Technique, as I’ve learned from experience, should be simple. It should be easy to describe. It should require very little effort. I know a teacher in California who demonstrates how strong your support should be by standing with his abdomen against a grand piano, and when he inhales, the piano moves. Impressive, but you don’t need that much pressure to put through those two little vocal cords. It’s not necessary. You do need very strong support at times, but the basic technique, I believe, should be really relaxed and refined.
The basic technique is very simple: a constant vibration focused in the mask, coupled with a slightly lowered laryngeal position. Then let it flow, let it flow, let it flow. Basically, what you do in any sport—as in singing—is use certain muscles and not use others. In a beautiful golf swing, for instance, you’ll have just the muscles necessary to make a smooth acceleration of the club through a plane. You look at somebody with a perfect swing, like Tiger Woods. It’s simple, it’s consistent—he’s not tensing muscles he doesn’t need to tense, so he gets tremendous distance and tremendous consistency.
I would advise young singers that if your voice teacher’s technique involves a lot of tension, you’re with the wrong teacher. I really believe that. The inhalation should be completely relaxed; the vocal apparatus, the whole neck, should stay relaxed. When it’s easiest is usually when it’s right. You need to learn exactly which muscles to use and which not to use in singing every vowel at every dynamic level for each note in your range. Then you should practice and practice until the sensation is memorized and you have this thing we call ‘muscle memory.’ I think it’s actually brain memory. Your brain is refining what signals to send the muscles in a particular instant.
There’s a coordination element, too. Again, think of a golf swing. You start from a point of rest: you have a backswing, and then—whoosh—the swing comes through. In singing, you have a similar preparation. It’s in the breath and the way the larynx—the glottis—closes in preparation for making a sound. It has to be very fluid.
