The Perfect Attack or The Coup de Glotte

Perhaps the most important component of the whole singing act is the start of the vibration of the vocal folds. The vibration of the vocal folds (or cords or bands or lips) is the source or the sound we produce. It causes disruptions in the air pressure inside the pharynx which sets the air inside sympathetically vibrating to the vibration of the tissue. This sympathetic air vibration is resonance which radiates out from the larynx eventually striking the ear drum of a listener.
Because the vocal cord vibration is where the vocal tone is started we can see that if it is not coordinated well we will not be able to get the result of a good tone. Now the question comes, how do we do it? Most singers and teachers believe that the vocal folds are not able to be directly controlled. This is completely false. The result of this mistaken belief is wide-spread poor coordination. The way to learn this is a process of developing sensitivity which allows us to coordinate the vocal cord action so it doesn't happen with tightness or weight. It must be flexible.
I describe it with the help of my hands. We do not want to attack the voice like clapping the hands. This is like whacking the voice and is abusive. We hear this with young singers who are very uncoordinated. The cause of this is not the contact with the vocal cords but is more a lack of breath control. They are tightening the cords and pushing breath pressure against them starting the sound with a violent explosion. We need the cords to close, just not tightly and not with a build up of breath behind them. They should close, or better lay together, because we suspend the breath. Lamperti described this well by saying hold the breath not the voice. Many say not to hold the breath, which is true if you mean with the throat. But the breath must be held with the body in order to get a coordinated start. This is done by keeping the rib cage suspended open and resisting the temptation to collapse all the time. If this is done the body automatically compresses the breath in an upward direction with the abdomen.
The technique of sensitizing the vocal cords is helped by a simple exercise of a very light, or whispered, cough. This gives us a feel of where the vocal cords are and where we need to start. It is important not to be aggressive with this and use any breath pressure. It sounds like just a click and is almost inaudible. So it can be done anywhere to remind your sensations. Going back to using the hands to illustrate this it is like tapping the thumb and index fingertip together. Compared to the clapping of the violent version of a full cough this is much more gentle. The final step is to continue the action like a bow stroking a violin string. We suspend the breath with an open rib cage so the glottis closes with the vocal cords laying together. Then instead of tapping like the previous exercise we think of rubbing or rolling the edges of the folds together. Like rubbing your thumb and finger tip together without pressing them. We want to keep the contact, or connection, but not with too much pressure so we crush the vibration. We also don't want to go the other direction and relax the connection and let unvocalized breath escape. We then keep that feeling going for the duration of the sung phrase.

Rolando Villazon at the Met

I caught the Associated Press review in the local paper of Rolando Villazon's return to the Met. I am sorry to say I am not surprised about his difficulties. I have only heard him on video and recordings but I have always thought he over-sang. The way he thrusts his jaw down to the maximum is the first clue. He has no lift in the facial muscles either. Jussi Bjorling is a wonderful example of the use of this and the benefits. Villazon's technical choices require a great deal of energy to fulfill, which usually turns into effort. It gives quite a tone but requires way too much exertion. Not what you would call efficient, again see Jussi for example. The tone is impressive because the vocal folds are vibrating in a thick condition with an enlarged glottis, which requires more breath flow to sustain. Essentially he is forcing his voice to behave as if it is a bigger organ. The problem is this practice goes against the nature of his instrument. It lacks the protection of a well-formed resonator. The amplification from a good resonating form reduces the burden on the voice mechanism so the vocal folds can vibrate in a thinner more efficient condition. Whenever I heard him sing I couldn't believe he could do what he was doing. The voice was going to fail, it was just a matter of time. No matter how much rest he gets it won't fix the problem. He is using too much of his vocal potential when he sings and the instrument can't withstand it.
The lighter voices may have a better chance to avoid these problems because they are less tempted to make an "impressive" sound. But I am not real high on either Florez or Brownlee either. At least functionally. Florez is good at what he does. But when you can hear breath in the tone you know there is an imbalance. And you just have to hear Florez talk to hear he is wearing down his voice. Brownlee you can hear the breath when he sings. That is not a good thing for the long-term health of a voice. When the voice fails, as it must eventually, it is often blamed on illness. But if the functioning is good illness should rarely keep a singer from being able to sing except for a day or two, if even that.
This topic is a real sore spot for me as a voice teacher/consultant. Because everyone is talking/teaching the "breath-flow" concept, which is the main reason we don't have singers like the "old days". I have even heard voice teachers criticize Jussi's breathing because it is not what they have been taught is "correct". Well they didn't do things that way back when singers really knew how to sing.

Observations from the Regional Met Auditions

I attended the local regional round of the Met Opera National Council auditions on Saturday. My first observation was there was only one District winner from Minnesota. That is rare. Usually there are several from the Minnesota district because of the Twin Cities metropolitan area and the Minnesota Opera Resident program. The level of singing was good, but not what I would pay to hear in the opera house. Only a couple voices were solid enough to be ready for real singing in the theater. It was no surprise that they were the two winners that will go to New York for the National Semi-Finals. I doubt that either of them will be one of the winners. I left feeling a little disappointed by the state of singing. I'm sure it doesn't help that the age limits are lower so only 20 somethings are competing. But the whole attitude toward how to use the voice has shifted to a weaker production that just does not communicate the thrill and excitement, not to mention beauty, that the voice is capable of that we hear in older singers. Granted, there were plenty of older singers that sang the way they do now. But they were not the great singers that people still talk about. They were the second or third tier singers. The major difference is in the efficiency of the phonation. The skill of managing the action of the glottis has been lost. Now we hear people talk of managing the breath, but that still ignores the action of the glottis. The old school training lead the vocal gesture with the larynx. Now singers are trained to lead with the breath. This makes the larynx have to deal with too much breath and causes deterioration in the strength of the vocal folds. It also saps the voice of intensity, which has to be compensated for by loudness. The difference is important and I will discuss it in a future post.

Hiatus is over

It has been nearly a year since I posted on my blog. I am ending my hiatus and plan on getting back to regular posts. We had our first child in June, a daughter, and that has taken me away from doing much work. We now have regular child care so I can get back to work. Hope you will get a lot out of what I have to offer. Thanks.