Scientific analysis can only tell us what happens when we sing. It cannot tell us what we must do to sing well.
W. Stephen Smith, The Naked Voice
Few of us ever study gross anatomy. Pre-med undergrads focus on human biochemical processes; the chapter on respiration in their biology textbooks is primarily devoted to things like oxygenation, with only the briefest description of the biomechanics of breathing. So why on earth do the vocal pedagogy textbooks presuppose an advanced understanding of gross anatomy? They provide hardcore, detailed descriptions using scientific terminology to selectively describe isolated segments of the body that are thought to be more important for singers than others. It is simply not realistic to expect you to be able to read and comprehend these chapters, let alone figure out how to apply the information to your own technique or teaching strategies. The best most of you can hope for is to cram enough of the vocabulary into your head in order to get a passing grade on the exam.
I'm a voice teacher and I need to know all of the detailed anatomy described in the pedagogy books so that I can understand what is actually physically happening when you sing for me. However, describing the details to you is of limited usefulness. What is important is your subjective, personal experience of what you just did, not my analysis of what actually happened.
I do think that it is important for singers to have a basic conceptual understanding of anatomy. But it is far more important that you develop a keen awareness of how everything feels and moves internally as you practice and perform.
I'd like to help you cultivate a robust, three-dimensional sensory picture of your own instrument and learn to associate this unique, subjective internal self-portrait with the actual body parts and processes involved in singing. This is a challenging enterprise because many of the movements and processes of singing provide you with very little neuromuscular feedback.
In other words, it's difficult to tell where all these body parts are and what they're doing.
If you do a biceps curl with a heavy dumbbell, you get sensory feedback from your arm telling you that your elbow is flexing and your biceps are exerting effort and contracting. You can also see it, but even without looking you can feel the movement and understand what it happening.
Unfortunately, the same does not hold true for your diaphragm. Many singers are surprised to learn that the diaphragm contracts on inhalation and relaxes on exhalation. You don't receive direct feedback from this muscle the same way you do from your biceps.
This illustration is from a college biology textbook. It shows how the diaphragm contracts on inhalation and relaxes on exhalation. For now, let's ignore the suggestions that your sternocleidomastoid must contract on inhalation and your abs contract on exhalation! I'll address this in a later post on anatomy of respiration.
Therefore, if you want to work on your breath coordination, you must pay attention to what you actually can sense and observe about your own breathing and then investigate what that tells you about where your diaphragm is. Then you must compare your observations with the pictures and descriptions in your textbooks, because otherwise you are likely to misinterpret your findings. If you don't know what's really going on, you may observe how inhalation pushes your gut out and exhalation makes it come back in and draw the mistaken conclusion, as many unfortunately have, that you have to actively push your gut out and pull it back in for the diaphragm to work properly.
I took this from a site that absurdly recommends pushing the gut in and out to make sure the diaphragm is doing its job. Note how the great big arrows point to abdominal activity while there are tiny little ones showing what the diaphragm is doing!
It's important to begin with what you can feel and notice about your instrument and then study anatomy to provide some context for your practical work in the studio.
Here is a guided internal exploration to get you started, a simplified tour of your vocal anatomy that will provide an opportunity to get better acquainted with your instrument from the inside out. Your job is simply to observe your own body sensations and movements. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Just notice whatever sensations and movements arise, with no need to judge or assess anything. It will take about 11 minutes. You will need to wear loose, comfortable clothing that permits free, expansive breathing. No shoes, just socks or bare feet.
Click on the following link to download and listen to the directions as you carry out the exploration. The full text is printed below, and I recommend that before listening you read through at least the first few paragraphs to make sure you have enough space and that you understand the basic starting position.
Download Vocal Anatomy_ A Guided Tour
Lie down on your back on a firm surface, ideally on a mat or on the floor, not a mattress. Your feet should be flat on the floor, parallel, six to eight inches apart, with your knees bent. Gently tilt your pelvis back and forth a few times until you find a comfortable position for your lower back, which should be slightly curved and off the floor rather than pressing down. Place your hands high on your abdomen just below your ribs with the palms down. Let your shoulders relax down into the floor. If your neck feels strained or uncomfortable in this position, place a small pillow or book under your head.
Close your eyes and allow them to remain closed for the entire exploration.
Allow your breathing to deepen. Inhale fully and silently. Exhale slowly and as completely as you can without feeling like you have to push any air out.
As you continue to breath slowly, feel the back of your pelvis against the floor. Allow this area to relax. Notice whether your pelvis subtly tilts back and forth as you breathe. Notice any other movement in this area.
Feel how your abdomen rises as you inhale and then settles as you exhale.
Bring your awareness to your back, to the area where your lower ribs contact the floor. See if you can sense any movement, expansion and relaxation in your ribs as you breathe in and out.
Let your attention move to your chest. Notice how your sternum rises as you inhale and then settles as you exhale.
Notice whether your breathing creates any movement in your shoulders, neck or head.
Notice any sensation or movement you feel inside your throat as you inhale and exhale.
Notice the movement of your breath through your nostrils and nasal passages.
Now focus your awareness in between your nostrils as you continue to breathe. Allow all other body sensations associated with breathing to fade into the background.
Notice whether you find it easy to keep focusing on this area between your nostrils or whether your mind is very active or scattered.
If your mind feels very active or scattered, do not try to stop the flow of mental activity. Just observe whatever you can about it.
Notice whether your thoughts arise as a kind of internal talking, as images, or as a combination of the two.
Notice whether the flow of mental activity seems to influence your breathing or cause areas of tension and relaxation to shift anywhere in your body.
Now bring your awareness to your jaw. Allow your jaw to go slack so that it relaxes open.
Breathe through your nose and your mouth simultaneously. Notice whether there are any differences in your breathing sensations between this versus breathing only through your nose.
As you continue to breathe slowly and fully, begin to first stretch your jaw wide open, then slowly close your jaw and press your teeth firmly together. Once again, stretch your jaw open and then slowly and firmly close it. Now gently thrust your jaw forward as far as it can comfortably move, then reverse the movement and pull it backwards. Slowly shift your jaw to the left, then to the right, then allow it to return to the center, remaining slack and slightly open.
Continue to breathe slowly and fully.
Bring your awareness to your lips. Stretch them wide apart in all directions, then bring them in, round them together and let them protrude in an exaggerated smooch. Then once again, stretch your lips open as far as they will comfortably move, then bring them back together again and protrude them.
Allow your jaw to relax open again and bring your awareness to your tongue. Slowly stick your tongue out as far as you can so that you feel a gentle stretch at the very back, then let it return to its normal position. Once again, thrust your tongue far forward, give it a gentle stretch, and allow it to relax.
Now place the tip of your tongue against the back of your upper molars all the way to the left. Slowly trace the tip of your tongue against the back of your upper teeth all the way from left to right, then back in the other direction. Repeat this with the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth, tracing a line from the leftmost molar all the way to the right and then back.
Take a moment now to slowly explore the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue.
Continue to breathe slowly and fully.
On your next inhalation, see if you can make yourself yawn deeply. Feel the space inside your mouth and throat expanding in all directions as you yawn. Notice whether yawning creates any changes to your sensation of inhalation and exhalation as you breathe.
Now inhale once more, pause briefly at the top of your breath, and release your air swiftly like a voiceless sigh. Inhale and sigh once again. Now inhale and release your breath like a sigh again, this time permitting a gentle relaxed response from your vocal folds. Repeat this again several times. Make sure that you are merely allowing the breath to release without any assistance from your abdominal muscles, which should still feel completely relaxed under your hands.
Notice any sensation or movement you feel in your throat when you sigh gently like this. Notice any sensations you feel elsewhere in your body in response to releasing your breath like a sigh.
Inhale deeply and create a steady sustained hum as you exhale. Sustain the hum as long as you comfortably can with the breath just releasing, allowing your abdominal muscles to remain completely relaxed, without squeezing any breath out with your ribs. Repeat this several times, inhaling fully and sustaining a steady hum as you exhale.
Notice any sensation or movement you detect in your throat while you hum. Notice any sensation or movement anywhere in your body that seem related to your humming. Consider whether these sensations and movements are similar to the ones you experienced with the sigh or whether they are different.
Now slowly open your eyes. Begin to move your hands and feet gently to wake them up a bit. As you stand up and move out of this exploration, continue to be mindful of the things you have noticed about your own body, breath and voice. Be particularly mindful of these things when singing.
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