A Few Vocal Tips: Hearing Yourself and Sinus Resonance

[throatsinger]

Vocal Tips: Here's something that many of you might find useful. I recently wrote this response to an article by a voice coach, dealing with the "mask," or the use of sinus resonance in speaking and singing:

Of course, it is important that people hear themselves correctly. The article mentioned bone conduction (soft tissue is also a factor) and how we tend to sound different to others than to ourselves. Part of this is the mentioned conduction, but other factors include directionality of sound and reflection/reverberation. Lower sounds tend to be both omnidirectional and less absorbed by the body, leading to greater ease in hearing those frequencies. Higher sounds are more directional (in this case away from the self-listener) and more absorbed by the body tissues, leading to less conduction to the ears. So, folks with lower or higher voices will be affected differently.

Listening to oneself can be enhanced by having a reflective surface, but without too much reverberation. Recording and playing back one's voice with a reasonable sounding microphone and playback system can provide very valuable feedback. Cupping one hand in front of the mouth, about a palm's distance away, and the other behind one ear can also improve self-hearing.

Many people find that their voices are either too quiet or "dry," meaning they lack sinus resonance, a problem often related by voice professionals to the concept of the "mask." Or, they may be too nasal, the opposite problem.

Vocalists can easily learn to correct these problems. Here's my approach: First, close your eyes. When doing these exercises, use your mind's eye, your kinesthetic sense (internal feeling) and your ears to provide the audio feedback.

Sing a note in your low midrange, mouth open. Now, continue the sound as you close your mouth. Automatically, the nasal port will open, providing an outlet for the sound. Using the three senses mentioned above, try to locate exactly where this is happening, and memorize the location and the feeling. Now, stop the sound WITHOUT stopping the airflow from the lungs, and without jamming the back of the tongue into the nasal port, and without closing the nostrils. When the nasal port closes, you'll feel the pressure of the airflow from below. This is similar to the sensation of blowing air through the mouth with the lips nearly closed, ballooning them a la Dizzy Gillespie. Of course, don't use excessive airflow, and pop your ears!

Again using the same three senses, find the muscles that you are using to stop the sound. This is teaching you to isolate and control the velum/nasal port. Most people can do so after only a few attempts. Now, release the same tissues, and you'll snort as the air is released via the nostrils.

Once you have successfully isolated the nasal port, I recommend practicing opening and closing it with various rhythms. This will really build quite an amazing amount of control over the nasal components of your voice! You'll notice that it's not just a matter of the nasal port being open or closed, but that there can be degrees in between. It becomes easy to do this in differing tempos and meters. Of course, learning to open and close the velum in triplets and dotted eighth notes isn't important for most vocalists, but it's basic technique in certain throat-singing styles.

Another major part of the puzzle is the position of the tongue beneath the nasal port. Both distance from the nasal port and the direction at which sound is directed up into the sinuses effect the tonality of the voice.

I've had students that spent many weeks and even more $$ with voice and theatrical coaches, trying to modify the sound of their voice. These techniques that I've shared cost nothing more than a few minutes of trying, and then a little regular practice.

[Lopaka]

This is a very interesting topic, i've always kept hearing about nasality of voice, about voice "mask" and so on and i never really understood. This looks like a good way to locate the nasal port yet i've tried a few times and never succeeded. I have problems dicerning movement of the velum form movement of the root of the togue. But its true that when the velum is raised, the tone is stronger, more resonant. But i have a few questions:
I'm reading a book called Tao of voice by Stephen Cheng (the title is cliché, but the book is very good) and there is a very intersting note about the resonance. I always thought that the sinuses are major part of the "miracle" of singing, that one of the things you have to learn is to be able to use the space of sinuses to enhance the power of voice.
I found the following in the book:

"A flexible, open throat is essential for producing good, ringing tones. An open throat provides a smooth passage through which air can freel travel, and space for the sound to resonate well. An open throat helps to extend vocal range and dynamics, and it enables you to breathe more deeply in less time and to use less breath when singing.
The open area at the back of the mouth is where the resonance is produced. It consinst of the nasal pharynx, the oral pharynx, and the laryngeal pharynx, all of which are adjustable resonators that together form a space where the vibrating air can oscillate. An open throat creates more physical space for sound. When the soft palate is raised an the uvula attached to it is lifted, the throat is more open."

This sounds okay, but there is a footnote, saying:
"Some singers feel that the sinus cavities and postnasal cavites also give some resonance to the voice. Some voice authorities have conducted tests and have concluded that the resonance felt by singers in these areas, as well as in the chest area, does not affect the accoustical quality of the voice; that is, it adds nothing to the tone that reaches the ears of the audience. William Vennard, Singing: The mechanism an the Technic (New York: Carl fischer, 1967); M. A. Bunch, Dynamics of the singing voice (Vienna: Springer Verlag, 1982). Brodnitz has pointed out that the role of sinuses as resonating chambers is extremely doubtful. See Friedrich S. Brodnitz, Keep Your Voice Healthy (Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1988), pp. 10-11"

Does anybody have an opinion on this? This sound that all the talk about the sinus resonance is at least an exaggeration. I also dont unerstand this part of Steve's post:

"Many people find that their voices are either too quiet or "dry," meaning they lack sinus resonance, a problem often related by voice professionals to the concept of the "mask." Or, theymay be too nasal, the opposite problem."

I thought that to achieve more sinus resonance (if it really works) you have to project the sound to nasal cavitiy which is adjacent to the sinuses. This sounds just like the opposite.

I don't want to start an academic discussion, the purpose of my questions is purely practical. I want to work on the resonance of my voice and on the movement of the velum as an important factor in this and i dont want to lose time with something that is doubtful, i want to have a clear idea of how these things work. So if anybody has some idea on this.... Moreover, i have the feeling that nasal voices have more higher overtones and are ideal for sygyt, but maybe thats just my idea.

Thanx,

Lopaka

[yidaki]

Interesting...
But I don't really understand everything.

I remember Wolfgang Saus showing how one can put the hands behind the ears,
with the elbows straight in front of one's body.
This augmented the brighter tones in one's voice,
showing how it sounds when you sing.
And it was kind of like recording your voice, and then listening to it,
it's so fun how you get surprised every time, "that's not me"

I don't think it is better or worse singing sygyt more or less nasal.
It can be done more nasal, but then it sounds more nasal as well, for the singer at least...

[throatsinger]

Hi Lopaka,

Excellent questions. I'm on the road, and will respond on my return after 8-22. We'll have to look at some definitions.

Yirdaki, that gives you some time to rethink your post.

[yidaki]

I just saw the term "mind's eye" in a different light. I've been listening to different lectures in philosophy during the last few days. Mainly philosophy of the mind. Plato, the greek philosopher, speaks of the Mind's Eye in relation to the birth of Metaphysics. He says one can see things in two ways. When someone draws a triangle for instance, what you see is not a "true" triangle. The angles are not perfect, the lines are not perfect. But someone explains the concept behind a triangle, that the angles' sum are 180 degrees, and draws different triangles as examples. The all of the sudden you see it, the true triangle, with your mind's eye. Plato calls these true objects "forms", and says that with training one can learn to see the whole world using one's mind's eye. Even the word Idea comes from "that which you see with your mind's eye". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave

Interesting and exciting
I mean, it's basically some kind of reverse phenomenology. Because, in contrary to normal phenomenology, that which you see with your mind's eye is not the experience of redness when you're looking at a red wall, according to Plato anyway. It is instead the abstract conceptual knowledge of the form of rhetoric, similar to the contents of a symbol yet not quite exactly the same thing.

I know languages change, but it's rather apparent in this case with ancient greek.
Terms like Idea, Form and Mind's Eye have very different meanings today then they had then.
Even the term Science was different, meaning just quite simply "knowledge" and nothing else.

Even so, it would seem "the third eye" in hindu religion, the chakra gate in the forehead,
is also referred to as "the mind's eye", indicating the representation of Wisdom that it has a symbol.
It would seem the hindus and the greeks had the same idea there,
because it is with wisdom that one can see that which is beyond the normal state of things.
Just like this topic, where one can "see" not just the sound but also the inside of one's own body.

If I remember "Where Rivers and Mountains Sing" correctly,
this is also how Tuvans learn khoomei within their own culture,
by being taught how to see with one's "mind's eye".
Noone can see that for you, and noone can say you're doing something specific wrong,
you have to learn how to see that yourself.

I don't know how Off-topic I've gone now, I hope it's ok anyway.
It's just fun when a thought comes to you,
and you can see it in everything.
Just like seeing the true being of something.