OK, this one is going to be a little different.
DISCLAIMER:
What is about to follow builds on concepts of bridging, registration, and the tendencies that different singers have. If these terms are unfamiliar to you, or if you’ve not read the various articles on my site on bridges and the various vocal tendencies, please do have a search for these before continuing.
With that disclaimer done, let’s dive in.
The trouble with just EXCLUSIVELY registrating a voice…
One of the most amazing things about the technique we use in sessions is that it respects the idea of bridges or passageways in the voice. These passages connect different register in the voice (chest to head, super head, whistle register, etc). When a voice is able to navigate these without strain or loss of connection, we can say that this voice is “registrated” or is registrating well. The voice (and singer) is able to transition through each of these registers unimpinged by strain or by letting go into a lighter inconsistent sound.
The trouble with this approach is that many singers think that just the ability to move smoothly through the registers of their voices automatically makes them great singers. And I would have definitely been one of them in the past. BUT! The act of smooth registration is only a fraction of the battle… it starts the journey, and will always remain critical, but the rest of the journey involves the incredibly fine balance of contraction and release.
Here’s a way to break it down.
Contraction
To sing high notes the vocal cords need to stretch and thin. To sing low notes they need to contract and thicken. There is therefore a level of contraction in the cords that contributes towards the perceived tone generated by them. We need this contraction.
With the pull/high layrnx tendency, there is an overactivity in muscular contraction. Sometimes extrinsic (outside the vocal cords, e.g. surrounding muscular) but often within the larynx (e.g. the vocal cords and operational musculature themselves). Contraction is necessary, but too much causes stress and strain, and is bad.
With the light/no chest tendency, there is an an underactivity in muscular contraction. Excess contraction isn’t good, but neither is an underactive level of contraction. Too much is bad, too little is bad too.
With the flip/falsetto tendency, there is an inconsistency in muscular contraction. As before, excess is bad, too little is bad, and an inconsistent amount isn’t helpful either. Too much is bad, too little is bad, aaaaand inconsistent amounts are bad as well.
So we need the right amount of contraction in the cords?
Yes… but it’s a little bit more complex than even that.
Release
Release is the idea of a voice being free to access different registers. E.g. rather than reaching a Bb through the second bridge but holding onto a little bit too much of the passage before, the singer reaches it with no strain and no holding onto what went before. This CAN sound overly heady (in this example) but the sound is clearly heard to be free of strain and manipulation. This is good, for establishing initial ease of registration.
This idea of release is key for accessing upper registers and blending the voice. It’s a key component in registration… initially, and at every stage of development. We should ALWAYS be releasing into the next register of our voice, not pulling or straining. Release, like contraction, is necessary.
In the pull/high layrnx tendency, there is an insufficient amount of release. This is evident from our description above. Too little is obviously bad.
In the light/no chest tendency, there is too much release, hitting head voice too early (though slightly different due to the nature of underactive contraction – but this is helpful for our point). Too little release is bad, too much release isn’t great either.
In the flip/falsetto tendency, there is an inconsistent level of release. There may be no strain during the flip, but it is a sign of lack of co-ordination. Too little release is bad, too much release is bad, aaaaand an inconsistent amount is also bad.
So we need JUST the right of each… what IS that right amount?
To answer that, we need to revisit something we’ve talked about before.
Comparison with chest voice
In my post about singing starting and ending with chest voice, everyone (no matter how trained they are in singing) is comparing the sound of your voice up high (or anywhere else) to the sound of your natural speaking voice. That’s just the reality of it. Ergo, when they hear you singing high, they want to hear something congruent with chest voice.
But we can’t make it sound exactly like chest voice, because we need release into the upper registers… to do otherwise would just be straining and have insufficient release.
But we also can’t just completely release, because that would just be incredibly heady and incongruent with chest voice… to do so would be too light and have insufficent contraction.
Do you see?
We need BOTH. In a measure that balances one against the other. More than just merely “balanced” enough to registrate, or even just to feel like we can hit all the notes, we are talking about finding out how MUCH contraction the chest register on its own can deliver (forte, loud singing), and then making sure we can accompany a congruent amount of contraction in the upper registers… WITH the necessary amount of release to complement that level of contraction.
We need to know we can achieve that level of contraction everywhere in the voice, but once we are in the upper registers, a greater amount of release is progressively required to enable those notes to be sung well. Both parts must be there in appropriate (but not necessarily equal) measure. It’s not a one-size-fits-all balance, it’s unique to each voice.
NOTE: Not that we should always be singing super-loud, but it’s this multi-dimensional approach to bridging and registrating the voice that is needed to REEEEALLY build a voice.
In short…
…bridging is only half the battle. Bridging AT volume is the next part. This requires appropriate parts contraction AND release for any given voice, in order to give the voice access to all of it’s registers in a congruent way that the singer can also engage with.
Wipe the sweat off your brow!
I KNOW this is heavy stuff folks, but it’s something that once you “get”, you’ll be amazed you didn’t think like this before.