Dear Les and Vocalisters:
I would add to your description of how you use onsets only the following:
Onsets allow the singer to know how well they control the amount of closure (adduction) of the vocal folds. Onsets give the singer a tool for practicing their pre-phonatory skills.
Not all singers are able to do a breathy onset or a hard glottal onset. Neither of these two extremes should be used consistently in healthy singing but all singers should be able to demonstrate both extremes (breathy and glottal) of the onset exercise. The ideal onset is somewhere in the middle between these two extremes and is often called a "balanced" onset. It is a very precise, clear beginning of tone without any glottal sound and without any breathy quality.
Onset exercises consist of downward dominant to tonic scalewise (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) single tones of about a half note or whole duration at MM 60. Once single tones on each pitch are achieved satisfactorily, double tones are practiced (half notes), then triple tones( half note triplets), etc on to 6 repeated onsets (two sets of quarter note triplets) per pitch of the scalewise pattern. Most singers are unable to complete even one pattern on single onsets satisfactorily at first. Onset must be practiced until they become automatic and comfortable.
If the singer tends to create a slightly glottal onset he/she is encouraged to visualize a tone beginning automatically at the singers will with no need to "produce" it. If the glottal quality continues it is suggested that the singer begin the tone with a slight "sense" of breath.
If the singer tends to begin the onset with a puff of breath he/she is encouraged to use a slight glottal attack such as most of us do when we give a disapproving "uh, uh" to a child who is misbehaving.
Each of these corrective suggestions are merely methods of getting the singer to move on the continuum from breathy onset to hard glottal onset such that he/she corrects the tendency to be favoring one side of center or the othe.
An easy natural inhale is encouraged before each onset which resemble a partial inhale. The epigastric area (that area between the bottom of the sternum and the navel and the lower ribs, side to side) should slightly expand for these inhales. The onset should be practiced with a sense of suspended or holding of the breath. Each onset is of rather short duration.
The balance of the onset exercise is the release of the tone or offset. Each offset should be an accurate stopping of the tone without any grunt, huff, puff, squawk or non-singing sound of any kind. But each offset should be produced with a very slight pulse of breath pressure with a concurrent slight pulsing of the epigastric area. This very slight "push" assists in ending the tone with vitality and, most important, sets up the onset of the next tone because it automatically creates a slight inhale condition. As the epigastric pulse is used to create the offset there is also an epigastric "rebound" that creates a slight inhale and prepares the singer for the next tone. I often demonstrate onsets/offsets on a single tone and continue without taking a conscious breath for well over a minute or two. Each offset creates the slight inhale condition that gains back most of the breath that was expended on the preceding onset.
Offsets are the most useful method of taking a quick breath in fast moving passages in songs and arias and I often remind singers to emphasize the offset on the last note they sing just before they must take a quick breath. It properly prepares the inhale by providing the "rebound" of the epigastric area.
I know of now other way for the singer to be sure they have achieved the most correctly, healthful vocal fold closure (adduction) than with onsets. If the onset is correctly balanced, and they can tell that immediately by how it sounds, they have achieved the desired vocal fold closure. If it is breathy they have not completely adducted the vocal folds. If it is glottal they have overachieved the correct adduction and induced too strong a medial tension on the folds. Onset exercises are a prime example of an exercise that achieves maximum efficiency of vocal production and insures that the voice mechanism is functioning correctly. Onsets exercises give the singer the opportunity to practice, consciously, their pre-phonatory skills until they become automatically done as desired by the singer.
Finally, balanced onsets create the true phonational tone of which each singer is capable. After the singer has achieved some ability at doing onsets I draw their attention to their tendency to "fix" or improve on the initial tone they produce. Singers do this because each of us has an image of how we think we should sound. But the fact is that the tone emerging immediately after a properly produced balanced onset is the best tone we are able to phonate and it needs no additional phonational correction. It might need some resonance correction but that is the province of many other exercises. So I encourage singers to sustain the tone that first emerges from a balanced onset and become acquainted with their most natural phonational experience. -- Lloyd W. Hanson
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