How To Use Basic Vocal
Techniques for Different Musical Styles: Pop, Country, Rock, Soul, or
Classical
by Anne Ricci
In order to understand the differences in vocal
technique for pop, rock, country, opera, or whatever wacky and wonderful
genre of music you choose to preoccupy yourself with you must have a clear
understanding of the vocal instrument. Like any other instrument (the
violin, the saxophone, or the guitar for example) the voice has components
that consistently serve a specific function in vocal production. When I say
voice, I’m talking about more than the vocal chords; they really can’t do
too much on their own. There’s more to a guitar than just strings after all.
Breathing, Tension, and the Three
Chambers of the Torso
Perhaps the most important component of the vocal instrument is the
breathing apparatus. Vocal chords need airflow in order to vibrate and make
sound. There is a universal truth in singing, regardless of style: a
healthy singer is a singer who breathes in a relaxed fashion.
Take a look at your torso. That’s the cavity of your body where breath
resides. I like to break the torso up into three chambers. Chamber number
1 is the bottom, the area between your pelvic bone and your lowest rib.
Chamber number 2 is the middle, the area between your lowest rib and your
upper-most rib. Chamber number 3 is the top, your chest region, and the area
of your breastplate. The most vocally efficient singer (regardless of
style) only utilizes chambers 1 and 2. When you inhale you load air from
Chamber 1 up.
Imagine the last time in your life you lived completely without worry.
I’m willing to wager that it was around the time you reached the ripe old
age of one…Isn’t it funny how you can hear a baby cry from a million miles
away? Babies are the most natural projectors of sound in the human race.
That has a lot to do with the fact that they haven’t had enough time in
their lives to transfer their worries into muscle tension. If you have the
opportunity, watch a baby breathe while sleeping. Undoubtedly you will
notice that the stomach expands with air on an inhalation, not the chest.
The stress of adult life often leads to the tightening of muscles in the
abdominal region. I often find with female students I’m also working
against certain voices in their heads that tell them to “suck in”. Ah… to
liberate yourself! If you can learn to relax the belly muscles while
inhaling for a musical phrase you have a much better chance of optimizing
every breath you take.
At the same time, help out your stream of airflow by giving it a straight
passageway through which to travel. In other words, stand up straight;
elongate your very long spine. It begins at your tailbone and ends at the
middle of the back of your head. The better your posture, the more you will
be able to feel the air working for you in your lower abdominal region. You
may also find that you need less breath to make it through long musical
phrases than you ever did before! Combining relaxed inhalations with good
posture will result in an ability to make it through long phrases without
running out of gas. You can also more easily maintain the image of
effortlessness while singing.
The Resonance Chambers and Different
Musical Styles
Other very important components of your instrument are your resonance
chambers, where your sound is acoustically enhanced. You have a couple of
choices in terms of which chambers to utilize, depending on the style of
music you sing. You can choose the chest cavity; this is the cavity where
your speaking voice usually hangs out. The lower part of your singing voice
resides there as well. Sing your lowest note and feel your chest at the
same time. You’ll literally feel your chest vibrate.
Your head offers a variety of resonance chambers. You have the nasal
passages, the sinus cavity, the hard palate (the hard part of the roof of
your mouth) and the soft palate (the soft part of the roof of your mouth).
A voice will find the most overtone ring by aiming the sound toward the soft
palate. Classical singers rely on soft palate resonance more than any other
resonance area simply because they need to project sound without mics and
overtones make sound carry.
Popular singers often make more use of other resonance chambers. Country
singers often don’t shy away from nasal resonance. There are exceptions
such as Dolly Parton and Allison Krauss, who use hard and soft palate
resonance a lot of the time. Yodeling is best achieved by keeping the soft
palate low and aiming your sound towards the back of your neck, while
focusing on not going to far into head voice. Soul singers and many rock
singers use chest resonance the majority of the time. Virtuosic popular
singers, R&B/Gospel/Musical Theatre artists for example, work to develop
their chest voice and broaden its range beyond the voice’s natural ability.
Try singing ascending scales starting from your lowest note and working your
way up by step. At some point you’ll notice your voice migrate from chest
to head resonance. The middle of your voice is often a very tricky area to
work with because your voice is balancing between chest and head resonance.
Singers not foreign to technical garb will recognize the term “mix”. Mix
happens in the middle. Classical singers tend to add more head to the mix
than chest, whereas popular singers tend to add more chest.
At some point however, it becomes unhealthy to take too much chest up too
high. The shift from chest to head is a natural occurrence that should be
respected to some degree. The occasional “money” chest high note is
fabulous, but excessive use of chesty high notes will eventually lead to
vocal chord swelling, hence hoarseness. The worst-case scenario is that you
will develop nodes, which are calluses that develop on the vocal chords when
they are forced to phonate in a peculiar way. Luckily most popular music is
not written to challenge the top part of your voice too often. Classical
singers aren’t so lucky! No matter which area you choose to aim your sound,
always work to support it with breath.
The Goals of the Skilled Vocalist
Like any other instrumentalist, a skilled vocalist focuses on two goals in
his or her development: making singing sound easy and developing a good,
distinctive tone quality. Proper breath support basically takes care of the
first goal—making it sound easy. The position of your larynx and how much
air you allow to pass across your chords determines the second—developing
good, distinctive tone.
How the Larynx Affects Tone Quality
The larynx is in your throat. It’s your Adam’s apple. When you yawn you
can feel and see it go down. When you lower your larynx the tone of your
voice will get richer and hoofier. When it is at its lowest your may find
yourself sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When it is at its highest,
you may find yourself sounding like Mickey Mouse.
Classical singers utilize a slightly lower than speaking voice position for
the larynx. Popular singers tend to keep it at or around speaking voice
position. It is important to understand that the larynx does not make you
sing higher or lower. An unskilled singer will often “reach” for high notes
with their larynx. The fact of the matter is that if you are singing on
your breath, you do not have to shift your larynx much at all to hit high
notes. When you feel strained, you’re most likely over-stretching your
larynx. Feel yourself getting tired? Yawn a couple of times, let that
larynx relax, most likely you’ll feel a little bit better.
Classical singers are often singing at the extreme high parts of their
voices, hence it is drilled into them to maintain a low larynx position.
This is the reason why they can sing in full voice at the top of their lungs
for 4 straight hours and feel vocally healthy (worked, but healthy)
afterward. Proper breath support allows you to maintain a certain larynx
position.
Whether or not you desire a clear or breathy tone will determine how you let
air pass across your vocal chords. A clear tone quality is achieved by
allowing a minimal stream of air to pass across the chords. Imagine your
chords as a gateway through which a river of air is allowed to flow. If you
are going for optimal clarity of tone, those gates are not going to open too
wide. If you want a breathy tone, you’re going to open those gates wide.
How do you open those gates? Put an “h” in front of any word you sing that
begins with a vowel. If you barely accentuate the “h” your gates are less
open. If you really work to sound the “h” you’re going to get a serious
amount of breathiness in your tone.
Speaking in terms of vocal health, it is always better to go for a clear
tone quality. The less air you allow to pass across your chords the less
they will dry out. Dryness will lead to the chords swelling, which will
eventually lead to hoarseness. With a clear tone you know you will be
heard without having to scream. When you allow too much breathiness into
your sound the tone is obstructed and unfocused making it that much harder
to be heard. Hence you work a lot harder to be heard and will most likely
wake up the day after a gig involuntarily sounding like Tom Waits.
In Conclusion
Whatever your style preference, having a physiological understanding of how
your instrument functions increases your possibilities as a singer. Like a
painter, you have a broad range of colors to work with. Knowing how to
manipulate your instrument to bring out those colors will make you a more
interesting and distinctive singer to listen to. And supporting that
fabulous sound with a relaxed breathing technique will allow you to wow
audiences indefinitely!
Anne Ricci is a
professional classical singer and voice teacher who resides in New York
City. She received her Masters’ degree in Vocal Performance at the
prestigious Manhattan School of Music and has been singing regionally and
internationally ever since. She has a diverse and thriving voice studio
that includes classical, country, pop, musical theatre, and rock musicians.
Feel free to contact Anne Ricci via email at
aericci@hotmail.com if you live in the New York area and are looking for
someone to help you figure out your vocal instrument and all of its
possibilities.
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