Singing Voice Training with David Delaney

The Physiology  and Anatomy of the Human Vocal System

The natural voice is produced by the LENGTHENING of the spine, torso, and rib cage, not its compression.   There is a known science to vocal production that has been lost in many vocal approaches.  The voice is produced in the mouth and teeth, not in the throat.  Vocal folds (vocal chords) produce a primitive vibration that is transformed into speech in the mouth and teeth.  But any tension whatsoever in the throat will cause vocal problems.  Flexible, adaptable, and relaxed lengthening is the hallmark of resonant vocal production.

The voice is made up of one continuous voice without any so called ‘break’ whatsoever. The full extension of the natural range of the voice is produced only by using the minimum tension of the vocal chords and the minimum breath required for each tone.  This establishes a correct mechanism of voice production.

There are no registers in the singing voice, when it is correctly produced.  According to natural laws the voice is made up of only one register which constitutes its entire range.

The psoas (pronounced “so-as”) is the central core muscles.  It spans between the upper legs, attaches to the pelvis, continues attaching to all the lumbar vertebrae and finally is continuous with the connective tissue of the respiratory diaphragm.  This enormous muscle structure is the key to all power in the human voice.  Most of us have tremendous tension in the waist area and vocal training demands the ability to release this area so that it can lengthen to its capacity. over and over again.

Our respiratory diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle structure which is also a key vocal power muscle as it is central to the pumping action that produces the continuous ‘column of air’ that powers the vibration that we turn into speech in the mouth/head area.  Significant numbers of individuals have tension in this area (our heart region) and this inhabits our ability to have flexibility that is needed to produce a resonant and relaxed singing voice.

The muscles of respiration that control rib movement, and thus inspiration and expiration, also known as the intrinsic or survival muscles, are another key to proper functioning of our vocal instrument. Most people carry tremendous tension in these muscles and this prevents the flexibility necessary for producing a natural voice.  Any diminishing of the upper rib angles significantly inhibit resonance and vocal freedom.

When there is tension in this area, there is also a loss of resonance of the voice and there is an interplay between all diaphragms (cranial, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic cavities).

So singing voice development and speech are exactly the same physiological mechanism.  But many people do something physiologically different when singing than when speaking.  Learning to sing is rooted in speech placement along with body flexibility and natural, relaxed acoustics.  In singing, we are really speaking in musical rhythm.  In singing, we sustain a vibration on a vowel and this event is a sonic, acoustical event rather than a forced, friction event.

Tension is the destroyer of the natural voice; but we can learn to transform this tension into a resonant, relaxed, non-forced singing and speaking voice.

If you look at the relationship between the teeth (the most vibratory bones in the human body) and the nasal cavity and sinuses in the head, it is clear that vocal resonance is not produced in the throat but in the face mask and upper cranium including the brain which is filled with liquid.  Once you learn to GENTLY set off the cranial cavity and sinuses which make up a unitary ‘circuit’, which takes no force, you recognize that our voice is like the Hawaiian conch being set off with controlled air; neither too much nor too little.

Based on direct experience…

My work with singers from 1984 until now, most of that in New York City and Washington, D.C., taught me all this.  This approach was developed by myself in collaboration with Margaret Riddleberger in that period of time; she was the first voice teacher I ever met who had this approach.

My own voice training (speech and singing) and performing for audiences has allowed me to test out all that my clients were teaching me through their body inflexibility and all that Margaret trained me in. Anyone can learn to free their body to free their voice.  But it does take a certain passion and commitment to  work through psychological blocks that are represented as body tension since tension and fear are one and the same.

But our work will not be pschotherapy; it will be singing training with occassional therapeutic outcomes.

Posture has so much to do with a resonant and well placed singing and speaking voice.  If you look at these scalene muscles of the neck, you can see that they span between the cervical vertebrae in the neck and the upper few ribs.  If the upper ribs are not lifted, their rib angles are diminished and actually effect the vocal apparatus negatively by placing pressure on it.

Relaxation is the hallmark of any resonance; tension diminishes resonance.   Period!