Using Vibration to Help Your Singing

Recently, I attended a workshop about using external vibration to encourage the vocal cords.  The technique is called the Vibrant Voice technique and it’s by a professor from the University of Alberta, Canada named David Ley.  It’s an interesting concept and has been around for a really long time but 50 years ago we didn’t have handheld vibration devices.

The concept is pretty simple.  Since sound is vibration and the vocal cords vibrate to make sound, external vibration will stimulate or relax the voice into a rhythm. Dr. Ley has used this technique on participants who had vocal trauma or damage but it seems to help those with tension issues as well.

At the workshop, we talked a lot about tension and where it’s held in the body.  There’s a lot of potential for tension because there are so many muscles in the face, shoulders, and neck.  Most people have issues with tension. We put the vibrator on different parts of the face, head, neck, and shoulders. There was a different in muscle tension after using the vibrator.  The less tension you have the freer your voice is…period.

So will I use it in lessons? I might. For my students that have tension, there are a variety of ways to help them release it.  This is perhaps another tool in the toolbox.

Here is the website if you want to learn more:  http://vibrantvoicetechnique.com/

Here is a video of David Ley talking about the Vibrant Voice Technique: