How often have you sat in a performance and said to yourself, “If only the tenor had a beautiful sound, instead of that nasality!”
An excess of nasality in the tone, a lack of warmth, and the resulting lack of tonal beauty in a performance setting is a major source of complaint about the tenor singer. But what causes the nasality, and what can be done to solve this ill-produced tonal-quality?
The answer to this question is far from one-dimensional; it involves several aspects of vocal technique. Usually, one problem causes a chain reaction in the instrument and the resulting domino effect makes for unattractive and often tense singing. Nasality is nothing but a band-aid approach to the real vocal issues at hand—and the resulting throat tension often leaves the singer paralyzed in a performance, encumbered by a high level of nervousness.
No doubt about it, nasality means a closed throat and throaty singing. As you will read later, nasality has nothing to do with the true nasal resonance that is the result of an open acoustical space or pharyngeal cavity. The remaining question is, “Who do some singers embrace this vocal production?”
Defining the difference between nasal resonance and nasality
Nasality. Unfortunately, as a young singer I was trained as a tenor, even though my true voice is a lyric baritone. Dixie Neill saved my throat by taking me down to the baritone fach. My tonal quality as a tenor was almost totally nasal—and it took a long time for me to achieve true resonance in my voice without nasality.
One technical understanding that any performing tenor must learn is that nasality is usually caused by the combination of elements. On some occasions, the problem can be magnified by nasal polyps. Most often, nasality is a result of several factors, such as: (1) a low soft palate, and (2) pushing too much breath pressure through the larynx (resulting in high-larynx singing, or a closed throat) and (3) tremendous tension at the root of the tongue, accompanied by a forward jaw position. Note: The forward jaw position does not allow for the full adduction of the cords. Thus we have the chain reaction in the voice; several factors that cause vocal stress.
Nasal resonance or squeeze?
One major issue at hand for the vocal student may be whether or not the instructor hears the difference between a squeezed nasal sound and authentic nasal resonance If a singer has mastered this habit over years, it can be difficulty to diagnose. Nasal resonance is the true ring in the voice that results from a high and wide soft palate, forward and arched tongue posture, and an open acoustical space or the opening of the three open pharyngeal chambers.
An open throat serves the singer in many ways. One of the major benefits of healthy nasal resonance is the release of the root of the tongue, making healthy vocal fold adduction possible. For the sound to find a balance between upper and lower overtones, the tongue, palate, and larynx must be out of the way. The singer needs to achieve the ng posture of the tongue (using the middle of the tongue to approximate the ng position), a small stream of air through the nasal port, three open pharyngeal chambers—and, by sustaining an efficient body connection. A strong hissing sound gives the singer a feeling of true resistance in the lower body muscles, or what some call support. When singers achieve true resonance beyond nasality, they can produce a pure legato line with an open acoustical space, but the body connection must remain as a constant.
Remember that a voice should never be placed forward. Jussi Björling once said to my teacher Alan Lindquest during their study with Joseph Hislop, “Ring reflects toward the nose and mask area from an open back throat or pharynx.” This statement implies that the true work is focused on the open throat and getting the tongue and palate out of the way.
The respected vocal pedagogue Giovanni Battista Lamperti once said, “A singer’s primary pronouncer is in the pharynx, not the mouth.” This open pharynx, or pharyngeal vowel, approach assists in releasing the root of the tongue, making it more difficult to produce a nasal sound. Achieving an open-throated approach in vocalization also achieves the laryngeal tilt, creating a healthier balance in registration. Of critical importance is that fact that
it then eliminates the need to drive breath pressure in the voice. The resulting tonal quality is warm and ringing, but never nasal.
The low down on the high larynx
When any singer uses a high-larynx position while singing, the root of the tongue becomes extremely tense as it tries to hold the larynx down out of the way. This tension at the root of the tongue tends to drive the voice forward toward the nasal port, creating a nasal sound. Along with this tongue tension, the singer usually then pushes too much breath pressure toward the nasal port, a technique that results in a brittle or harsh sound.
Tenors who sing with a rather high larynx position are sometimes called “bow tie” tenors. A couple of factors prompt this high larynx position: (1) lack of support or body connection in the lower body muscles, which diminishes breath pressure under the larynx, and (2) lack of pharyngeal vowel training aimed at opening the back of the throat.
The Professional Singer and the High Larynx
Recently I saw a famous crossover tenor in a televised performance of ‘boheme.’ In 1982, when I first went to Dixie Neill for vocal help, she noticed that as I sang my larynx was extremely high, and the sides of my neck collapsed. My tongue was also extremely tense and retracted as I san, making a nasal and strident sound. The sides of my neck shaped themselves like half moons, moving inward on both sides. Seeing a performer on stage with the sidewalls of the throat collapsing like this is like a big red alarm. It means that the pharynx is collapsing during the performance.
While viewing this performance, this tenor’s neck took the exact same shape as my larynx did before I worked with Dixie Neill, and it saddened me to witness a singer with such a beautiful quality struggle so much to sing. It is unnecessary for any singer to struggle in this way, because proper training can solve this issue. Even though this tenor’s production was not quite as nasal as many singers out there, it still reflects a laryngeal behavior that is consistent with nasal tenor production. This singer is very talented within the limits of what he does, but he could have a much easier time singing and enjoy an expansive and free vocal production if he were to address the major issue of the high larynx.
The same scenario is evident in the singing of a well-known crossover soprano. This young singer can barely sustain a musical line at this point, mainly due to closing her throat in an attempt to keep an “angelic” sound in her voice. She obviously has been instructed to keep the ‘light and youthful’ sound. This is a huge mistake. It is an attempt to stop nature from allowing the voice to mature and open. This sound is often compared to a badly produced boy choir sound.
Both of these singers are having international careers, but their vocal limits are becoming more evident and their lack of vocal health has become obvious to their audience base. Both of these singers could retrain these incorrect vocal habits with good instruction.
False ring from tongue tension: Imitating a sound through internal deceptive hearing
As stated before, one major problem for the nasal tenor is tongue tension brought on by high-larynx singing. As I indicated before, when the larynx is high due to a lack of throat space, the root of the tongue becomes bunched and tense. The result is what many call a “tongue sound,” or a sound that is manufactured.
Inside the singer’s head, this sounds good, but what the audience hears is a sound that is gargled and unclear. Why do singers make this choice? Because they are attached to an internal sound they think is healthy—or they just don’t get what true resonance represents. In the end, a nasal sound is often criticized by audiences, but the singer is then left with the conflict of what to do.
Tenor singers must learn to guide the voice through their physical sensations, rather than by listening. Using listening as a guide can cause tongue tension, which tends to increase pressure under the nasal port area. This forces the voice to be placed in such a way that nasality is almost unavoidable. Mr. Lindquest once said to me, “Never tell a singer to place their voice, it will result in a closed throat and usually a nasal sound.” Lindquest, who coached with Enrico Caruso in 1914, had a long career in concert, Vaudeville, music theater, and operetta. He often spoke of his struggle with finding what he called the ‘sweet spot’ in the voice; the function of float in the voice without tongue, jaw, or laryngeal tension.
Because I was a lyric baritone trained as a tenor in my earlier training, I tried every way to sound like a tenor. I was a good student, and some of my early teachers approved of this squeezed nasal sound because they could not hear the difference between nasality and a true ring in my voice. This was partly because I was a good imitator of sound. By the time I got to a good teacher, my tongue dipped like a spoon and shook rapidly with my vibrato. My larynx also shook with the vibrato. It was impossible for me to release my tongue, or even leave it stationary for that matter, thanks to the tremendous constriction of the tongue muscle. Because this was not addressed in my early training, I had major vocal problems by the time I was 22 years of age.
Locking of the airflow
One issue that is rarely discussed is the ability to lock the airflow with the back of the tongue or the gag reflex. Virginia Botkin (a student of Mr. Lindquest’s) first made me aware of this during my study with her in the mid 1980’s. To date, I have never taught a nasal singer who did not lock the breath-flow with the root of the tongue. Often this is can be a factor because the singer is subconsciously creating an internal sound that is beautiful to him and seems to have the characteristic timbre of the “tenor sound.” I made this same mistake which contributed to my nasality. The listener simply hears a held vocal sound and experiences the uncomfortable feeling of hearing a singer struggle to get into the upper voice. This kind of performance simply mirrors a lack of training or a lack of understanding on the part of the singer.
Registration problems
What happens when a singer is singing with a nasal production? Usually he or she is singing on a closed throat which includes a high larynx position. The result is a large imbalance of registration. The singer often whitens the sound to imitate a true head voice, when in actuality he or she is taking the chest register too high. Because of this imbalance, the upper register becomes increasingly harsh and strident and as the upper passaggio becomes more and more difficulty to navigate.
This is exactly what happened in my vocal instruction. Because I am not a true tenor, proper intonation became harder and harder to achieve due to the fact that the larynx was too high and the palate too low. I could not sustain healthy tuning and most pitches tended to fall under the intended pitch. What was perhaps more amazing was the fact that I heard the pitches inside my head as perfectly in tune. I have found that many singers develop an inner hearing that approves of pitches that are not in tune. Whatever the cause, this is a fascinating aspect of working with singers who suffer this vocal disorder.
The jaw posture problem
As I said in the opening of this article, nasality is a combination of several vocal issues that work toward distorting true vocal resonance. Thrusting the jaw forward, a habit of which many singers are not aware, encourages a backward pull of the tongue, a major factor in driving the voice toward the nasal port without enough opening of the back of the throat. One major issue for the tenor is that he gets a bright sound inside the head when the jaw is thrusting the jaw forward. I once worked with a tenor at the Paris Opera who suffered this problem, although he was completely unaware of the fact that his jaw was thrusting forward with such force that one could easily see it in the mirror. We had two sessions and by the end of the second session, he could sing his entire role in vocal balance without having to struggle. The forward thrust of the jaw had cause occasional nasality and it certainly created an imbalance in registration. A forward jaw position makes access to the true head voice an impossibility.
Vowel distortion
In 1977, I had a long lesson with my friend, Martha Rosacker, (who in turn convinced me to go to Alan Lindquest). I give her credit for beginning my journey in the long and deep search of vocal answers. The lesson was more than 90 minutes long, and focused mainly on the Italian u vowel. During the entire session, my u vowel was distorted because my tongue was shaped like a spoon and shook with tremendous tension. I applaud Martha’s patience and determination. Even though I did not get my vowel correctly produced in that session, through listening to it, I was able to later correct the problem. Nasality was also present when the back of the tongue dipped in the shape of a spoon, making a harsh and shrill sound.
Vowel distortion can be a huge problem in nasal singing because the tongue is not allowed to achieve the proper position for the pure vowel sound. I will never forget one quote from Mr. Lindquest: “You alter the vowel with the pharyngeal stretch, and you speak the integrity of the vowel with the proper tongue position.” I use this quote all the time in my teaching, because it is important to know how to speak pure vowel sounds with the tongue and allow the vowel to alter because of the expansion of the throat space and the pivoting of the larynx.
High breathing
If the tongue is bunched or back (creating a nasal sound), most of the time the quick breath will be too high in the body. In all of my teaching, I have never seen a tight-tongued singer truly breathe low in the body. The first of the following series of exercises will help release the tongue, making low breathing more possible. One good way to achieve a low breath is to place the tongue between the lips and take a slow nasal breath, allowing the larynx to descend and the palate to rise. The singing breath will drop much lower in the body and you will teach the tongue not to bunch or pull back at inhalation. It is also critical to release the lower back and lower abdominal muscles at inhalation.
Exercises: Releasing the blockages that create nasality.
1. Baby ‘a’ exercise:
5…5…5…5…5…4…3…2…1
a…a…a…a…a………………
(As you phonate at the cords, roll the tongue slightly forward in an arched position, keeping the tongue tip at the lower gum line. This is the exact opposite of the gag reflex and the tongue will not want to behave in this way at first, but with practice the singer will realize the brilliance of the a vowel with the phonation of the thin edges of the folds.)
2. Breathing over the hand: Shape your hand flat, then place it laterally in the mouth and breathe above the hand. There will be a tremendous stretch of the soft palate, a wonderful tool in ridding the voice of nasality. (I received this exercise during my study with Dr. Evelyn Reynolds in New York.)
3. Learn to achieve a healthy facial posture when you take a breath. Lift the cheeks very slightly under the eyes (this opens the uvula away from the back of the tongue and lifts the soft palate). Sink the cheeks at the back molars (which opens the back wall of the pharynx at inhalation), and breathe the jaw gently back so the larynx can feel released downward. Use a mirror to self-supervise this facial posture exercise. (This exercise was presented to me by Alan Lindquest and also taught by Dr. Evelyn Reynolds.)
4. Use the neutral vowel uh in the larynx before bringing focus into the tone. For example, start with the uh in the larynx and then bring the tongue forward as in the i vowel. This way your open pharynx is established first, then the brilliance can follow while keeping the open feeling in the throat. This is another concept of both Lindquest and Reynolds. I have worked to design many exercises using this basic foundation with great success. It is based on forming a neutral vowel space in the throat and then bringing brilliance or point into the voice.
Achieving both high and low overtones
One constant search for any singer is finding balance in his or her singing by balancing the high and low overtones. The following exercise is designed to achieve balance in the middle register and to inspire the production of upper and lower overtones. It will also eliminate nasality if the tongue is properly released.
1. The overtone balancing exercise:
5…4…3…2…1…5…4…3…2…1
M..M..M…M…M…i…e….a….o…u
Sing the hum portion of the exercise with the tongue gently between the lips. As you do this, feel as though you are stretching a vowel space behind the tongue. Then sing the five vowels. You will find there is a balance in upper and lower overtones, or a combination of ring and open acoustical space working together.
