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A
mini-article on mirening...
For those using 'Singing and the Actor' work in their teaching,
whether for grade exams, in the private studio, in coaching or class
voice lessons.
Jeremy Fisher is an expert mirener. The
sound clip that comes with this article was made by Jeremy
during the recording session for ‘Singing and the Actor Audio
Guide’. See end of this article for the lyrics
that Jeremy is mirening.
Here are Jeremy’s tips for successful mirening.
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1. |
Begin by humming your chosen melody using an ‘ng’, /ŋ/ It is better
for this exercise to slide around the pitches rather than be
super-accurate with leaps and stops. Get used to maintaining the
‘ng’ throughout. |
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2. |
Using a single pitch, sustain the ‘ng’ hum and move your lips. Now
move your lower jaw, still keeping the ‘ng’. Finally, keep the ‘ng’
and wiggle the tip of your tongue between your teeth. All of these
exercises help isolate the different parts of the tongue, and the
‘ng’ sound helps you to monitor aurally the contact between tongue
and soft palate. |
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3. |
Now add the mouthing of the words to the ‘ng’ sound. Make sure that
the ‘ng’ continues throughout. Often adding other closely related
movements (lips, jaw, tongue) causes the ‘ng’ to release – for this
exercise you do not want to hear vowels! Get used to the feeling of
separating your lips from your tongue. |
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4. |
Now add the mouthing of the words to the ‘ng’ sound. Make sure that
the ‘ng’ continues throughout. Often adding other closely related
movements (lips, jaw, tongue) causes the ‘ng’ to release – for this
exercise you do not want to hear vowels! Get used to the feeling of
separating your lips from your tongue. |
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5. |
As you get used to the co-ordination of tongue and jaw use,
you can experiment with different consonants – for example,
forming an ‘m’ /m/ with your lips at the front while singing
an ‘ng’ at the back. |
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6. |
Normally plosives and fricatives can be formed with either pulmonary
or non-pulmonary air (using air from the lungs or just air trapped
in the oral cavity). But pulmonary air is not an option with
mirening. On the recording I am using non-pulmonary air for the
sound ‘f’, /f/, ‘t’, /t/, ‘s’ /s/, and ‘p’, /p/. To discover how
non-pulmonary movements feel, hold the ‘ng’ and blow a kiss – in
order to make the “smacking” sound you will be using a non-pulmonary
inhalation! Experiment with non-pulmonary consonants. |
Uses of mirening
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1. |
Putting together the tasks of pitching and articulation (see Step 4
of Song Assignment in SATA 2nd edition, pp121-2) |
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2. |
Learning song texts. Mirening helps you commit the words to muscle
memory via the shaping of the tongue for vowels and consonants. |
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3. |
A good preparation for ‘marking’. Move from mirening into thin-fold
singing, which will help preserve your voice during lengthy
rehearsal periods. |
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4. |
An excellent way to rehearse material without disturbing family,
neighbours or fellow cast members! |
Song lyrics (from the Beggar’s Opera by
John Gay)
If the heart of a man is depressed with cares,
The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.
Download the sound file
which accompanies this article
(249kb Windows Media Audio File)
Read Gillyanne's feature article
Lesson plan -
Monitoring personal effort
(SATA 2ed p14; 1ed p17)
Return to
SATA Pedagogy introduction
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Vocal Process SATA-related
products include:
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Singing and
The Actor - the book by Gillyanne Kayes |
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The SATA
Audio Guide on CD |
Click on an image
(above) to find out more
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