SING LIKE A STAR BLOG

MIX AND THE CONTEMPORARY SINGER

To sing contemporary music, which requires consistent tone quality throughout an extended range, the singer must develop the mix. The lower and upper registers must be equal in power, presence, and tone quality, with a smooth transition through the primo passaggio.

The concept of the mix, mixed voice, or mixed registration has evolved along with the development of popular singing styles that require a singer to produce vocal sounds that are natural, powerful, consistent, and similar in tone quality throughout an extended range of two to three octaves or more.

Today’s popular singers need to extend the powerful timbre of the lower register chest voice into the upper register rather than flipping into a soft, breathy, falsetto on higher notes.

Mix, for the contemporary singer, is a reinforced upper register with firm glottal closure, additional bracing by the TA muscles, higher closed quotient, second formant dominance, increased energy in the...

Voice breaks can be explained by understanding the somewhat complex topic of formants.

How does an understanding of formants and harmonics affect our singing? Why would we as singers care about all this complicated stuff? The answer is that when you understand formant tuning, (traditionally known as “resonance”) you can get a much bigger bang for your singing buck!

When the formant frequency of the sung vowel is near the frequency of a harmonic, there is an increase in power without an increase in air pressure. In other words, you can get a much stronger and more resonant vocal sound without pushing the voice.

Formant tuning also helps us transition through the first bridge or primo passaggio– the place where everything tends to fall apart. This transitional area is where most untrained singers tend to pull the chest voice too high, creating strain and voice breaks.

When singers learn to modify vowels, they can transition through these tricky areas with a...

The key to good vocal production is balance in all things.

Imbalances that result in cracks, breaks, flips, and other vocal problems occur in the following ways:

     1) Resonance imbalance (formants and harmonics): we affect resonance by altering the shape of the resonators of the mouth (including the lips and tongue) and pharynx.

Most musical instruments have resonators that are stable and don’t change shape. However, our vocal tracts change shape every time we form a new vowel. Every vowel requires a different combination of two formants- F₁ and F₂, to be discernible.

Every time we sing a pitch, a series of harmonics is generated along with the pitch, also known as the fundamental (F₀) or first harmonic (H₁).

Any time a formant or harmonic cross one another there is the potential for instability.

How does this crossing happen?

It can happen if we change pitch, or it could happen if we change vowels while maintaining the same pitch.

    ...

Everyone is born with two registers- a lower register (used for our speaking voice and low notes) and an upper register (used for high notes).

One of the challenges in singing is transition between these two registers.

In the octave between approximately C4 and C5, pitches can be sung by both male and female singers using various permutations of TA-dominant lower register (modal register- short, thick folds) and CT-dominant upper register (longer/thinner folds) phonation. This area is known as the overlap octave. The problem with the overlap octave is there are so many ways to sing incorrectly in it!

We can pull chest, flip, or bring the upper register too low, to name just a few.

All these incorrect methods of producing sound have one thing in common: they are not balanced. In vocal training, particularly in the overlap octave, balance is essential. The overlap octave contains the trickiest area singers must learn to maneuver through- the challenging primo passaggio or first...

ACOUSTIC AND LARYNGEAL REGISTRATION

Registration or vocal registers can be defined as changes in vocal timbre across a singer’s range. When we mix, we attempt to equalize that timbre throughout the range, so there is no abrupt change in vocal quality anywhere in the range.

Prior to this chapter, when we talked about lower register and upper register, we were referring to the vocal folds, or more specifically, the length of the folds and the degree of TA muscle activity on any given pitch.  We learned about the distinction between short/thick vocal folds (M1- lower register) vs. lengthened/thinned vocal folds (M2-upper register). This is laryngeal registration.

This is how your vocal folds work in the lower register. Air coming from the lungs creates a vibrational wave in the folds that begins from the bottom of the fold and travels to the top. The folds open and close rapidly, converting aerodynamic energy to acoustic energy. When you sing a middle C, this...

THE HIGHER FORMANTS (F_3, F_4, F₅): THE SINGER’S FORMANT CLUSTER

In a spectral analyzer such as Voce Vista, an increase in energy can be seen in some singers in the higher formants F_3, F_4, F₅.

The higher formants can be close together (clustered) or spread. Styles like pop, jazz, and musical theater will show a spreading out of these higher formants F_3, F_4, F_5.  This is the mix quality of pop, musical theatre, and other contemporary styles.

Opera, legit musical theater and choral singing show clustering of formants F_3, F_4, F₅. When they cluster, the upper formants only boost selected harmonics, producing the “legit” quality of the classical voice.

In classical singing, F₃, F₄, and F₅ tend to cluster around 2400- 3200 Hz; this increase in energy occurs due to a narrowed epilarynx.

These higher formants, boosting nearby harmonics, give some singers a ringing quality that allows them to be heard over loud accompaniments. In classical singing, this is called the...

Notice in the image below the difference between the two cavities or containers of air (the pharynx and mouth) as the tongue forms the [i] vowel and the [ɑ] vowel. With [i] the constriction or hump of the tongue is very high; there is very little space in front of the tongue (mouth resonator) and a great deal more space behind the constriction of the tongue (pharynx resonator).

With the [ɑ] vowel the tongue is flat, so there is more of the mouth resonator activated.

The frequency or pitch of the vibrating air changes whenever there are changes in a container’s size, shape, wall density, or opening. This means we can affect formants, and thereby affect vocal tone or timbre.

Ways we can change the size, shape, wall density, or opening of the resonator include:

• Dropping the jaw.
• Spreading the lips wider. OR, pushing the lips forward, like a kiss.
• Tensing and squeezing the pharyngeal...

Resonance, in voice science, occurs in the vocal tract and refers to the relationships between harmonics and an elusive concept called formants.

What are formants?

There are many varied definitions of formants in singing. My favorite one is simply a formant is the pitch of the vibrating air in a container. (voicescienceworks.org)

The “containers” in singing are the mouth and pharynx in the singer’s vocal tract. Our containers or resonators (the mouth and pharynx) have preferred resonance frequencies based on their size, shape, density, and opening. These preferred frequencies are known as formants.

Here are some other definitions of formants:

A formant is a peak in the sound spectrum.

Or: A formant is a resonance of the vocal tract and is a physical property of the vocal tract.

Or: Formants are the range of frequencies in which sound is maximized.

Or: Formants are the range of frequencies the resonator spaces of the pharynx and mouth can most effectively...

HOW PHONATION OCCURS

• The abdominal muscles and respiratory system increase breath pressure in the lungs.
• Airflow rises through the trachea to the vocal folds.
• Vocal fold vibration is initiated in response to airflow. The folds open and close rapidly, first resisting the air, causing air pressure to increase below the folds, then bursting open, then closing again, from the bottom of the folds upwards. This is called aerodynamic myo-elastic oscillation.
• Aerodynamic energy is converted to acoustic energy or partials. Partials that are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency are called harmonics.
• Certain harmonics can be boosted or amplified by their proximity to a formant, a pocket of air in the vocal tract that vibrates at different pitches or frequencies depending on the size and shape of the container (mouth or pharynx).

Resonance in singing is basically how formants and harmonics interact in the vocal tract.

There are two cavities in the vocal tract that function as...

The vocal tract is the resonator or filter of our three-part system (phonation, respiration, resonation).

The vocal tract is comprised of the pharynx and mouth. The nasal cavities are also part of the vocal tract but do not play a large role in resonation. Sensations felt in the nasal cavities and “mask” are a result of sympathetic vibration.

Our vocal tract is a soft-walled tube, open at the mouth and closed at the larynx. It’s called a quarter-wave resonator (the primary resonance or standing wave frequency is four times as long as the vocal tract). This tube can form many different shapes as we move the lips, tongue, jaw and soft palate.

THE SOURCE FILTER CONCEPT

Phonation can be viewed as a source-filter system. The energy or power source is the lungs providing air pressure, controlled by the muscles of respiration (appoggio). The sound source/oscillator/vibrator is the vibrating vocal folds. The filter/resonator is the vocal tract that selectively boosts...