavor. Then of course most cakes have frosting. Do you need the frosting to have a "good" cake? No, but it makes the cake look and sometimes taste better. I think singing is like this...the frosting is fun...and it is what people notice first about the cake. But the frosting can be hiding a horrible cake underneath...misshapen....burned... you get the picture. So somebody might be able to sing in a very high falsetto, for example, but the rest of the song is subpar. Or someone may be able to sing runs very well but the rest of the song is.. eh. I want to ask...where is the damn cake? Carl...what I think you bring to the table is saying.. "Hey....if we want to sing well, then we need to focus on the basic ingredients first." Sure the basic ingredients may not be flashy but nonetheless they are essential. I suppose the disagreements that may arise are...what are these basic ingredients and why do we need them? Or why can't we just focus on the frosting and hope the cake will magically appear? For me...as a learner...I want to invest my time wisely. So I do want to understand the rationale behind methodology. I want to understand how one goes from these "uh"s to singing a song. I want to witness that transition. Can you tell us and show us the intended end result of the exercise? I watched a video recently of a young man who seemed to be doing a similar exercise as this and then he transitioned into singing a high note. It clicked with me...that aha moment....oooh so that is the reason! Or at least one reason for such an exercise. The other comment I wish to make is with regard to generalizing skills. My thinking is that...maybe a singer can sing a few song well due to sheer repetition. But if you get that singer out of their comfort zone of specific songs or genres...they may have a lot of difficulty attempting to sing something new. Sure...there are some specialized techniques for every music genre. But getting back to the cake metaphor....wouldn't it be easier to transition to singing new or different songs if you had confidence in in your basic ability to sing? And I think this gets back to what you are trying to do here. You are teaching the fundamental basics as you see fit. My question or rather request is....can you include an answer as to why a student should do such and such exercise? And can you simplify your answer for the person who knows nothing about singing and vocal training? What is the goal you wish the student to achieve and what does it sound like? Really great videos lately. You appear motivated, focused, and positive. Please keep going in this direction!

Great content Carl 👍🏾😊

Nice one, Carl.

I get the right kind of squeeze on "uh" but can only go to A3/B3 and then I have to either falsetto or have to add more squeeze and then it sounds somewhat oversqueezed/constipated type of sound..lol. Then I can get to E4/F4. Is that normal? I'm a bass.

You changed my voice and my life like overnight. I write songs but never could sing them. I have been torchered not being able to sing. This UH is 100% I can't stop singing now. As soon as I can I would like a lesson and be happy to provide a donation for making singing possible. Also I want you to teach my daughter! Check her out Jauslyn Gamboa on RU-vid. I know you can make her great.

When you do that, where is the voice placed? Is it like near the nasal cavity?

Great video Carl. I can't get the squeaky sound your getting. I feel like I'm maintaining the split and I feel released but I need to practice it more.

The ´uh´ is really hard to sound good and clean at any pitch. It is not a Bel Canto sound so many of us are driven to form the ´uh´ into a Bel Canto vowel - which sucks balls for English. Thank you for dedicating an entire broadcast for this sound, the most ubiquitous of the English sounds. I sing a lot in Spanish and Italian, so the ´uh´ is not there in those songs. For the English I get way off the pronunciation just trying to sound clean! Crazy as English is my primary language.

You say that I have to go up to high C before I address any other vocal issue ! Isn't that one so high? I think I could get away with singing a G4! Won't the exercise be considered a success if I manage to get up to that?

Uh is the balanced side of the ney... great 👍🏻

As soon as you said "squeaky door" I was like "OH I GET IT!!"

Got this working a little better now- thank you for the emphasis on UH. It's one of the hardest vowels to sing in chest voice for this reason: If you release to it too soon below C4, you won't have enough gas (and therefore compression/connection). Practicing falsetto below G4 is a waste of time- it never grows stronger that low, and trying to add twang doesn't work either because there's not enough strength in the adduction muscles. The solution? Closed-quotient belt exercises (the SLS "NO" is one of them, believe it or not!). I like to practice on saying "HEY" or "YAY"- and only in the first break, no higher than G4. After a bit of that, your connection will be improved, and you'll have more power and clarity in notes you used to crack on. Training above G4 is a little bit different- it's like the voice does a somersault in your mouth. You're letting go of something- maybe the voice itself- and it's floating somewhere above your head, it seems. I've had the G4-C5 range down for a couple of years, but D4-G4 was a mystery. Now it's obvious- belting is not just chest voice in that range. It's your mix, taken to the extreme. So don't be afraid of making loud sounds- you're not weighing down your voice if you do it correctly. Once you can get that first mix at D4-G4 strong and solid, the G4-C5 will be more secure. Once that happens, C5-F5 will start coming in. And then F5-C6....The coordinations will change, but the compression is consistent throughout and the stronger it gets, the less effort will be needed to get those notes consistently. It's kind of crappy that you can't fast-track this, but what a difference it makes to put in the time and effort! It's like getting a whole new voice.

I'm sounding like a seal on high notes

So basically what the special acting dude in that womendress from little britian was doing, is training his uh uh uh´s