Session 3! By now, if you have been working with the initial slides and warm ups a few times a week, the sensation of a full release of air should be getting more familiar. As you release more air, it becomes easier to notice the vibration of the air in the different parts of your face and the internal sensations of singing.
Your mission this week: do the exercises 5-6 times if possible, or as many times as you can. Record at least part of the song you are currently working on with dynamic development that you have worked out. Recording yourself is the only way to get an accurate sense of whether the difference you are intending to create with your dynamics is as distinct as it feels.
Below you’ll find a recap all about breathing, and to the side you have the audios. In the materials tab you have the pdf about dynamics, and the soundtrap file to record your current work with the dynamics content in mind is here.
Once you have done the exercises that correspond with this session, check out the pdf in the materials tab to work on your song
We’re therefore ready to look at breathing in more detail, and onsets. The ‘onset’ is how the cords come together at the onset of the sound.
The interaction between the air coming up from below and the manner in which the vocal cords come together create various types of different sound, and that’s sometimes called ‘vocal tone’ which we’ll explore further in subsequent sessions. If the air isn’t flowing and the cords are restricted, it’s hard to sing higher notes, and the sound can feel ‘caught’ at the back. If the cords can’t connect effectively, the air which should be turned into sound is lost, and that can result in a loss of power. Very often, what seems like an unreachable or difficult vocal gesture is just something that’s manageable but compromised by lack of airflow. Air is the fuel, and any other adjustments you might want to make to style or sound depend on air.
As soon as air comes up the windpipe and strikes the cords, they begin to vibrate, and sound is created. The vocal cords are known as the producing mechanism, and the breath as the propelling mechanism. The breath is to the cords what the bow is to a violin. We have talked about the cords being together and apart and about connecting the cords efficiently. When air passes through the cords, it does so through an opening called the Glottis. Each different pitch has a different sized opening, and to create higher pitches the cords ‘zip up’ and the opening becomes smaller. Some of these adjustments, indeed most, would be hard to see with the naked eye, as the vocal cords are only about an inch long. The stretch of the cords determines how large or small the opening is, not the breath. If you use too much breath, or too much force, the cords won’t have the opportunity to create the right adjustment for that pitch.
Common reasons why singers squeeze, hold and push:
- You’re afraid of missing the pitches – sometimes it can ‘feel’ like more air will help you hit pitches. But as we’ve just seen it’s the adjustment of the cords that changes pitch.
- You’re nervous your voice will break – the biggest adjustments the cords need to make are at the top of chest voice and the bottom of head voice.
- You’re afraid you’ll run out of air. We tend to squeeze if we feel like we might not make it to the end of a phrase without running out-it’s instinctive.
If you rely on adding air pressure for loudness or to force the voice out, it’s known as overblowing, or pushing. This blows the mechanism apart by forcing so much air through the cords that they don’t have an opportunity to adjust until after the air has already started coming out. This causes the air to escape too rapidly, and actually makes it more likely you’ll run out of breath.
But anything that’s squeezed – like the feeling of squeezing air out – is by definition being held, and can’t be readily released. If you squeeze something in your hand, it’s the opposite of letting it go. Breath can add loudness and resonance, but only when expelled properly.
The diaphragm is a muscle tissue that contracts down when we inhale. It’s an autonomous movement that happens whether we are awake, asleep, aware of it or not. To work properly, it needs to have the physical space to contract and expand, and the active rib posture ensures this. A helpful physical cue to make sure you’re in this posture is to clasp your forearms with the opposite hand, behind your back.
To allow the diaphragm maximum room, you want your rib cage to be active and not slumped in. Be very conscious of not collapsing your ribs when you exhale – if you can maintain an active ribcage, then when you inhale your diaphragm descends, displacing internal organs to the side, and that gives more space for your lungs to fill with air. If you keep shoulders relaxed and ribs active, it’ll mean your diaphragm is descended for as long as possible, giving you the best possible breath.
If you google ‘breathing for singing’ you get a lot of content that talks about ‘control’ and ‘pushing’ with your diaphragm. In fact it’s not always helpful to think in these terms, not least because in actual fact the diaphragm can’t ‘push’. To check your alignment you can try standing against a wall and see if the back of your head is moving or tilting forward. You can also lie flat on the floor to feel this. Final factor: the core muscles work in an antagonistic way with the diaphragm, and having them move freely is important for breathing freely. Stretching to the left and right to make sure your core muscles and obliques are not tense and restricting the range of movement of the diaphragm also sets you up for good breathing.
Onsets – the onset of the sound sets the rest of the note or phrase up. Different vowel and consonant sounds have different onsets and we want to train the most efficient cord action in all onsets. The Hmm Hah Ah and Ee Hey Hey help with this.
