How Does the Singing Voice Work?

How Does the Singing VOICE work?

How Does the Singing Voice Work?

The voice is like any musical instrument. It has a power source (breath), a vibrator (vocal folds or internal thyro-arytenoid), and a resonator (the vocal tract). As the breath moves up from the lungs to the trachea, it moves through the vocal folds, which is housed in the larynx. The vocal folds create the sound in the way that blowing breath between two blades of grass creates sound. As the air passes through the vocal folds, which are closing, suction is created at this narrow space, causing the vocal folds to close. Pressure builds up under the closed vocal folds, causing the vocal folds to open again. As the air passes through the narrow passage, it creates suction, which causes the air folds to close again. This cycle continues, vibrating 261 times/second for middle C. This is how your vocal folds vibrate.

The sound is created at the vocal folds, which are house in the larynx (your larynx is the bony bump on the front of your throat, often called the voice box, or Adams apple). The sound continues up into the vocal tract to the back of the throat, where it resonates, and exits at the mouth. Resonance also occurs in the nose, but only on consonants and sounds, such as the -ing in English words, or nasal French vowels. This is when the velum, or soft palate, moves down and the air passes up further into the nasal area (if you feel the roof of your mouth with your tongue, feel the hard part-- that is your hard palate-- go further where it is soft and there is no more bone-- this is your soft palate).

Know your diaphragm when breathing 08

Know your diaphragm when breathing

The diaphragm looks like an overturned bowl, whose lip is at the base of the rib cage and base continues up into the rib cage. Air flows into the lungs when the diaphragm contracts downward, giving the lungs room to expand downwards. The intercostal muscles of the ribs expand the ribs outward, creating a partial vacuum. This causes air to flow into the lungs where the air pressure is low, allowing equilibrium to be achieved. Breathing is not a matter of "sucking" in air. The ribs expand first, causing the air to flow into the lungs.

There are several different ways of breathing. Four common ways of breathing are incorrect. Chest, or clavicular, breathing is when the chest heaves up and down when breathing. Back breathing is when the most expansion occurs in the middle and lower back area. Belly breathing occurs when the lower abdominal muscles are pushed outward, allowing only the lower part of the lungs to expand. Rib breathing, although less incorrect than the others, is still faulty. Rib breathing is when the only expansion occurs at the ribs. In correct breathing, the most expansion occurs at the ribs. Expansion also occurs in the lower and middle of the back and the upper abdominal muscles. There should be no chest breathing. You may want to imagine "sipping" breath through a straw.

When the ribs collapse, the breath needed for singing is expelled. This is a natural occurrence after inhalation. In singing, however, it is important to counteract this. The key is to keep the ribs, lower abdominals, and back expanded. Try to imagine that you're still breathing in, although you're singing, and the air is trying to escape. This breath support is vital.

There is danger in the audible breath. If there is sound created on inspiration, that means that the vocal folds are partially adducted, or closed, as the air flows in. During the audible breath, the vocal folds continue vibrate upon inhalation. This means that the vocal folds are never allowed to relax, they are always in use. This puts unnecessary strain on the vocal folds, and the folds will tire.

Sometimes, there is enough of a rest in piece of music, or even a vocal exercise. This is an opportunity to breathe through the nose. Nose breathing is very helpful. The nose is designed to filter, warm, and add moisture to the incoming air. This is helpful because the intake of air through the mouth dries out the mouth and vocal folds over time.

How do I then use psychology to the advantage of singing better?

Unlike other instruments like the piano or guitar, your voice is inside you. Ironically, what's inside you is more difficult to feel than what's outside you. For what's outside you can feel with your skin, through pressing, through feeling pressure, through looking at what to press and even through hearing the sound you produce on the guitar and piano.

You noticed I mentioned "hearing". With your voice as your instrument, what you hear and you think you are producing is not actually what your audicence hears, unless you sing into a mic and hear from the monitor speakers which then again only mean 50% of what you hear is what the audience hears.

Try this - if you have not done this before try this out. Find some way to record your speaking and singing voice onto a casette tape or a MD or into your computer through a mic and then play it back. What do you notice? I'm sure you may even be freaked out at first. What you recorded and played back seems so different from what you have been hearing. Is there scientific evidence for this? The answer is yes! Your body has many resonating chambers of which includes your phraynx, cheeck bones, mask of the face, nasal and oral cavity and even your chest. The sound that your vocal chords produce will be resonated in these chambers.

(In fact, a proper way to sing loudly is to channel all the sounds into the these chambers so that you sound louder rather than only using your oral cavity) Sound travels at different speeds through solid, liquid and gas (3 states of matter and yes sound does travel through solid, that is why soundproof studio rooms have double glazed vacuum glass doors)

Therefore what you hear comes directly from yourself to your ears through the vibration of your body and skin while what others hear is transmitted through the air from the vibration coming from your body. Simply but what others hear is body >> air >> ear and what YOU hear is body >> air >> ear AND body >> ear.

I'm sure that you have realised from the previous article that you are able to control a few things in the singing mechanism, that is the lowering of the tongue, the pressurising of the area where your 2 halfs of the rib cage meet and the opening of your jaw. But how do these relate to your larynx, your diaphragm and your throat? Indirectly they do. e.g. lowering of the tongue is controlling the tongue muscle but not your larynx, yet if done correctly it helps to lower your larynx (place a finger at your adam's apple, that's the position of your larynx)

Therefore Singing IS psychological

How do I then use psychology to the advantage of singing better?

Have you experienced a time when you felt sad and spoke to your friend over the phone and your friend could tell without looking at your face. Or have your conductor or coach ever told you to smile when you sing so that you produce a bright and happy sound? Indeed how you feel translates into how you sound.

Therefore to produce a bright forward, ringing, inspiring sound means you have to smile, raise your eyebrows and your cheekbones. However, wouldn't it be weird to do such actions on stage. Yes. Therefore there must come a point after sufficient training where such techniques become second nature and internalised. Meaning you only have to smile slightly on stage without looking weird with an over exaggerated smile to produce just the same extremely bright and cheery sound. How do you do that? Here comes the psychological part. For psychology in itself is too hollow and intangible you need to do all those exaggerated smiling as mentioned previously first! Then you start to think of your body producing sound waves that emit like a rainbow from the tip of your nosebridge (this is where your sound should focus at) and flowing out with ease like a set of notes. Imagine the colour and beauty of these notes just like you are watching a cartoon with birds chirping and animations of musical notes emitting from their cute tiny beaks. This imagination translate to sending the vibration up there. Since you have no buttons to press and no internal anatomy, then this is the only way to send the sound up and out, into a heaven-like lightness and beauty. So putting into perspective what do I mean when I mentioned about not being able to feel tangibly like playing a piano and yet having to smile excessively which is obviously a very concious feelable thing. The smiling is only to aid in your imagination and feeling because the smiling in itself is so indirect. Using muscles to smile does not specially activate certain muscles in your body that move sounds upwards or change the quality of sounds as if your body is such a straight forward instruement where there is a spring, valve and string to everything. No there isn't! Its about feeling and things insides your body that happen but are hard to explain. If fact as a singer, there is not really much need to know all these. To sing a happy sound just look and think happy. =)

IN conclusion
Therefore singing is a mix of things you can feel tangibly and things that are just emotions are imaginations. Of the things that you can feel tangibly, they do not have a direct and straightforward cause and effect on your anatomy that leads to you producing that sound, rather that kind of sound is the side effect of the cause (your doing of the tangible actions like smilling excessively)

Useful Tips 08

Today I will be addressing a common problem faced by many singers. That is a sore throat. Below are some common reasons why people get a sore throat and the solution to these problems.
1. Dehydration --> This is obvious, Drink plenty of water and do not scream or shout

2. Screaming or shouting or singing excessively loudly --> there is a correct way to shout and a correct way to sing excessively loudly, and that is by engaging your diaphragm to “punch” the sound out. How do you do that? Lie down on a mat or on your bed and place your palm just below your rib cage. The bottom of your rib cage is shaped like an inverted “V”. At the vertex of this V is also the center of your diaphragm muscle and where you should exert your force when singing. To see how your diaphragm moves, just inhale and exhale gently without any tension whatsoever in the shoulders, throat or neck and feel it rise (inhalation) and fall (exhalation). This can go on to become a whole topic, I’ll thus address this another time. If your problem persist, you may want to continue reading point 3 which deals with what you need to do to your throat.

3. Tension of the throat --> this occurs because you are trying to sing a high note, or trying to sing very loudly or just tense. If this occurs because of singing high notes, or loudly, then please refer to point 2. Now if this occurs because you are tense, then there is a way to release the tension. A tense throat is only one where the throat is shut tight and you are trying to force air in. Now one way to see if your throat (which is the back of your mouth) is open, is to stand in front of the mirror and open your mouth wide (3 fingers spacing) and see if you can see your uvula. If you don’t know what’s a uvula check dictionary.com. If you can see it dangling freely and not resting on your tongue (which means your tongue has to be raised and blocking the passage way in order for that to happen), then your throat is open. If not it isn’t. A common problem with many people including singing coaches is that we tend to equate a big open mouth with an open throat. However, if your mouth may be open at the front, but not at the back. Meaning your jaw may be wide open but the passage way is blocked, thus sound cannot flow freely and there is abrasion against your larynx (voice box) thus you get a sore throat. Now, I’ve yet to touch on how to open that throat. If you can identify when its open and when its close, then just try to relive the same experience that causes it to be open. Some experiences include, yawning, getting ready to swallow something huge, or just having trained to lower the back of your tongue at your whim and fancy. To solve the problem you have to go progressively from identifying the experience to creating it. This will take time and a conscious effort. It sounds difficult, no but its actually very easy. Think of how many times your have yawned in your life.

Professional Singing Technique 08

Speech level singing is a technique used by many professional singers. Names include Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and many many more. The concept of speech level singing is to produce your tones at speech level ie: with the ease of speaking.

It is very common for singers to use the muscles outside the larynx (voice box) to try and mould the tone. This is counter-productive as it causes a lot of tension, and as the singer climbs up their range, the voice tends to jam up. A person will never be able to use their full vocal range with these muscle coordination’s.

The end result is the larynx (voice box) is constantly constantly moving up and down, forced all over the place by these outer muscles. Not only are these muscles poor at adjusting the vocal chords effectively, they cause many a sore throat! (Try this exercise.....Sing high into your range while gently touching your adams apple. Does it move? If so, you're singing with more tension than necessary.)

Speech level singing aims to correct this problem by training the inner larynx muscles to do all the vocal chord adjustments. These muscles are far more efficient at controlling the chords. This means that the larynx can sit still, just like in speech. As the singer changes pitch, the inner larynx muscles control the tightness of the vocal chords, adjusting them to vibrate at the correct frequency.

Training the inner larynx muscles to sit still will actually regulate your breathing and resonance distribution as you sing. Strangely enough, many singing teachers work tirelessly with their students on correct breathing and resonance issues, usually without much success. The speech level singing process has a different approach....

....Speech level singing uses special exercises that dis-engage the muscles located outside the larynx. This will allow the more efficient, inner larynx muscles to do what they do best! They will control all the vocal chord adjustments AND breathing and correct resonance will happen naturally.

The exercises will cause you to send just the right amount of air to the vocal chords. And this means....

......singing is about to become a whole lot easier!

When a singing first uses the speech level singing technique, they will usually have a dramatic increase in vocal range. Let's learn a little more about what causes great vocal range...

Singing Tips Pt 2

Singning tips no. 4
Work hard at developing your mixed voice! This is one of the hardest vocal coordinations to master, although is very achievable with the correct training. This part of your voice is what ties your entire voice together.
It is the bridge between your chest and your head voice. It is also the best part of your voice to use for a commercial, popular sound. It will give your voice flexibiliy and will actually improve the other areas of your voice!
Your chest and head voice will likely improve once you master your mixed voice. This is because the mixed voice requires the most sophisticated reasonance and vocal chord coordination.
The chances are, if your mixed voice is beginning to sound really good, your vocal chords and breathing are beginning to function very efficiently, and your voice will only get better and better!
A great mixed voice is a sign of a good singer! So work on blending those registers....

Singing tips no. 5

Ok, here's an obvious one....
Warm up before doing any vigorous singing exercises! I know it's tempting to get straight into it....
Warming up your voice will increase the blood flow to your vocal chords. The muscles will then find it so much easier to operate effectively. You will be able to sing much better, with much less vocal tension.
It's so simple, yet so many singers forget to warm up.
Begin by humming nice and relaxed, in a easy range. Use simple scales, and don't try and sing too high, too early!
After humming for a few minutes, continue warming up by doing some lips rolls on a slightly harder scale. After ten minutes of this, your vocal chords should be nice and flexible, ready for some more challenging exercises!
Don't forget to warm up. Your voice will thank you for it.

Singing tips no. 6

Just as it is important to warm up before singing, you must warm down after singing. This will prevent your voice from getting tight, and it will make it easier next time you sing.
Do a gentle slide from your highest, easily reached note, down to your lowest note, and then into vocal fry (Vocal fry is the first noise you make when you wake up!
It sounds like Elma Fudd...."Hewo" in his crackly vocal fry!). If you still don't know what vocal fry is, stop the exercise when you get to your lowest note.
Do this exercise 10 to 15 times after every practise session. Keep it very relaxed... It will reinforce the progress you had made in that lesson. This is one of the most overlooked of the singing tips...
...Don't forget it!

Singing tips no. 7

Be sure not to forget singing tips no. 6!

Singing Tips Pt1

Singing tips no 1

Learn how to extend your vocal range. This is an important factor in developing a great singing voice. It will give your voice another dimension, and add an element of excitment to your singing.
Extending vocal range is done by learning how to sing in different vocal registors... different muscle coordinations. You must learn how to zip up your vocal chords as you sing higher. This leaves less of the vocal chords free to vibrate, and allows you to easily hit high notes.

Singing tips no. 2

The second important factor in increasing your vocal range, is to blend your vocal resonances. Your tone will resonate in your throat, your mouth, and your nasal cavities.
Each one of these cavities will favor different frequencies... produce a different sound. To develop beautiful tone, you must balance these vocal resonances. Once balanced, your tone will be superb.
As you move through the different areas of your voice (low, middle, and high), the reasonace will undergo changes. For example, when you are singing low notes, most of the reasonance will be felt in the throat and mouth.
As you pass up through your range, you will feel the reasonce pass behind the soft palate (the soft tissue that acts as a divider of your mouth and nasal cavity), and into your nasal cavities.
When you are singing in your highest range, most of the reasoance is felt in your head (nasal cavity).

Singing tips no. 3

The change of resonance described in tip no. 2, are defined by many vocal instructors as vocal registers.
To develop a great voice you must become intimate with each of the three main vocal registers. Here they are....
Chest voice - The voice we generally speak in. The vocal chords vibrate across their entire length, and the reasonance is primarily in the throat and mouth. Chest voice produces a thick, rich, vocal sound.

Head voice - This is the highest part of our usable range. The vocal chords are in a shortened or "zipped up" coordination, and the reasonance is primarily in the nasal or head cavity. Head voice produces a slightly hooty sound, like when you impersonate an owl "hooting"!

Mixed voice - This is a commercial sounding voice, that is higher in pitch than the chest voice. It is the voice you hear most top 40 artists using on the radio. It uses a "zipped up" chord coordination, although it gives you the same impression as singing in chest voice, with sweeter tone quality.

The resonance is split in this coordination, half in the mouth and half in the head cavity. For commercial success, learning to sing in the mixed voice is a must.