Why Your Voice Doesn’t Project (part two)

Accelerate, stop, steer – all three are integral for controlling a car.  Air pressure, vocal fold vibration, resonance – all three are integral for controlling a voice.  In both examples, the three components are non-linear. That means all three influence the result at the same time. Stomp a car’s accelerator pedal to the floor without any regard for the road ahead and the first curve you encounter becomes the scene of the crash. Force all the air you can from your lungs when singing and your voice will crack and distort wildly out of control. Projecting the voice is not one thing – it’s three things at once.

Just as the power of a car’s motor can be more than its tires can handle, “giving it all you got” will not produce your loudest vocal sounds. That’s because there’s a sweet spot when it comes to effort and air pressure. Yes, an increase of pressure is vital to a powerful voice, but not the effort required to blow out all the birthday candles on your cake. To sing loud with comfort and control, your air pressure must match the strength of the weakest link in the chain: the muscles of the larynx.

Your vocal folds are smaller than your eyelids. It doesn’t take much to drive them. A muscle inside each fold (thyroaryteniod) increases their mass, making them thicker and stiffer. Like strumming a guitar with heavy gauge strings, thicker folds require more force to vibrate but produce a 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. Four pairs of tiny muscles within the larynx act to close the vocal folds against the air pressure. Overwhelm these muscles with too much load and your brain will call in neighboring muscles to help hold back the hurricane.

The third player involved with projecting your voice is resonance. The spaces above the larynx (throat and mouth area) will either amplify the sound of your voice or absorb it. Those extra muscles employed by the brain to help the larynx handle excessive force are also what define the shape of your resonators. When they brace against pressure, they collapse the space, causing your throat to absorb sound waves instead of reflect them. And that’s how too much power can interfere with the three-way relationship needed to project. Instead of a beautifully belted sound, your voice screeches like car tires spinning without traction.

The solution is to focus on the sound you want – not the behavior. In part one of this blog, I did not think at all about my behavior as I howled at the intruder in my house. I just thought about scaring him. The emotional “permission” to make a projected sound is vital (see part one). Step two is to create an instrument that can physically handle the output. That requires you strengthen the small internal muscles of the larynx so they don’t need the neighbors to help. “Asking” for a bigger sound (instead of more effort) allows your brain the freedom to create a balanced relationship between proportionate air pressure, a strong vocal fold vibration and an independent resonate space. In other words, the most horsepower your voice can deliver. Click the link below for exercises to develop that relationship until you can blow everyone away. Vroom! Vroom!