Placement, Spread, and Space: Resonance Part 2

Once I have established a good sense of space with my voice students I move onto two concepts that are crucial to voice study, but are difficult to talk about; resonance and placement. Part of what makes discussion of these topics tricky is a lack of standardization of the language of vocal pedagogy. These two terms are often used interchangeably, or defined differently by different teachers.

When I speak of placement I am talking about the way the sound is influenced by “moving” it along the axis that starts at the front of the mouth and ends at the back of the throat. It can be a tricky thing to talk about, mainly because the movements of the body that affect placement are much more subtle than even the movement of the soft palate when talking about space. That motion is hard for some students to grasp at the beginning, so these much smaller ones are basically indescribable. So we have to figure out a way to trick the body into doing what we want it to do. I use the following exercise to introduce the concept. I have the student hold their hand a few inches from their mouth and instruct them to blow cold air on their hand. Usually they instinctively know how to make this happen. Then I instruct them to make the air hot. After that I tell them to go back and forth between the two, paying close attention to the way it feels. I ask them which they feel more in the back of the throat. The answer should be the hot air. In the first four years of using this exercise with multiple choirs and dozens of voice students, I only had two people say the opposite.

The sound created with a placement that is too hot is usually a swallowed sound. This frequently happens when we are working on the concept of space because the student is focused on the soft palate and therefore the back of the throat. It makes sense that this would occur because space and placement are related, but not dependent upon each other. I focus on the placement after space because space should be the one that changes the least between styles of singing. Consistent space makes for good tone. Placement should vary much more depending on the different contexts and styles of singing. Good space can also be achieved with a back heavy placement – it just won’t be the best tone. The reverse is not necessarily true. Some students can handle discussion of both at the same time, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Placement is one of the easiest ways for us to change the sound for different styles of singing, so it is important for the singer to be able to manipulate it at will. Placement is one factor that influences things like the brightness or warmth or color of tone. Different placements will be required for different scenarios, and even different choral directors or voice teachers. The town I used to work in had two high schools. The choral director at one liked a placement that was slightly forward of center, while the other liked slightly back of center. As such the latter director’s choirs had a generally darker sound than the former’s. Neither was wrong and the difference was subtle, it’s simply a good example of the usefulness in being able to adapt placement. I aim to have my students get their default placement in the center of the mouth, the idea being that they can adjust from there as necessary.

After working the hot/cold air exercise I start with the same descending fifth exercise I use with space (Figure 1). This time I have them sing it on an “oo” as that is the lip shape they usually have for the cold air and we want to play with that sound. After a few rounds of that I’d have them change to an “ah” instructing them to keep the same placement. I will often have them sing the ah and make it very hot a couple times, telling them to swallow the sound and overdo it, to “gargle” on the sound. This is a good way to get them to feel the extremes, which is one of the quickest ways to get used to controlling the placement.

An exercise I frequently use after that is to have them place their index fingers flat against their face, pointed at the ceiling (Figure 2). I will have them sing an ah on any pitch and tell them to move their fingers back and forth and “follow” their fingers with the sound. It can be tricky to get at first, but it is a very good exercise to work placement[1].

When I talk of resonance I am usually speaking of how all the concepts of sound from the sternum up come together – the placement and the space as well as the less influential horizontal concept I usually refer to as vocal spread. That one is most often spoken about with an “ee” vowel, which can go very tight and horizontal, especially with inexperienced singers. These three concepts all influence the tone, and can be modified based on the required style of singing. The best image for all of this is the 3D axis used in math. Space would be the vertical Y-axis running perpendicular to the ground, horizontal spread would be the X-axis running parallel to the ground through the middle of the lips, and placement would be the Z-axis which is also parallel to the ground, but perpendicular to the X-axis (Figure 3). The singer’s tone is manipulated by plotting different points on these axes where the sound resonates.

Once the student has a grasp on these ideas (not necessarily using all of the language described here with each student) I will start working on the best “plotted point” for the default sound I want. To do so I use the nasal consonant “ng” (end of the word “sung”) to work the resonant combinations. Using the same exercise I used with “z” to work support (Figure 4), I will have the student sing that syllable and ask them to pinpoint where in the face they feel it resonating.

Different students feel it in different areas of the face. The most common are the cheekbones, sinuses, and temples, but there isn’t any wrong answer. I will then have them sing the exercise again, this time switching from the ng to ah on top, making sure they focus on placing the ah in the same spot as the ng. This is typically the best point for the student’s sound. It can change as they age or experience technique developments with breath or support, but if they aim for this default they will generally be making a good healthy sound. They can then modify the tone as necessary based on the requirements of what they are singing.

[1] I stole this from Melissa Mortenson, who student taught with the choir my senior year of high school.