Puffy Cheek Exercise

So the first vocal exercise we're going to go through is something I like to call a puffy cheek exercise.

How to Perform the Exercise

1. Inflate Your Cheeks:
   This exercise involves blowing up your cheeks with air.

2. Steady Stream:

   • Allow that inflated air to escape in a very steady and small stream through your lips.
   • It's like this: [demonstration sound].

3. Avoid Nasal Airflow:

   • Notice that I'm not going "woo." This is different because I'm allowing air to come out of my nose.
   • Important: This is one of the pitfalls a lot of people encounter when working with this exercise. We don't want any airflow to come through the nose. If you find that you can't continue making the sound when you plug your nose, that's a problem.

4. Direct Airflow:

   • This means you're directing too much of the airflow through your nose and not out of your lips. We want to direct all the airflow through the lips.

5. Control Air Release:

   • The second thing you'll notice is that I'm not allowing too much air to escape.
   • I'm not going where it's just all this air spilling out.
   • Additionally, I'm not holding back so much that nothing is coming out.
   • We want a steady, held-back stream of air.

Application to Scales

This approach applies to all the scales that we're going to be doing.

• As these scales ascend into your very high range, I want you to allow a shift to happen.
• It's going to feel like the sound is coming from your chest and moving slowly up towards your head.
• Allow that shift to happen.

Tip: Don't try to fight it or push too much chest voice. Allow that resonance shift to take place smoothly.