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I’ve sung for the past ten years, both commercially and artistically. I’m not sure what made me decide to take voice lessons again, I certainly felt pretty up on my technique, but something told me that I was at a plateau, that there was possibly somewhere else I could go with my voice. I started to research different vocal methods and I stumbled across a technique that seemed to have been used by many singers I admired. The technique was called Speech Level Singing. It was founded by Seth Riggs who, I later have learned, is a very well regarded vocal instructor.

Now, I’m not a certified instructor, I’ve only been taking lessons for about 2 months, but let me try to explain it as far I as I understand it. If you place your hand over the front of your neck and count to ten out loud you should notice that your larynx remains motionless. This is what is called “Speech Level”. The phrase seems to have a sort of double meaning. On the one hand it kind of refers to the actual physical position of your larynx when speaking, and on the other hand it seems to refer to the volume at which you normally would talk. Both are key to this technique. SLS singers are attempting to keep their larynx in a completely neutral position, like when they’re speaking, and also attempting to not push their voices any louder than when they speak.

I began lessons with a level 2 instructor here in New York City named Kara Napolitano. Immediately she brought to my attention how high my larynx was when I sang. In fact, I had built my entire technique and style around a high larynx. The problem of singing with a high larynx is that at some point in order to accomplish higher pitches and a louder sound you need to activate more and more of the muscles surrounding the larynx. This can induce strain after a while. And indeed, I had experienced a good deal of strain in my time performing.

So the first task for me was to deactivate my larynx when I sing. This was accomplished by opening my throat and making kind of “dumb” sounds. Many “duh, duh, duh’s” later and I finally started to feel my throat opening and relaxing. I continue to struggle to not activate my larynx as I sing but with the help of some of the SLS excersises it has certainly gotten easier.

The next task before me was to try to keep my vocal chords connected through what are called my “bridges”. Everyone has several “regions” of their voice. Some people differentiate them as their “chest voice” and their “head voice” or “falsetto”. With Speech Level Singing the goal is to connect the various “voices” we possess. The way this is accomplished is through “bridges”. The best way I can describe a bridge is by saying it’s a sort of hybrid between a full chest voice and a full falsetto. It can sound a little squeaky, like a creaking door at times but that, in essence, is the idea. Instead of letting your vocal chords blow fully apart, like happens what you sing in a full falsetto, you attempt to keep them connected, even if that means making some less than desirable sounds. And a funny thing happens, when you really nail it, the sound actually IS desirable.

I have struggled quite a bit with this concept since I’ve developed quite a solid falsetto over the years. It was finally illustrated to me this past weekend at an SLS workshop I attended with vocal instructor powerhouse Wendy Parr. In a matter of minutes she had me squawking through my bridges.

Now that I at least understand how singing through your bridges feels I’m left trying to understand how I’m going to integrate this new sound into my singing. Here is a recent attempt by me to use the technique:

I’m determined to not fall into the American Idol type style that so many singers of this technique seems to have. But then again, that can’t be blamed on the technique but rather on the practitioners.All in all I think Speech Level Singing is a great tool. I look forward to sharing with you all where it takes me!

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Hans Erik
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Hans@Next2Friends.com