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  • TMV World Team
    Every singer knows that wonderful feeling of truly flying on wings of song. The voice obeys ones musical and dramatic wishes, is powerful or soft at will, breath seems endless and the piece of music and the text fit like a glove. Who needs technique and know-how on days like this! Perhaps no one: but on all those other days, during those other years and decades?
    How should we handle times when our voices are affected by music uncertainty or ill preparedness; times of pressure through conductors, directors or composers who seem to demand the impossible of us; times of singing too much or -- equally problematic -- singing too little; times of travel stress and jetlag; or professional disappointments or conflicts with colleagues? How should we manage these times of personal turmoil and of inner and physical change?
    We have been blessed with good voice teachers and we have learned our technique, but as any excellent teacher -- especially one who has had substantial stage experience -- will admit, that just scratches the surface of what we really need to sustain long and happy careers.
    We singers need practical, practicable solutions for a myriad of ever changing challenges and we need the right mind-set to search for and recognize these solutions. The challenges of a young soubrette singing in a Mozart opera for the first time are going to be different from those of an older singer being confronted with acrobatic stage directions or microtonal music or polyrhythms or a concert piece in an unknown language. Challenges can, of course, be less dramatic. For example, just learning to sing with a conductor’s beat or learning to sight-read or to memorize effectively.
    Early on I had the good fortune to collaborate with dancers and observe their ways of work. A good dancer is perfectly in tune with his body and recognizes the body as a perfect memorizer. Later on I concertized with several excellent percussionists and could observe their manner of constantly dealing with practical things and continually enhancing their own coordination. However, both the dancer and the percussionist are primarily interested in the aesthetic result, but they are in no way too proud to look for (sometimes simple) solutions.
    Too often singers feel helpless in the face of adversity. Rehearsal pianists often teach them their parts and learning by rote is not uncommon. The singing artists whom I find most fascinating all come across as independent, creatively thinking individuals. In short, artists who have found their solutions and will continue to do so as new ones are needed. Yes, of course, the beauty of the voice is wonderful, but in the end it is the complete artist that the audience wants.
    Often the solution is much closer than one might guess. Through my artistic acquaintance with dancers, percussionists and many other inspiring colleagues, I started to recognize that the learning and singing of music compositions need not be abstract or a game of chance, that the connection body motor functions memory is extremely reliable as is the connection motor functions rhythm, which might not seem intrinsic to lyrical singing. I also recognized that that the attributes of the instrument (the voice) and its player (the singer) are quite different from those of any other instrument and its player. No, it is not that singers are less musically inclined than instrumentalists it is that our instrument functions differently.
    For the last few years I have been offering workshops under the title of "Tools for the Independent Singer". In most cases I made a point of saying in advance that I would not teach vocal technique at these courses. Happily, though, I almost always hear lovely vocal improvement which comes with the certainty of better musicianship, more reliable memorizing, more vital rhythm and more understanding of the practical things of a music score, however complicated it may be.
    So what do we do in these workshops? We discuss productive practicing; we learn to invisibly count on our fingers; we learn the great value of being nice and kind to our subconscious so it will serve us well when we are singing by memory; we learn to give ourselves cues; we learn to produce our own internal rhythmic structure over which we can sing as legato as we wish without dragging; we learn how to reliably get our pitch and keep it; we learn to study full scores (because they are a help and very interesting); and most important of all-- we learn how to learn and how to work independently. Of course, we singers need our basic technique, and we continue to work on it as long as we sing. But for the many times when it is not a matter of truly flying on wings of song and when we perhaps just simply need to be professional we must find solutions or tools. And lo and behold: The more tools we have at our command the more likely we are to fly on wings of song for a long, enjoyable time.
    This essay was first published February 9, 2010 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    I spent much of the past week putting together a seminar on voice problems of school kids and classroom teachers. Anyone who teaches six to seven hours per day has got to be a vocal athlete, and there is evidence that music teachers are, if anything, even more at risk.
    Long hours, jumping around voice parts, managing choirs, fundraising sometimes and then wanting something left over for our own singing  can add up to a real challenge. Then there's the smidge of denial, because we're supposed to know better.
    When I actually gave the seminar last night, in a large, acoustically-dead, fluorescent-lit school room, of course the podium mic was nonfunctional as well. I had no problem being heard and keeping things lively, but by mid-evening I was tempted to let my speaking pitch and resonance drop. If I would have done so, I have been seriously fatigued. Did I even warm up on the way there? Nope, I was distracted by ... nothing important. Yes I should know better!So, what advice do you give others and have trouble following yourself?college where someone else sets your schedule, do you get breaks? Do you build in some rest or downtime after the longest teaching days? What do you do for yourself that makes the most difference?
    I look forward to comments.
    In the meantime, checkout The Voice Academy, a cool (free) resource site designed for classroom teachers, by PhD students in voice science.
    Some of you probably have days when you see 8-10 students in a row, maybe with a group rehearsal or two as well. If you're at a school or
    This essay was first published May 1, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

     
  • TMV World Team
    In past articles, I've stressed how groove is expressed differently in singers than for instrumentalists. For example, drummers express the rhythm outside their bodies although they can feel it inside. Great singing necessitates internalizing the groove into your body.
    Yes, counting is a good way to start. A singer must "know" where the beat is -- this is the only way to truly be in control of your performance. You can direct musicians, sing a cappella, lead other singers and vary the phrasing -- all through groove.
    If you sing from your head (i.e. thoughts) rather than get it into your body, you still can count the beats in the measure, land on the downbeat, come into the song on the right beat etc., but you lose feel. Feel is what moves people; makes you sound passionate; and allows you to interpret the lyrics differently through phrasing.
    Some Tips for Getting the Groove Into Your Body and Into Your Sound:
    Learn the correct rhythm and feel of the song. This means, what is the timing - is it 4/4, 2/4, 6/8? Is it an upbeat feel, a swing feel, etc.?
    Work out the timing. Practice each phrase line by line if you need to, so that you learn how the lines fit with the rhythm.
    Learn the phrasing by heart groove-wise. Guessing where the groove is, or where you come in does not work ever!
    Lean into the groove. Leaning into the groove is definitely a learned singing technique. It is used in gospel and R&B, but rockers like Bono use it too. Leaning means that you lean your body slightly forward, from your back, not your head, as you sing through the vowel. This allows the sound to bend a bit, but not the pitch.
    Lyrics and melodies need fit into a phrase rhythmically. If you have too many words in a phrase or you are rushing to get everything in or the timing is off, it may be that you are fighting the groove. I once had a student who couldn't figure out the beats in a traditional song or how to fit the words, even though he knew the song well. Once he used his body to lean into the downbeat and pull up on the upbeat, the lines fell into place.
    Tap the beat. A DJ I worked with on my dance hit taught me to beat my palm, or hand on my chest so I could get the beat in my body. He would line up turntables this way: it totally works! You can tap your foot or thigh, but I like the idea of getting it into the center of your body.
    Slow down to speed up. You can't express the song fully unless the groove is integrated into your body. See this as the important aspect of the song that it is. If you're having trouble, you can slow down a song at first. Once you get the groove mastered then take the song up to speed.
    Listen to artists who are skilled with groove. Learn from singers like Adam Levine of Maroon 5 or Brian McKnight. Practice their songs to cop their type of rhythmic styling and add it to your own "groove" toolbox.
    This excerpt taken from Teri's upcoming book Nail It Every Time: The Pro Singer's Guide to Everything Vocal with singing tips and more. Reprinted only with permission. All rights are reserved. More vocal tips are published on http://www.a2z-singing-tips.com. This essay was first published May 4, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    Preparing for a singing competition? Need some help? Here are some useful tips to ensure you show off your capabilities in your next competition.
    Before you even start preparing for your audition you need to research the company you are auditioning for, so you can understand exactly what they are looking for. Is the competition looking for the next big singing star? If so what age? What genre? An all round entertainer? Or a sob story?
    Spend some time on the Internet finding out as much as you can. It's also good idea to research the organisers of the competition too, so you can find out if the competition is credible, as unfortunately there are more and more competitions emerging that offer very little to the winners, other than the organisers making a lot of money.
    What to look for when researching:
    The organisers credentials Information on the judges - who are they? What do you win? What does it cost to apply? How do you apply? Is it an online competition or live audition? How many categories are there? What happened to the winners of previous competitions? Do you perform acapella, to backing track or do you bring a musician? What will you get out of entering? Experience, the chance to win? Exposure? So now you have researched the competition and have decided you are happy to enter, what next?
    You need to chose your song, and style of performance:
    Up-tempo; Ballad; Original song; and What aspect of your voice do you want to show off? The majority of singers are going to chose ballads, as it's the most obvious way of showing off your capabilities. But beware, a lot of singers will also chose to sing a ballad, so you need to look at something that you can do very well, or something you arrange slightly differently.
    What's the point of learning a song and then performing it just like the original artist? The judges have seen if all before, and really don't want to just see another 'imitation' singer. So what if you can sing like Michael Bubl, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Rhianna, Justin Timberlake, you may as well become a tribute act (which can offer you a worthy career though). Wouldn't you rather develop your musical 'identity'? So look for a song that shows off your strong points, and adapt it for you. Play around with it. Adjust the key, have it arranged differently. Make it your own.
    Don't be afraid to sing an up tempo song. Up tempo songs are a welcome break for judges, after listening to several versions of "Hero", "My Heart Will Go On", "I Will Always Love You", "When You Say Nothing at All" and "You Raise Me Up", they will be glad of the change. Why not look for a song that is really fun, to show you can entertain and allow and audience to have fun. Maybe a classic from the sixties, or something in the charts at the moment. Again, don't sing it just like the original. Make it your own.  
    This essay first published October 5, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    In its most general definition, phonation is the making of phones or vocal sounds. This general definition includes voiced sounds, which include quasi-periodic oscillations of the vocal bands, and unvoiced sounds, which do not. The focus of this post will be on the voiced sounds produced during exhalation, which is the subset of the general definition most often meant when singers talk about 'phonation'. From here forward, when the word is used, it will be used in that sense.
    Basic Motions of the Vocal Bands
    During breathing, the posterior ends of the vocal bands are moved apart, making a triangular-shaped opening for the passage of air. This motion is called abduction. Here is a labeled, magnified picture of the vocal bands, taken from above, with the vocal bands abducted. The inverted white V shape is formed by the vocal ligaments, which are also called the 'vocal cords'. They are on the inner edges of the vocal bands.
    The opening between the bands is called the glottis.
    When the person is about to phonate, the posterior ends of the vocal bands are moved together, narrowing the glottis, often to the point of closing it. This motion is called adduction. Here is a magnified picture of the vocal bands of a different person, from above, with the vocal bands adducted to the point of glottal closure.
    The Start of Phonation
    Phonation starts when the vocal bands are adducted enough that they cause air pressure to build up below the glottis, and that air pressure is sufficiently high (when compared with ambient air pressure) to cause the glottis to open and narrow (or shut) repeatedly. This repeated motion produces pulses of air pressure to be released into the spaces just above the vocal bands, called the glottal pulse waves, or taken together, the phonated tone. (For the time being, we will not include vocal tract resonance in the discussion.)
    How Adduction Affects Phonation
    The phonated tone is directly affected by the amount of glottal closure, which occurs in each cycle of motion. If the glottis does not completely close, (because the adduction is incomplete) then:
    the voiced phonation sound will be mixed with the sound of air turbulence passing through the larynx; the glottal pulses will not be very intense; and the listener will hear 'breathiness' to more or less extent, inversely related to the amount of glottal closure. If the glottis closes completely in each cycle, then:
    there will be very little sound of air turbulence; the glottal pulses will be more intense; and the listener will not hear breathiness. The percentage of the total glottal cycle time during which the glottis is closed is called the closed quotient.
    Vocal Pitch Control
    The pitch of the phonated tone is influenced by multiple factors, but is mostly the result of the actions of two muscle groups:
    muscles in each vocal band, which when they flex, shorten and thicken the vocal bands, tending to produce lower frequency glottal cycles; and muscles on the outside of the larynx, which, when they flex, lengthen and thin the vocal bands, tending to produce higher frequency glottal cycles. The two sets coordinate to produce the full range of frequencies that can be sung. The activity of these muscles is often called registration. Inter-relationship of Adduction and Registration
    The amount of adduction that occurs is affected by the thickness of the vocal bands. When they are stretched long and are thin, the muscles which adduct the bands must move them farther toward the middle in order to get the same amount of glottal closure as is achieved with less motion when they are short/thick. If this additional adduction does not occur as the pitch ascends, the closed quotient becomes less as the vocal bands thin, and eventually the glottis does not close at all during the cycle. Thus, the progression is heard by the listener, as a weakened vocal tone.
    Conversely, as the singer goes lower in the range, the vocal bands shorten and thicken, and progressively less adduction motion is needed to bring the glottis to closure. If this lesser adduction does not occur as the pitch descends, the closed quotient rises as the bands thicken, and eventually the glottis does not open and shut with a constant frequency. This latter situation is called vocal fry.
    The Influence of Breath Energy on Phonation
    The air pressure below the glottis during the phonation cycle is called subglottic pressure. At the beginning of a phonated tone, the energy of exhalation is resisted by the vocal folds during the closed phase, and causes a specific level of subglottic pressure to occur which, as we have seen, varies based on the adduction and the registration used for a note. If adduction and registration remain consistent, but breath energy (force of exhalation) increases, the closed quotient will progressively lessen. If adduction and registration remain consistent, but breath energy decreases, the closed quotient will progressively rise. In the former case, the voice eventually becomes breathy, and in the latter, the periodic oscillations cease, and a vocal fry results.
    Conclusion
    By training the voice to correctly balance and coordinate the laryngeal muscle actions and breath energy, the singer can achieve consistency of vocal tone and power throughout the entire range of the voice. With this balance, the singer is free to vary dynamics to suit the music being sung, and is also free to produce subtle tone changes by varying the closed quotient at will, in ways suited to the artistic expression desired.
    This essay was first published February 7, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team

    Vowels Revisited

    By TMV World Team, in Articles,

    This article delves into the basics of vowels: what they are, what makes them and how we influence their characteristics.
    The formation of vowels is an area common to all singers, and in many ways influences the listener's experience of the voice. There are a multitude of approaches taken by singers to making vowels: some based on grunts, groans, wails, screams and sighs; some based on spoken language; some based on concepts of 'Bel Canto', chanting, 'toning' and just about everything in between these. Even 'overtone singing' can be described in terms of vowels.
    What is a Vowel?
    For the purposes of this discussion, vowels are two things: a) spoken or sung sounds (not written letters), and impressions in the mind of the singer and the listener - caused by experiences of the sound through the sense of hearing. By shaping (producing) vowels in a particular way, the singer influences the experience of the listener, and creates a communications connection person-to-person.
    So, What is a Sung Vowel?
    As a general, non-technical description: A sung vowel is a sustained sound, sung with the mouth and throat open enough so at least some of the sound comes out of the mouth. The particulars of the vowel sound depend on the shape and dimensions of the vocal tract, which is usually considered to be the spaces from just above the vocal bands to the outside of the mouth. Sometimes voice scientists include the part of the trachea below the larynx to the point where it branches in two sections to go to the lungs, but for out purposes today we will not include that section.
    What Makes Differing Vowels?
    A key principle is worth mentioning now: Anytime the vocal tract changes shape or dimension, it produces a more or less different vowel, depending on what has been changed by the person.
    The vocal tract aspects that, when changed, have an effect on vowels (more-or-less in order of importance in the singer's technique) are:
    the position of the tongue the position of the soft palate the vertical opening of the jaw the shape of the lip opening the height of the larynx in the throat the diameter of the pharynx Resonances and Vowels
    By way of explanation - To modern language and voice scientists, the perception (on the part of the listener) of a vowel is the result of a combination of resonances in the voice, especially the lowest two resonances. The six items mentioned above, when combined, cause these two resonances to have specific frequencies. Any vocal sound components that fall near these two frequencies will be emphasized in the overall spectrum of sound energy.
    The sense of hearing of the listener 'decodes' the overall sound into a conscious experience, and (according to current psychological theory) the mind interprets the relative intensity of the sound components as a vowel.
    What Does This All Mean?
    All this relates to singing in that we can make very many different kinds of vowel sounds. By changing the positioning of any of the vocal tract components listed above, even if only slightly, for the pronunciation of a syllable or word, we change the way they are perceived, and, by extension, the quality of the connection that we have as singers with our listeners.
    This essay was first published September 10, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    This post is a 'by request' from some of the other members, extending our vocal acoustics analysis to one of the most famous arias in the Tenor repertoire, 'Pour Mon Ame' from Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment (aka, the Daughter of the Regiment). The note that we will examine is the last high C in the aria. FYI, this aria is famous for having nine of them.
    Along the way, I will extend some of my comments made in an earlier blog post about 'Engineering Artifacts' that can work their way into a recording through the use of EQ applied during the recording or production process. In the case of two of the recordings, the effect is clearly visible to different amounts.
    The tenors I have selected for this comparison are Juan Diego Flores and Luciano Pavarotti, both of whom have enjoyed success with this aria and the stage role. Each recording was taken from a live, staged performance before an audience.
    Here is the spectrograph of Flores' two renditions. Since this note is sung unaccompanied, I was able to use the noise floor (that is, the loudness of the silence) between the first 2 harmonics to match the relative volume of the performances.
    The 'blue' tracing is from YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8spp0nCrKH0
     
    The 'white' tracing is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aS6M8j3pvQ
    If you recall from my blog post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of the artifacts of EQ tweaking is a 'too regular' appearance of harmonics in the display. Normally, each harmonic has its own intensity, and we do not see regular 'curves', 'arcs' or 'flat spots' in the response. We do expect to see peaks when we compare harmonic-to-harmonic, as this is a characteristic of vocal formants and resonance tuning strategies by singers.  We do not expect to see the noise floor rise appreciably, and then level off.
    With that in mind, examine the white and the blue tracings.
    In the neighborhood of harmonic 1 (fundamental, H1) and H2, the noise floor (the low spots between the peaks) is almost identical, and the peaks of those two harmonics closely resemble each other in intensity, with a little advantage to the white recording. Perhaps the recording mic was a little closer, picking up the ambient noise at about the same level, but a bit more of his voice. That is to be expected when a staged performance (not a studio recording) is being used.
    Now, look at how the white and blue lines diverge between H2 and H3, not just the peaks, but the troughs between them. These areas are elevated in both recordings, but the white recording more than the blue. I think this is an indicator that both of the recordings got some EQ help in this frequency range, with the white recording receiving more than the blue.
    For comparison, here are the same notes from Luciano Pavarotti, both from live performances, in white at Covent Garden, and in Blue, at the Met in NYC.
    At the Met and at Covent Garden
    In these two recordings, there is very little change in the noise floor across the displayed frequency range, though it looks like there is just a bit more room noise in one. Neither one of these two recordings show any artifacts of EQ boosting at all, perhaps because they are already pretty good at vocal clarity. Since the white trace noise floor actually softens, perhaps the engineers turned him down a bit above 2500 Hz. :-)
    It's interesting, too, to see the effect of performance miking on the audio. To the ear, the Covent Garden recording sounds a little less 'present', as if the mic is farther away from the stage, or off-axis from the soloist. You can readily see that the blue recording (from the Met) shows substantially more energy in the singer's formant region, which (for Pav) is harmonics four to six.
    These four recordings (two of Flores, and two of Pavarotti) show that they both use the 2nd-formant tuning to the 3rd harmonic (as discussed a few posts ago) and also singer's formant, the combined resonance strategy.
    This essay was first published January 6, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    I'd like to introduce you to a tool that very valuable when discussing vowels for singing - the International Phonetic Alphabet, commonly called IPA.
    If you remember learning to read using phonics, (sounding out letters, etc.) you've had an informal introduction to one of the IPA's core ideas: that each spoken sound can have a written symbol. In IPA, all of the sounds of languages are assigned a unique symbol, one symbol per sound. When languages share sounds, that is, when sounds occur in more than one language, the same symbol is used to represent the sound. In this manner, someone who knows IPA can read the IPA of a text of a song in another language, and get the pronunciation very close to, if not exactly correct.
    I had my first introduction to IPA as an undergraduate vocal music student, in a two-semester class called 'Foreign Language Diction'. We applied IPA to the pronunciation of Italian, German and French songs, and it worked pretty well, even for the bunch of us from the Midwest.
    These days, I use the 'typewriter' version of IPA mostly in discussions of vowels. If you see /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ or /u/ in something I write, you should have no difficulty interpreting them as sounds in these English, Italian, German or French words:
    ah as in father, caro, gestalt, par ay as in pay, che, gegeben, pays (note here, not the dipthong. That takes two IPA letters.) ee as in free, cosi, spiel, qui  oh as in blow, bello, hohe,clos oo as in blue, pura, du, doux There are many resources out in the Internet for the IPA, and simply wonderful books of phonetic readings of song texts for hundreds and hundreds of classical songs. To begin to explore this vast world, simply Google IPA, and follow any references you may find.
    This essay was first published December 1, 2008 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    In the Opera world, one of the most exciting things to anticipate and hear is the brilliant, climactic high note of the tenor soloist in an aria. Not only does the voice carry well without amplification, but takes on a distinctly thrilling, impressive quality of resonance that other parts of the voice do not quite have in the same way. In this post, I will explore the ways that these fine singers manage their voices to enable such singing. 
    Introduction
    Since we will be objectively discussing vocal tone quality, I will be using spectrographs to assist. With some of these particular ones, I will include annotations to the images so that the reader can make the connection between the visual representation and aural experience of harmonics within the vocal tone quality. The spectrographs I use will all be of the final note in the tenor aria, 'Celeste Aida', from Verdi's Opera Aida, which is on the syllable 'Sol' on the Bb above middle C. To give credit where credit is due, my investigation in this area was inspired by the published work of Donald Miller at www.vocevista.com. The spectrographs were produced with Spectrogram16, by Richard Horne.
    Bjoerling and Domingo
    The spectragraph to the left shows that note from recordings of two of the most popular and capable operatic tenors of the 20th Century, Jussi Bjoerling (represented with the blue line) and Placido Domingo (represented with the white line.)
    To help orient you to the image, I have annotated it with lines and text to show the locations of the harmonics of the sung tones. On this diagram, left = lower frequency, right = higher frequency. Up = higher intensity, down = lower intensity. The frequency range represented is 0 to 4000 cycles per second (Hz). So that these notes could be compared as well as can be from recordings, I equalized the volume of the fundamentals.
    What We Can See and Conclude
    With this equalization, the fundamentals and 2nd harmonics (H2) are about the same strength when comparing voice-to-voice, as evidenced by the nearly exact overlay of the blue and white lines. However, a very great difference is noticeable in the intensity of H3. Bjoerling's H3 goes way higher on the intensity scale than Domingo's, indicating that it is very much stronger. H4 and H5 are also more intense than those of Domingo, though their intensity in Domingo's voice increases until they are in rough parity with that of Bjoerling at H6. From there, the intensity of harmonics falls off dramatically in both voices.
    So, as a proportion of the overall sound of the recorded voice, Jussi Bjoerling's tone quality and power are created mostly by H3, H6, H5 and H2-- in decreasing order by intensity -- while Domingo's tone quality and power are created mostly via harmonics H6, H2, H1 and H5: again in decreasing order by intensity. These different balances, while they both sound like tenors, make them distinguishable to our ears.
    What We Cannot Conclude
    Does this mean that Bjoerling's voice was "bigger" or more resonant than Domingo's, or perhaps the other way around? Neither one! Engineers who make recordings adjust volumes and balances at their own discretion, to make recordings have a satisfying overall effect for the listener, while not overwhelming the recording or playback machines. There is simply no way to tell from a recording what the original sound intensities were, only how they were after they were recorded and mixed down. Sometimes, though not much with Opera, some EQ is added to overcome a recording problem, or to sweeten the effect a bit. Some of that latter can be seen in some of the images here, and is discussed below under the section "Engineering Artifacts".
    So, even though we cannot learn the size of these voices in absolute terms, we can learn (in general) how the sound energy of the harmonics is distributed relative to one another within a single recorded voice, and can compare recording to recording.
    Vocal Resonance Strategies
    Vocal power that is distributed across the various harmonics is perceived by the listener differently, according to the frequency range of the particular harmonics. In the case of the Bjoerling and Domingo notes, the reason that there is such a dispartity in the displays of the blue and white lines is that these singers have balanced their resonances differently for this note in the recordings selected.
    Surveying recordings of more than 40 of the top tenors of the 20th Century, these voices predominately use one or both of two strategies to create the powerful top voice.  In this next section, we will explore the strategies that they used, and comment on the overall effect.
    The "Singers Formant" Region
    Looking back at the picture for a moment, you may notice the two vertical red lines which bracket the frequency range of the 6th Harmonic, very strong in both voices. These lines show the center 400Hz of the singer's formant region, and also indicate the area of highest hearing sensitivity. When harmonics are strong in this frequency region, they are very audible, adding to the carrying power of the voice and to the listener's perception of voice quality as well. For the singer without amplification, presence of these frequencies allows the voice to cut through above the sound of a piano easily, and even a full orchestra in the concert or Operatic venues. These frequencies also help the audience member locate the sound source very specifically on stage, a big help when singing an ensemble. Both Domingo and Bjoerling have this important feature in their voices. Incidentally, the frequency of the 6th harmonic is two octaves and a major third above the sung fundamental.
    The first most common strategy for vocal power and audibility is to have a strong singer's formant, as strong or stronger than the fundamental and 2nd harmonic. We could also call this the 'high ring' strategy.
    Lowest 3 Harmonics
    The perception of the "darkness" or "warmth" of the voice comes from the intensities of the lowest two harmonics, H1 and H2, which are the fundamental of the sung tone, and the octave above it. For these, both singers have about the same proportion, and this forms a solid core to the sound in both voices. To the listener, these two harmonics are very difficult to distinguish individually when they are approximately the same volume.
    The presence of the proportionally louder H3 in Bjoerling's voice introduces an interesting difference. H3 is the frequency an octave and a perfect 5th above the fundamental, what (to a classical organist) would be called a 'quint'. This quite strong harmonic colors the tone distinctively, and, because it is an odd-numbered harmonic, it stands out in the awareness of the listener, adding brilliance to the vowel. When the 3rd harmonic is the loudest in the whole voice (such as it is for Bjoerling) this becomes a significant feature of the tone quality, and carries a great deal of the vocal power.
    The second most common strategy for vocal power and coloring is to have a strong 3rd Harmonic. The strong H3 is obtained by singing a vowel which tunes the 2nd formant (F2) to just a little bit higher than H3, a process sometimes called vowel modification, or vocal tract tuning. We could also call this the mid+high ring strategy. (Note: For other combinations of note and vowel impression, the tuning of F2 is more advantageously made to H4.)
    In professional voices, both of these individual strategies can be found, and also combined. Jussi Bjoerling is a fine example of the combined, and Placido Domingo is an excellent example of the "singer's formant" or low+high ring strategy.
    Another Singer for Comparison - Franco Corelli
    Franco Corelli is known for a heroic tenor voice. This spectrogram shows the relative strength of the harmonics in his voice for the same note we were examining with Domingo and Bjoerling. Though there is a bit more orchestral clutter in the sample -- sharp spikes here and there -- and on the left end) you can see clearly that the 3rd harmonic is very prominent in his voice, . Looking to the right, you see some strength with H4, H5 and H6, and then a strong H7 as well. This would make his approach a combined one.
    Here are some other spectrograms for comparison. See if you can identify which strategies they employ:
    Alfredo Kraus
    Benjamino Gigli
    Luciano Pavarotti
    Special note here: Pavarotti's voice is very interesting in that he uses the H3 formant tuning, but does not combine it with a strong singer's formant. The overall effect is very distinctive.
    Enrico Caruso
    Mario Lanza
    Engineering Artifacts - Possible
    The clustering of the formants F3, F3 and F5, which combine in the singer's formant region ordinarily produce somewhat jagged peaks in a spectrographic display. When recorded and displayed as is, without any sweetening EQ, they do not often take the shape of smooth curves, rounded on top, but will ramp up and down fairly sharply across three or four harmonics.
    Go back to the Kraus spectrograph, and look at the shape of the curve created by the tops of H4, H5, H6, H7 and H8. Disregard the leading (rightmost edge) pointy peaks that show up, that is an orchestral note. The "wide" part is from the voice. In my opinion, the slow ramp-up of the harmonic intensities in this region, peaking at H7, and then diminishing a bit to H8, just looks too regular. I think this is a likely example of some EQ shaping to allow the voice to cut through the orchestral mix.
    Though I cannot be quite so sure on this one, the suddenly very strong H7 in the Correlli spectrograph looks a bit out of place, with the intensities of the immediately three lower harmonics at the levels they are. Now you know what you might look for, I will leave the judgment to you. It's not likely, while listening to the recording, that you would be aware of any of these harmonics individually, anyway.
    None of these latter points reflects on the quality of the singer in any way, nor would the singer likely have been aware that tweaks were done on their behalf. As I said earlier, the Engineers work to create an effective recording of the voice that fairly represents what the performance sounded like to them.
    Summary
    We've seen with these examples the most often occurring resonance strategies for creating the ringing top notes of the Operatic Tenor voice, and readily accessible examples from some of the most popular singers of the 20th Century. We've also discussed the limitations of using recordings to make these conclusions. If you'd like to see more articles of this type, studying the vocalism of other voices, please send me a comment as to your interests. In any case, I plan to do a parallel discussion of the resonance strategies of the Operatic Baritone (Warren, Milnes, Tibett and Bastianini!), the female high voice, and discuss in detail the challenges involved with the transition from mid-voice to the top in both types.
    A Christmas Egg
    The following spectrogram is of Michael Bolton (in blue) and Luciano Pavarotti (in white) singing the climactic note of Puccini's aria 'Nessun Dorma' from Turandot. These were public, large-hall performances, and the performers were close-miked, a very interesting way to hear Pavarotti's voice. The note being sung is the B natural above middle C.
    A problem I encountered in comparing the voices with these recordings is that orchestra is playing quite loudly, so the first harmonics are cluttered by those sounds, so much so that we cannot really distinguish what component of the sound is the singer, and what is the orchestra. To do this particular equalization, I matched volume of harmonics H2 (right above the 1 on the bottom scale) and H3 (midway between 1 and 2), since the vocal vibrato in both voices makes the trace wide enough to see.
    Interesting, that Michael Bolton and Luciano Pavarotti have almost exactly the same resonance balance ratio for these two harmonics. Remember, this sort of comparison does not tell us about the absolute volume of the voices, just how the resonances are balanced. You can see some places in the higher harmonics where Bolton's voice has relative strength, too. He has characteristic singer's formant strength that peaks at H6, (right in the sweet spot of our hearing) which would make his resonance strategy for the note a "combined" one, from our former terminology.
    If you are interested to listen to these performances, they are at
    Michael Bolton to about 3:15 into the song and Luciano Pavarotti.
    This essay was first published December 12, 2008 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • TMV World Team
    Of all the dynamic effects used in singing, one of the most challenging to do elegantly is the "messa di voce" (pronounced by English speakers more-or-less like 'mess ah dee voh chay'. It is the combination of a smooth crescendo (getting louder) for some amount of time, followed by a smooth decrescendo (getting softer) for the same amount of time, on a single vowel, on a single note.
    Using musical symbols, it can be represented this way:
    Why is This Challenging?
    The exercise requires that the singer be able to:
    Start a note cleanly and vibrantly, but softly. Crescendo a smoothly, progressively adjusting the balance of breath energy and laryngeal muscle action so that the tone gets louder, not going sharp or flat, and maintaining the vowel color until a specific louder level is reached. Decrescendo a note smoothly, with similar requirements as during the crescendo, while approaching the end of the usable supply of breath. End a note cleanly and vibrantly, but softly. The Easiest of the Skills
    For most singers with some training, the skill that can be most readily managed is the second one, the crescendo. Even so, the requirement to maintain the vowel and the pitch consistency represents a challenge. If the breath energy is not balanced with the laryngeal muscle action, the pitch will go astray.
    The Intermediate Skills
    Next in line of difficulty is the soft starting and stopping of the vibrant tone. This skill requires the singer to be able to manage breath energy at very low subglottic pressures, with the requisite light laryngeal muscle action levels, while at the same time keeping the tone free, clear and accurately pitched. The starting of the note is challenging, because there is usually a surplus of breath energy for the first onset, and the ending of the note is challenging, because there is very little left for the release. To correctly do these two skills, the singer must have mastery of soft dynamics with full lungs, and with nearly empty ones.
    The Most Challenging of the Skills
    Is the smooth decrescendo. As the singer begins to do this on the latter half of the breath, there is a great tendency to make the action too swiftly. If, for example, the crescendo is taken for five seconds, the singer will tend to make the first part of the decrescendo very much too rapidly, returning to the original volume in three or four seconds.
    Additional difficulty lies in the need for the singer to perform the decrescendo smoothly, and while doing so, gradually decrease the subglottic pressures by coordination of breath energy and laryngeal muscle action, maintaining pitch and vibrancy on increasingly smaller lung volumes of air. This presents a breath management and/or support challenge.
    And, to Top it Off
    The exercise should be able to be performed throughout the complete performance compass of the voice.
    Pedagogic Use of the Messa Di Voce
    The exercise is useful for both voice evaluation, and for training. When performed, it immediately reveals where the singer's issues are, by the characteristics of the individual skills, which are combined in it.
    When first performed, the student takes a small breath, begins and ends at mezzopiano (mp), and crescendos to mezzo forte. (mf) over a few counts time. When smooth and accurate with these levels and times for all vowels, the teacher may either:
    extend the dynamic range (starting softer, i.e., at piano, or ending louder, i.e., at mezzo forte); and/or lengthening the time for the crescendo and the matching decrescendo, with a slightly larger breath. As the singer becomes more accomplished, the teacher may vary the dynamics and lengths independently, so that complete facility of dynamic control is gained.
    Examples of Use If you listen carefully to some of the longer notes in "The Prayer" you can hear the messa di voce done very subtly. Also, you can hear good examples of the sustained notes in decrescendo, which is the second half of the exercise. Probably the best example I have found of this effect in theatre is the sustained, almost in perceptible decrescendo on the last note of "The Music of the Night" in Phantom of the Opera. Michael Crawford does it very well.
    Among the singers of the standards, excellent examples are in the singing of Tony Bennett. In "Fly Me to the Moon". You can hear some very subtle ones.
    Messa di voce is not an end in itself. The abilities it requires, and which it helps to develop, are essential in the dynamic shaping of phrases, the ebb and flow of vocal volume to create arched, legato lines. In Tony's singing, you can hear how he nuances these volume relationships note-to-note, so smoothly.
    In classical music, especially pieces in Bel Canto style, this effect is very readily found. For example, in the "mad scene" in Donizetti's Lucia, you can hear some of the longer notes with it done subtly, but also how the singer uses dynamic control to connect the coloratura in long, shaped phrases on a single vowel. Interesting note: This is the same aria which begins the "Diva" section in the Bruce Willis movie "The Fifth Element"  before the 'dance' section.
    Conclusion
    By varying the dynamic levels and the lengths of the crescendo/decrescendo pair, the singer becomes very familiar with the way their own instrument responds to these demands, and how they must be thinking to achieve the effect in the various ranges of their voice. The end result is a wonderful ability and sense of mastery that comes from the familiarity of these aspects of singing, and which is directly applied to the artistic use of dynamics in performance.
    This essay was first published January 27, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet's #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.

  • Steven Fraser
    Teaser Paragraph:
    There is nothing quite so frustrating as to read an article or hear someone speak, and the originator uses a term, which is unfamiliar. I did that this week in The Modern Vocalist Forum, with the term “tessitura”. When one of the readers asked me to explain it, I thought I'd just post it here for everybody.

    Definitions
    Here is a link to a very useful Wikipedia article. Start with the first paragraph. Here's another from Miriam-Webster dictionary online.  

    Discussion
    When we perform a piece of vocal music, it has several characteristics that affect how we perform it:


    It has a range, from the lowest note, to the highest. Very practically, we don't -- often, or ever -- perform pieces that contain notes that we cannot produce consistent with our vocal tone quality standards.
    It has tessitura, which indicates where in the range of the piece that most of the notes are found. For individual singers, some sections of the vocal range are more tiring or challenging than others are, when desiring to maintain our tone quality standards.
    It has dynamics that indicate how loudly the singing must be in the various sections. Very soft and very loud singing put special demands on the technique of the singer, while trying to maintain our tone quality standards.
    It has duration, which is the amount of time that singing must occur during the length of the piece. To sing a few notes over the period of a minute is not difficult. To sing 1,000 over the period of an hour requires a different level of endurance, while maintaining our tone quality standards.
    What Does “Tone Quality” Have to Do With This?
    I mentioned for each of the above items the desire to maintain our vocal tone quality standards. That is my way of saying that the singer has aesthetic, genre and stylistic preferences and values that influence the singing they choose to do. Paraphrasing Robert Lunte, some pieces require certain types of tone quality to be effective. The countertenor sings the C above middle C in a Purcell verse anthem differently than a Death Metal front man would warn of the destruction of the world.

    When all of these items: the tone quality, the durations, the dynamics, the tessitura, and the range are combined, they represent the totality of the vocal requirement for the piece.

    Why is Tessitura so Important?
    The tessitura determines which notes in a piece get sung the most often. The singer's ability to perform those notes repeatedly, while meeting the other performance requirements mentioned factors into the experience of vocal fatigue. For example:


    The high-school choir bass who can take the occasional E above middle C briefly but loudly in concert, will have a much more difficult time singing that same note 10 or 20 times in a row.


    The rock balladeer covering “Stairway to Heaven” better be able to sing that hook line in his sleep, because it will get repeated very many times. (Mercifully, the piece has lots of nice interludes for recovery.)


    The singer handling Neil Young's parts in quartet harmony has a similar challenge.


    The bass covering a Johnny Cash tune, or singing the low melody in a Stamps Quartet gospel song, better be able to live below the bass staff, and balance everybody else, too. It’s not enough to have one low D in a song -- there may be 20 -- and notes even lower.


    The college baritone learning a Verdi aria will discover that he spends most of his time in the passaggio and that it just wears him out when he tries to sing the entire aria.


    Covering a Janice Joplin tune... well, you get the idea.
    Summary
    The tessitura of a piece, large or small, places certain demands on the singer's ability to sustain their technique when combined with other musical factors. For these situations, the tessitura of the singer (that is, the areas that the individual singer can sustain) should be matched to that of the piece. Other factors being equal, this is best done by adjusting the key of the piece to the ability and voice type of the singer.

     

    This essay was first published January 17, 2009 on The Modern Vocalist.com the Internet’s #1 community for vocal professionals, voice health practitioners and pro-audio companies worldwide since November 2008.


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