KNOW YOUR VOICE: To maintain vocal health, it is important that you know your voice, both in speaking and singing. In the speaking voice we must speak at the right optimum pitch level.
To find the pitch level for your speaking voice, put your hands over your ears, hum in a gliding ascending and descending pattern, you will feel an increase of the vibration and buzz when the pitch level is about where you should be speaking. Another good method is to speak the affirmative ‘uh huh’, as if agreeing with someone. This will usually be spoken at the best speaking level for your individual voice. In addition to speaking in a well-modulated tone, take care to use good breath energy and resonance when speaking. The singing voice classification (Fach) can be determined by analyzing where the color change occurs at the passaggio areas.
POSTURE: Since singing involves the entire body, it is imperative that we assume a good posture, which must be free of tension and have a balanced relationship between the head, neck and torso. To find this posture, put your arms above your head, reach and stretch upward, then lower your arms to your sides, keeping your body in the same position, without tension. Keep your sternum high and your rib cage buoyantly expanded, as it is when you inhale. The vocal mechanism must also be in a balanced, free posture. This can be accomplished each time you inhale through an open, free throat.
BREATH (preparation): Breathe quietly through an open throat and nose. A good way to help the vocal mechanism release and go into a lowered, balanced posture is to inhale on an imploded “k.” (To feel this action, gently put the thumb and index finger on either side of the larynx in the groove between the thyroid cartilage and the hyoid bone.) Feel the larynx release and go slightly lower, speak/sing on a glide of a diminished 5th. This exercise will open the entire vocal tract. Proper inhalation prepares the throat for singing and causes the support mechanism and vocal cords to be brought into action simultaneously.
Also, think of breathing ‘IN’ ‘DOWN’ and ‘OUT’ with a slight lift of the back molars, or as if beginning a yawn. This causes the throat to open; the jaw drops down freely and there is a gentle lifting at the top of the throat as the soft palate rises. As you inhale, the rib cage, epigastrium and back will expand as the intercostal muscles release. The sternum must always remain comfortably high and should neither rise with inhalation nor descend with exhalation.
BREATH (management): Most pedagogues prefer the term “breath management” rather than “breath control.” The appoggio action involves the entire torso. The muscles of the upper and lower torso must release tension to allow the inhalation process to fill the lungs without constriction or resistance. After the intake of breath, begin the tone by starting to sing without consciously tightening the abdominal muscles. Reflex action will take place. Let the tone activate the muscles of support.
“It is the excitation of muscular energy, not movement or tightening of muscles, that prepares one to sing.” (Lamperti). The muscular action of the body should be an energizing of the lower abdominal muscles and the area just below the rib cage. A little contraction of the pelvic muscle will give the resistance that is needed to energize the breath. A slight thrust of the sternum also occurs. To feel this sensation, put one hand on the chest and the other on the lower abdominal area, cough or laugh and feel the natural action of these muscles.
In the book The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, James McKinney suggests that we repeat the word NOW-NOW-NOW with energy as many times as we can on one breath. The combined action of the sternum area and muscles of the lower torso (including the area at the sides just below the bottom ribs) shows which muscles are activated by the energized use of the breath.
When we sing, we should not be conscious of the abdominal muscles pulling in; the effort of singing activates them. When the sternum is high, the rib cage can remain expanded and buoyant. Conversely, when the sternum falls, the pectoral muscles fall, the rib cage goes in and the diaphragm goes back up to its dome shape. We should stay as long as possible in the inhaling position. To quote Lamperti again, “The muscles of inhalation are in constant struggle against the muscles of exhalation and in singing the muscles of inhalation must win.”
RESONANCE: The open throat, which includes the entire nasal-oral-pharyngeal tract, is considered the major resonator of the human voice. It can only be opened by the act of inhalation, not by direct muscular effort. Any attempt to stretch the throat by a localized effort to open it will engage the “swallowing” muscles, which would cause the throat to close rather than open.
I prefer to use the term “resonators,” rather than “registers.” The low voice involves the action of the thyroarytenoid muscles (heavy mechanism) and as we go into the higher voice the muscle process adjusts to the crycothyroid muscles (light mechanism). The areas of resonation involve the entire compass of the pharynx from the laryngeal area to the top of the nasal pharynx. It is the resonance factor that amplifies the tone.
The transitions in the voice are caused by the voice going from one resonant area to another. A smooth transition over both the first and second passaggio is possible if we can keep a lowered, balanced posture of the vocal mechanism and good breath compression to give it the energy or momentum to soar upward. Never refer to this transition as the “break.” If the adjustment of the larynx and the muscles of the vocal tract are tight, the cords might feel as if they could “break,” but to describe it with that term gives an incorrect mental image that could cause imbalance and tension. Always keep a positive message when using mental imagery.
DICTION: Good diction and articulation are very important factors in beautiful singing. Not only do they make the words and meaning of the song understandable, they are part of a reliable technique of singing. Giving the right phoneme (shape) to each vowel and consonant is imperative to good singing.
For example, if you try to sing an /i/ vowel with /u/ lips, or an /a/ vowel with an /i/ tongue, the vowels would be so distorted that the words would not be recognizable. The vowel shape must be maintained for the duration of the tone. If it goes to its neighboring phoneme it will lose its identity. Closed vowels must be modified in the high voice by giving them more space, or by thinking of a related vowel: /i/ gradually changes to /I/ above the second passaggio.
Consonants are a very important element in articulation. They help focus and project the voice. They are the “doorway” to the vowels and must be crisply sung. Picture a stream of water. As you turn the water on, the stream of water represents the vowel flow. If you put your finger into the flow of water it makes a slight indentation in the stream, but it doesn’t stop the flow or pull it off its course. Similarly, the consonants must not stop the flow of the vowel.
When the voice is free of tension and the vocal mechanism and body are in proper balance, with the body energy supplying the compression and energy of the breath, the tone will become vibrant and ringing. Good vocal health will be a lasting result.
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CJ Williamson
Classical Singer magazine
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South Jordan, UT 84095
