Supporting the Vocal Tone
Before you read this post, make sure you check out my posts on breathing and quantifying the breath which both deal with the initial phase of singing. The intake of breath is the basis for all of our vocal technique, but a good, supported sound is the next step. I will once again use a couple of terms from James C. McKinney’s Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, which divides the breath cycle into four components.
1) Inhalation: the intake of breath
2) Suspension: a quick moment when the body engages to begin singing. The suspension phase does not occur during normal speech – it is a function of singing.
3) Phonation: the production of sound which requires air. The quality depends a great deal on the quality of the inhalation.
4) Recovery: a very quick moment when the body prepares to inhale again.
This post will deal with the suspension and phonation phases.
Many of the issues with a lack of support stem from the differences between singing and everyday speech. There is no suspension phase required for speech, which means many singers don’t know how to engage the required muscles to get a healthy and supported vocal sound. Talking also requires a lot less air to produce phonation than an ideal singing sound does.
This is an area where bad examples are commonly heard. The majority of contemporary commercial singers do not properly support their sound. The power behind the voice should come from the muscles in the abdomen, supported by muscles in the lower body as well. When the power comes from the throat, like many pop artists, that puts the singer at risk for a number of issues, including vocal nodes.
To counter this we need to focus on those supporting muscles. Posture is incredibly crucial here. The muscles that are working in the abdomen need support from below. This is why I am constantly talking about the legs in my vocal lessons, and why the best singing is done while standing. I use the analogy of a lamp; the vocal chords are the bulb – bright and shiny. The abdomen is the silver screw that connects the bulb to the lamp, and the legs are the lamp itself. None of it works without the rest. It must all be aligned properly as well. The weight should be distributed evenly between the legs to provide the support to the upper body. The crown of the head, shoulders, midpoint of the spine, and hips should all be aligned as well. The shoulders and hips should be level and relatively parallel to each other. This is what I call the “home base” posture. There will be times when the singer will necessarily deviate from it, roles in musicals and opera for example. This home base posture should be the basis for all technique. When seated the posture should remain the same, with the weight now evenly distributed between the sitting bones.
Once the body is aligned we can begin working to engage the muscles that support the sound. If we go back to the exercise done in the breathing post for abdomen expansion[1] we’ll have our hands in a diamond shape over the belly button [insert the link to the breathing article]. We should take our nice expanded breath and begin to sing. Because a good inhalation creates an outward expansion it would make sense that the exhalation would cause the abdomen to collapse back inward. That is how the breath works for everyday breathing and talking, but if we do that while singing we get a very airy, unsupported tone. This is where the suspension phase comes into play. We want to engage the muscles in our abdomen and use them to support and control the air as we begin to sing. This is an area where word choice is surprisingly influential. I try to use the term engage more than anything else. “Tighten” or “push” can often create tension in the body that gets in the way of a good supported sound. Thinking of continuing the abdomen expansion created by the inhale is a good way to keep the muscles from tightening too much. A good way to reinforce this process is to push lightly with the hands, still in that diamond shape on our stomach, which should engage the proper core muscles and cause them to push against the hands. Think of it as a reverse tug of war between the abdomen and the hands. This will help the student produce a nice supported sound. During lessons I will frequently have my students lean into my closed fist as they sing to help them engage, but it can also be done by placing a hardcover book against the wall and the bellybutton and leaning into it. This will achieve relatively the same effect.
Figure 1
This can all be done on whatever syllable is comfortable, but there are two specific exercises I will use to further help with the support. Both use the common exercise in figure 1. First I will have the singer do that pattern on a “z,” telling them to focus on the way it feels in the abdomen. Most students describe a sort of pressurized feeling that happens while they sing the “z.” This is good. The “z” gives them feedback that we do not always have as singers that instrumentalists who play wind instruments naturally have. To use a trumpet for example, the player buzzes into the mouthpiece, creating sound through the vibration of the lips and the air passing through them. The mouthpiece pushes back on the air, giving the player feedback on how the air is being used. This is the phenomenon described by Newton’s third law – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Singing open vowels doesn't give singers that same sense of feedback, because it doesn’t provide that same pushback like the trumpet mouthpiece. Singing certain pitched consonants like the “z” does. The trick is to get that feeling of support to transfer into everything we sing.
Once the student has become familiar with that feeling I will modify the exercise, telling them to change to an “ah” on the top note, keeping the same pressurized feeling going when they switch. What almost always happens is a distinct drop in the tone a note or two after they switch to the “ah” because they lose the feedback of the “z” and they stop engaging. I always make sure they notice the drop. Then we’ll start again, and I tell them to really focus on maintaining the support all the way through. They will sometimes stop the support because they think that the sound is too loud. I tell them that if they feel like it is, then they are right on track, because they are used to the amount of sound they produce with an unsupported technique.
I do the exact same thing with lip buzzes. I love the lip buzzes, because they usually stop happening as soon as the singer stops supporting the air. They work better than the “z” for a small percentage of people, but another small percentage of people have a difficult time doing them at all. I try it with all of my students to supplement the support work done with the “z.” These are both things I will have my students use in literature when they are having difficulties in controlling their breath. I will have them sing the melody in question on a lip buzz or a “z,” whichever works better for them. This allows them to feel how they can use the air more effectively in the passage, especially if they are familiar with the basics of the work from this exercise.
Movement is also an incredibly effective tool to use in working support. So much of singing is actually getting out of our own way and allowing the body to do what it knows how to do. Many singers will have tension somewhere in the abdomen that impedes the sound. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but is usually a learned habit. Having the student walk back and forth while singing can often be incredibly influential in the tone. It tends to release some of the unconscious tension that most singers carry.
The importance of supporting the singing tone cannot be overstated. It is so fundamental to singing that, like the breath, we must constantly check in with it and pay attention to it. Revisiting the concepts discussed in this post can be incredibly helpful to singers of all ages and skill levels.
Notes
Much of the information in this post came out of my work with Rebecca Copley during her year as Visiting Instructor of Voice at Fort Lewis College, including the information on the expansion of the abdomen and the use of the closed fist to work support, as well as the ideas of walking to release vocal tension.
Bibliography
McKinney, James C. The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing & for Choir Directors. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc., 1994, 2005.
[1] Place hands in a diamond shape – thumbs and index fingers touching, over the bellybutton. Breathe into the center of the diamond, causing the fingertips to separate due to the expansion of the abdomen.