Hey World,
This is my first blog for the published release of Alexycon Voice Studio’s first Newsletter…

Free Your Voice and Your Artistry Will Follow…

Vocal Freedom …
Every singer desires vocal strength, power, tone, dynamics, agility, range, ease, texture, color, vibrato and beauty. Yet the majority of singers run into one huge problem that prevents them from acquiring the “balanced voice” which would allow them to achieve all of these things…

That problem creates a question, which is this:

How do I get from the bottom “chest voice” range of my vocal register to the top “head voice” range of my vocal register without forcing notes, yelling my head off and sounding like I’m straining to hit the high notes and without any breaks in my voice or having to go into falsetto which is often too airy, breathy, with little strength and lacks vocal presence? That is the question…

Here is the answer:

The Speech Level Singing Technique (SLS) designed by famed vocal maestro Seth Riggs – The Vocal Technique of Legends. Seth Riggs once asked himself the very same question most singers have. The solution came about through Riggs’ insight, inspiration, and research, Almost through divine guidance the SLS vocal technique was born, or re-born from the seventeenth century Italian Bel Canto (beautiful singing) method and includes the Castrati techniques of vocal registration balance.

Seth Riggs is accredited with instructing over 100 Grammy award-winning legends, more than any other vocal instructor. Among them are: Barbara Streisand, Natalie Cole, David Archuleta, Stevie Wonder, Vanessa Hudgens, Anita Baker, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias, Michael Jackson, Bernadette Peters, and Opera Star, Phillip Webb, who replaced Luciano Pavarotti in “The Three Tenors” and who stated “Without Seth and SLS helping me to develop my middle voice, I would never have this opportunity.”

The SLS technique is applied to all genres of music and seamlessly blends a singer’s various voices [chest, middle and head] into one voice, without breaks and with better tone.

Chest voice naturally occurs when we sing low notes. Our chest voice is our speaking voice and it has a heavy tone, because the low musical notes physically resonate in the chest area while singing. Head voice is lighter than chest voice and should occur in the upper register of the singer’s range. Head voice physically resonates in the singer’s head and is connected to chest voice and creates a crystal clear tone, but it is free of the heavy weight that chest voice has and when performed properly is much safer, surprisingly easier, and has dynamic tonal presence. The first bridge is the part of the voice that sits in the middle of both chest voice and head voice and as the term implies, serves as the passageway from chest voice to head voice and back again. Most often, this area of the voice needs to be strengthened in order to blend chest voice and head voice as one connected voice. When a singer masters a balanced mixture of chest voice, head voice, the first bridge and, all the bridges in a singer’s range, this person sings in a mix. (A mix is a balanced blend of the chest, middle and head voices…)

Pulling the chest voice into the upper head voice register creates tones that sound strained. A too heavy tone or yelling on pitch in the upper register of head voice is the fastest way to seriously damage the vocal cords and causes hoarseness, nodules, hemorrhaging, and all too often results in surgery. Needless to say, this is a habitually vocal imbalance.

A too light chest voice (meaning its disconnected and too breathy in the bottom register) is another habitual imbalance. This does not allow the creation of a dynamic upper register. The chest needs to be strengthened, beefed up to create the balance. “One must have chest presence in order to create the mix…” Seth Riggs.

Further, dropping the heavier chest voice altogether at any point, as one is ascending to embrace an airy or breathy tone, causes yet another imbalance. The singer sounds as though there are two separate voices instead of progressing into the upper register with dynamic “head voice” presence. This is known as a flip (flipping from chest voice into falsetto and back again). Both light chest and flipping are imbalances that lack proper dynamic expression throughout the entire range and also causes vocal damage, but over a longer period of time.

Both chest voice and head voice are very important to create vocal balance and they cannot co-exist without a strong middle voice that connects the vocal registers, i.e., the mix. Most singers need training to migrate from the chest voice into the head voice and back into chest correctly.

About Alexys

Alexys has been a Certified Speech Level Singing Instructor for over 6 years. First studying with SLS’ International Corporate CEO and Master SLS Instructor, David Stroud, who taught Alexys not to force notes or yell on pitch. Instead, Alexys learned to connect smoothly through the bridges in his voice. With much hard work and continual progress, Dave asked Alexys to become a Speech Level Singing Instructor. Alexys joined SLS in 2004 and studied with SLS Maestro and Founder Seth Riggs. He also studied with SLS Masters, Dean Kaelin of Utah (voice coach to American Idol’s David Archuleta) and Wendy Parr of New York City, Greg Enriquez and Jeffrey Skouson of Las Vegas have influenced Alexys’ technique tremendously. Alexys was selected in 2008 as an SLS classroom instructor for children’s and young adult’s six-week boot camp. He was also selected as chairperson within the SLS organization for the SLS Educational Advisory Group, representing the San Francisco Bay Area. Alexys has successfully trained artist to sing in the mix, the SLS Technique and can do the same for you. See the testimonials of some his students.

Alexys was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He began performing at the age of five and was a member of The Tulsa Ghetto Youth Choir. Blessed with talent in the performing arts of voice, theatre, dance, gymnastics, and poetry, he was selected for acting roles, vocal ensembles, and lead vocals. Such songs as I Believe, No Man Is An Island, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and later Aretha Franklin’s Until You Come Back to Me, The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back, and Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour were among his favorites.

Musical influences include Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Rachelle Ferrell, Earth Wind & Fire, Ella Fitzgerald, Rahsaan Patterson, Ledisi, Chaka Kahn, Michael Jackson and Anita Baker. Alexys is currently in the studio producing a collection of original compositions.

Writer: Alexys Paris, Certified Speech Level Singing© Instructor is a member of SLS Teachers at The Voice Studio in San Francisco

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