Singing Voice Training with David Delaney

by David Delaney, MA, CAR, LPC

david@singingvoicetraining.com

When we talk about singing, we are really talking about ‘talk-singing’, since speech is the basis of all singing, whether operatic singing, pop, Broadway, rap, or whatever style; it is all the same exact physiological process. Many people have been taught, and thus believe, that it is the vocal chords (vocal folds) that are the key to sound production, but this is not accurate. Sound production begins with natural speaking.  The vocal folds produce a primitive vibration which is not speech, but which is picked up at the mouth and teeth, and turned into speech, and eventually singing.

So what is the circuit which allows someone to produce a strong,  pleasing, and resonant voice?  Nature has set this up for us; there is a circuit that is produced by a combination of mouth, teeth (the most vibratory bone in the human body), head sinuses and cavities, bone and fluid, (which is a wonderful conductor of sound), and eventually the entire body has vibratory qualities.  But relaxation is the necessary state that we need to be in, in order to produce this, and many singers have too much tension and poor posture to experience it.  Whisper to someone and tell me if your vocal chords need to be involved in order to be heard.  They do not!

Many singers, though pleasant in sound, never go to this next higher level of voice production, which often demands a mentor who can demonstrate it and then lead you into it.  Few individuals just do it naturally, though I have met a few.  Most singers are stuck in their throat, some more than others.  But still, many do not understand that the throat has nothing to do with speech production nor is our voice centered in the throat.  When you sing the way that I was taught and now teach, vocal chords are not participating consciously; the ear and instincts control their function completely without our ever having to actively involve them in what we are doing.   They remain completely relaxed at all times.

Here is an example of how to ‘understand’ what I am pointing to.  When you say the word ’sing’, notice that if you sustain the ‘ng’, the area of the mouth and behind the cosmetic nose vibrates.  What is happening is that the ‘ng’ is formed by a continuous stream of air being transmitted into the post nasal holes (just above the ‘pharynx’ in the picture below) and up into your nasal cavity.  Notice also that in order to sustain that ‘ng’ longer than just a few seconds, you have to lengthen your abdominal muscles and chest and this is the support needed to sustain that vibratory event.  This approach uses body length as Nature designed it, not body compression to produce sound.

See the picture below to realize that the space in your nasal cavity is much larger than the space in your mouth- when you are relaxed.  Many singing approaches ask you to unnaturally open you mouth, drop you jaw, open your throat, compress your chest; but when you speak you do not have to do this and everyone understands you just fine and your voice carries- unless you are carrying tension in your body.

No-one ever needs to over-articulate in order to be understood. Nature is very efficient and would never have us overwork, as the relaxation state is the most natural state for us to accomplish anything in our life; here we are speaking scientifically.  And singing is no different.  But what is different in this approach is that we learn what the vocal instrument is through anatomy, and then learn to free the body in order to allow our voice to do what is is designed to do; communicate naturally, efficiently, and with our own unique, resonant sound.