Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By the third lesson, this singer was singing the tenor solos in
Handel's Messiah with great beauty of tone. It became more
and more obvious to me that this young singer was singing in
the wrong fach. The flat tongue position was only one of the
negative results of singing in the incorrect vocal fach. As I
mentioned above, chronic hoarseness would follow each
performance. This is yet another case of a young singer who
was on the road to vocal damage because of an insistence from
his instructor that he was a baritone. There is absolutely no
denying the truth; that he is a high tenor. This is an example of
a situation where a teacher's ego dominates over real concern
for the singer. This is criminal and there should be laws to
protect singers. True, he could sing in the baritone range by
depressing the larynx with the root of the tongue. However,
this created false color and forced the voice to phonate lower
than intended. As a light skinned blond person, (usually these
singers have blood vessels right on the surface of the vocal
cords.) had he continued to sing with this false and unhealthy
technique, he most certainly would have suffered vocal
damage, probably through a major vocal hemorrhage.
I remember the first time I had a singer who had been taught
to place or relax the jaw forward. The resulting sound was that
of a small child; extremely breathy and throaty. The throat
was completely closed and the vocal cords would not
approximate properly. The voice lacked any kind of color or
warmth and would fatigue very quickly. When the jaw is
forward, there are several negative results: (1) the vocal cords
do not approximate correctly. (2) The tongue usually goes back
into the pharynx, filling the primary resonator with tongue
mass. (3) The larynx functions in a high position allowing only
a thin immature sound to be produced. (4) The soft palate
assumes a low position, often resulting in nasal or thin tone. (5)
Legato line is impossible because the tongue is so tense that
there cannot be a healthy separation between the jaw and
tongue function. (6) There cannot be a healthy breath line
because the breath is choked off by the root of the tongue. (7) It
is impossible to create a musical phrase because the singer
cannot crescendo or decrescendo healthily. (8) The vowels are
usually distorted because of a large of amount of tension at the
tongue root. (9) Since the back wall of the pharynx is closed,
there cannot be healthy resonance present in the voice.
I have witnessed many singers who pull down the cheeks and
cover the teeth completely while singing. This simply makes
singing very difficult and hooty. Again, the Swedish/Italian
School attempts to create a balance between higher and lower
overtones. The lift of the cheeks under the eyes brings the soft
palate up. Quality of tone is directly effected by one's facial
posture because of its effects on the interior posture of the
throat. If the facial posture is pulled down, then singer must
work twice as hard with breath pressure to blow the soft palate
out of the way. The result is usually pushed and unpleasant
tone. When the facial posture is lifted, then high overtones
come into the singer's production. Without lift, the singer's
voice does not carry properly in a concert hall or opera house.
The lift brings ring into the voice and therefore carrying
power.
It seems that men are often the singers who use this technique
the most. I remember hearing a British baritone who was
flown over to sing Elijah in a concert in Connecticut. This was
a catastrophic performance. The production was hooty and
dark and he sounded somewhat like he was imitating a moose
call. I actually felt sorry for the singer because of his own
obvious discomfort. The audience was shocked and
disappointed at the lack of beauty of tone. I believe that people
can keep their voice as long as they can keep their health. This
is also very related to exercising the voice properly. If a person
is physically healthy and exercises his/her voice properly, then
vocal longevity is quite easy. This baritone was only about age
55 and should have been at his peak. Sadly the voice was quite
stiff and ugly and the high notes were completely flat in
intonation. All this was directly related to his confusion
regarding correct facial posture. Since I had a mezzo in the
performance, then I got more of the inside story. This man was
quite arrogant because of his own insecurity. It made him quite
a bad colleague. His own unhappiness and insecurity turned
him into a difficult and demanding performer. I will be writing
an article on facial posture and the acoustical relationship to
healthy tone shortly. It will also be a long chapter in my
upcoming book.
Breathy Technique
Causes:
(1) Smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages.
(7) Singing with the vocal cords too far apart or too
squeezed together.