Vocal Anatomy 101: An Introduction

 


I cannot overstate the importance of learning as much as you can about how your instrument is constructed and how it functions. I know this may seem daunting. I myself actually have pretty low aptitude for science! If I can achieve a comprehensive understanding of vocal anatomy, you can, too.

In the next several posts I am going to lead you to a practical, experiential understanding of vocal anatomy. I'll identify the most important things you need to conceptualize/visualize to work on your voice effectively. 

Most singers never really learn how their instrument is constructed and how it functions. But why is this? Doesn't it seem as though knowing how your instrument works would make it much easier to master?

Any accomplished instrumentalist knows the basics of how their instrument works. Ask any brass, wind or string player how the sound is created, how the pitch changes, and what determines the timbre they produce, and they can explain and demonstrate the basic physics of it in pretty simple terms. I have seen some of my instrumentalist teaching artist colleagues from The Weill Music Institute demo their instruments for children in the Very Young Composers program in about 5 minutes. That's all it takes for the kids to know enough to start writing music for them. 

However, there are several things that make the exponentially easier for an instrumentalist than it is for a singer:

You can see the instrument and visually observe how all of its parts work. You can even take it apart and put it back together. And even an instrument as vast and complex as a church organ comprises a finite number of relatively simple components. By contrast, the human body is infinitely complex. While it may be possible to isolate and examine those parts of the body that are most important for singing, there are very few aspects of our anatomy and physiology that do not make some kind of contribution to the overall mechanics of the singing voice. And not only can you not see how the voice works, but you cannot even directly feel many of the movements and processes that create vocal sound.

Most types of instruments are fairly uniform in their construction, appearance and range. By contrast, a singer's instrument is the singular product of their entire life experience, shaped by their unique genetic code, physical activities, emotional and psychological history, and the very things they have to express as well as the reasons they want to do so by singing. You may have all the same basic body parts, but the differences between you far exceed the similarities.

While instruments need to be broken in and some instruments improve from years of good use, for the most part you acquire an instrument ready-to-play. Singers have to build an instrument while learning to play it, processes that are related but distinct. Building the voice entails stretching, strengthening and coordinating all these components we cannot see and often cannot feel; playing it means learning to use your imagination to set it in motion. While an accomplished instrumentalist must also fine-tune their coordination so that their musical impulses flow through them spontaneously, they are still directing these impulses into an inanimate and essentially unchanging object that they can see and touch. Our instrument is an inseparable, organic part of our being, and it continually transforms and evolves in response not only to the way we sing but to every physical, emotional and mental experience we encounter. 

One reason that most singers never learn vocal anatomy is that it seems link an overwhelmingly difficult enterprise, particularly when you consider how many other skills you have to master to sing well. I'm going to try to simplify things here, but I'm not going to kid you – it is hard, especially when compared with what it takes to grasp the basic physics of what makes a violin or a french horn function. Don't let that stop you, though. "Largo al factotum" is hard to learn, too, but if you're a lyric baritone you'd better just get over it, roll up your sleeves and woodshed it until it becomes easy. 

The other reason most singers never learn vocal anatomy is due to the myth that it simply isn't necessary.

I want to persuade you that for most of us, it is necessary.

While it may seem that some singers achieve great mastery without a strong concept of how the voice functions, it may be that they possess some advantages that the rest of us can't necessarily count on. If their preferred learning style is kinesthetic, they may be so skilled at directly observing their own physical processes that they can intuitively make changes without needing to know the names of various body parts or conceptualize how they work together. 

And if you fit this model, you may not need this information as much as the rest of us. 

But when a truly talented, dedicated singer fails to fulfill their potential, it is often the case that they just couldn't fix what wasn't working because they didn't really know what it was or understand that it even could be fixed. They regarded their limitations as being hard-wired into their instruments, whereas if they understood their own anatomy they could have employed strategies for transcending them. 

For the rest of you who fortunately have not hit this wall: A basic understanding of vocal anatomy could dramatically speed up your progress. I don't believe in quick fixes. Vocal technique takes time to develop. But it takes less time when you practice effectively. 

Here's an example. Suppose you want to improve your breath management in order to sing a long sustained phrase. You could:

1. Work on taking deeper breaths and practice sustaining the phrase longer and slower with each attempt, or
2. Investigate whether your muscles of respiration or overall alignment need improvement. 

I naturally prefer option 2. If you understand how alignment, your diaphragm and your intercostal muscles etc. work together to optimize airflow and subglottal air pressure, you can intelligently target areas of weakness, tightness and poor coordination and solve the problem, confident that eventually you'll be able to get through that phrase with style. Option 1 might yield some results, but it might not, leaving you feeling frustrated and wondering what's wrong with your voice. 

Don't accept imbalances and areas of resistance in your voice as permanent parts of your instrument. 

You can work through them. But you will need strong, specific strategies.

You'll work through them faster and more joyfully if you have a clear understanding of what is going on and are confident that the actions you're taking are likely to work. 

 

For those of you who want to dive in right away, here are the resources that worked for your scientifically challenged blogger: 

The Dynamics of the Singing Voice, Meribeth Bunch Dayme

This book offers the best descriptions and illustrations I have come across for functional vocal anatomy, breaking it down into sections on posture, respiration, phonation, resonance and articulation. 

Anatomy Coloring Book, Wynn Kapit 

Yes, it's a coloring book! but pick up a copy and find out for yourself why filling in the words and illustrations makes it so much easier to absorb all of this complicated information. The illustrations at the head of this post are my handiwork, taken from the pages of this book. They're the clearest pictures of vocal anatomy I have in my library, the ones I usually end up using to explain things to my students. 

Anatomy of Movement, Blandine Calais-Germain   

I had this book assigned to me twice: first for a dance technique class and later for a workshop I attended as a fitness trainer. It's a comprehensive manual of movement intended for dancers. You'll learn more about the large muscles and movements of limbs, but the principles of movement and motor learning apply to those fine, hidden internal movements we make in producing sound as well. I learned far more about how movements are trained and executed through working on the gym floor than I ever could have in a vocal pedagogy class. This book helped me to understand and contextualize it all. 

Comments

[Avocationalsinger.blogspot.com]

Thanks for this great post. I was going to ask you if that was the Anatomy Coloring Book and then I got to the end of the article and -- lo and behold -- it was!

I already have benefited in my singer life from trying to understand the anatomy behind my instrument, and it does take time and effort, like you mention above. Even though I've gotten a fair grasp on things over the years, I look forward to reading your series because it can always come clearer and there's always gaps in one's knowledge.

[Susaneichhorn]

A fantastic series developing here Claudia!

Thank you for that.

I completely agree with you - and no matter HOW we learn, we must be able to explain HOW we do things, in order to replicate!

it's not good enough to read a book - this doesn't teach you the DOING of anything. Understanding anatomy is so much more!

If we don't know how things function, we cannot truly claim it can we?

Great post!!