If you've been taking lessons since 2007 with the same teacher and still face the same problems, i think you need to find another teacher. Really, all teachers have their own flaws, and seeing his/her nonchalant reply to your problems such as the hoarse voice etc is quite worrying. And of course the fault lies with the student, otherwise why would he/she be taking lessons? But if the instructor can't correct those faults, then what good is he?!
I really believe it's not the teacher's fault at all, plus it was kinda on and off, not a total of 2 years. But no worries, I've approached another SLS teacher and I'll see how it goes. It might just be my lack of talent haha.
No offence, it sounds like you still have issues with your bridge, but here's an exercise that should help.
Do Wee-wee exercises from top to bottom scale. Done right, the transition from head->chest should be smooth. This exercise, or any exercise for that matter, is not some magic potion that will allow the voice to automatically learn the right co-ordinations. It is merely a guide; it's entirely possible to be doing the right exercises the wrong way.
The other thing to practice is doing a siren, on an EE/OO sound from chest->head, bottom to top and back. Keep doing this all the time.
Don't worry mate, I myself think there's a serious problem too. I know myself my bridge isn't smooth, and my vocal cords weak, that is why it's shaky. I've tried the exercises you told me, actually I already knew about them, but most of the time for exercises, I don't have any problems except for 'mum'. Application to singing a song is a totally different thing for me though.
Before I got into SLS, I had a vocal coach who also taught lip-rolls, and she told me that of her other students, after doing lip-rolls, they could sing as if they are doing the lip-rolls, which means huge improvements, since lip-rolls are kinda what you should sound like properly. Yet for me, I can do the lip-rolls well, but when it comes to singing, nothing changes. None of the lip-rolls helped. Maybe only the first few sentences immediately after a lip-roll, but after that, goes back to normal. My brain isn't smart enough to register T_T
SLS is technique; repertoire is repertoire. It takes a lot of effort to combine the two and sound like a fantastic singer. The thing here is, SLS teachers usually won't proceed to work on repertoire until they feel that the student already has the basics/fundamentals of SLS built into their singing. Reason being that without strong fundamentals, it's easy for someone who's tackling a tough song to go back to their non-SLS habits aka. pulling chest, high larynx.
Gotcha. But is blending in with the music considered that? I mean it sounds detached, like off-pitch, yet still on-pitch. Not sure if you get what I meant haha.
This is quite troubling. Sounds like you're getting laryngitis often (See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngitis ). It's not a good sign and honestly if you're doing the exercises right, you should never be getting this. I think 6-8 glasses of water is way too little, especially for a singer. The guideline for normal sedentary people is that amount.. and i'm sure we all know sedentary people don't use their voices 1/10 as much as we do.
Phlegm usually is a sign that you're not drinking enough water or your diet has too much food that produces phlegm, like dairy products as kilik already mentioned.
Put your hand on your larynx and do your exercises. Then see if your larynx shoots up during the exercise.
Ah, probably. However the ENT checkup showed nothing, except that one part of my nose is actually blocked so there might be mucus buildup. The pain or soreness/hoarseness doesn't last for a few days, it's only a little while, probably half to one hour with some water it'll be fine.
I admit I don't drink a lot of water, but I shall drink lots from now on!
And I tried putting my hands on my larynx during exercises and singing, and it really does move up. Any ideas on this?
Lastly, how much practice time are you getting a day, not including lesson time? Cos if you're been doing SLS since 2007 til now and still face these issues, i don't know man, it sounds to me like you're not getting enough private practice time. At the very bare minimum, 30 mins of practice time per day is quite needed -- you can't expect much from the lessons alone.
I agree with you. I'll practice more from now onwards.
Thank you for your long advice, it is a big help.
