SingingWomb — Vocal Training Group

Having as the base premise that the maternal pre-natal singing is a promotion experience of the development of the mother-foetus bounding, and that the vibroacoustics propagation of the sound is an essential element promoting that bounding, it was intended to optimize the quality of the mother’s voice resonance, in order to assure that the resonance propagation of the maternal singing would be heard by the foetus inside the womb.

For that and being the Portuguese popular songbook very rich in lullabies, it was chosen three lullabies from three different Portuguese regions, through which were designed some of the exercises that, through daily practice, was known to achieve the desired acoustic results.

It was given great emphasis on breath control, an element greatly affected throughout the course of the gestational development, and essential in the production of any resonant singing sound, free from tensions and any other kind of sound parasites.

The sessions began with simple exercises, such as short resistance inhales followed by exhales with controlled air flow.

Exercises of resistance inhales

By using tools such as the resonance tube, which allows a visual monitorization of the expiratory air control, as well as a good auxiliary in the applicability of that expiratory air control in the singing sound production, or the use of the flow ball, a tool that, besides being  visually even more efficient in the monitorization of the expiratory air control, by elongating the vocal tract becomes a very good study instrument to the final wished vocal practice.

Respiratory exercises using the flow ball

Singing with the flow ball in descending movements

While there was a vocal specialist to supervise and lead the practice of the exercises during the group sessions, the individual practice was entirely of participant control and responsibility, having been only being suggested an activity daily plan and given the complete list of the vocal exercises.

After some practice of these vocal exercises, e with an increasingly conscience and ability to produce a more efficient sound to the baby’s hearing, it was introduced the selected lullabies. Using good study practices to study the lullabies’ melodies, making, therefore, use of the tools recently dominated, these were the results:

(in these videos one can observe an oriented complexity crescent of the vocal production, culminated with the singing of the lullaby)