Recently I’ve been working with a student who continues to sing too lightly and without resonance. I asked him how he practiced, and he hemmed and hawed, unsure of what I meant. I attempted to clarify by asking what he thinks about when he is in the practice room singing an aria. “Mostly I just try to make sure I’m not using tension,” he answered.
Ah, so that was the problem. By trying to avoid tension, his tone was unfocused; his breath was not managed, which made his sound light and airy. The idea of tension is often interpreted in ways that prohibit vocal progress. To maximize vocal technique, a singer must go to the “edge” and find a balance of freedom through the vocal tract and the needed tension to support the sound.
This month’s column is intended to help identify what tension means for singers—for better or worse, till death do we part.
The word “tension” causes confusion. The definition itself is conflicting:
Tension
noun
1. The act of stretching or straining.
2. The state of being stretched or strained.
3. Mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.
(www.dictionary.com)
Upon reading the definition, one sees the word “stretch,” which is typically associated positively with singing. The word “strain,” on the other hand, has a negative association with singing. We also read the words “anxiety” and “excitement,” which appear to conflict with each other. And yet all together they form the definition of “tension.” This might sound similar to the definition of stress, but let us keep the idea of “stress” in the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement and save that drama for a future column.
Trained teachers and coaches are encouraging healthy vocal production that avoids strain and negative anxiety. In order to avoid strain in the vocal tract, however, a singer must engage the muscles that support vocal production and manage their breath. When singing in an “easy” range, it is a common misconception that no tension is needed. But, like unconditional love, support for optimal classical singing is needed at all times—through good times and bad, through the primo passaggio and secondo passaggio. If you need a quick refresher on what exactly your passaggio is, see the sidebar on this page.
College students experiencing stress are advised to improve their time management. Likewise, students experiencing vocal fatigue in their singing (or stress, tension, tightness, etc.) are taught to expand their breath management. Both time management and breath management are skills that come easier for some and take more effort for others. If you have issues with either, it is neither good nor bad—it just is.
Successful classical singing students push up their sleeves and painstakingly practice what needs improvement. The comparison between time management and breath management is intended to remind students that you must make time to practice. An obvious conclusion? Good for you.
The following two case studies describe a male and female music major who both recently found their “edge” and are learning to use more voice, which requires more strength (good tension) for better breath management to produce their best sounds.
CASE STUDY # 1
Voice: Baritone
Age: 21
Year of Study: Junior
Relationship Status: Currently taken
Voice Quality: Beautiful sound, good intonation
Room for Improvement: Ability to deliver strong sounds in performance was “hit or miss.” Voice not always connected to body.
Excuse: Sunday job as contemporary music worship leader reinforced “crooning” style with mic and guitar.
The Real Problem: Not enough focused practice.
The Work: Baritone was asked to work with a Bel Canto song and guided to sing a phrase with an even crescendo up to F4 by closing the vowel shape or “covering.” Subject was slightly closing the vowel shape through the secondo passaggio from [a] to [o] or [u] but was unable to find the correct space to increase volume and resonance in the higher notes above the transition.
The Break-Thru: Baritone worked on the “cover” (darkening the vowel shape and closing off the space) to transition the tone to a darker [o] position as the phrase ascended and found the “edge.” With a darker [o] shape, he was able to use more voice to successfully sing a crescendo that resulted in a thrilling forte high F. How did he recognize the sensation of “cover”? The baritone described the process as moving his breath forward and up and feeling the resonance into the sinus area with a relaxed throat, but using a lot more air.
Technique: Singers must alter the tension in the vocal tract and simultaneously stretch the vocal folds to ascend to higher pitches in order to resonate a large and intense sound with the desired effortless (or at least easier) sensation. Male singers ascending into their high range often call this “turning” the voice or using a “covered” tone to shape and focus the tone after the second passaggio. Practicing this technique produces vibrant and warm tones when the singer finds the coordination needed between vowel modification and engaged breath support.
CASE STUDY #2
Voice: Light Lyric Soprano
Age: 22
Year of Study: Senior/transfer student
Appearance: Adorable
Voice Quality: Lovely, light, and resonant sound in middle to high voice
Room for Improvement: Low voice was airy, disconnected to the rest of the voice.
Excuse: Sang in show choir in junior college with a pop style and sings in two university choirs that currently ask for a lot of “straight tone” singing.
The Real Problem: Not willing to risk “cracking,” even in lessons. Preferred to stay in comfort zone of unsupported light, straight tone singing in low range.
The Work: Soprano was given the Italian song “Danza, danza” to work toward evenly transitioning the middle voice to the chest voice.
The Break-Thru: One day we saw her friend Dawn in the hallway, and I asked the soprano to yell to her. “Dawn!” we yelled (I on an obnoxiously high pitch, she in a more timid voice). “Dawn!” I encouraged, and she pitched her yell to approximately her speaking voice range. Dawn was happy to be lavished with attention, and then we discussed the way the student’s chest voice could be an extension of the speaking voice.
We used the example of the pitched yell to Dawn because the space is so closely related to the repeated title words “Danza, danza.” She took a risk and sang the lower phrases of her song with a similar placement to yelling down the hall. To be clear, she wasn’t yelling; rather, she utilized more vocal mass by placing more tension on the vocal folds and added more chest voice to her “mix.” There was no “cracking,” because she supported the tone evenly in the ascent to her middle and upper registers.
Technique: Although some females speak a bit higher than their chest voice range, the exercise to evolve from pitching a loud spoken tone to singing it in the chest registration, adjusting the “mix” ascending into middle, and then descending back to chest can be helpful in understanding there is one voice, top to bottom. The female voice will next work to modify the vowels—typically narrowing toward [u] through the second passaggio and opening the vowel shape in the high register. This is the basic recipe for improving a singer’s consistent voice from top to bottom.
In this case study, we simply needed to give the soprano permission to use her chest voice more similarly to the way she speaks in order to bridge the gap down from middle to chest. Not surprisingly, she recognized the similar sensations of her show choir singing. The exercise helped her realize she has one voice that she can use in a more healthy way for both choral and solo singing.
The “T” Word
Tension is not necessarily a bad word. In music theory you might notice that the resolution of semi-tones and tritones are something like the yin and yang of our Western musical language. Just as we cannot enjoy tonal resolution without the tension leading up to it, we also cannot find the “edge” of well-coordinated classical singing without good tension that expands muscular support for diaphragmatic breath management. Or, as Dame Joan Sutherland put it, “Just relax, support, and sing.”
So although she makes it sound easy, I encourage you to go to the practice room and spend the time you need to find your “edge.” It takes courage to create more sound and painstaking practice to make the transitions sound effortless. With continued practice, you can find the proper amount of tension to help, not hinder, your vocal training.
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Extra! Extra! Read All about Your Passaggio!
Passaggio is the Italian word meaning “passage.” Most singers naturally feel three basic vocal registers: chest voice, middle voice, and head voice. In order to train the voice to sound even from top to bottom, the singer must carefully practice singing through two transitions: from chest to middle, the primo (first) passaggio, and from middle to head, the secondo (second) passaggio.
Every singer’s voice is slightly different, but the common notes that encompass the passaggio for most voices are above middle C, when it is no longer easy to sing full chest voice. Music theatre and contemporary singers often describe this as the “break,” when they can no longer fully belt and need to mix head voice into the vocal mass. Approximately an octave above the first passage will be the secondo passaggio, when a shift in the soft palate must be made to accommodate the higher range, often described as a yawn-like space.
