How to Sing Better: Improving Vocal Timbre or Tone Color

tim·bre: t[æ]m-b[ɝ]:
the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity.

synonyms: tone color, resonance

Vocal colors, resonance, and timbre are often used interchangeably in voice teaching. Timbre or tone color is created through a filtering process that reinforces certain harmonics over others, due to the size and shape of the resonators.

Some of this is inherited (we might be born, for example with a large mouth or pharynx) and some is due to choice (how we shape the articulators- the lips, jaw space, and tongue).

The vocal tract of each singer is inherently unique; the size, shape, and texture of each person’s pharynx and mouth are different. The singer can affect timbre by altering theses resonators. The tongue has a dramatic effect on the sound; it assumes various shapes for vowels and can exhibit varying degrees of tenseness or relaxation.

The texture of the soft tissues of the mouth and pharynx can also be altered, thus changing the quality of the sound. The walls of the pharynx can be tense or relaxed, and the soft palate can be raised, tensed, or relaxed. All these adjustments affect the timbre or tone quality of the voice.

VOCAL COLORS

Vocal colors are used as a tool for expression and emotional interpretation. The lyric, interpreted by the artist, suggests the color that conveys the desired emotion.

Nasal Color: A purely nasal sound is not a quality you would normally use for singing unless you are doing a character voice. However, the dull, hypo-nasal voice needs some nasality. As always, just enough and not too much is key. Nasality is produced by lowering the soft palate toward the back of the tongue, allowing air to flow into the nasal passages. To activate nasal color, say ng[æ].

Mouth Color: is used for conversational pop singing. Mouth and nasal color combined produce mask resonance. To activate mouth color, call out: Hey! aiming the sound against the teeth.

Head Color: is created with a raised soft palate and larger pharyngeal cavity. To activate head color, say woooooooooo! like a ghost.

Chest Color: is a deep, rich, dark sound produced by lowering the larynx and widening the pharynx. To activate chest color loudly call out a deep, masculine sounding woah! (w[o]).

Learned speech and diction habits can affect timbre. Just listen to the difference in speech patterns between a person born and raised in Britain compared to someone from the rural American South, even when speaking the same English language.

For example, in the rural American South, the I vowel is often nasalized and pronounced as [æ]. I find time to be kind becomes [æ] f[æ]nd t[æ]m to bay k[æ]nd, with most of the words rhyming with the word at.

Accents and regional diction should be eliminated in the singing voice.

PLACEMENT

The concept of placement as traditionally taught relies on the singer’s subjective experience of perceived vibration. Placement is a description of where the singer feels vibrations in the body- the sympathetic vibrations. These sensations can help the singer monitor their sound by being indicators of good vowel formation and balanced singing.

Forward Placement (Mask Resonance)

Forward placement and mask resonance have been taught for hundreds of years, with varying results. Singing in the mask (forward placement) is a sensation-based concept that relies on the experience of sympathetic vibration occurring across the bridge of the nose and cheekbones, where you would wear a small mask.

Mask resonance is most easily achieved when an open vowel is sung. The tongue is forward in the mouth, activating a higher second formant frequency, which encourages brilliance.

Some mask resonance can always be heard in a well-produced tone. It is a combination of nasal and mouth resonances and gives the voice ring by boosting the higher harmonics that that give clarity and projection to the voice. Focusing on mask resonance or forward placement has been known to help some singers achieve register blending. Again, just enough and not too much– you don’t want to nasalize the sound.

Although a result-oriented approach, the concept of mask resonance can be helpful to the singer if they simply notice that there is a vibrating or buzzing in the mask area occurring when the vocal tone is bright and freely produced. Sometimes instructions to put the voice in the mask result in muscular tension or over-nasality.

Rather than attempting to place the voice in the mask, simply notice the sympathetic vibrations that occur when the vowel is correct and the voice is free.

EXPERIENCE IT: MASK RESONANCE

When you place your fingers across the bridge of your nose and say mmmmmmmmmmmm you will feel a vibration in the nose and across the cheekbones. These are vibrations of bone and cartilage reacting to the sound waves being reinforced in the pharynx and mouth. Now say ny[ae]-ny[ae]-ny[ae], like a brat, and notice the vibrations in the nasal cavities.

Balance Of Bright And Dark: Chiaroscuro/Squilloscuro

Chiaroscuro is a tenet of bel canto, the Italian classical vocal technique in which a brilliant sound (squillo) is coupled with a dark timbre (oscuro) providing depth or warmth. One of the elements of a beautiful tone is the balance between bright and dark timbres- a good chiaroscuro or squilloscuro.

The [i] vowel is particularly good for developing chiaroscuro because the tongue is high, creating a small mouth space (raising F₂ for more brilliance) and larger pharyngeal space (if the larynx is low), raising F₁ for greater depth of tone. Chiaroscuro/squilloscuro– is the hallmark of excellent tone quality for singers in any musical genre.

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