It’s kind of like a trumpet but it’s not. It can move around a pitch like a slide trombone but it’s not one of those either. It comes in different sizes with names like soprano, alto and tenor but it’s not a saxophone. You can stretch its vibrators just like a guitar is tuned but it doesn’t have strings. It can maintain a mighty groove but it’s not a drum. In fact, it doesn’t belong to any of the three categories of musical instruments (wind, string or percussion), yet you’d be hard pressed to find a band without one. Give up? It’s a voice, the instrument we use to sing. Attempting to play this instrument as if was something else will give you problems every time.
It’s simple. You don’t blow on guitar strings to play a song or strum a drum to keep a beat. Every instrument has a particular set of physical requirements. Yet when it comes to the voice we tend to play it with principles that apply to other instruments. There are four components to almost every instrument. Each has an actuator (something to trigger the sound), a vibrator (something that wiggles to make a sound), a resonator (something to enhance the original vibration) and an articulator to shape things on the way out. Actuators are guitar picks, violin bows, drum sticks, hands and wind power. Vibrators are things like strings, drum heads, mouth pieces, reeds and vocal folds. Sound resonates in the enclosed space of an acoustic guitar, a drum, a saxophone or in your throat, mouth and nose. Articulators are anything from wah-wah pedals to the plunger used at the end of a trumpet to your lips and tongue.
Most vocal problems for live singers are caused by over compensating the actuator (too much breath pressure). This is typical behavior for beginners on any instrument. We’ve all seen the kid at Guitar Center sitting there squeezing the guitar pick and bearing down too hard on the strings as he shows his buddy how awesome he can play. When we first attempt to sing on a stage we also squeeze the pick (neck tension) and bear down too hard on the vibrator (drive the air). The difference is that, over time, the kid will relax his death grip on the guitar and develop the necessary touch whereas singers tend to go in the opposite direction. In search of control, singers tend to push more, as if they’re blowing into a trumpet. The problem is that a trumpet is an inanimate object and requires additional pressure for high notes. A voice is part of your anatomy and responds in unmusical ways to the added load.
The list of problems caused by approaching your instrument the wrong way is everything you don’t like about your voice. That’s good news. It means that your sound is based on misguided beliefs and dysfunctional behaviors that can change. Learning what an instrument requires is what lessons are all about. How you apply that information is what defines you as an artist. There’s nothing wrong with pounding on a guitar like it’s a drum, but the instrument certainly has more to offer when played traditionally. In the same way, that instrument you’re using to sing can be blown like a horn, stretched like a guitar and smacked like a bongo. You’ll get the most out of it, though, when you play it like a voice.
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