How to Sing - Posture and Breathing The following pages are about producing a good vocal tone.

They are intended to help the community choir member

whose formal education may not have included advanced

voice training.

1. Posture

There is a good reason to start with posture. It is the foundation on

which all other techniques stand.

You have heard of "good" posture, but what does that mean to a

singer? Certainly it is not the ram-rod straight posture one

associates with a military inspection. Nor is it any stiff and formal pose. Good posture for a singer is instead:

Spine straight and centered for balance but not stiff.

Ribs raised as if at the peak of a normal breath. Shoulders squared but relaxed (not rounded).

Head up as though looking in the distance. Note: the chin should be

at a normal angle to the neck, neither stretched up nor tucked

down, to allow the vocal chords maximum flexibility.

Feet slightly apart. Knees slightly bent.

2. Breathing

Once your posture is correct you can learn to breathe properly. "What," I can hear some of you say, "is he talking about? Breathing

is a natural thing. I know how to breathe."

Let me explain: if you have ever observed a baby asleep, you may have noticed that the stomach goes in and out while the infant is

breathing. Think about this for a moment. Take a deep breath. Did

your shoulders rise? Your chests expand? If they did then you have

a lot to un-learn in order to give your voice a properly supporting air

column.

Go back to the baby again. Now, assume good posture as discussed

above - spine straight, ribs slightly lifted, shoulders squared but

relaxed - and then expand only your stomach. Did that feel a bit

awkward? Try to do it without moving your shoulders or ribs. You'll

find a natural limit to the expansion you can get before things start

to move. That is all the breath you need to sing.

Now the next part is easy -maybe. Breathe out. Keep your ribs and

shoulders in position (but not tight) and push in until there is no air

left. Again moving only your abdomen breathe in. Push it all out again. If you can learn to do this repeatedly with little or no

movement in the shoulders you are well begun. All good choral

singing begins with these two steps.

On the next page we will begin to discuss tone production. What

makes a good singing tone? This page will discuss this issue, as well as taking a look at some techniques for reducing the risk of injury.

How to Sing - Tone Production These pages are about producing a good vocal tone. They are intended to help the community choir member whose formal

education may not have included advanced voice training.

What makes a good tone?

Generally, in Western culture a good vocal tone is considered to be

one which is full, clear, and audible.

A good vocal tone should not be stident, shrill, scratchy, or breathy. It should also not sound "forced" or "strained," but instead should

sound as if it flows effortlessly from the singer.

Within that definition is still a great deal of room for individual vocal timbre (pronounced TAM-bur), or characteristic sound, and for

stylistic interpretation as called for by the music being performed. A

singer trained to the Opera would use a different quality of voice

than a member of a vocal Jazz group, yet both must produce a

"good" tone or face the unemployment line. What is considered appropriate for early music in the style of Palestrina would be

entirely inappropriate for a major work with a symphony orchestra,

such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

How, then, is a singer to produce a good tone appropriate to the

variety of musical styles typically encountered in a community choir?

It all begins with the basics.

3. Producing the Tone: Placement

Beginning with good posture and breath support, the singer must also relax the jaw, so the air passage is not restricted in any way. The

tongue should be relaxed and behind the lower teeth, and the throat

slightly open - as though on the verge of a yawn. Be careful not to

force the tongue down or exaggerate the yawning sensation, as

these produce tension on the larynx and can make the voice sound "swallowed" and artificial.

Take a comfortable breath - not too large, but sufficient to support a

sustained pitch. With the jaw relaxed and the throat open begin to sing with an "ahh" sound. Experiment with this sound, opening the

throat more, then less, while singing at a comfortable volume.

Notice the difference in your sound when you force the throat to

open too far. Also hear how pinched it becomes if you don't open it

far enough. Find the range of positions that are most comfortable for your throat. That is what you want to feel when you are singing.

4. Putting It All Together:

Now you can put all these elements together: posture, breathing, and placement. You are ready to begin singing. You now have the

foundation of good tone, so it is time to practice what you have

learned. Try putting these elements together with some simple

songs, ones which are familiar to you so you don't have to

concentrate on the words or notes, but can instead think about maintaining this comfortable feeling as you sing. Try singing them

first in the middle of your vocal range. Then move up a few keys

into a higher part of the voice. If it is too high, don't push. Instead,

concentrate on your breath support, and you will find yourself able

to sing higher with less strain.

One word of caution here: Learn to recognize when your voice

is becoming fatigued. Much damage is done to the vocal chords of

amateur singers when they are tired, as they often try to compensate for the fatigue by resorting to poor vocal technique.

Always go back to the basics of posture, breathing, and placement.

This will do much to reduce the risk of vocal injury, allowing for

years of singing enjoyment.

5. Odds and Ends

Some miscellaneous tips for the amateur singer:

Listen carefully at all times. Learn to hear the other parts as you sing, and work on tuning with

them.

Listen to the vowel sounds. Try to match the vowel sounds of the

rest of the choir. When everyone is singing exactly the same vowel the perceived volume of the choir will be amplified, as the sound will

be in better focus.

Take a foreign language. Concentrate on the sounds of the

language. Your singing will be improved by your broader knowledge.

Listen to other choirs. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area with several choirs, be sure to attend some concerts. Listen for what

works and what doesn't. If you don't have access to other local

choirs, look for a variety of choral music recordings at your local

record store. If they don't have a good selection of classical music

then join one of the record clubs and build your library. Try something new. Even if you don't like it, you will have learned

something.

Enjoy yourself. Relax and have fun. Remember, you sing because

you like to sing. Sometimes the stress of rehearsing and performing

can tend to make you forget that. Get back the enjoyment.

Blending the choir - part 1 Many people who listen to our choir comment on how each section

sounds like one voice. This is not by accident, or good luck, but is a

tribute to the work our director puts in on fine-tuning the choir.

It takes a well-trained ear to match voices so they reinforce the

sound he is after, and it is not something I could possibly hope to

teach in a text article online. I can, however, offer some tips that

will make your director's job easier.

First and foremost is intonation. If you can't sing in tune you will

never achieve the blend that's necessary for a top-notch choral

sound. There are some excellent ear-training resources available. Check out your local college bookstore for the kinds of material

being used by the school to train music students. But the most

important part of intonation is active listening.

Active listening involves learning to hear your own voice when you

sing, and recognizing the difference between what you hear in your

head and what others hear. A tape-recorder is an excellent tool for

discovering what your voice sounds like to others.

Once you can pick your own voice out, listen to the sound of your

section. Are you producing notes that match exactly the pitch of

your section? You should not hear any 'beats' or waves of sound.

Those indicate a difference in the pitch.

Another, often neglected, component of singing in tune and blending

the sound is vowel alignment. By that I mean singing exactly the

same vowel sound that everyone else in the choir is singing when you sing the same text. It is easy to hear the effect of different

vowel sounds if you sing vastly different vowels, for example some

people singing an EEEE sound while others sing an OOOO on the

same pitch. That's because the shape of the vowel alters the

overtones of the pitch, and affect the intonation. What is not so obvious is that the SAME problem with intonation exists when you

have two different versions of AH going on at the same time.

This is just the beginning of the problems a choir faces with blending. Next article I'll discuss some of the common solutions, and

which ones are better than others.