Voice Placement Sensations In a recent exchange on Opera-L the following was written. It represents a commonly held understanding of vocal placement and prompted the following reply from me. Here is the quote from Opera-L. “Are you suggesting that Corelli sang from his nose? Have you heard of placing the voice in the mask As [...]
Placement versus Formant Tuning Using the Vowel-Mirror
Placement is often taught as a general idea such as put the voice backward or forward. It is also common to name a place such as put the voice into the nose, just behind the forehead, through the tope of the head, on the roof of the mouth etc, etc. While I was studying with Burton [...]
Being Heard Up Close or Far Away
Being heard up close or far away. If the vocal tract is adjusted to emphasize the harmonic that best projects the voice, the voice is heard well in the hall but might be less well heard up close, especially from the side of the performer. Singers often refer to this as singing “over” or “above” [...]
Female verses Male Resonance Strategies
Male and female voices do not function in the same way for notes above their highest passaggio. The primary reason for this difference is the fact that the female voice is singing pitches in E5 to C6 range and male voices are singing pitches in the E4 to C5 range. The male voice is an [...]
Passaggi, Registers, Vocal Folds and Standing Waves
The thickness of the vocal folds do not fit into two static categories such as thick or thin nor M1 and M2. The vocal folds change their length and their thickness in a continuous manner as the sung pitch is raised or lowered. In this they meet the myoelastic theory of vocal fold function as [...]
Classical and Belting Resonance Stratgies
The resonance strategy used by classical female voices in their middle range is to have the second formant of the vocal tract resonate the second harmonic (F2/H2) of the sound spectrum produced by the vocal folds (phonated tone). The higher one sings the higher the fundamental rises and so do all of the harmonics of [...]
More on Formants
Mathew, as a new reader, has asked a lot of questions about the Singers Formant and Formants in general. This has opened a lot of doors that require some explanations. I will try to answer as directly and concisely as possible but this will be a bit long. Since this is a response to his [...]
Vowels and Singer’s Formant
Is it necessary to be concerned about what vowels a singer must use to produce a Singer’s Formant? The Singer’s Formant has no relation to the effect of vowels on resonance. This is because the Singer’s Formant is produced in an area of the vocal mechanism that is removed from the critical vowel resonance area. [...]
Male Voices and the Singer’s Formant
A larger voice will of course be heard as a larger voice if it has Singer’s Formant. If it doesn’t have Singer’s Formant it would not be easily heard over a full orchestra regardless of how large a voice it is. Intensity or volume of production has little to do with the ability to be [...]
Squillo and the Singer’s Formant
Squillo, which is sometimes defined “as that piercing resonance” has nothing to do with the Singer’s Formant. Singer’s Formant does not give the voice its brightness. For example, Bjorling’s voice has seldom been classified as being as bright as Corelli yet his voice has more Singer’s Formant than does Corelli, and Corelli’s is substantial. The [...]