“My technique works perfectly when I’m vocalizing,” I often hear singers complain, “but then when I start singing words, everything falls apart!”
When the delivery of text derails a singer’s otherwise well-coordinated instrument, the likely explanation is that their articulatory skills are in need of a boost. In this column, I will define articulation’s role in singing technique, describe the basic function of the principle articulators, and offer some exercises for improving coordination.
A Function of Resonance
Optimal resonance is defined by its ability to facilitate vocal amplification and projection. I consider articulation an inherent component of what singers do to create and color resonance.
The supraglottal tract is a highly malleable space capable of molding vocal vibration into a wide variety of tone colors; anything that influences the shape of this space will impact on the sound produced by the vocal folds, impacting not only tone and projection power but also the intelligibility of vowels and consonants. If you find that some of your vowels sound freer and more resonant than others, it is likely that you are articulating your preferred vowels more skillfully and must seek a new way to define others that may diminish your sound or entangle your technique.
Every voice is unique. The singular physical structure of each singer’s resonating space is among those features that make their voice personal and special. The way singers learn to engage their articulators in speech from a very early age, however, is usually far from optimal for classical singing. We learn speech from imitating the sounds and articulatory movements of everyone around us, from local dialects to television shows, with a goal of general intelligibility rather than consistent, powerful resonance.
The way we learn to articulate some phonemes will thus haphazardly end up being more useful for lyric diction than others—but if we wish to optimize articulation and resonance for singing, we must take inventory of the way we produce all our vowels and consonants, investigating how they can be individually improved and collectively brought into alignment.
Articulatory Interdependence
The jaw, tongue, and lips work together to create each sound we make in speech, creating habitual movement patterns that we continually reinforce every time we have a conversation. The recipe for each phoneme we utter gets stored in the brain as a neural map, as is the case for all movements we perform on a regular basis. It saves us the effort of having to consciously and mechanistically execute common movements such as putting one foot in front of the other every time we walk down the street.
For example, we typically learn to articulate [n] as a combined movement of the jaw and tongue, resulting in a neural map that says “[n] = jaw plus tongue” that we can draw on any time we need to produce this sound. The jaw, tongue, and lips, however, are capable of moving fairly independently from one another. It is possible—and, in my opinion, desirable—to articulate [n] with just a movement of the tongue and without engaging the jaw.
Optimal resonance requires that you learn to engage your articulators intentionally and with great precision to allow for as consistent a shape as possible for the resonance space, rather than one that must be dramatically overhauled every time you change syllables. You must therefore learn to define each vowel in a way that takes maximum advantage of your available resonance space while generating minimal possible change as you move from syllable to syllable.
Here are my recommended principles for optimizing any vowel or consonant for singing:
-Move only what is necessary.
-Move as little as possible.
-When given a choice, move the thing that is farthest away from the vocal mechanism and, therefore, least likely to entangle its free functioning.
Let’s examine some basic movements of our major articulators.
The Jaw
When you open your jaw, the movements of the mandible at the temporomandibular joint begin with rotation and then progress to translation.
There are differing schools of thought on how much jaw movement is desirable for singing, but you can see in these illustrations (and feel for yourself) that when the jaw opens far enough to go into translation, there is some potential for it to impinge on the throat in the vicinity of the larynx.
My personal preference is to allow the jaw to remain slack (in the degree of openness accomplished by rotation) unless it is needed to articulate one of a small handful of consonants that require its engagement. If the technique you practice involves opening the jaw farther by default, then that is fine—just ensure that anything you do with your jaw is purposeful rather than habitual.
The Tongue
The tongue comprises numerous muscles, many of which are intrinsic (attached only to other muscles rather than any extrinsic structure). It is therefore highly versatile, which accounts for the tremendous range and nuance of sounds humans are capable of articulating.
There are multiple tongue positions that will result in an intelligible delivery for each vowel you need for lyric diction, but only those positions involving an appropriately arched, elevated position of the tongue will yield optimal phonation and resonance. Any singing diction text will include charts like this one detailing the degree to which the tongue must arch for various vowel sounds.
Speech habits, however, often lead us to articulate some or all of these vowels with the tongue in a retracted, depressed position, resulting in the concave appearance that one of my students refers to as “birdbath tongue.” Retracting the tongue entangles the larynx—so if you find that you are relying on this movement to define any of your vowels, you must seek an arched position of the tongue for each of these vowels in order to promote full resonance and free phonation.
The Lips
In classical singing the lips should ideally be either relaxed or rounded to varying degrees. Many of us learn to spread our lips laterally to articulate [i] or other brighter vowels. But it is not necessary to do this to define these vowels clearly, and this movement will unnecessarily tense neighboring structures and encourage the jaw to close, interfering with resonance and laryngeal movement.
Many native English singers underutilize the lips when articulating the vowels [o u ɔ ʊ œ] in speech because it is more intuitive to adjust the tongue to produce these sounds. It is highly advantageous, however, to instead recruit the lips to define these vowels because they have no direct attachment to structures surrounding the larynx and are, therefore, less likely to interfere with its free movement.
Articulatory Independence
The jaw, tongue, and lips are capable of moving fairly independently from one another, but it requires some work to retrain years of muscle memory. Here are some simple exercises that will help you observe habits of articulation and explore some alternatives for optimizing your singing diction.
Tongue/Jaw Separation
Open your jaw so that there is one or two fingers’ width between your upper and lower front teeth, then press your hands against your cheeks on either side to hold this position. Using only the tip of your tongue, intone [ɑ n ɑ n ɑ n ɑ]. Repeat this exercise substituting [t d g k] etc. for [n], encouraging your jaw to remain relaxed and uninvolved.
Most of us articulate [n] by moving the tongue and the jaw, but the jaw is not essential for [n]. So if you are to simplify your articulation in order to “move only what is necessary,” you must teach your jaw that [n] and similar consonants are better accomplished without its participation.
Lip/Jaw Separation
As with the former exercise, use your hands to encourage your jaw to remain in a relaxed, open position. Intone [ɑ o ɑ o ɑ o ɑ] while rounding your lips and encouraging your jaw to remain relaxed on [o].
Tongue/Lip Separation
Press your thumb gently against the root of your tongue (under your chin back towards your throat) and again intone [ɑ o ɑ o ɑ o ɑ] while rounding your lips, encouraging the area under your thumb to remain soft and relaxed.
If you find some or all of these exercises challenging, it is likely due to long-ingrained speech habits. With patience and repetition, however, you can train your articulators to move independently from one another so that your diction facilitates rather than interferes with free phonation and resonance.
When we encounter problematic intervals or high notes in the context of repertoire that are easy for us in vocal exercises, we often assume it’s a function of breath management, registration, or range. But it may actually be due to poor articulatory coordination.
If there is a phrase in your repertoire that has been confounding you, I encourage you to troubleshoot for diction issues. Are you engaging your jaw more than necessary? Are you engaging your lips adequately on lip vowels? Is your tongue in an appropriately arched position for your vowels rather than retracting?
Rechoreograph your articulatory movements, and it will likely alleviate the problem. Even if it doesn’t entirely resolve, skillful articulation may well simplify your singing to the point that you can see what else needs to be addressed.
