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What is an SOVT exercise?
SOVT stands for Semi Occluded Vocal Tract. Simply put, that means the mouth is partially closed. When the vocal tract is semi occluded (partially closed), air pressure bounces off of the lips and hard palate and is reflected back to the vocal folds. This helps the folds vibrate with more ease and less effort. Visit my PHONATION EFFICIENCY page to learn more about how SOVT exercises work. |
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When do you use SOVT Exercises?
- If you hear a breathy sound. The back pressure created helps the vocal folds come together with better medial compression, causing less air to escape.
- If you hear a disconnected sound. Sliding between two comfortable pitches encourages legato in singing (especially when using the straw) .
- If you hear a break in the voice. The back pressure created by the SOVT also helps the folds line up during transitions in the voice.
- If you hear a pressed sound. The back pressure created improves vocal fold vibration - this reduces muscular effort, and trains the extrinsic muscles to engage less.
- If you hear a tired sound. SOVT phonation is less fatiguing but still requires the focus and coordination of full volume singing.
- As a warm up, cool down, or reset button.
- If you hear a disconnected sound. Sliding between two comfortable pitches encourages legato in singing (especially when using the straw) .
- If you hear a break in the voice. The back pressure created by the SOVT also helps the folds line up during transitions in the voice.
- If you hear a pressed sound. The back pressure created improves vocal fold vibration - this reduces muscular effort, and trains the extrinsic muscles to engage less.
- If you hear a tired sound. SOVT phonation is less fatiguing but still requires the focus and coordination of full volume singing.
- As a warm up, cool down, or reset button.
Straw Phonation Exercises
- Put the straw in your mouth and sing like you would normally.
- Imagine that your lips are at the far end of the straw - your vocal tract is now longer and narrower!
- Focus on the sensations of creating the sound rather than the volume of the sound. Singing through a straw will never be as loud as open mouth singing.
- SOVT exercises allow you to focus more easily on upper harmonics in your sound, opening your ears to new focus opportunities.
- Research says: for maximum benefit, use the straw 15 minutes a day.
Tips:
- Make sure no air is escaping around the lips or through the nose.
- You want to maximize the amount of air pressure the vocal folds receive.
- Imagining singing through a /b/ sound rather than an /m/ will help seal the lips around the straw and help direct the acoustic energy back into the vocal tract.
- Pinch your nose on and off to see if any air is escaping through the nasal cavity.
- Try different sized straws. Each person will enjoy a different size straw depending on a number of factors. The size of the opening of the straw plays the most important role in how much back pressure it creates.
- Put 2 straws together side by side for less back pressure. You can use the same kind of straw side by side in multiples to measure differences in back pressure (3 straws worth will be less pressure than 2 straws worth, etc...).Use smaller straws (coffee straws) in multiples to add or reduce back pressure in small increments.
- Put 2 straws together lengthwise for more back pressure.
Variations:
- Try the above with a /b/ instead of a /g/.
- And any humming or exercises on the following closed mouth exercises: Mmm
Nnn
NGg
VVww
Zzz
DJj
Lip Trills
Tongue Trills
Lip Trill:
The lip trill is a great vocal warm up for obvious and not so obvious reasons. The obvious: Lip trills require us to relax our face and lips, and move our air at an energized and steady rate. This is a great way to warm up the voice and body! The not-so-obvious: Lip trills and other semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (having the mouth partially closed) encourage us to lengthen the vocal tract and narrow the mouth's opening at our lips. This creates increased acoustic back pressure which helps the vocal folds vibrate more easily. Aiming for similar shaping and sensations on open mouth sounds can help us harness acoustic energy for more efficient singing. So, using a lip trill helps us warm up through relaxing muscles, energizing breath, and calibrating mouth shape and sensation. Win, win, WIN!
Exercise ideas for straw practice:
Slides on any pitch, high to low, low to high
Octave leaps
Arpeggios
Scales
Vocal fry through the straw
Use as a Warm Up, Cool Down or Reset button
Prosody (follow the pitch pattern of how you speak)
Think of different vowel shapes while singing through the straw.
Start with the straw for an onset then go into an open mouth exercise.
Alternate every other exercise or phrase with the straw
Put the straw in a cup of water and sing to have a visual for the steadiness of your airflow - is the rate of bubbling consistent? Are the size of the bubbles consistent?
Sing your repertoire through the straw.
- Imagine that your lips are at the far end of the straw - your vocal tract is now longer and narrower!
- Focus on the sensations of creating the sound rather than the volume of the sound. Singing through a straw will never be as loud as open mouth singing.
- SOVT exercises allow you to focus more easily on upper harmonics in your sound, opening your ears to new focus opportunities.
- Research says: for maximum benefit, use the straw 15 minutes a day.
Tips:
- Make sure no air is escaping around the lips or through the nose.
- You want to maximize the amount of air pressure the vocal folds receive.
- Imagining singing through a /b/ sound rather than an /m/ will help seal the lips around the straw and help direct the acoustic energy back into the vocal tract.
- Pinch your nose on and off to see if any air is escaping through the nasal cavity.
- Try different sized straws. Each person will enjoy a different size straw depending on a number of factors. The size of the opening of the straw plays the most important role in how much back pressure it creates.
- Put 2 straws together side by side for less back pressure. You can use the same kind of straw side by side in multiples to measure differences in back pressure (3 straws worth will be less pressure than 2 straws worth, etc...).Use smaller straws (coffee straws) in multiples to add or reduce back pressure in small increments.
- Put 2 straws together lengthwise for more back pressure.
Variations:
- Cup Phonation:
- These SOVT exercises work as well because the mouth is partially closed and back pressure will return to the vocal folds:
- Try the above with a /b/ instead of a /g/.
- And any humming or exercises on the following closed mouth exercises: Mmm
Nnn
NGg
VVww
Zzz
DJj
Lip Trills
Tongue Trills
Lip Trill:
The lip trill is a great vocal warm up for obvious and not so obvious reasons. The obvious: Lip trills require us to relax our face and lips, and move our air at an energized and steady rate. This is a great way to warm up the voice and body! The not-so-obvious: Lip trills and other semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (having the mouth partially closed) encourage us to lengthen the vocal tract and narrow the mouth's opening at our lips. This creates increased acoustic back pressure which helps the vocal folds vibrate more easily. Aiming for similar shaping and sensations on open mouth sounds can help us harness acoustic energy for more efficient singing. So, using a lip trill helps us warm up through relaxing muscles, energizing breath, and calibrating mouth shape and sensation. Win, win, WIN!
Exercise ideas for straw practice:
Slides on any pitch, high to low, low to high
Octave leaps
Arpeggios
Scales
Vocal fry through the straw
Use as a Warm Up, Cool Down or Reset button
Prosody (follow the pitch pattern of how you speak)
Think of different vowel shapes while singing through the straw.
Start with the straw for an onset then go into an open mouth exercise.
Alternate every other exercise or phrase with the straw
Put the straw in a cup of water and sing to have a visual for the steadiness of your airflow - is the rate of bubbling consistent? Are the size of the bubbles consistent?
Sing your repertoire through the straw.