Tag: Mille Studios

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Voice

Vocal Care

Hi! My name is Shannon and welcome to Shannon Studios. Subscribe to my blog to learn more about the voice!

What is voice therapy?

Voice therapy helps people with voice disorders change vocal behaviors and heal their vocal cords. The therapy helps your voice sound stronger and more like before the voice disorder.

Voice therapy can also help prevent a voice disorder. And people who are transgender may benefit from a type of voice therapy called gender-affirming voice therapy.

What are voice disorders?

Vocal disorders occur when your vocal cords vibrate out of synch or don’t fully open or close.

Voice disorders affect your voice box (larynx), and can cause a consistent or inconsistent change in your voice. The larynx is the area of your throat that contains your vocal cords. It also has the muscles you need to talk, breathe, and swallow.

Voice disorders can change the quality, pitch, or loudness of your voice. Your voice may sound strained, husky, or weak. Sometimes, your voice becomes a whisper or disappears altogether.

To reduce your risk of developing a vocal cord lesion, you should avoid:

  • Singing or talking excessively if you have an upper respiratory infection.
  • Talking excessively or speaking loudly without adequately resting your voice.
  • Drinking alcohol excessively and consuming too much caffeine (which dries out your vocal cords).
  • Smoking or being in smoke-filled rooms.

You can also put healthy habits into place to care for your vocal cords and reduce your risk of getting sick.

  • Drink plenty of water.
  • Wash your hands often.
  • Get a good night’s sleep.
  • Use a microphone if you need to project your voice.
  • Warm up your voice before singing or prolonged speaking.
  • Rest your voice in anticipation of future speaking obligations.
  • Use a humidifier in your home to keep your vocal cords hydrated.
  • Use stress reduction techniques, cognitive therapy or yoga to lessen muscle tension.

Whether you are struggling with nodes, respiratory issues, a minor cold, mucous, or stress/vocal fatigue, most of the below will apply to any of these challenges.

What is the definition of a voice disorder? Answering this will help you see the point of doing the vocal exercises even if being a singer is not your goal.  

Definition: Vocal disorders occur when your vocal cords vibrate out of synch or don’t fully open or close. The cause can be nodes, a cold, stress on the cords, etc…

I will come at this from a “fitness” approach! So when you train as an athlete you have to take the proper precautions to prevent burnout or fatigue and to increase strength/muscle you have to train with proper nutrition, warm-ups, cools downs, etc, etc. The same goes for your larynx or voice box or vocal folds (which are essentially your muscles for your voice) you have to train your voice just as much as you train the muscles in your body AND as a teacher or fitness instructor or anyone who uses their voice for their job, vocal exercises are vital. They are awkward at first, but eventually, they become easy habitual, and super fun! 

Steps to Strengthening Your Voice:

  1. Diet/nutrition for your voice.
  2. Vocal exercises.
  3. Supplementation for your voice.

Diet/nutrition:

  • Water water water, hydrate hydrate… simple and no-brainer but it’s absolutely vital.
  • Every morning have some warm water with some MAUNKA honey. Not just any honey will do hunny 😉 Must be Manuka because it has anti-bacterial properties. High amounts of methylglyoxal give Manuka honey antibacterial qualities, as well as antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Manuka honey helps to treat colds, flu, wounds, and other infections. Keep it on hand during cold and flu season. It’s an easy way to treat a cough or a nasty sore throat!
  • When you have flare-ups or you have important events coming up, reduce inflammatory things such as alcohol and coffee. They dry out your vocal cords… Also, cut out citrus or highly acidic foods when you are having trouble. 

Vocal Exercises:

  • HUMMMMM humming at a low volume, nothing aggressive is extremely helpful to your cords. To INCREASE your vocal cord strength throw the below Spotify warm-ups on and try to do 10 min of vocal cord training per day. This will build up the stamina in your vocal cords. I added breathing exercises that will also help you engage your core. Even if your core is strong, these exercises show you how you use your core with your diaphragm. If having trouble achieving this on your own, contact me so we can get you correctly using your voice.  Vocal exercises Link
     

Supplementation:

I’m Sick and Have a Flare-Up – Now What??

  • Please remember the following instructions:
  • Bowl water and pour it in a bowl and add mint and eucalyptus essential oils into the water. Put a towel over your head and breathe in the steam through your nose and breathe out.

At the end of the day, all of these little things can make a big difference.

For more exercises and tips on singing, subscribe to the blog and follow Mille Studios on IG

https://www.instagram.com/shannon.studios.vancouver/

Categories
Voice

Inhaling Exercise – Feel How to Open Your Back Muscles

It’s already strange enough as singers to have “breathing exercises” as everyone knows how to breath right??

Well if that isn’t crazy enough that vocal instructors reteach you how to breath… now we break it down even further to isolate what is happening when we inhale specifically when singing. I promise we are not over thinking this and if you practice your breathing along with your other vocal warm ups, you will see a dramatic improvement in holding that big note or adding some endurance and control to those delicate notes.

Therefore, let’s dive right in to an inhalation 🫁 exercise. This is vital to practice. As we say at Mille Studios, train your body, train your voice. Once you know and understand what your body is doing, you will prevent injury and vocal strain.

Let’s 1st feel How to Open Your Back Muscles:

Try this to quickly open your back for an easy inhalation:

1. Find a sturdy chair and sit with your elbows resting on your knees. In this position, you sit and lean forward, with your elbows on your bent knees and your back straight. You don’t have to bend over far only far enough to allow your back to relax.

2. With your elbows on your knees, take a breath and imagine that you can put the air into your back- as if your lungs are all along your back and you want to fill them with air. You may notice that the muscles in your back feel like they’re lifting and opening for the air to come in the body.

3. Take a few more breaths and notice the sensations of your back opening.

4. When you think you feel your back releasing and opening as you inhale, try opening your back more quickly. Open the same muscles along your back without worrying about inhalation. When you open the muscles, the air comes into your body and you don’t have to worry about inhalation – the inhalation happens because you’re opening the muscles.

For more exercises and tips on singing, subscribe to the blog and follow Mille Studios on IG

Instagram: instagram.com/mille.studios.vancouver

Categories
Events Voice

Prairie Naturals Gala Men’s Health 

A few weeks ago, I attended and performed at the Vancouver Club – At an event put on by Prairie Naturals, in Support of the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation. It was really a special evening that I felt honoured to be a part of. My heart felt full when I left, which is a great sign of time well spent and therefore makes for a priceless experience. The evening was elegant, relevant, simple as well as heartfelt and intimate.

I was fortunate enough to not only be a guest, but also a participant. I had the pleasure of performing with a well known jazz artist in the Vancouver Community Esther Celebrini. Our performance was special as we were doing this in support of Men’s Health. We curated our songs with the intention of tapping into the importance of Mental Health, so we could connect with the audience. We covered everything from Shallow – A Star Is Born, to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica… 

Fab Forever Band – Sound Check
Trevor Linden
Shannon – Owner of Mille Studios
Esther Celebrini & Shannon Chung

Trevor Linden spoke with complete authenticity as did TC Carling and Shea Emry… The vulnerability in sharing their stories was an example of great strength as well as courage. I hope to see more and more of these moments occur in our community – as change starts with the sharing of meaningful conversations.

My favourite part of the program would have to be when Dan Murphy, broadcaster with Rogers Sportsnet And Hockey Night in Canada asked the questions to Trevor, TC Carling, and Shea. Dan brings out the best in people and this evening was no exception. I learned a tremendous amount on men’s health and the challenges. Together they did a fantastic job connecting with the room – giving us some insight on their own mental health journeys. The purpose was to normalize (but not minimize) the discussion on men’s mental health. Hopefully with more events such as this, men will find the space to speak out about their health whether it be physical health or emotional/mental. 

Last but not least, the evening ended with an incredible key performance by the Fab Forever Band. They truly were fabulous as they took us back in time with all of our favourite Beatles hits. Thank you Prairie Naturals ❤️

Categories
Voice

How to Create A Rich Full Tone When Singing

Achieving a resonant, rich, and full-sounding vocal tone is tough! But it is also extremely rewarding. If you are struggling with it, you have come to the right place. It is a matter of “yet”, so let’s get to it!

Try these exercises below to help with your tone.

One of the most common requests during the first lesson is, “How do I sing with a bigger full voice?” When we dig a little deeper, the term they are searching for is tone. We all have a unique quality to our voice and a singers tone is what makes us gravitate to certain singers. While Norah Jones is completely different from Lady Gaga, what is clear is that they are both pleasant to listen to because they are aware of how to sing in a relaxed way whether singing at the bottom of their range or at the top of their range. It is never tight or squeaky because they know how to use their nasal and throat “spaces”; essentially they are relaxed and they have proper air flow in those spaces. Today’s post is a quick digestible look at what tone is, and how to be aware of how to achieve proper tone when singing.

What is tone? How to achieve a rich full tone?
Today we are strictly speaking about vocal tone, which refers to the quality of your singing voice, apart from pitch (hitting a musical note or musical tone is different and about singing the note / being on tune). As we talk about vocal tone today, it’s how you sound when singing a note. How we achieve great vocal tone is when we work with your breath in your nose and throat spaces – and then how the breath comes out of those spaces will be the result, which is the tone of your sound. It is about paying attention to how your body uses its breath to produce sound. How your body works together with air is ultimately what creates your unique tone and the exercises below will help you figure all this out. These exercises will help you take notice of how your body is using its air flow and they will allow you to play with the sound so you can feel where the air is going. Recap:

  • To get a rich tone, it is about creating space in the nose and throat and then blend the two together.
  • Again, tone is about how the body and breath work together. 

EXERCISE 1 Steps to find what your nose space feels like:

  • Before we start, let’s relax and hum a medium level pitch. Nothing else should move. No pinching in the throat. Your goal is to not force anything out and just feel the vibrations.
  • Now with your mouth closed, try taking in a really large amount of air through your nasal cavity and then sigh with a comfortable pitch.
  • As you breath in, you should be able to feel the space in your nasal cavity as you breath in the air through the nose; take notice of where you can feel the cool air. Where is it going? After you do it a few times, see if you can relax and let the air spread to the sides of the nose down into the throat and then of course all the way down your airways.
  • Now do the same thing but this time after you breath in all the way comfortably we will not sigh on the exhale, but rather hum AND most importantly, your mouth will open and close while making a nice easy hum sound.
  • Each time you do this, you should be able to feel your nasal and throat spaces become more and more at ease. This exercise may seem simple, but doing this everyday will allow you to loosen up and not get tense and tight. One of the number one problems when people go to push their range, especially when singing high is, they tighten up (almost squeezing out the note) and end up sounding brighter than they want to or “shouty”. This exercise will helps you stay relaxed and prevent voice strain. This will become like muscle memory if you are consistent in doing it regularly.

EXERCISE 2 Steps to find your throat space:

  • We will do what are called “Yawn inhales” and they help us to feel where the breath goes into the throat. 
  • When you breath in you shouldn’t be able to hear the air going in down the throat.
  • Now after we breath in, we will hold a note with the mouth open use “ah” and use a lower note in your range and feel that the throat space should feel relaxed and open and the resonance should be rich and full.
  • Once you achieve this, move to the last exercise below.

EXERCISE 3 Steps to blend the nose and throat space:

  • Now blend the two together.
  • Start with a medium note in your range and hum.
  • If you are not sure what note to start with, it should be vibrating in your nasal cavity.
  • As you start to hum in the nose space, slowly begin to slide down into the throat space while you open and close the mouth.

Hopefully this is helpful and I encourage you to try this at home. Play with sound, play with your voice. Don’t worry about what comes out when you are on your own. Think of trying these exercises like learning a drill for the first time in your favourite sport. Let’s take basketball for example, the first time you learn to do a lay up it is probably awkward and uncomfortable. You may feel uncoordinated, not sure which foot goes first and the same goes for singing. At first it might not come out right, but keep trying. Get cozy and comfy with your sound and you will become the best singer you can be.

Categories
Art Health & Lifestyle Voice

Welcome to Mille Studios

Owner and founder of Mille Studios – Shannon Chung

“Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Sherman Finesilver

Welcome to Mille Studios – a creative safe space for anyone who has the desire to learn and/or share their artistic/musical knowledge and experience. I have been blogging since 2009 in the area of health and wellness (supplements and fitness), and in May of 2022, I started the Mille Studios blog in an effort to support my students with a holistic approach to learning vocal techniques as well as the importance of everything that involves giving a complete performance. For the past 20 years, I have performed in every community that I have had the pleasure of being a part of, and I have also greatly enjoyed teaching along the way while raising three beautiful happy children, who also share a deep love and passion for music with me.

I am thrilled to finally begin this new blog venture with the official launch of Mille Studios. What will make this blog unique is the holistic approach to music as I will incorporate my health and wellness knowledge from my Kinesiology background, as well as fitness training to truly support my students in a holistic approach to being the best version of ourselves. The goal is to have a lifelong journey of singing by taking care of your instrument, body, mind, and soul. In this blog I will share my journey with you as well as tips on how to:

Train & nuture your body
Train & nuture your mind
Train & nuture your soul
Train & nuture your voice

Teaching as well as performing are my absolute passions and I am truly honoured to be able to elevate others in their expression of voice, whether I have students in elementary school exploring their voice for the first time, or work with the well-experienced singer-songwriter who wants to take it to the next milestone, Mille Studios is ready for you to contact us to book your complimentary consultation for fit.

A bit about Mille Studios

Mille Studios aims to be student-focused – it is really that simple. While we are ready with lessons, techniques, and knowledge, we first want to get to know you and your aspirations. We first work together to find a plan that suits your goals, and expectations. Mille thrives in collaborating to assist students in building not only their vocal technique but also their performing platform. It is thrilling to watch individuals hone and build their voice, as well as their confidence in performing.

When I am not teaching, I continue to perform throughout Vancouver and share and express myself through voice and visual arts (painting, drawing, and mixed media). I love to help others tap into their passions and this is what Mille is all about… Finding your voice through the arts, and ultimately finding your power to make the world a little brighter.

Where does Mille Studios’ name come from and what is its meaning?

This seems like a great place to start, from the beginning. When coming up with the name for a studio for the arts, I didn’t want to narrow in on only voice, painting, drawing, or performing because this studio is about all of my passions, and Mille in French means 1000… and on a simple level, this is the meaning behind the name. This studio embraces the 1000’s of things I love to do or be a part of when it comes to the arts.

But wait there’s more! Next is that I consider the number 1000 to be my Angel number… Angel numbers have been defined as, a series of repeating digits like 222, or 888, etc… and if you are noticing the same series of numbers in different places, some people think this is a divine message coming to you from the universe, God, higher power or whatever power you believe in. For me, the number 1000 seems to follow me, making my world brighter, and therefore, it has become my favourite number. For others, Angel number 1000 has been said it symbolizes that great things are to come when you put forth your best efforts with good intentions.

I thank you for reading and I look forward to building this studio together.

Categories
Health & Lifestyle Voice

Hello world, let’s shine bright together!

Welcome to Mille Studios – a place to find your passions and your potential. A place to explore, appreciate as well as nurture art, and music which will ultimately feed your soul. Let’s get reading, learning, finding, and sharing joy. Below are some wonderful reminders of the importance of having a growth mindset no matter what we spend our time doing…

“I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.”

– Michelle Obama.