Dear Vocalisters:
Many ideas have been shared about concepts such as "open throat", "mouth
opening", "balanced vowels", "raised palate", "raised zygomatic arch",
"forward placement", "back space" etc. and their relative effect on the
singing tone. Most of these concepts infer that a particular shaping of
the vocal tract will produce a particular tone and, as a corollary, that
not using these vocal tract shapings will remove or reduce the associated
tone quality. Concurrent with all of these expressions is the assumption
that what the singer feels is consistent across the gamut of individual
singers and is, therefore, a definable and teachable concept.
I have never found this last statement to be true. What is a lifting of the
zygomatic arch to one singer is an opening of the throat to another. What
is forward placement to one singer is a sense of enlarged back space to
another. There is no consistent standard.
To add to this confusion is the reality that what sounds bright to one
singer can sound dull or hollow to another. The transmission of sound via
conduction for each singer is amazingly individual and, consequently,
different.
Yet we as singers and teachers of singing insist on sustaining and
propagating this most inaccurate and arcane language to describe what we
do.
I would suggest that it is finally time to find a language that is more
consistently accurate across the gamut of singers.
If we consider the vocal tract as the almost infinitely variable resonance
space that it is, we can forget about which portion of it we open or close
and, instead, concentrate on the actual shapes we form within the tract as
we choose our vowels. With this knowledge of real vocal tract shaping for
each vowel, we can add a knowledge of which adjustments of the vocal tract
will emphasize which portions of the overtone spectrum for the chosen vowel
so that we can more easily choose the tone quality we desire for each note
or phrase or style of music we sing.
This is not difficult to teach and learn. But we must remove the inaccurate
concepts of tone placing, raised palate, open throat, etc which exaggerate
and distort the formation of the resonance space in the vocal tract and
obstruct our ability to assume a more flexible and reflexive response to
vowels and vocal tone.
Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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