We’re adding the y now because VST is already a thing.
I settled on it, and it’s final because I said so!
Scales and singing sound nice, but there’s much fat tied up to them. Too much fat! But be forewarned, the pressures you’ll experience will change, and if you take an hour out of your day one day, you’ll find the states I speak about in my VSTy pieces without fail.
If you choose to keep the fat and pursue scales and singing instead, states will arrive; however, so much slowly, you’ll gladly convince yourself what I speak of hasn’t a tinge of truth within it.
Method (as understood by Curtis Copley): Maintain what you’d learned of the easy flow of air, and take care not to press too hard when you reach maximums that face behind you. You’ll be dealt a coughing fit so sharp, it’ll hardly make you confident you’re on the right path.
Keep the words of your master close, for you are stepping into another world. It is one that I’d been forced to explore thanks to missteps I’d taken in the past.
① Pay no attention (at first) to how hard you’re throwing your voice (remember when he said you were looking for the place that felt right that made your lips vibrate?)
② Work as though you’re fitting more and more VE vertically through your vocal folds. You’ll likely not stumble upon this exact state at first (and I say that with no confidence because today I am working with so little VE I ought to get an award!)
③ Remember when your master told you to activate the abdominal muscles. It is, indeed, for stability, sustain, power, and reaching ever higher (when it’s accessible).
④ Don’t fall prey to the allure of wailing/belting. You’re just cutting yourself off at the knees as far as this time sink is considered.
⑤ And I say this with confidence: Center yourself on your larynx and nowhere else! Use your eyesight as a guide for what straight forward feels like. Feel free to play with tilting focus, but you’ll just hurt your larynx doing that.
I do an hour at a time. Some warmup in the beginning and some warmdown to close for the sake of feeling like I’m doing things right.
This exercise takes inspiration from logic found in VST (final edit) (that first superbly written paper). And I put my absolute confidence in its potency!
Good luck, aspiring vocalist! Take care not to forget what it sounds like when your voice is tired!