The Essence of SLS

Today's popular music styles demand special training. Seth Riggs designed Speech Level Singing to meet the challenge. As a Speech Level Singing artist you experience the ease of speaking while singing. By avoiding added pressure or other manipulation of the voice, Speech Level Singing allows your vocal cords to experience what we call a "zip," in which they narrow as the singer moves up into their range, much like the string of a violin or guitar.

This creates a tremendous advantage for the singer, who is now able to glide through their full range without any breaks in the voice. The singer achieves a higher and lower pitch range without working to increase pressure on their vocal cords. This pure approach to vocal cord vibration produces exceptional pitch accuracy, beautifully supportive body resonance, and radical adaptability for many styles of singing.

More Details on SLS

We describe the mechanics of Speech Level Singing as involving the larynx staying down while the vocal cords stay together throughout the vocal range. SLS singers do this during all vowel and consonant sounds through all phrases. This give a rich sound that is not breathy or uneven.

You can see that the larynx is tightening when the bump in your neck that houses it moves upward. This tightening can prevent you from getting your drink into your lungs, but it is not so helpful for singing. To have your first experience of getting your larynx to stay down and more relaxed, feel your Adam's apple while you yawn. If you try singing while you feel your Adam's apple, you will probably feel it rise and fall. This may be hard to believe, but with Speech Level Singing instruction, you will learn to sing in such a relaxed, natural way, that your Adam's apple actually stays at the same level while your notes rise and fall through your full vocal range.

The vocal cords (or vocal folds) are made of fairly soft tissue that join at the front of the larynx. Speech Level Singing has gained much of its popularity because it respects the vulnerability of these tissues, and preserves them during the demands of professional singing. Singers that do not know Speech Level Singing tend to fight with air. They may not realize it, but they are constricting their vocal folds and creating pressure to blow them apart in order to get the extremes of their range or special effects. It feels perfectly normal to them, but the results can be (and often are) disastrous. Take a look at the list of singers who are trained in Speech Level Singing and you will not only see illustrious careers, you will see long careers. The list includes many familiar names with extraordinary voices that have survived extremely demanding schedules and music while retaining their youthful luster.

Science Helped Create SLS

The stroboscope has helped to perfect Speech Level Singing. While it is impossible to see vocal chords vibrate at 440 times per second with the naked eye, it is possible to know exactly how fast and how well they are vibrating under the pulsing light of the stroboscope. We can observe exactly how much stress and separation the vocal folds are experiencing. Speech Level Singing was forged with this kind of scientific testing to ensure that the methods were truly preserving vocal integrity. Now we can trust our ears and our eyes when we assess the value of this revered technique.

Jane Jenkins

Your vocal coach, Jane Jenkins, has extensive training and experience with Speech Level Singing, as well as a career of her own in jazz and other techniques, at a variety of venues. She is now available in north east San Antonio in her home state of Texas.

Contact Jane Jenkins for more information via email, CLICK HERE for our location, or phone 210/564-9937.