New Version 5.0!
Now with speed adjustment!
Your voice is sensitive.
We’ve all experienced it: as soon as we get upset or nervous, the voice goes into hiding. The sound gets thinner, the voice breaks away. Suddenly, we don’t recognize the sounds coming out, which leads to even more uncertainty and more trouble coaxing the voice into doing what we want it to.
One need only to think of a lemon to realize that changes in our thoughts and mental state have immediate effects on our body. Your vocal folds take about as much space as a coin, and the efficiency of their functionality depends greatly on the coordination of all the muscles and organs from your torso to the tip of your tongue. The point of warming up your voice with Amsel a few minutes daily is to consciously focus on deep diaphragmatic breathing, the sensations of the muscles involved in supporting the voice, and easy phonation free of unwanted tension. The more these coordinations are repeated, the more automatic it becomes that your voice remains deeply rooted in your body.
Your body is crucial.
You can’t force a car to run well if the tires are flat or there’s a problem with the motor. Like all complex systems, if one piece of the puzzle is out of sync, the car doesn’t go. Many people focus too much on the voice itself, trying to force it to be louder or last longer, not realizing that they are ADDING tension and compounding the problem. It may work in the short-term for that moment, but the effects are probably noticed later in the form of a sore throat or hoarseness.
Amsel - Build up your Voice focuses on coordinating the body in a way that is optimal for good vocal health. The exercises are designed to build habits for your muscle memory so that you can internalize the feeling of a deep, reflexive breath or the feeling of a well-supported voice anchored in your body. The more you reinforce these good habits, the easier it becomes to keep your voice anchored deep in your body in those stressful moments.
Your psyche will thank you.
Speaking and singing are performances. A bad performance can very quickly spiral into a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop. We don’t need to tell you how difficult it is to bounce back from those. (It starts with a crack, your heart sinks, repeat ad nauseum.) Performances are hard enough on the psyche without worrying if your voice will show up.
Voice training generally has two main components: the technical, anatomical aspect and the artistic expression. Amsel - Build up your Voice makes it easy for you to automate the daily technical training so that you can focus your energy on what’s really important: your expression.