Q: I am an actor who sings whenever the situation arises. However, lately, I have noticed a shaking in my voice when I sing. It doesn’t feel like my vocal cords are as strong as they used to be. Are there vocal warmups I can do to get them back to where they used to be, or even better?—@deltanene, Backstage Community Forums
Well, there’s no such thing as “strong” vocal cords, necessarily—they’re a mucous membrane, not muscles, so they can’t be either strong or weak.
However, I totally get what you’re driving at. Do you mean a fluttery vibrato? If that seems like an accurate description, that’s almost always due to a lack of breath support.
Now, I have a love-hate relationship with the term “support.” It’s a wonderful descriptor for what the result feels like: as if you have a supported foundation under your singing. But saying “support more” does basically nothing to help the singer learn what that means or what to do.
So, the way to “support more” is to get more air out more quickly using your diaphragm. I often ask my singers to imagine the air in their lungs were poison and they have to get it out quickly or
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