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Lisa Perks
Certified SLS Instructor

Technique. What are the Obstacles?

There are 3 things that a singer can control: Airflow, cord closure and vowel pronunciation. Improper breathing, wide vowels and interfering muscular tension will hinder any singer’s development and their ability to transition through their ranges. If we can master these three things we will be able to sing at speech level. Here is an article by Dean Kaelin, Master teacher and level 5 IMT instructor, Dean talks about these three components to singing, and the potential problems that occur when they are approached incorrectly.

Breathing

When you sing it is essential that you have enough air to produce a desired sound and that your body is in proper condition to allow this sound to travel to the right location. Breathing is not the only ingredient necessary for good technique, nor is it the most important – it’s just one piece of the puzzle. I have come across many singers who place so much emphasis on breathing that, when they sing, they place their bodies entirely out of balance and neglect other essential factors. Too much air can be as detrimental as too little air.

As you stand upright, with shoulders slightly back, chest up, and buttocks in, and take normal breath, you will have the air needed to get a full sound. In this stance, your diaphragm drops, creating a vacuum within the body. Air rushes in quickly to fill this vacuum. It is not necessary to take a huge breath or to force parts of your body to expand unnaturally.

The diaphragm may be the most misunderstood yet most talked about part of the body involved in the singing process. The diaphragm is a very thin muscle just below the rib cage, which divides the upper and lower abdomen. A strong voice is enhanced by a thicker diaphragm. The only way to strengthen this muscle is through proper breathing. Sit ups will not help and neither will weight lifting. Proper breathing as I mentioned before comes from allowing the diaphragm to drop as you inhale, thus filing the cavity that has just been created with the air. Then, as air is released, the diaphragm will gradually come back up into place. If you compress lightly against the diaphragm as it comes back up, your vocal cords come together and create sound. The more you compress, the stronger the sound. If you continue to breathe and compress properly, your diaphragm will thicken, giving more strength to the voice.

Be careful not to take a high breath. This type of breathing causes the vocal cords to compress, causing unwanted pressure and abuse. If your shoulders move whilst breathing you are breathing too high. We want an invisible breath, one that is low and cannot be seen by the audience. We want the process of singing look and feel as effortless as possible.

You can practice proper breathing by standing in the position mentioned earlier, and place your hands on your stomach. As you breath you should feel your stomach go out as you inhale and in as you exhale. If this doesn’t work try bending at the waist as far as possible. Once you are bent over, hold your hand to your stomach and breathe, looking for the same results as before. This usually produces a low breath. Then try again to feel the same thing standing upright. If this still doesn’t work, lie on your back with your feet slightly raised, and you will be able to experience low breath.

Vowels

Proper vowel placement will be produced as long as the corners of the mouth do not go wide. The jaw should go straight down as you pronounce your words. If the corners of your mouth are moving out whilst you are singing, your vowels are too wide and your sound will be too “splatty” or bright. The most common “bad” vowels are “I” (as in deny), “ay” (as in way), “a” (as in back), and “ow” (as in now) but other vowels may give you problems on occasion.

Round vowels allow the soft palate to fall, creating the proper positioning within the mouth for the sound to travel up behind the hard palate. This process – achieving a head tone without letting go of the chest voice resonance is called “mixing” or “blending”. If a vowel is too wide, the sound will hit the roof of the mouth and fall out, creating what many call a chest voice belt or, more descriptively a “splat”.

The easiest way to find the pure vowel is to push your lips out as far as you can and say the desired word. Then relax your lips and say the word again just as it sounded when you were pushing your lips out. For instance when you say the word break, the corners of your mouth will go wide. If you push your lips out and say “break”, you will actually say something more like “brehK”. Now relax your lips and sing “brehk”. It will sound like “break”, but the sound will travel more easily into the head, creating a nice blend of head and chest tones.

Achieving a nice blend of head and chest tones really depends on the vowel. A proper vowel focuses the sound into the appropriate areas of the upper body so it will not be necessary to sing entirely in the head voice with a big break between the two. A good vowel places the sound into the head so that you don’t have to let go completely from your chest voice to achieve higher tones. Instead, you are able to retain connection, or vocal cord closure, in all areas of your vocal range.

Tension

We are always trying to keep the body as open and relaxed as possible so that it can function properly. Possibly the biggest obstacle to overcome in achieving this is tension.

Tension can come from nervousness, fear or any number of things. Often tension is the result of a lack of confidence in one’s own vocal ability. Particularly when approaching the top of one’s range. Most of us speak in our chest voice, so as long as we are singing notes that resonate in our chest voice we are confident. As we approach high notes, we begin to enter less familiar territory. This can create a lot of stress and a lack of confidence, so we tend to reach or “grab”, and then we throw out the co-ordination in our vocal cords and in our body.

Often times you can tell what note is being sung by watching the singer’s face and body. As the singer attempts to reach a high note, he or she will literally reach up with their body, head or neck or a combination of all three. If you are singing properly, it will look effortless. Energy is much different than pressure.
Try to relax your jaw as much as possible when you are singing. Let it just hang there, especially on the high notes. The tongue should rest on the bottom of your mouth touching the back of the bottom teeth at all times. Don’t stretch up on high notes or look down on low notes.

Summary

To review, take a low breath, keep your vowels round, and relax. The only thing really working will be your diaphragm. Singing is literally speaking on pitch; we don’t need to make it difficult. Allow the sound to travel up and down your body effortlessly as you sing a full range of notes, loud or soft, without pressure. If this can be achieved, the vocal cords will remain together – producing a strong and natural sound at all times, through all vocal ranges – and the larynx will remain balanced. Remember singing is coordination and balance, not muscles and strength. It is this balance and coordination that the great singers seek.

• Dean Kaelin
  (Level 5 IMT)