Open Throat

[Gina Ellen Vocalist]

Hi Guys,

I've just written a new blog post about open throat vocal technique.

http://singersvoice.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/open-throat-vocal-technique/

I'd love your comments on this or if there is anything you think I should add that could be helpful. It's aimed at complete beginners btw

thanks

[Owen Korzec]

It hits the spot really well. Only a few things I could add:

Darker vowel mods don't necessarily lower the larynx. But if you keep the same embouchure and darken the vowel the larynx tends to do it .

Also maybe look into Rob's open throat tongue technique added in 2.5. Basically tip of tongue resting on top of the teeth. It creates a little more space in the back of the pharynx. That being said its a subtle difference and also a less practical and efficient tongue position IMO.

Neither of these things need to be in the article though. It's very informative and accurate enough as is. Good job!

[Rachsing]

Gina,

I thought it was a nice description of the raising of the palate and lowering of the larynx often referred to as the "open throat". Though, I believe it should be mentioned that a lot of sounds like belting or screams can't be done by using this approach. The fact is, the louder you get and the higher you sing the more narrow it gets. So in this case it actually makes more sense to call it the "narrow throat".

Usually the "open throat" is more of a sensation than a physical reality.

[Mivke]

I thought it was a nice post.

What I thought it lacked was some explanations of support, which imo is what creates the feeling of "open throat". Proper support, placement and releasing of unneccesary tensions are what "open throat" is for me.

Cheers!

[Gina Ellen Vocalist]

owen, cool thanks, I think it's important to play around with it and see what's best for the particular person.

Rach, interesting, thanks. I guess like you say it's just a descriptive feeling like a lot of singing techniques. They all need to be collected and unified under one standard system

Thanks Mike, At the end of the post I say that just because you have all these things in place, doesn't mean you'll sing great, there are other factors (I.E supoort) That the trouble with writing about one thing in singing, everything ties in together really, difficult but perhaps i should make that clearer in the post.

Gina

[Mivke]

That is very true. Singing really is just having the basics in order. Which is alot harder than it sounds :P

[Felipe Carvalho]

Very nice Gina.

It does give a nice insight on the core of the work and I think it hits the spot on what to expect on the study ahead. Good info. :)

[Rachsing]

Rach, interesting, thanks. I guess like you say it's just a descriptive feeling like a lot of singing techniques. They all need to be collected and unified under one standard system

That would of course be ideal. However, as long as it's based on personal sensations and thereby subjective it will vary between singers. And therefore it is very difficult to agree on an uniform terminology.

[benny82]

I definitely agree that "open throat" is more as sensation than a physiological reality. However, it still has some "widening" background. In the low part of the voice "open throat" to me mainly means lowering the larynx. On the high part of the voice where the larynx has to rise and the pharynx has to narrow, the "openness" is created more by raising the soft palate.

Both situations have in common that you use "appropriate widening" for the part of the range that you are currently singing. If you go to the "very high part" of the voice the widening moves completely away from the larynx/pharynx region and goes towards the "mouth opening" region.

For me it is basically starting with "widening in the back" (low larynx) and while going higher in pitch moving that widening more towards the front (first towards the upper pharynx, then towards the mouth), while narrowing the back-part at the same time.

If I do this well I keep the sensation of an "open throat" basically in any part of the range, even though I am actually "narrowing in the back" for the medium part of the voice and "narrowing in the back and the middle" for the high part of the voice.

Just to make it clear: Narrowing in the back means that the tongue goes closer to the back wall of the pharynx, narrowing "in the middle" means that the tongue goes closer towards the palate. This also has a lot to do with formant tuning and resonance strategies.

[Rachsing]

Yes, the "open throat" is definitely more a sensation than a physiological reality as this video clearly shows:

[VideoHere]

very nice article gina.

whether or not it's a physical reality, it's still great mental imagery to keep from closing down the throat.

[ronws]

Nice post, Gina. Very intuitive.

Find the sweet spot, "follow" that spot. That's how I would describe it in my simplistic "caveman" language.