Most people think of their voice as ghettoized into 2 different ‘registers’. You may’ve heard them described as ‘head voice’ when singing high and ‘chest voice’ when singing low..
I like to think of my voice as one voice; united in register and in tone.
On a good day, I have a three octave range from C below middle C to a high C and want to be able to use any note in that range with whatever tone quality and dynamic I choose. The good news is, I can.
If there are breaks or cracks in your voice, they’ll usually occur in the same place each time (anything from a Bb to a D above middle C for the female voice). These notes are called in Italian the ‘passagio’ and you will experience a break IF, and only if, you push your voice.
Some work usually needs to be done to ‘blend the registers’. This also helps transitioning into falsetto for a male voice (Jeff Buckley is a particularly good example of a blended voice!). NB: Yodelling is the shift from chest to head and back. You can still yodel after blending the registers.
You can unite the registers by using a ‘ng’ before the note/phrase to place the entire range IN YOUR HEAD.
Because you sing from the head, it doesn’t make the voice sound ‘classical’, ‘breathy’, ‘weak’ or any other qualities associated with singing in ‘head voice’. Rather, I like to re-conceptualize the voice as either being ‘throat-based’ -susceptible to breaks, gear shifts, resonance discrepancies and split in half (different voice qualities below and above the break) OR ‘head-based’ – and united.
Visualizing the voice as being on a horizontal plane stretching out in front of you helps alleviate associated ‘tensions’ we have when thinking of the voice as getting higher on a vertical axis.
Try not to worship the false Gods of ‘volume’ and/or ‘singing high’ merely for the sake of it. Neither is difficult to achieve using twang and open-ness as well as forward placement. We’re simply socialized into believing that singing high and singing loud necessitate struggle and push. Quite the opposite. We can achieve everything we want with gentleness and open-ness. Don’t sweat the technique!
Where we put the sound is fundamental – “location, location, location!†If we start the phrase in the head by using a simultaneous or ‘good’ onset, then it pretty much sings itself.
However, if we start the sound in the throat – all hell breaks loose!
Two ‘bad’ or throat-based ways of starting the note are either ‘breathy’ (wherein you hear an ‘h’ before the sound – ‘hah’ instead of ‘ah’ or ‘glottal’ – a tight-throated harsh sound much like the Cockney glottal stop that is a substitute for ‘t’ – “you know wha’ I mean?†and “wor’ah†instead of ‘water’ (you’ll feel and hear a little pop or click at the beginning of the glottal onset).
Both of these throat-based onsets won’t make the bridge of the nose buzz as the head based ‘good’ /simultaneous onset does.
It’s called simultaneous because the tiny amount of air required to make sound gently strokes the vocal cords as they come together to vibrate, simultaneously. It sounds clean, gradual, precise, it lands on-top of the note from above, it can be felt vibrating in the septum and has a ‘deaf’ sound to it. (Note: If you are deaf, the indicator that you are making sound will be to feel it buzzing in the head rather than hearing its volume. Why would you injure your throat to make sound when there is no reward of hearing the consequent loudness? This is why deaf applause is a waggling of the fingers in the air rather than clapping, which just gives you sore palms!)
Practicing a siren sound from your lowest to highest note and back down will exacerbate the ‘breaks’ on the voice if preceded by a throat-based onset. If we start the siren in our head with the ‘ng’, breaks will disappear (like doing the ironing to remove creases in a garment!)
The ‘ng’ is used as a focus point for the sound – in the forehead, the 3rd eye point.
Use voiced ‘ng’s as guides: feeling the nose buzz like training wheels are used to find balance when learning to ride a bike. Sing ‘nga nga‘, then sing through the location and configuration of the ng without voicing it ‘(ng)ah (ng)ah’.
Because we never push the voice, the twang quality that projects the voice enables us to ‘belt’ without experiencing breaks. Reducing air and volume when singing over/through the breaking points and singing through a ‘hum’ also help.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
Good technique simply gives you useful options and is simple to understand and apply (in fact, you don’t even need to understand it to apply it!!)
Experiment with placing the sound in the resonating cavities and bony parts of your body to brighten or darken the colour of your tone. For example, notice how snotty and weak it sounds if you put the sound in your nose, but how bright it gets when focusing the sound in exposed top teeth. Try directing the sound into: chest, tummy, mouth, hard palate, cheeks, back of the mouth, 2 inches in front of your eyes….what the? Have fun with the sound and note how you are achieving the changes.
Essentially, we need to place the sound as far forward as we can (‘hongi’ or head butt it gently. Pretend your poking the tongue out of the forehead and pulling it forward!)