Singing with Balance: Resonance
PARAMETER TWO: BALANCED RESONANCE- FORMANTS AND HARMONICS
Resonance is more precisely formant/harmonic activity. A formant is an acoustic resonance of the vocal tract, measured as an amplitude peak in frequency when a singer sings into a spectrogram.
Another way of describing formants is to say that a formant is a pocket of air in the vocal tract that vibrates at specific frequencies due to the size and shape of the adjustable containers- the mouth and pharynx.
Harmonics are partials, frequencies produced along with the fundamental frequency or pitch that provide timbre or tone color.
Some harmonics are boosted in the vocal tract by their proximity to formant frequencies and some are attenuated or damped, depending on the size and shape of the pharynx (throat) and mouth resonators.
When a formant frequency is in the vicinity of a harmonic frequency, a boost of energy occurs. Singing becomes more powerful and effortless. We alter formant frequencies by movements of the articulators- the tongue, lips, and jaw.
When we sing from low to high, we must allow a shift from the first formant/ second harmonic coupling, F1/H2, to the second formant coupling with higher harmonics: F2/H3 (back vowels) or F2/H4 (front vowels). This is resonance transfer.
Vowels are the vehicle by which this is accomplished.
The pharynx and mouth are the resonators in singing. They form an adjustable tube that is divided by the tongue, the middle of which is called the constriction. The placement and height of the constriction determine the relative size of each of the resonators; the flexible tongue is an adjustable divider.
The size and shape of the pharynx and mouth affect timbre (often called resonance) due to changes in the relationships between formants and harmonics as the articulators change position.
In a simplified model, we can think of the throat or pharynx (the distance from the vocal folds to the tongue constriction or hump of the tongue) as being the area where F1 or the lower first formant frequencies resonate. The mouth (the distance from the tongue constriction to the lips) is the area where the higher second formant or F2 frequencies resonate.
Each of these areas is simply a container of air; the larger container is where the lower frequencies resonate, and the smaller container (the mouth) is where the higher frequencies resonate.
As the tongue moves from a high to a low position (from closed to open vowels), the pharyngeal cavity decreases in volume or space, and the mouth cavity (meaning the area in front of the tongue constriction) increases in volume or space.
F1 is correlated inversely with tongue height; the higher the tongue is, the more closed the vowel is, Closed vowels, because the tongue is high, create more pharyngeal space and less mouth space.
Due to the larger resonator, lower harmonic frequencies resonate in the pharyngeal cavity. The lower F1 frequencies, resonating in the pharynx, provide the oscuro or darkness/depth in tone quality, rather like the bass EQ on a stereo. A larger resonating cavity enhances lower frequencies.
F2 is correlated with front to back tongue positions. The more forward the tongue is, the smaller the mouth container becomes, resonating higher F2 frequencies.
When the tongue is both high and forward, as in the [i] vowel, the pharynx container will be large and the mouth container will be small. Smaller containers boost higher frequencies, so F2 frequencies will be high when singing an [i] vowel due to the small mouth container.
F2 provides chiaro/squillo, or brilliance.
Vowels are a combination of F1 and F2, and both containers (the pharynx and the mouth) are active in vowel formation. However, most vowels are highly skewed toward one formant or the other, giving the vowel it’s defining and characteristic sound.
To create optimal tone, singers must learn to tune the vowel formant frequency to a harmonic that is in the vicinity of the formant, thereby increasing the acoustic energy of that harmonic. Vowel tuning can increase vocal fold adduction, closed quotient, and inertive reactance, increasing feedback energy in the vocal tract.
This means singing becomes efficient, powerful, beautiful, and easy!
Without correct vowel or formant tuning, the vocal folds are unable to maintain adequate compression and vocal fold adduction. When singing pitches from low to high, F1/H2, the potentially yell-like upper chest-voice resonance, must hand over to a second formant dominant resonance strategy- F2/H3, F2/H4, etc.
This applies only to contemporary singing- classical sopranos have a different resonance strategy- F1/H1 or whoop.
When singing descending pitches, the process must be reversed, or the vocal folds will not firmly adduct. F2 hands off to F1.
The tongue must be flexible to sing vowels clearly. When we drop the jaw for higher pitches, vowels often become muddy and indistinct. The problem lies with the tongue. The Tongue Independence exercise in Step Three develops independence between the tongue and jaw, developing the ability to form vowels independently of the position of the jaw.
Tongue positioning is also vital for good formant or vowel tuning. Vowel modification is one way we address registration issues, which are often actually problems of resonance.
Vowel modification via adjustments of the tongue encourages a smoother transition through the primo passagio.
If the vowel is not modified as pitch ascends, the singer begins to employ extrinsic interfering muscular action to compensate, phonation becomes tight and squeezed, pitch usually begins to go flat, the singer feels laryngeal tension, subglottic breath pressure becomes excessive, and finally register breaks occur- all because resonance adjustments were not made by the process of vowel modification.
We can adjust resonance by vowel substitution; substituting a more singer-friendly vowel for one that is problematic. Often a more closed vowel is substituted for an open vowel to encourage an easy transition through the passaggi or bridges of the voice.
In reverse, when singing from a high note to a low note, it may be necessary to modify the vowel in the other direction, gradually moving toward a more open vowel to encourage firm adduction in the lower register.
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Author
Tricia Grey, MM
Author, Founder of Sing Like a Star Studios
Tricia Grey, MM, founder of Sing Like a Star Studios, LLC, has a world wide clientele of successful singers of Broadway and Musical Theatre, Pop, R&B, Jazz, Rock, and Country. The purpose of this blog is to pass on the wealth of information gathered in over 40 years of professional singing, teaching and research. She has written two books: YOU can Sing Like a Star, and YOU can be a Successful Voice Teacher. Both are available as online subscription courses with over 600 recorded exercises set to fun and inspiring contemporary music.
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