Alexa: yeah, we are back together again today, but with a suitcase in tow because we’ve brought a bunch of singing studio props with us to share how we can utilize them in the singing lesson. And this is something that you have presented for Vocology in Practice and for BAST Training and so we’re bringing it over to the podcast.

Kaya: Well, thanks for having me. And yeah, let’s get, I like, I’d like to call it my Mary Poppins bag of weird things. I have a smaller mobile one and then I have my studio full of weird and random things that I’ve picked up over the years.

Alexa: Yeah, amazing. Well, before we get into a number of the props, let’s just take a look at what the general benefits can be to using something external or physical in the singing lesson.

Alexa: So why do you tend to use them?

Kaya: Oh, it’s a few different things. One of them is, is. you know, giving the body the kinesthetic feel that I might be going for [00:01:00] without thinking about it because the likelihood of the students starting to think about how to do something and then automatically getting into their muscle memory, if you want, or, you know, the neural pathways that are already really strong because of their habits and the body doesn’t really recognize good habits or bad habits.

Kaya: So if it’s a habit, it feels natural. And if you’re thinking about how to do something then you are likely to just go into what old habit is. And if we’re doing vocal habilitation, which is the forming of new habits, then that could be really unhelpful. But if you feel it physically and then. you can then recall it from an intellectual space.

Kaya: So that’s, you know, the research suggests that this external focus rather than the internal focus is, is a quicker way to, to getting these new habits in.

Alexa: Is that something that we know as being tactile stimuli? So asking another sense or a [00:02:00]movement or an action to be brought in to the tasks that it can sort of entrain or coordinate the voice as you intend.

Kaya: They’re all connected as well, you know, and also, you know, if I ask a student who on first I can you lift your soft palate and drop your jaw and then, you know lower your larynx and instead you just do, can you put this in your mouth or can you can you do this vowel and this consonant? You’re getting the same result, but without relying on a lot of previous skills and knowledge.

Kaya: So there’s, there’s also that element of, you know, getting, getting into doing much quicker. Sometimes it’s also very much about distraction, you know, that there are some of the tools that you might use. You know, things like bending forward during, you know, during a lip trill and all of a sudden. Yeah.

Kaya: The high notes feel easier combination of the physical activity, but also not thinking [00:03:00]up if somebody was, had a tendency to kind of imagine the notes up high and loads of different reasons.

Alexa: Definitely. And also, they’re fun. They’re that fun element of the lesson. When we’re thinking about how we can make the lessons really enjoyable and different, we can pull upon these props.

Alexa: So let’s open up Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders, or your Mary Poppins bag, and let’s see what props we have that we can utilise. Where do you fancy starting, Kaya?

Kaya: Well, shall we go relatively chronologically and start with what kind of things would you do earlier in the lesson rather than later?

Alexa: Sounds good to me.

Alexa: So I see you’ve got a ball in your hand, a tennis ball. So for those of you who may be listening to this through audio, we’ll describe as much as we can, but you might want to hop on over to our YouTube page and see the visuals. But Kaya currently has in her hand a tennis ball. So what are you going to be using that for? We’re going to be practicing our backhands and our forehands? [00:04:00]

Kaya: So no, but a little bit of double no. So there’s a few different things I could use a tennis ball. If we are talking about the beginning of the lesson with somebody with a lot of tension, you know, sometimes it could actually be getting into certain area.

I am now, for the audio people, I am using it to have one of those muscles in my neck that, is a little bit of an issue for me and I use a tennis ball quite often, even to warm me up before a lesson if I’m feeling a little bit stiff. Incidentally I’m also sitting on a ball audio description, Kaya is bouncing up and down.

I’m actually with a student who, You know, might have a certain type of posture. There’s a few posture alignment things. If we are, you know, posture, I do absolutely believe that, you know, movement is healing and we’re not static in the, like what I might early in my, my studies, we’re always talking about this, like, well, you know, your hips align on top of the, and the ribs on top, and then your head floating from the top.

It might not be. the best posture [00:05:00] for everyone, but being a, you know, the yoga ball can be a really good way of, of engaging a bit of core as on your wobble board which I also will use with students who really want to kind of tense up, but the tensing, the wrong layer of muscles 

Alexa: Yeah, balls are great.

Kaya: Balls are great fun. Got this core ball picked this up, I think from Carrie Hagen’s session, which I might use you know, to, to squeeze against the the body. I might use it squeeze against the wall or even use it to squeeze against a hand, kind of what what some people might refer to as anchoring, just a little gentle press, pressure to to, you know.

Kaya: Mimic what effort you might be needing to put in more in say something like vocal fold compression. So, so low is different reasons for balls and sometimes you can just like throw a ball back and [00:06:00] forward to cause a bit of distraction.

Alexa: Yes, I love balls. Let that be the tagline for the podcast. But I have some stress balls here.

I have them in different colors with smiley faces on. I’m holding a blue one right now, but there’s lots of different colors. And speaking with Dr. Shannon Coates recently for two episodes, actually, of the podcast on building neurodiversity inclusive studios, sometimes We’ll just hold these, squeeze them.

If somebody needs to distract themselves or busy their hands, then this is something that they can pick up if they want to. Also fidget toys, anything like that. But yeah, I love to throw this across the room and also even if we’re not throwing it, but imagining it as a shot put and launching it.

Across the room, it can also add to that energy that we might need for something like belting or a higher intensity sound if a singer is feeling or presenting as being maybe a little bit shy or lacking that energy [00:07:00] which is required for the intended sound.

Kaya: Projection kind of exercises as well.

Alexa: So we’ve got the tennis ball for a little bit of physical massage.

Alexa: You’ve got your gym ball for some postural work. We’ve got your core ball to help with some bodily pressures. We’ve got the stress balls for distraction and throwing and energy and just busying the hands. And you’ve also got a very colourful ball behind you, the expandable breathing ball. So this It looks like a very spiky, rainbow coloured sphere, which expands and contracts. So how would you use this, Kaya, in your lessons?

Kaya: So it, it actually, by the way, is just a expandable ball, ball toy couple of quid of your preferred online retailer. But it’s great for potentially looking at recall breath of like, you know, [00:08:00] we’re going to try and breathe everything out and we’re ready.

And yeah. You know, kind of mimicking that and then trying to not let everything go out straight away, but using it gradually. Like how you demonstrated what I’m talking about, it’s like, here’s my beautiful assistant. Like a TV show from the 90s. Yeah. But so I can use it like that. Also getting the student to use it, why, so either I can use it and kind of get the student to mimic their breathing patterns, for instance, or it could be that the student uses it and every time they take a breath in, they go, and then trying to not like just collapse the ball straight away, but really slowly. If I get the student to do it, I might pair that up with a consonant that is, gives a bit of resistance, either completely just the airflow, like a F or a SH or a or I can add it as an SOVT.

So semi occluded vocal tract exercise where I put a phonation [00:09:00] behind it. Where we just try it, try and kind of keep it slow as you do the exhalation, either just on that consonants or maybe starting on that consonant, moving on to the phonated. version of it. And getting the student to kind of control that can be a great imagery for somebody who might be, you know, not aware of how the rib cage collapses more slowly as the breath management gets more controlled.

Alexa: Yeah. And because of its expandable nature, sometimes I like to use this with singers who might feel a sense of constriction in the throat and I guess we’re alluding to this, this term open throat, just something where we’re trying to find a little bit of space and imagining that actually the expanded ball is a [00:10:00] little bit more of a, of a spacey throat compared to what they might be feeling as something is constricted. So it can be moved across different tactics in singing as well, I guess.

Kaya: Yeah, definitely. And you know, with all of these kind of essentially, this is a toy, sometimes just playing with it will, you know, the playfulness. So it’s called playing music after all, how much having fun in a session can suddenly sneak you into techniques that do have basis, evidence based you know, science based things. Well, the students doesn’t necessarily need to know that that’s what they’re doing.

Alexa: Yeah. Another ball is the flow ball, and you have one, I believe, there for us to play with.

Kaya: Yeah so that’s kind of the rhythm for the audio, it looks a little bit like a, like a, like a weird, what’s it called, a pipe. And then the, oh, where is the actual ball gone?[00:11:00]

The ball is rolled away right now, so but if you, Yeah, if you just put in flow ball essentially what happens is the ball goes into the little basket at the end and you blow in and then the ball levitates above. And if you, your breath management is too intense at the beginning, the flow ball will basically roll away. You can also put phonation behind it. It’s, it’s, it’s an asthma tool for kids really. And a very similar thing is the. Acapella pep where you, you know, it has a tendency to activate that recoil breath when you’re, when you’re working on it. And I can use it as an overt as an S O V T as well. Mm hmm. Yeah, loads of fun.

Alexa: And we were talking about warming up, and who can forget the straw? In the warming up process. So, there are so many, aren’t there?

And sometimes I will get out my tin for [00:12:00] people on audio. This is a biscuit tin. A Biscuteers. If you’ve never had a Biscuteer before, I highly recommend. Very well iced, delicious biscuits. But students are always disappointed when I pull out this biscuit tin, and they realise I’m about to hand them a black cocktail straw, and not a delicious treat.

Kaya: Well, I would say it’s the magical vocal wand, you know, it is a delicious treat for your voice.

Alexa: That’s true, that’s true. So I’ve got some cocktail straws here, I’ve got some thicker straws in this canvas bag. So what other ones do you have and when do you pull them out? 

Kaya: I have a phonation tube as well, which is the slightly bigger one, which you use in water. Sometimes the other retailers available.

You know, just a little bit down into the water. Great for recovery after illness or various other things as well. It, it, it just gives. You know, lovely little massage for a [00:13:00] long day. That was quite nice just now.

Alexa: And how do you share those in lessons? Will you give those to students to take home or do they then just do you sterilize them afterwards?

Kaya: No there might’ve been a time when I did that pre pandemic and I, I, I would just, you know, put them in the dishwasher at the end and, and everything what I’ve done with courses and classes, if I’m with an institution is I’ve bought up, and it’s actually this one is part of a lot from an aquarium, you get the right diameter then you can buy like a tube at the correct diameter.

So you can buy things like the vocal tube and with my online students, I might send them, cause that’s like nice and easy to go send them a link and go here’s the link to Vocal Tube or Laxvox. But as long as the diameter is correct and you’re cutting them up. So this is, as I said, this is part of a, of a [00:14:00] 10 meter tube that came, you know, as a round and then I, you just have to put it in warm water to make it go straight and kind of shape it into the ideal shape like that. So I’ve done that for full courses where I’ve then just provided the students. So it really just depends. There is a market around, All of this, you know, there’s some people who’ve done some fantastic product based around all this research, but the research is the important thing, even though, you know, I love my Singing Straw I, I, loads of great things. And, you know, we might mention specific products like your Morrison’s bone prop and, and stuff like that. But I think the important thing, speaking from a evidence base is that, you know, why, you know, what’s the research and why even if the students don’t need to know.

Alexa: Yeah. So why then would you have the thinnest straws? When would you give those to students? [00:15:00]

Kaya: Yes, there’s a great graphic, eh, going around for World Voice Day on, on which ones. I would say the thickest straw in water is more about your recovery, the gentle waking up, you know, phonation tube side of things, whilst the thinnest straw more for a workout. And, you know, some people, though, The completely thin straw is a bit too much for their voice and it might vary what kind of resistance you want in the same way as in the gym you might, you know, not everybody will have the same weights as their resistance.

So trying different things out and what works It’s really important and I quite often will give two straws to someone even before we’ve started, if I’m doing the whole, you know, biodegradable cocktail straw thing, rather than the metal straw of various retailers. 

Alexa: And I think you also have the cup and straw, don’t you, from Mindy Pack?

Kaya: Well, actually, right now with me, I don’t, but [00:16:00] I have the, the, the, the home and bargain version, which is just a paper cup with a hole in. And you can use that either in conjunction with a straw or, or just like that. And it’s great for, like, if you want to make loads of noise, but you don’t want to annoy your neighbours or significant others. And you can put a, you know, a straw in the bottom of the cup.

But you can also ing, you know, that’s the big, and that wouldn’t have been very loud compared to if I was singing. So yeah, that’s another, and you might see over there, I’ve got a, I was just behind the, the ball. I do have, I essentially a few different fun, funky looking that I can then get out and give to students.

And we can work on that as well. So, yeah. Yeah. SOVTs, all of them really as. So that, all of that is, is really just about finding the right one. You have a lot of, you don’t need the props for all of the, you know, you can go do your tongue out trill or lip trill, [00:17:00] other tongue trill, you know, NG even, props are fun, but you can do a lot of things without them as well. Just kind of mentioned that while we’re talking.

Alexa: Yeah, you don’t have to go out and buy any of these things, it’s just an added layer of fun, or a different thing to include, like this expandable ball you could simply do with your hands. Our bodies are props themselves.

Kaya: Yes, totally, and you know that there’s some great research and workshops about moving your hands and, and, you know, doing some funky dance moves to, to release.

And there’s loads of other things that’s kind of also part of this. What should we call it? Like the extended techniques in vocal pedagogy and training that it’s not always about your scales and your consonants and your vowels.

Alexa: Yeah, absolutely. We were talking about breathing earlier and I took a prop idea [00:18:00] from Dana Lentini when she came onto the podcast to talk about teaching singing to children and she talks about using bubble wands.

So I’ve got a couple of these little bubble wands in different colors and Dana talks about using them in breathing by getting the student to take that breath. I guess splat breath or lower abdominal diaphragmatic breath, whatever you want to call it by blowing the bubbles. And if you blow too hard, you don’t get very many, although these are fantastic bubbles, I must say.

So you do, you do get a good, good version of bubbles, even if you do push, but it’s also to just get breathing to be a bit more fun rather than, you know, laying on the floor, even though that’s quite relaxing. It’s just another version of breathing exercises that we can do, but just using some bubbles and who doesn’t like bubbles?

I love bubbles and I’m almost 35.

Kaya: Well, and another thing with Looking bit visually, you know, I did a lot [00:19:00] online and visually being able to see. breath management or airflow. If I use a tissue with my straw, you can really see if I’m, if I’m flowing, if it’s airflow or if I’m kind of interrupting. So if somebody is going, (example) versus (example)

It’s a great visual tool. As is really the in, you know, in the water. I’m trying to hide the, the logos on it. Yeah. But we’re not on the B BBC, so Oh, well

If I overblow, try not to get it on my Mac. You know, you can see things splatting and Yeah. And that can be a great visual tool, both for. The students to see, but also for us as teachers, we can kind of see what’s going on there. [00:20:00] Yeah, some good biofeedback. Indeed.

Alexa: I’m just pressing the pause button on the podcast for a very brief moment to invite you to book your free BAST call.

If you’ve been thinking about joining the BAST community through one of our courses, but you just don’t know which option is the best for you, Then why not book your free Zoom chat with our very own Kimberley George, who has all the answers. Head over to basttraining. com forward slash book a call forward slash, and click that big blue button.

That’s basttraining. com forward slash book a call forward slash. Now, where were we?

Alexa: You talked about the wobble board earlier. Can you just go into a little bit more detail about what it is and, and why you use it in the studio? 

Kaya: So I might use it. Let’s talk about one that isn’t prop. I might use the preparation for a pirouette with a, a dancer to access that kind of deeper layer of well, the muscles that keep us up.

We might call them support muscles [00:21:00] balance, you know, like which gives us the freedom to be. actively engaged without being tense. So without the kind of layer of muscles, but the deeper layer of that makes us stand up. Another one you might use is like pretending to fall towards the wall.

So, so your wall is your prop there. You know, if you’ve got that relationship and you’re working with the appropriate aged student, giving them a little push so they have to catch themselves. Always check in with them before you do that, obviously. And a wobble board can also really help you get into effort position that doesn’t necessarily get you into the tension side of things.

So with dancers, the tendency can be that there’s quite a bit of locking in the abdominal wall because that’s what they’re quite used to in the other areas of training. Could that also be useful for them to feel like they’re still engaged, but in a, in a more efficient way for singing? Yeah. And, and again, yeah, not trying to pull [00:22:00] their belly button through their spine with how deep that, you know, so that the preparation to your pirouette. It’s not so easy to do on the yoga ball. But that kind of idea of it usually comes with a release as they are coming into the pirouette. 

Alexa: So yeah, I’ve found that really useful. I think I always remember reading about it in Janice Chapman’s book, Singing and Teaching Singing, about it being useful for singers who lock their knees because it can help them get a little bit of suppleness in their posture and that locking is, reduced.

Kaya: Yeah, totally. And you know, I’m, I’m a hypermobile singer and, and, you know, we work, I think hypermobility often isn’t, doesn’t go diagnosed as well. And people are locking the knee. I have no idea. They might be locking the hips that, but this kind of alive. Posture rather than rigid posture that some of us was taught in our early teaching and singing [00:23:00] days where, you know, there was a posture, a singing posture.

There’s plenty, but it’s that getting that balance between you need the activation of the body, but tension versus effort. I really liked how you described that then, an alive posture.

Alexa: That really is great. I’m gonna steal that. , you mentioned hypermobility and something which I think we can use with that and in terms of getting abduction is the TheraBand.

Alexa: So can you tell us about TheraBands, when you tend to use it? How we use it?

Kaya: Absolutely. I you got one of the small ones here. So yeah, I might use it literally one, one of the things that I find gets amazing results in the more belty, more athletic, more high intensity, highly compressed singing is to make sure that that’s activated before the note, not on the note.

So it’s not, [00:24:00] which often causes this kind of imbalance where loads of air, loads of and getting the balance by going, okay, well, let’s. Activate before, and you get this much more balanced, so that could be one way. And the other one is a teenage girls who, who, you know, we struggled to get any sound off of just like getting to kind of, well, they have to do some kind of effort.

And, you know, obviously they’re not necessarily always that effective, but that’s another place I use a theraband also your gym boys. I’m being very stereotypical here. They’re gym, all genders, but where they really want to, they really want to kind of feel the effort, feel the tension, you’re trying to get them into this like acoustic belt space and like more, you know, CT dominant type, but still sounding full chest and everything for them to actually have a distraction of making some work can really help. The longer theraband band.

I quite like putting it [00:25:00] above the text. and then pulling down which, you know, it can both be for active posture alignments, you know, those kinds of things. And also for all the same things, the effort, I find it, especially teenage boys and you know, or a map singers people who have a tendency to pull up after we kind of find the, you know, the woofy type you know, hooty, whoop timbre if you want.

After we find the release to build the compression back in again, this kind of work with the theraband can be great. And sometimes I will if we are working on how to, how and when to do the breath in, I will hold the other side. And kind of help model their breath. I’m gonna stand up and do that. So if I want to say my student is now my My desk over here.

So I pretend my student is holding the other side, so [00:26:00] I might go, Release. And we’re gonna sing a phrase. Then the next phrase. But we are organizing before, we’re not going, And we’re gonna. You know, it’s not on, it’s, And, it’s on the breath in. And your body is ready from then, so. It’s, some of this is instinctive and, and like, you know, you, you just try stuff out and, and sometimes it works and, and, and recognizing when it’s, so I always do this analysis in my head and sometimes I literally ask the student as well, is that better, worse or the same?

If we are on the, that’s slightly better, it feels slightly better, or that sound is slightly better, depending on what kind of language the student tends to use. Then it’s worth to keep going, even if it’s, oh, that felt exactly the same. Well, let’s give that a go again, but with a new instruction, with a new demonstration, with some differentiation in, [00:27:00] in how you try it again.

But as long as it’s not that felt worse, you might be into something. 

Alexa: And with the Theraband work that you do for the more high intensity sounds, is that what people might recognize as anchoring or is that different? 

Kaya: Absolutely. So anchoring is. Very much rooted in EVTS, Estill voice training system.

So they’re quite specific. Is this back anchoring? Is it neck anchoring? I don’t necessarily, although I did have some background in EVTS from when I was a student myself I don’t always go that specified. But yeah, you know, if you are using certain muscles and using these anchoring exercises, some of them, which I still use like if I stand on the theraband pulling up, I definitely feel like I can get into like what I remember as back anchoring.

I haven’t really stayed on top of EVTS stuff, so I feel a little bit like a tourist when we are in talking about this, [00:28:00] but yeah, definitely loads of people, you know, anchoring, support, balance. We have a vocabulary jungle in this world and that’s why sometimes I speak less. specific about terms and more about how did that feel, you know, you’ve got a student going, oh, oh, I found that purple place.

Perfect. What does that mean to you? Oh, you know, you’ve got the, the bottom bit is really red and the top bit is blue. Yeah, sure. It’s a purple place. If that is helpful and you can hear that, The sound is more balanced. I might see it on the spectrogram that we’ve had, you know, the overtones are being boosted more to where we were aiming towards.

And, you know, we have all these tools because actually, you know, Voce Vista and, and the Matrix Vocalize U Spectrogram, they’re also props and tools. And sometimes a student, like yesterday I had a student and they were singing, you know, High and Dry Radiohead?.

Alexa: I’m not [00:29:00] cool enough. I know Radiohead, but I’m not cool enough to know their catalogue.

Kaya: No, but like the song basically goes, Don’t leave me, ah. And it’s very kind of hooty, falsetto y on the top, until the last chorus where it goes like proper, well, you know, what we might call a whiny mix, or we might call a full head voice, we might call it M2, we might, for this student, we call it, oh wow, I’m in my chest at the end.

It’s like, Did it feel like chest? Like it felt different, but it, but it’s chest. I was like, sure. Well, you know, it, it’s a diff, we’re, we’re creating it with different muscles. We’re just finding it acoustically. But yeah, the audience will buy that as chest. But when you try to do that in your chest the other week, you cracked and you also felt discomfort afterwards.

So we found a new place and we want to move in there, right? [00:30:00] You know, and we kind of find our, we find our own vocabulary because this particular student isn’t necessarily interested in me explaining about whether it’s muscular, you know, whether it’s acoustic, that’s not that student. You know, listening and being student centered in, in making sure that they come out of the, you know, I got a high five as, as we finished the song and, and, and it was a very successful lesson.

We don’t necessarily talk about terms, but we definitely use a lot of toys. 

Alexa: Yeah, and with the Therabands, because obviously they have different strengths. This one that I’ve got, yellow one, is a medium strength, which for my chicken arms is still too heavy. But when, what color, what strength should we be using for different singers?

Kaya: And that depends on the singer. So, I would say [00:31:00] it shouldn’t feel like they’re also working out their arms or they’re also working out their body. So it should be in a point where they’re activated but not going into like an aerobic basically a full on workout. And I say should because it’s not a don’t.

So I have this little pack with, I think, maybe similar to you. For the audio, I’m just showing off. Now I’ve got an XX heavy. This one I would very rarely use, but I’ve used it for people to. To just kind of do, cause with Darab bands, you can go, you know, or you can just keep it as a stability. Yeah. Or X heavy, you know, I wouldn’t necessarily use this with many students, but, but for somebody who is, you know, I work with a lot of people who are dancers or who go to the gym a lot and, and, and, you know, to get the resistance, they might need that.[00:32:00]

And then I have a really light one. Oh, this one’s Yeah, here we got this one which actually snapped this week because it’s so light and the student, I should have given them a heavier one because they just snapped. So I think just defining the light, I’ve still got another light one. The, the one that I used the most, and I, I only have two full length ones this one is a medium one.

Medium blue I, I, although it doesn’t always work with the colors because you, you held up a medium one and it was a yellow. Yeah. I think we just got to check the description of the strengths on them and then play as you say, and see which offers the better option for them. Exactly. So, and then I’ve got a green, which is a lot lighter, so I might use the, the green one more when I did the, This is where we breathe in and this is like, you know, keep the activation throughout this phrase and let go.

And, you know, I might use a much lighter because it’s [00:33:00] not really about them in or like, you know, spending whilst the, the medium one. I used to carry a a strong one around as well. I lent it to a student who was working on their belt and it worked best with that strength and never get it back. But I was using it so rarely that I didn’t actually renew it and I have my heavy ones of the shorter ones.

So, you know, there’s a little bit of method to the madness, but not entirely.

Alexa: Speaking of colours, I found that there’s been some success with students who maybe Finding pitching a bit of a struggle by offering them a colour chart and I don’t have one with me. I’m not yet ready to redecorate my house, but anything like a paint chart that you see in your hardware stores that you’d B&Qs, your Homebase’s, if you’re based in the UK, you can actually assign low pitch and high pitch, like you described with purple, actually This is a [00:34:00] navy because it’s low down but as I get higher up it turns into baby blue and I found that by using one of those colour charts and looking at the colours that way, pitching has become more accurate in the moment.

Kaya: I’ve heard about, I haven’t tried it myself, but that’s definitely, I mean, I guess you can just pop by and pick up a couple of color charts you know, then you have people with synesthesia who will go, well, that note is definitely not orange or, you know, so I think that sounds like something that could work really well for somebody who is really visual and sounds like a bit of fun.

And, and, and colour in regards to timbre as well. You could use it, so not just with pitching, but, you know, is it, I would think a darker color would be a kind of beefier sound and the lighter color might be a more kind of falsetto y, airy sound if you want. So it could be something to play around with that as well.

Alexa: What do you have there [00:35:00] that you use to help singers explore more emotive singing?

Kaya: So, I do have, this is a Heidi Moss suggestion, the jar of feelings. Feelings in a jar. Which are some essentially cards with feelings on and I used them a few different ways. I might use them with somebody who’s building an acting journey or, or like looking to storytell or and obviously that’s very obvious in a musical theatre world, but in the, in the pop and singing, songwriter, rock, whatever world, it could be about a song that you’ve just gotten a bit tired of singing and trying to find a new subtext or it can be Okay, it’s a really tragic song and you end up in this like locked in this like I’m so sad And it’s like it doesn’t have the dynamics because nobody is one emotion throughout four minutes, right?

Even in an argument even in while you’re crying there might be a little bit of laughter in there. They might be contemplating So [00:36:00] I might use it like literally pulling cards up that are random or opposite of what we’re singing to kind of explore different, different timbres, different emotions through that.

Also use actions, which I have both in a book and also as an app, which is the Actors Thesaurus, and that’s action verbs. So the feelings, if you get somebody who’s not a great actor or storyteller, it might be very like overjoyed. It might be very cliche and very over the top. Whilst playing verbs, you know, so I attack you versus I approach you, would have a different natural feeling.

So I use a lot of action verbs. I, what else do I do with emotions? Sometimes it’s getting them to just talk it out. And, and because some students, even with their own songs, haven’t [00:37:00] thought about what dynamics you would do if you were saying this. Only works with good songs because, you know, if you are working, right, that sounded judgmental.

We are not judgmental, are we Alexa? Never. The non judgmental mental approach would be songs that doesn’t have, you a story that drives forward much, you know then it can be a little bit harder to get that kind of dynamic through the song and, you know, especially if it’s a more lighter pop type scenario.

It might be, you know, thinking about is this light, is this, dark? Is this is this heavy energy? Is it, is it, is it light energy? Is it forward? Is it backwards? So like actual physical things and playing around with your body in the physical space as you’re, I’m doing this bouncing. I wasn’t even on purpose, but from a performance perspective, energy that is slow [00:38:00] and heavy will have a sincerity and can be more serious. Well, energy that’s light and fast will have that more kind of lightness to it and maybe more feminine, girly sometimes, depending on who’s delivering it. Whilst if you combine fast with heavy, that can actually come across as quite interesting. Aggressive, right? Versus slow and light can be elegant.

It can be contemplate. It can actually sometimes be happy. So there’s like, it’s exploring dynamics of physicality. That’s more from, you know, more from physical dance from. modern dance world. So I just guess I am a bit of a sponge of tools. I use stuff from ice hockey and I use things from modern dance world and I use things from the random various conferences and things I’ve been on and I think I guess if just one [00:39:00] thing with all of this is try some things out and If your student is improving, then keep doing it and if, if not, then, you know, did the student need it in the first place.

Alexa: And to add to the, the different textures, this is something that I learned from Amelia Carr, who we’ve got a podcast with her from a while back is, is actually having different materials in a folder. I don’t have one here, but using some of the props that we’ve used, if you’re wanting a spikier sort of sound, you might use the edge of the expandable ball because it’s a little bit sharper and you can actually feel it again, moving towards that tactile, you know, Stimuli or if you want something smoother, then you can use something that’s got a real soft edge like you there You’re stroking yourself with a flannel.

This has turned into a whole different podcast now

This is what I’ve got [00:40:00] hanging around my neck I’ve had this all day, which I’m sure People have been looking at me weirdly thinking what a strange necklace, which is the bone prop which you mentioned earlier and you have yours there. What colors did you choose? 

Kaya: I went with a like a dark purple blue. Indigo. Indigo. 

Alexa: I’ve got an orange and a black bone. So this is Annie Morrison bone prop. So how would we be using this and why would we use it? 

Kaya: So it’s good for releasing the jaw tension. It’s a good diction tool. And especially for for those with the audio, I’m actually speaking with it in.

So Isolating the movable parts in the vocal tract can be like, so integral for a big acoustical output, because especially as we’re going into the kind of Ken Bozeman in how a lot of like under vowel, over vowel and spectral, absolute spectral tone color and stuff like that, where you can tune in by just moving one thing instead of letting everything kind of move with each other.

So it can be really [00:41:00] useful for that kind of isolation process. And it just sits between your, your front teeth. My Scandinavian s’s become very clear. Morrison’s bone prop. If you don’t have one of those, then they’re not super expensive. It’s like, well, 12, I think, 

Alexa: something like that, 12. 99.

Kaya: Yeah a cork. Excuse to enjoy a good Rioja, but no. I’m up for that. Drink responsibly and get loads of water. You can use that similarly. Just in the front teeth and and I do carry in my mobile Mary Poppins bag, I do kind of carry a few of them. How many bottles of wine have you had? There’s just two! Or three!

Kaya: And guitar strings, also useful in my little Mary Poppins bag. But yeah, the that can obviously be used. I guess it can come cheaper than the, [00:42:00] but it’s a less durable thing. Diction, release of the jaw being able to kind of. If somebody has a tendency to do things like reaching the jaw up or, or splatting the vowels, it can be a good awareness tool of those kind of things as well.

Alexa: Great. One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed recently is using paddles when I’m implementing negative practice. So if we are doing something like Finding a balanced onset, I might write 

Kaya: Give them a whack on the bum.

Alexa: That’s it. That’s it. It’s No, I promise. I promise I don’t. I write breathy on one paddle. So it’s a bit like you’re Strictly Come Dancing 7 paddles. So breathy is on one and pressed is on the other. So that when they’re doing the breathy one, they hold it up. And then when they’re doing the pressed one, they hold it up. And their head is always there. in the middle for the balanced ones so that they’re actually physically moving whilst they’re [00:43:00] doing the sound that they’ve written on the paddles.

Alexa: So I’ve quite liked those. That’s good. A little bit of fun. But my question actually, Kaya, is how do we then take away the props once they’ve served a purpose? How do we then start to get them out and it starts to become an automated thing that we do? 

Kaya: Again, depends. where you’re using it and what you’re using it for. So a typical thing might be let’s say that we are using the straw. We are doing some scales, some exercise, some slides. We might then take it into the song. We might then go doing the first line with a straw and the second line with lyrics. Or, if they’re not ready for the lyrics, then we might do the second with a syllable that has another kind of resistant element to it.

So, say I’m going, you know, put a straw here. I definitely got so much stuff on my, I’ll just grab a new one. They’re like hairpins, aren’t they? It’s like, but you will find them everywhere. [00:44:00]Yes. So, if I’m going. Think of a song, any song. Oh, I had If I Ain’t Got You, right? Woo, woo, “some people live for the” So I’m going gradually in, through an SOVT. That’s one way, or I might even do Woo, for the fortune. Woo, some people live And just get them to whenever they’re needed. Obviously, this will be an in between. Woo, for the fortune. The cup. Yeah. We still have the the resistance, so, Some people live just for the fame.

You know, so that, that would be one, I call them sequences [00:45:00] actually. So that’s one sequence. Another one would be going into some kind of syllable. Say we are doing the, the cork. So, or bone prop if you want. Some people live for the power, yeah. Some people live just to play the game. Some people think that’s a physical thing.

You know, I’m kind of moving, adding. We’re called back and forward. And especially if we are going through, you know, say we’re going into what I would call the springboard into a new. So we, you know, we, we might be bridging essentially. So Define what you did and I’ve been there before, but that life’s [00:46:00] a bore, so full.

And this is, I know this, we’re coming into a transition, so I might put the Oh, the super fresh. I mean, this is literally from a lesson yesterday where she wanted to go some people, right? I’m getting the, that drop of the jaw without, cause some people, when some people have when, when you ask somebody to drop the jaw and go, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, Everything comes with that dopey or the dropped. Yeah. Yeah.

Alexa: You sound beautiful, by the way. 

Kaya: Ah, thank God I am. Ha ha ha ha. Oh, shut up.

Ha ha ha ha. But yeah, I mean, again, with all of this, with something, what would you do, like, when, probably get this at least once a day, what would you do [00:47:00] if XYZ happens? This is why I started my Singing Tips Sunday series on socials, because I just had so many people ask me, like, what would you And like, obviously I’ve got more than a full time job, so I don’t really have time to reply to everyone who asks me stuff, but it’s very often the same questions.

And just kind of going, well, that just depends. Sometimes I will use the The phonation tube, sometimes I would go, actually, you just need to think about what you’re singing and that naturally emotive energy will come along. And, you know, that’s where you’ve got these feeling stuff. And, and I talk about my magic triangle for those of you listen to, to that podcast or seen me present on things before, which is, you know, you have the area of preparedness, learning the song that side, you have the area of singing technique and the body. And then finally, it’s that storytelling, emotion, authenticity of bringing it to life. And if you don’t have all of them, some of the [00:48:00] magic falls out. Yeah, for sure. And these props are there just as, you know, little helpers and options. And we can be imaginative and, and use lots of things that we find just lying around in our environment.

Alexa: So it’s been really great to explore some of the things that we can implement. And if anybody is listening and they’ve got, if you’ve got something that you want to share with us, then we’d love to hear it. So get in touch and tell us what you do in your studio. Kaya, it’s been really lovely to be with you as always.

Alexa: So thank you so much for keeping me company and yeah, I look forward to seeing what else you add to your Mary Poppins bag. 

Kaya: Likewise, I have to carry all this around though, so. But yeah, thank you so much for having me. And yeah, any questions come up, I’m always happy to geek out about this. 

Alexa: Yeah, thanks Kaya