Alright folks, let's talk about Flow Phonation (also called "Stretch and Flow phonation).
BREATH is a crucial component of voice production and is one of the subsystems required to make voice! If we don't have adequate breath flow we can end up with a voice that's strained, effortful, rough, fatigued, or inconsistent in quality.
One thing that can help with this is Flow Phonation.
The concept of this technique is to use more airflow when speaking so that you have a proper balance of airflow to support your voice.
You can try this by holding a tissue or your hand in front of your mouth while just blowing airflow out of your lips (envision blowing out birthday candles with pursed lips). Start with JUST air (no sound). You want to make sure the breath is flowing consistently against your hand or moving out the tissue evenly without any effort. It should feel easy, consistent, even.
Then, you can add a little voice to that breath flow by doing a very whispery, breathy “whooooo” sound with rounded lips, again feeling consistent airflow on your hand or watching the tissue in front of your mouth blow out evenly. Sound or airflow should not be choppy, you should not feel anything in your throat and this sound should feel consistent and even. The goal is to move through and avoid voice breaks or roughness by keeping smooth and consistent airflow. Once that feels good, you can move into sentences like “whooo are youuu”, “whooo is sueee”, keeping that same excess breathiness (think “Marilyn Monroe voice to get breathiness!).
Once you feel what excess breathiness does to keep your voice easy you can try to do a more natural production of “who are you?”, while still maintaining that easy airflow.
Maybe contrast that with holding your breath? Which feels like how you normally use your voice?
Can you start to shift use of more efficient airflow into how you speak?
See the webinar for details!