Achieving Tone Potential Using Balanced Onsets

Max: and Opera_L listers: Just some thoughts about learning the process of closing the vocal folds (cords) as taught by Dr. Bratt. It is a process that all classical or operatic (that is acoustic) singers must achieve. And it is easily misunderstood because it implies an overly strong closing of the vocal folds and a […]

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The Soprano Voice in Choral Music

The Soprano Voice in Choral Music The soprano voice can easily overcome any choral sound especially if it has a basically flute quality. Consider the orchestra; 2 or 3 flutes against 30 to 45 strings. That has become the accepted balance of sounds yet the flute does not produce a tone louder than a violin. […]

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Extending the Range of the Female Voice

Extending the Range of the Female Voice I suggest work on balanced onsets until the student can do them easily and consistently . The onset exercises in Miller’s “The Structure of Singing” works for me but I more often now make up my own as seems to be needed by the student. Keep in mind […]

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Female Vowels Above the Treble Staff

Females Voice Reduced Vowel Usage Above Treble Staff. About soprano high Cs. This would be designated as a C6 if middle C is designated as a C4. No voice can sing the vowel in “Tod” on a pitch that high. The only vowel available to any voice on that pitch is the vowel “ah” (In […]

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Breath Management and Posture

Most voice teachers will spend some time correcting or improving a students posture, not only for the positive effect good posture has on the appearance of the student when singing in public but, more importantly, to encourage the student to establish a skeletal frame alignment that best provides for efficient breath management. I found that […]

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Voice Placement Sensations

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 […]

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Enunciation and Consonants

A lot of pop singing displays poor enunciation, that is, the words are not clearly articulated and the poem or text is lost, It often takes many hearings to determine the words being sung. Obviously this is being done as a stylistic choice in many cases; in others it is simply inadequate technique and the […]

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Vocal Vibrato Problems and Wobble

I can think of three slightly different “wobbles’ that occur in older voices.  Two of them are problems with vibrato.  The vibrato either become too slow or it becomes two wide.  Slow in the sense of fewer variations in pitch in a given time.  Wide in the sense of too much up and down pitch variation. […]

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Vocal Timbre and Vocal Projection

Sound is transmitted as a wave through a medium such as air.  The “cubic volume” of the air is not a critical matter.  The distance from the stage to the back of the house is more critical because sound dissipates at an inverse ratio to distance from the source. But it is this characteristic of […]

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Male Vocal Fold Function, low to high

Vocal fold function is the source of the voice sound.  It can occur only if the vocal folds are brought together so they may act as a kind of valve that resists the air pressure brought to them by the singer until that air pressure and the vocal fold closure tension meets a balance at […]

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