False Vocal Folds

There’s a bit of a debate regarding the use of the false folds when growling. The question is: Should a singer engage the false folds in order to growl? Unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer to this question because no two singers get their sound exactly the same way. Genetics, physical condition, personality and desire all play equal roles when it comes to calling up a roar. The technique used is more to survive the growl then to create it. Even under the best circumstances growling, rasp and screaming are somewhat irritating to the tissues within the larynx. So the best rule is to use the minimum amount of force to get your sound.

The false folds, also know as the vestibule folds, are above the true folds (the ones you sing with) and are much thicker. Their role in the body is to close off the windpipe in order to create pressure within the torso. They are what allow us leverage, by locking the air in the lungs, when lifting a heavy weight. Because of their strength, it would seem a good idea to utilize them when growling. The problem is that they rarely act alone. So when most singers think they’re using their false folds they’re also locking up the tongue, jaw and palate. All those rigid muscles make it difficult to maintain and control your sound.

Instead of targeting which muscles you’ll use to growl, stay focused on the sound you want. Just think of your eye. There are tiny muscles within the eye that stretch the lens so we can see at various distances. If you have trouble focusing on something, the muscles which surround the eye will join in and start squishing the shape of the eye until your target clears up. You certainly don’t need to think about using the orbicularis oculi instead of the ciliary muscle in order to see what you want. The same goes for calling up the growl from hell. You just don’t believe that right now.

What you’re missing is a foundation of strength and flexibility. Voice lessons from a qualified teacher can help you build a foundation you can lean on. Check on your growl often by asking for the sound you want while keeping as many muscles as you can turned off. Let the lyrics dictate what gets pushed – not the inability to reach a pitch. The less you spend for your growl the more you’ll be able to access a killer growl without it killing your voice. And that, my friends, will be the difference between a great series of gigs and a cancelled tour. Rock on!

Don’t Ignore This Vocal Skill

 

Build More Skill When Singing in Your Car

Best Exercise for a Low Larynx

Volume Control

Don’t you wish your voice had a volume control? Imagine if you could just twist a knob on the side of your neck and blow everybody away! I’m dreaming, I know. I just think it’s a crime that the vocal is the focus of every song but the least audible element when bands rehearse. Since the voice is an acoustic instrument, you would think everyone would adjust their levels accordingly. I guess I’m still dreaming. The reality is that singers are routinely overwhelmed by thick guitars, booming basses and smashing drums. Shouting is not the answer, unless that fits your music. In most cases, shouting is counter productive to singing loud. Driving your vocal folds with more pressure than they can handle forces them to split apart and allows air to escape. The throat then braces in response to the leak, narrowing the area around your larynx. The extra muscle activity is successful in absorbing the load but also absorbs lots of overtones in the process. The sound produced from all this effort is distorted and thin, rather than loud and rich. You also wind up with a pair of very swollen vocal folds.

Volume, or amplitude, is measured by the height of a sound wave. The taller the wave, the more sound pressure it delivers. To make your voice loud, muscles inside your vocal folds contract to make them thicker. Like strumming a guitar with heavy gauge strings, the thicker folds require more force to vibrate but produce a much larger sound wave as a result. However, just as heavy strings require greater finger strength; thick folds are less flexible and require more internal strength to control. This is usually where we screw things up and cross the line into shouting. Since we cannot feel the muscles inside the vocal folds, we tend to turn on neck, jaw, tongue and facial muscles instead. This external blockade is what misguides us into overloading the larynx with too much pressure.

To discover what your folds can handle, deny the outside involvement. Open your mouth and sing any pitch. Gradually increase the volume without letting any visible muscles join in. Don’t let your jaw lock, your tongue roll back or your eyes bug out. Don’t be discouraged if this test reveals a weak result. The muscles within the folds are like any other in the body; they can be exercised to handle more load. If you repeat this crescendo exercise daily, you will learn to address the vocal folds with a proportionate amount of pressure. Stick with it and you will be amazed at how relaxed you can be when singing loud. Unfortunately, singing songs isn’t the best way to develop this. When we gig, we focus on our performance rather than form; there are usually a lot of tricks incorporated to get us through a set. The advantage of vocalizing is that we can isolate a target area. We want to stimulate the folds by asking for a little more volume each day, rather than irritate them with the instant demands of competing with the band. There’s no denying that your muscles will get stronger if you hit the road for a while, it’s just often the wrong muscles.

Volume is also a perceived quality. The energy of a high frequency excites the ear more than the slow lumbering wave of a low note, and so high notes are perceived as louder. That’s why it takes less power to drive the horns on a sound system versus the bass bins. For singers, this means promoting higher overtones will make your voice seem louder without working any harder. I’m not suggesting you rewrite your songs to include more high pitches; it’s just another reason not to shout. If unburdened, the throat can contribute a series of overtones, adding brightness which projects the voice. The highest overtone, which occurs between 2,500 and 3,200 Hertz, is what allows an opera singer to be heard above an orchestra without a microphone. To a non-classical singer, the added overtones allow your voice to cut through the mix when singing at a moderate volume, so no one has to turn down. The combination of stronger folds inside a relaxed throat cavity is the best situation of all. It will allow you to choose a dynamic based on the lyric rather than which notes are hard to sing. Shouting every note of a song will numb your audience, like a mother who always screams at her kids. Singers who are able to vary their dynamics and reserve the aggressive stuff for appropriate moments keep the audience engaged. So relax your throat and develop your instrument to handle the load of singing loud without stress, and save the shouting for the band meeting!

All Purpose Singing Exercise

Singing Through Allergies

Loud Vocal Warm Up & Workout

Build A Better Instrument

If You Want a Better Voice . . . Build a Better Instrument

Imagine walking into your first guitar lesson and the teacher hands you a piece of wood and some strings. He shows you a picture of a guitar and says, “Before we can begin, you’ll need to make yourself one of these.” Anxiety would surely follow. What if you made a lousy guitar? Obviously, that would have a negative effect on your ability to play. Unless you were already a skilled woodworker, your hopes of becoming the next guitar hero would be dashed. This scenario is not so far fetched when you think about the voice. Before you can learn to sing, you have to build an instrument.

All instruments have the same components. There must be something that makes a sound, called a vibrator, and an area around the vibrator which colors the sound, known as the resonator. The size, shape and texture of these components are what determine the characteristics of an instrument. There are universal properties governing sound, so consistent we call them laws, which every instrument-builder strives to embrace. Singers should have the same agenda. It’s actually very simple; you’ll sound better if you obey the laws of sound.

The strings on a guitar, the reed on a saxophone and the head on a drum are all examples of vibrators. Your vocal folds are the vibrators of the voice. They are thin membranes, right in the middle of your throat, which extend over the top of your windpipe. The best way to understand how the vocal folds work is to inflate a balloon and then stretch the neck to create a tiny slit at the opening. As air escapes, a high-pitched sound is produced. You can’t see it with the naked eye, but the walls inside the opening of the balloon are moving very rapidly.

The speed of a vibration is called the frequency. Vary the tension as you stretch the neck of the balloon, and you’ll change the frequency. We refer to different frequencies as pitches or notes. Notice how a small difference in tension produces a big change in pitch. Since the opening of a nine inch balloon is the same size as an adult’s vocal folds, the tiny movement required to change pitch is the same. Remember this the next time you’re beating yourself up to reach a high note.

A vibrator alone is worthless without a resonator, which is why bands and orchestras don’t include balloon players. Resonators give instruments their tone. You don’t have to be a scientist to imagine a piano, guitar, drum or horn stuffed with towels. A resonator adds color by providing an empty air space around the vibrator. It’s that simple, and what’s true for an acoustic instrument is true for the voice. Cavities, like the windpipe, throat, mouth and nose, are all potential resonators. The bigger the space surrounding the vibrator, the richer the tone will be. That’s why good stereos have big speaker cabinets and why grand pianos are at least six feet long. The more space you create inside you the bigger your voice will sound.

The relationship between vibrator and resonator is also crucial. The less contact the two have the better. Guitar strings are suspended across the instrument, only touching at two very small points. The harp inside a piano floats on rubber bushings so it never touches the wood. There is a strip of cork which separates the mouth piece of a saxophone from the brass of the horn. Your larynx, too, should float inside your throat. Independence is what allows freedom of the vocal vibrator, increasing range, pitch accuracy and consistent tone (so your voice sounds big from top to bottom). The problem is that people have emotions which trigger muscles to shut down the resonators — guitars, pianos and saxophones do not. Here’s where training pays off.

We are creatures of habit. Culture, family, emotions and personality shape our behaviors until they become second nature. If singing is a part of your surroundings when you are young, chances are you will sing well. If not, your habits are most likely the problem. At first they seem necessary, but tendencies like tensing the jaw, tongue and throat, over-compensating air pressure or squeezing the eyes all compromise your instrument. Pitch change, for instance, should not show up anywhere on your face, neck, jaw or tongue. Your throat should remain relaxed, just as the wood on a guitar doesn’t care what note is being played. I’m not suggesting that releasing negative behaviors is easy, just necessary. If you’re willing to work, though, you can develop into an instrument that’s easy to play. Hey, if a balloon can change pitch without effort, so can you.

So, what does all this science have to do with entertaining an audience? It’s simple. Musicians trust their instruments, most singers don’t. Any doubts you may have about your voice will show up in your singing. It’s too easy to become preoccupied on stage with the mechanics of pitch, breathing and projection; yet all an audience wants to hear is a song. Trusting the instrument allows a singer to be present, to dig into the emotion of the lyrics. Just as every musician knows that a great instrument will allow them to soar, every singer should work toward becoming one. Be patient. It takes time to get that instrument of your dreams.

Amazing Breath Gauge for Singers!