Describing the vocal class given by Dale Syverson and the Richtone chorus will be difficult without the benefit of live demonstration.  It is enough to say that it was revealing and remarkable how she demonstrated measureable improvement in sound with the techniques she described.

She did promise the audience there was no need to take notes because in two weeks she would have the information contained in this class on the Richtone website.  (She confessed that she had already arranged for several people to
nag her about it when she arrived home)

The technique was simple enough.  Here's how to do it wrong and here is how to do it right.  Do you hear the difference?  The answer was always, "Yes."

The first lesson was a demonstration of cold air vs hot air.  She held an index finger in front of her lips and asked the audience to do the same.  "Blow cold air."  To do this, the lips need to be pursed in a tight oo and the interior of the mouth needs to make a small space.

"Now, blow warm or hot air."  To accomplish warmer air, the mouth needs to be opened more and the interior of the mouth needs to be very open.

In the demonstrations from the audience and from the chorus, the sample of "cold air" singing was contrasted to "warm air" singing.  The added resonance was evident in the "warm air" method much to the delight of the audience.  Dale praised the audience that they were very good at doing it both wrong and right, just like her chorus.

The closest the written word can come to define the improved sound would be that the "warm air," even though in the same pitch as the "cold air," sounded lower.  Perhaps because the overtones in the warm air method were blaring and clear, the tone was fuller (wider), and I heard what some call "fat sound."

Dale then demonstrated some wrong and right methods as they related to posture.  First, she told the audience she would address posture only from the neck up and turned to show her profile.  Singing constant on one note, she moved her head forward, then back to a neutral position, and then back, forward, neutral, back…while singing the one note.  It was apparent that when the head was pushed forward or held back, the sound was strangled or impeded.  When the head was neutral, the tone flowed pure.

She then dealt with the torso in the same profile.  She had the audience to stand and take a deep abdominal breath.  It is interested to note that Dale didn't care what technique it was called, only that the breath be taken deeply in the lower region of the torso.

She then instructed the audience to stand sway back and repeat the deep breath.  "Kinda hard to do, isn't it?"

She spoke about a dropped, relaxed larynx next.  In order to keep the sound free and full, the larynx needs to be lower and relaxed.  She encouraged the audience to place their fingers on their throat "between the double chins" and sing from cold air to warm air and note what was felt.  My notes are incomplete for this section, but don't worry.  Dale's website should go into more detail when she gets it completed.

Dale asked the audience to sing a chord on the vowel AH.  She even had a huge cue card with the vowel on it.  After that demonstration, the cue card was turned around to reveal another AH, but an AH in a "fat" font, similar to
puffy, double blocking print.  "Now, sing that AH." She instructed.  The image made a huge difference in the resonance, volume, and depth of the sound.

In this module, she asked that the audience sing the AH to their neighbors.  Everyone in the audience turned to face someone.  "No, no, no…sing it to your neighbor."  Implied was that no one should be turning to face another person…they would sing straight ahead toward Dale while singing it to their neighbor…the result was wide sound.

One of the most impressive demonstrations was when Dale asked the audience to sing a chest tone holding her hand at the upper level of her chest, then asked them to sing a chest tone singing at the lower level of her chest, and then again asked them to sing a chest tone holding her hand in front of her stomach!

This is about as much as can be conveyed with my  limited experience.  Don't forget Dale's promise to have people to nag her sufficiently to place a recap of this class and probably more great information on the Richtone's web site.  The address is http://www.richtone.org

In song,

Janice