The Male Vocal Break, Sing High Notes Without Strain, Build Reliable Technique with Phil Moufarrege

In this chat with singing teacher Phil Moufarrege (2/8/2018), we discuss the male register break and passaggio - why it's such a challenging area of the scale, the common mistakes that singers make in this area that tend to cause the break and prohibit access to higher pitches, and what needs to be done to fix this problem so that the singer can have a reliable technique. Time stamps below.

philmoufarrege.com
   / philmoufarrege  

www.singwise.com
[email protected]
  / singwise  
  / singwisevocals  
  / singwisevocals  

Time Stamps (What's in this video and when can I find it?):

0:54 Why is the male passaggio such a challenging area?
1:19 The notes below the break
2:53 The speaking voice might give us clues
5:38 Common mistakes and pitfalls
6:33 Being too loud and bright
8:25 Looking at the chest register
8:48 It's all in the vowels
9:07 Looking at the scale more holistically and seeing the bigger picture; being shortsighted in our approach to fixing the break
10:48 Get a release in the throat first (get the tightness out)
13:53 Twang
14:43 Faulty perceptions and poor tonal concepts
16:46 High or low larynx? 'Projection'
21:06 The perception of sound, 'unfinished' and 'experimental' sounds
25:00 Patience and trusting the process
26:23 Building a reliable technique (rather than just 'hitting' the note')
32:15 The precariousness of an unreliable technique
33:30 The process of building a reliable technique (making it feel easy); getting good vowels; darkening the voice before brightening it
35:04 Training 'narrow' vowels and closed voice (voce chiusa); Pavarotti's super power
38:57 Getting brightness in the tone without sacrificing vocal freedom
40:57 Singing while sick and the lingering technique problems
42:58 No one wants to be scared of his/her voice; getting the notes in the break area to 'float' and feel 'easy.'
46:00 What does breath management have to do with the break?
49:12 Setting up the body (e.g., alignment and the inhale) for success
51:09 Don't just train to the high note; fall in love with the process; the high range is unforgiving
56:01 'Digging into' the sound, pushing chest, and yellling
1:03:00 The breath and sighing into the sound
1:05:46 The problem with training to the problem
1:08:00 Singing high notes after being sick
1:08:48 Just addressing symptoms won't get us a reliable technique
1:09:46 'Re-setting' the vocal tract with each inhale
1:10:34 How the high larynx and tense speaking voice can be improved with better breathing technique; working on the speaking voice; compensatory techniques that we develop when we're sick can carry over into our singing after we're better
1:17:18 Some technical approaches have a 'trade off' in terms of vocal efficiency and health