TVS Methodology Overview - Part 1

This video is here to help you to understand what is the TVS methodology and really in some sense what is a vocal training methodology and training methodologies. We hear this a lot. It's kind of a popular buzzword in the industry. And one thing that happened with me and TVS as I was working on the four pillars of singing this book and the techniques and things inside of it I began to not only understand better what the TVS methodology is but what a what a methodology in itself is. And I think this is important information for you to understand as you proceed in your training with the four pillars of singing. And if you're a potential customer that's looking to do training with TVS This is also valuable for you to understand. So what is a training methodology in singing techniques systems when you have a product that's a book with a lot of good ideas in it. That's not a methodology that's just a book with a lot of good ideas in it. And there are some products like that out on the market and there are good books I own some of them but that doesn't make it a methodology. When does a book or a folder full of ideas and good techniques transcend and evolve into a methodology. It does so when I believe two things happen. Number one when the ideas and the techniques inside the training program are unique when there is innovation inside the program that honestly have never really been tried before that are original. That's one mark of a methodology and I believe a methodology also has to have a process systems and a process for training the content or studying the content. Again not just a bunch of ideas dumped into a bucket but ideas that are sorted out organize and then as a training singer you're given instructions on how to train it. The four pillars of singing our training program is not the methodology that's a product in a training program but the methodology can be found inside the pages of the program. But let's cut to the chase and talk about those innovative ideas that do make up. Methodology. bridging and connecting bridging and connecting is not necessarily a technique it's really a term that refers to an attitude or a belief system or a principle that TVS students and teachers believe in bridging and connecting means the ability to phonate and sing train and sing a seamless phonation a seamless vocal tone from your chest voice or more properly referred to as vibratory mechanism and one which you will learn about in the four of singing through the vocal break through the passaggio where so many of us all the time are having problems with pushing and choking and gripping and things like that getting through that bridge or the passaggio which means passage in Italian smoothly seamlessly without pushing and choking or quacking like a duck and then connecting on the other side inside vibratory mechanism M2 or inside a resonant space that has trained M1 or chest voice. Belt voice musculature trained and pulled up to higher frequencies. So again let me try that again in a simpler way. Bridging and connecting simply means to be able to train and sing smoothly from your chest voice through the vocal break into your head voice without pushing choking yodeling instability issues and making the head voice or the high notes sound strong convincing and something that you're proud of and something that the audience is proud of. So bridging and connecting is not actually a technique in itself but it's more about an attitude or a value statement that myself the TVA certified instructors and all of us all students hold to be important even if you're not aware of it. Everybody needs to bridge and connect. In fact in my opinion if you're training a program or working with somebody and in the first lesson or two and in the training content that you're working with if you're not reading or getting exposed to ideas that are oriented around bridging the registers and developing their head voice resonant area. If that's not immediately obviously a big part of the mission and the purpose of your training in them and the reason you're spending money on vocal training. My advice to you would be to turn around face the door and run like hell because you're probably wasting your time. And I truly mean that bridging and connecting the registers is 80 per cent of the sport of singing. That's the main thing. There are other issues that are important in singing technique as well. But if you can't bridge and connect and expand your register and you're pushing then you can't do anything. So this is important. And TVS teachers and myself make a big deal out of this. If you train with me this is what we'll be working on. Now let's talk about specialized onsets specialized onsets in regards to specialized onsets. This actually is a set of tangible techniques that are unique to the TVS methodology. Now I'm going to go into a lot more detail on these onsets because they are so important later on in the training program. And in another video. So this is just a surface level explanation. But here's what it is. Onset is a fancy voice lesson talk for basically the start the beginning OK if the onset is good if the beginning of your training note or your singing note is good then what follows will be good. On the other hand if your onset is bad if the onset has technical components in it that are not balance tuned and calibrated that you're going to learn about in the TVs training system issues such as the embouchure vocal compression the ability to dampen your larynx getting your eyes off your shoestrings having good mental programming learning to phone through the proper singing vowels formant tuning and other issues those are important technical components that make up what we call in TVs an onset package now package just means components inside in a bundle. So TVS you train eight specialized onsets or eight special ways to begin a training note or a singing note. Now these eight specialized ways are designed to help build strength or isolate the musculature to build strength and coordination for your voice. So if you're working to get better compression on your vocal folds you might do what we call the quack and release on. If you're working to get your larynx damp and you might train the dampen and release onset if you're sounding too quacky or too too compressed on high notes oftentimes women have that problem. You might work on the wind and release onset if you want to work on belting and going in big belty chest voice sound on high frequencies on high notes you would work on specialized attack and release onsets which are referring to a lot of the attacks. So an onset is kind of like a surge. If you're playing tennis it's the way you begin the note. Now in addition to isolating strength and coordination with the onsets as a student and certainly as a TV instructor the onsets are used to troubleshoot problems. So through the knowledge and the understanding of how to use these specialized onsets you can hasten your progress you can make quicker progress in your training because you have these onsets to fix problems and get stronger. And they are a powerful piece of the devious methodology. Very important. It's going to help you get to where you need to go. Everything that you need to train to get strong and coordinated to sing the way you want to sing can be found principally in the onsets. Now let's talk about training workflows. The tedious methodology offers training workflows. Now what's the workflow. It's pretty simple. Many of you have seen it before a workflow is just simply step one step two step three step four it's the sequencial steps to any process. We all do this every day and in our lives and with TV as in the training system I'm going to teach you how to do training workflows a training workflow is the bass path the quickest path from start to finish. To again get the results that you want in the fastest way. In fact some of the previously mentioned onsets the way you learn them is through a training workflow. Initially training workflows are found throughout the the system and through out the methodology TV as vocal training and the methodology among other things is a vocal mode pedagogy. Now what does that mean. Well in the last 10 or 20 years in the vocal training technique industry there's been a massive amount of innovation and great ideas that have come out. One such idea is the idea of vocal modes. Now it depends on what school you're talking to and who you might be referring to. But basically vocal mode pedagogic ideas are based on categorizing certain elements of the voice now into into groups so that you can understand better what you're teaching what you're learning. So I'll clarify. In TVs we are a vocal mode methodology and we have two kinds of vocal modes. OK. We're the only training program that offers two kinds of vocal modes. The first group of vocal modes are what we call physical vocal modes physical vocal modes the physical vocal modes are eight unique physical or physiological configurations that the larynx and the muscles in and around the voice can configure into some of them exotic. Some of them are more intuitive to produce a particular sound color or an acoustic effect. For example what I'm doing right now is a physical vocal mode it's called speech mode. The way my larynx is configured for speech is unique and that's different than the way it is configured for seeing another example. *ha* Falsetto is also a vocal mode. The way my voice and my vocal folds are configured and characterized to make that sound has been classified as falsetto vocal mode in TVS We have eight vocal modes speech, sob, opera, falsetto belting, twang, distortion and quack. Those are eight different ways that the physiology are set up to make different kinds of sound colors and to troubleshoot problems similar to the onsets. Once you get to know those physical modes you understand the way the voice works much better. And what you can do with it. Now the other group of vocal modes are in TVs we call them acoustic modes. Same idea groups and categorizing but acoustic modes are families or groups of vowels that share similar acoustic resonant energy properties. That is to say where the resonant energy is vibrating in your vocal track in your body. And because of that resonant energy similar sound colors again acoustic modes groups of singing vowels not language vowels but singing vowels that share placement or resonant energy characteristics as well as sound color characteristics. It is a brilliant way to understand vowels in singing and some of you well know you've been reading forums and watching videos. You understand that vowels are super important and indeed they are the entire process of singing. Great. Pretty much it starts with the acoustics. If you visualize the proper singing vowels if you hear those vowels in your auditory imagery first and then seeing your scale or sing your song The result is going to be successful. And that is what the acoustic modes do for us as they help me. You all of us to better understand and sort out the vowels and their different properties because not everything involved is the same in TVs we have three singing vowels or three vocal mode groups of families. We have edging vowels which are vowels that tend to resonate more forward in the palette. They engaged the twang the talking and engage compression a little bit more and thus because of that they tend to create a sound color. There's a little bit more metallic. I don't mean the genre heavy metal but a brighter more metallic sound. Very important for singing rock and belting high notes edging vowels on the opposite end of the spectrum. We have a acoustic mode called curbing vowels curbing vowels are characterized by resonant energy that that tends to sit in a more covered position or back hear low and behind the head. Now that's not just a new age you know a concept. It's not an esoteric thing. It's really true when you get really good at curbing vowels. You do feel a little bit of pressure a resonant energy low and in the back of the head they are also characterized by good larynx dampening and the sound color that curbing vowels produce is warm bluesy soulful sexy you might use a curbing vowel in a ballad or on low notes or singing jazz. Right. So a way of edging vowels for more aggressive sounds curbing vowels for warmer more romantic sounds. And in the middle the third TVS acoustic mode is neutral vowels neutral vowels. As the name suggests resonate in the center part of the palette not too much forward not too far back in the middle and the sound color tends to reflect that middle kind of soft palate position. So that's what acoustic modes are. You have physical modes the physiology configurations eight of them and you have acoustic modes broken up into three families and eight principal eight primary training vowels that exist in three acoustic mode groups with TVs.