Interesting Vocal Tidbits I'm Learning

Just before Christmas break, I'd say it was actually about 3 weeks before the break, while pondering, praying, and practicing, I discovered a new posture in my throat that had much to do with the position of the back of my tongue, which completely changed the quality, size, feel, and ring of my voice. It is still my voice and I still sound like me, but a much improved me.

This new posture felt like the "ng" position I had read about on David Jones' "The Singing Teacher" website and which my first voice teacher at BYU, Evan Davis, in 1974-7 had tried to teach me using an exercise on the word "hungee". It opened my throat on the front (anterior) side and felt like the back of my tongue moved forward to allow my epiglottis to stand straight up like Dr. Arden Hopkin had told me about a few years ago. With this my voice sounded deeper and brighter, ring"ier" and LOUDER (and more "operatic" as my accompanist put it) than ever before. This result was reminiscent of what I had heard Clayne Robison talk about with his statement of "So long as the breath is right, DEEPER is BRIGHTER!" It seemed to solve all of the "problems" I had been having with my voice.

It felt/feels like I was making much more circumfrant (is that even a word?) space at the collar of the larynx than ever before, which called to mind the 6:1 ratio and the widening of the collar of the larnyx that Ingo Titze and Johan Sundberg wrote about in their voice science books, which Arden Hopkin had also brought to my attention. I found this space by thinking about all of these things along with trying to make sense of Stanford Olsen's comment about how I was pulling back on the position of my jaw while singing. When I showed Stanford in December what I had found, I made the observation to him that it sounded so dark to me, but his comment was, "It doesn't sound dark, just more complete." Not so amazing was the fact that with my tongue moving forward, I was no longer tucking my jaw back against my neck. Stan also told me to watch carefully in the mirror and to beware of my [a] vowel. When I did, it helped to make the things I was discovering more consistent.

I worked on it some over the break, but have spent still more time with it since coming back to school and have found that the way I think about this sensation has modified as I have worked on it. At first, there was the mental position of needing to just give the back of my tongue permission to move that far forward and hump up in the middle to allow for so much more space in the oropharynx. My tongue in this position, when I allow it, actually touches my top back teeth on the sides at times and at first it seemed my tongue wanted to hang forward out of my mouth (luckily I've gotten that under a little better control). My thoughts then modified to a second tier where I would think of allowing the opening of my throat to move towards the front and sides of my body horizontally, not just vertically (high soft palate and lowered larynx), which took care of my tongue position without my having to think about it. (Thinking about its position can tie anyone's tongue up in knots). And lately, while continuing to pursue this vocal posture, along with looking for and discovering the optimal register balance for a smooth transition into my lower voice, I have been aware of a sensation that feels like the internal anchoring of my larynx to my chest (literally). This has reminded me of the work I did, again with Arden, on finding and developing my "primal" sound and feeling what I termed at the time the "settled larynx." I still think this term accurately describes what it feels like for me because it works best when I identify the position and engagement of the sound in my lower voice and then, while maintaining the position I find there, move upwards in pitch and hang on to that sensation. Hence, "settling" the larynx and letting it ride in that settled place

But the difference now lies in how open my throat feels. It reminds me of a comment I heard of, reportedly by Marilyn Horne, when she was asked what it felt like to sing and her response was, "It feels like throwing up." With my throat this open, it does feel just like that. I also find I mustn't and don't need to release this very open position or the register engagement much at all until several notes past the secondo passaggio. Only when I get to the notes just before what I lovingly refer to as my tertio passaggio into the upper extension do I feel it necessary to release much at all, though I'm sure there is some gradual modification on the way up (logically there has to be), but I don't have to be conscious of it until the highest locus. There is a very unique strength and distinctive quality ("chiaroscuro") that comes into my voice when I get the balance of registers right in the lower register and when that sound appears I also find that the aforementioned tongue/throat posture is also there and vice versa, when I assume that throat posture, the right sound and balance seems easier to achieve.

The benefits of this new vocalism are plentiful. In addition to the already mentioned "deeper and brighter, ring"ier" and LOUDER" immediate results, I have found it much easier to achieve a more unified tone quality and ease of accessibility into my lower register, whereas before I was having trouble for some time in getting my voice to even phonate through the primo passaggio. I can also hear a distinct increase in lower partials providing a "richer" quality to the tone and what's really exciting is that it doesn't impact the range of my voice. If I was doing something really funny (read: wrong), that would not be the case.

None of this is automatic for me yet, but it is getting easier and not nearly as awkward as at first. I still have to think hard with very focused concentration on maintaining this new vocal posture and more energetically engaged lower voice through the lower passaggio and upwards, but it is coming and, with time, it will be "the only way I know how to sing."