Vocal Tension: Taming the Beast Within

When I first joined Sweet Adelines five years ago, I sang with a lot of vocal tension.  I know this because I remember my throat feeling very swollen at the end of chorus and quartet rehearsals. Sometimes I was even hoarse the next morning.  

For a while I ignored this feeling.  I was having a blast, and I figured that hoarseness, like physical fatigue, was normal after two or three hours of full-out singing and choreography.

I started to think differently when the lead singer of one of my favorite BHS champion quartets made headlines in the barbershop world after undergoing surgery to remove a polyp on his left vocal fold.  

Polyps and nodules can result from repeated overuse of the voice, and they can cause serious vocal problems such as chronic hoarseness and decreased pitch range.

I wasn't personally dealing with the nonstop performance demands of a touring international champion, but I suspected that singing to the point of hoarseness a couple of times a week couldn't be good for my voice. 

That's when I began to ask, "How can I tell if I'm singing with vocal tension?  Does it matter if I am? And how can I get rid of it?"

WHAT THE JUDGES SAY

Reading the Judging Category Description Book convinced me that I needed to take vocal tension seriously if I wanted to improve as a barbershop singer. 

The Sound Category chapter and the Guide to Vocal Skills repeatedly emphasize the importance of eliminating tension in the throat, jaw, and tongue: 

"A completely relaxed throat is a must for proper functioning of the vocal cords to produce clear, beautiful tones."

"Proper [inhalation] for singing begins with a relaxed jaw, a relaxed, open throat and an erect, expanded ribcage."

"[A]ll well-produced voices [are]  . . . free from tension . . . "

Et cetera.  But here is the problem: it's easy to find people who can tell you if you're singing out of tune or standing with awkward posture.  Diagnosing and eliminating vocal tension can be much trickier.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

Vocal tension is complicated, but much of it is caused by the "swallowing muscles"-- muscles in the jaw, tongue, and throat that help with swallowing.

The swallowing muscles are like a well-trained team of Alaskan huskies. Just as sled dogs are selectively bred for one purpose -- to race hundreds of miles across the tundra-- the swallowing muscles have evolved to do one thing really well:  tighten up and make spaces smaller.

Hundreds of times each day, these strong, well-coordinated muscles spring into action to constrict your pharynx (the space in the back of your mouth) and squeeze your saliva or food down your esophagus, all while sealing off your airway so you don't choke.

And just like a dog team, the swallowing muscles are very POWERFUL and EXCITABLE.  They have energy to spare!  They are game for anything! They want to be wherever the action is!  Woof, woof!

Unfortunately, this means that any time we are working hard or feeling anxious or excited -- for example, when we are singing the epic tag of a driving uptune as our director gestures emphatically for "More!  MORE!" -- it is the most natural thing in the world for the swallowing muscles to wake up and crash the party.

They just want to help!  By tightening and constricting!  Because that is what they know how to do!

But letting the swallowing muscles help us sing is like letting a pack of dogs sort the fine china or decorate a wedding cake.  They will eagerly participate in the activity, but it won't end well.  

HOW THE SWALLOWING MUSCLES WRECK YOUR SOUND

Here are just a few of the ways that the swallowing muscles can hurt your sound:

--They constrict your airway so that air moves less efficiently as you inhale and exhale.

--They dampen some of your natural overtones by constricting the available resonating space in your pharynx.

--They cause your vocal folds to close too tightly, resulting in irritation, hoarseness, and (sometimes) the formation of nodules.  

--They prevent a smooth transition between the vocal registers, exacerbating the register "break."

--They add tension to your tone, causing your individual voice to stick out of the unit sound.

PUT THOSE PUPPIES TO BED!

Singing works best when the swallowing muscles are as relaxed as possible -- like dogs fast asleep in a big puppy-pile.

The challenge for singers is to (a) recognize when our swallowing muscles are starting to wake up and (b) gently send them back to dreamland.

I DON'T FEEL ANY TENSION, SO I MUST NOT HAVE ANY -- RIGHT?

Vocal tension exists on a spectrum.  At one end of the spectrum is Extreme Tension.  At the other end is No Tension.  No Tension is the goal.  Most of us live somewhere in the middle. 

Extreme Tension is easy for coaches and directors to recognize.  It sounds as though we are on the verge of shouting.  If we sing this way for very long, our throats start to feel swollen, and we get hoarse.  

Mild-to-Moderate Tension is much harder to recognize.  Here is a super-simple, one-minute exercise that has helped me develop awareness of some of the muscles associated with vocal tension and keep them more relaxed.

THE NOISY BREATH EXERCISE

Step 1: Open your mouth as though you are going to say (or sing) "Ahhh."  Take a few very noisy breaths.  Make them loud enough so that a person 20 feet away could hear you. Think Darth Vader With Asthma.

What makes the breath noisy?  Tension in your swallowing muscles. You are using muscles in your throat, and maybe your tongue, to slightly constrict your airway, which creates turbulence in the air. The noise in the breath is the sound of that turbulence.

Step 2: Make the breaths slightly quieter so that they can only be heard up to 10 feet away.  

Step 3: Make them quieter so that they can only be heard by someone standing next to you.

Step 4: Make them extremely quiet so that only you can hear them.

Step 5: Make them totally silent so that even you can't hear them.  Most of us (except for Darth Vader) breathe noiselessly whenever we are sitting at rest unless we have a cold or asthma. 

As you move through the steps, notice the slight adjustments that you are making in your throat muscles.  In order to breathe more quietly, you have to release a little bit of tension.  

Repeat the exercise a few times until you get the hang of tensing and releasing your throat muscles. When you reach Step 5, notice the feeling of total relaxation in your throat. 

This the gold-medal feeling that you want to cultivate on every breath. 

BAD NEWS: TAMING VOCAL TENSION IS HARD

What surprised me when I first did the noisy-breath exercise, and what will probably surprise you, is how SUBTLE the changes feel in the throat as we make the breaths louder and quieter.  Activating and deactivating vocal tension is not like clenching and unclenching a fist.  It's more like raising and lowering an eyebrow.  

It's easy to relax the swallowing muscles.  Yours are probably totally relaxed right now, unless you are currently swallowing, coughing, or running on a treadmill.  

But keeping those over-eager, hyperactive little critters calm and out of the way when we're singing on the risers requires practice and constant vigilance.

It is the most natural thing in the world for them to tense up any time we are feeling excited or emotional ("Here comes the tag! I'm going to rock it!") or just vaguely concerned ("Dang it -- should have peed during the break"). 

BUT WAIT: THERE'S MORE BAD NEWS

Vocal tension causes all kinds of problems for singers, but RELEASING tension can cause problems as well.  It's fascinating to watch what happens when an ensemble gets coached on reducing vocal tension.  I have seen it a few times.

On one hand, the sound instantly becomes freer and more resonant. Hooray!

On the other hand, when singers focus on relaxing the muscles responsible for vocal tension, they unconsciously tend to relax a lot of other muscles as well.  As a result,

--the tempo slows down;

--faces droop; the eyebrows, cheeks, and all the muscles in the "mask" lose their lift;

--pitch drops;

--character goes out the window;

--choreography loses its crispness;

--energy drains out of the performance.

In other words, the singers behave as though you have just given them all several shots of tequila.

It's no wonder that eliminating vocal tension is not at the top of every coach's priority list.  Nobody wants to take an energetic, on-pitch, slightly shouty chorus and turn them into a slow, flat, depressed, hungover chorus.

WE CAN CONTROL OUR OWN DOGS

Fortunately, we on the risers don't have to wait for our directors and coaches to tell us to correct our vocal tension.  We can address it ourselves while maintaining all the other skills we have worked so hard to cultivate.

Here are some strategies for keeping the swallowing muscles relaxed:

1) DEVELOP AWARENESS

Start by occasionally monitoring the sound of your breaths during rehearsal, either with a recorder or just by paying attention. You'll probably notice that many of your breaths are somewhat noisy, which means you have work to do.

2) MAKE THE FIRST BREATH PERFECT

Develop the gold-medal habit of preparing your resonant space and taking one perfectly silent, relaxed breath every time you start a song.  This will increase your resonance on the starting chord and make your director very happy. Add championship posture and character, and she'll think she's died and gone to Sweden.  

3) IGNORE YOUR NEIGHBOR'S CRAZY DOGS

Aim to make your breaths quieter than your neighbor's.  As we strive for ensemble unity, it's easy to unconsciously adopt each other's tense, excited breathing habits.  If you free your voice, it will help your neighbor to free hers as well. 

4) TRY BUBBLING

Bubbling (lip-trilling) is the ultimate bandaid for numerous vocal problems, including tension.  

Bubbling works by promoting forward placement, consistent airflow and a relaxed throat.  But the improvement in sound is usually very temporary. 

The key to permanent improvement is to notice exactly what we are changing in our own breathing and vocal musculature in order to sustain the bubbling, and then work to maintain those changes even when we aren't bubbling.

5) GET INSPIRED

Finally, get inspired by studying barbershoppers who display an exceptionally high degree of vocal freedom. 

Here is one of my current sources of inspiration: Fortuity Quartet's 2013 regional contest performance (Region 31).  They scored 656, one of the highest regional scores in SAI history.

If you haven't heard their effortless, ethereal performance of "Once Upon a Time," you are in for a treat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-yJDQwxIYM

See if you can hear them breathing, and enjoy! 

What We Are Talking About When We Talk About Resonance

   For a long time I have felt pretty clueless about resonance.  This has made my life difficult in Sweet Adelines, because we toss the word around all the time.  Here are the kinds of things coaches and directors like to say:

"I need more resonance from you, leads!"
"Are you singing with your best resonance?"
"Dang, those Swedes have a lot of resonance!"

Here are the things I used to say to myself when coaches and directors talked like that:

"Do they just want me to sing louder? Or open my mouth wider? Or something else?"
"How can I tell if I'm singing with the right kind of resonance?"
"Dang, I wish I were Swedish!"

If you go looking for an explanation of resonance, you will probably run into the same problem I encountered when I tried to figure it out.  Resonance turns out to be one of the most technically complex subjects in barbershop.  Everything, with the possible exception of "artistry," is easier to explain than resonance.  

For example, if you open a book on vocal technique and turn to the section on "posture," you will likely find something visual and user-friendly, like this:

If you turn to the section on "resonance," you will find a lot of dense, jargon-laden text, like this: 

Even the definition in the Sweet Adelines Judging Category Description Book raises as many questions as it answers:

"Resonance: the intensification and enrichment of a musical tone by means of supplementary vibration.  The effect of vocal resonance is to increase the initial tone phonated in the glottis.  A resonant voice is so called when it has a pleasing quality that is rich in low and high overtones."

Barbershop coaches often try to simplify matters by using adjectives to describe the sound they are looking for when they want more resonance.  They might ask for a sound that is "bigger," "richer," "rounder," "fuller," "brighter," "more brilliant," "more womanly," or "like a sparkling diamond on a velvet pillow."  

Or they might use imagery to describe an adjustment in resonating space:  "put an imaginary egg in your mouth," "imagine you're biting into an apple," "imagine you're smelling fresh-baked bread," etc.  

Adjectives and images can be helpful.  But if you understand a few basic things about resonance, everything gets clearer -- at least, it did for me. Here are some things I think I have finally figured out.  

                                          MY VOICE HAS A LOT OF PARTS

I'm not talking about "voice parts" like soprano, alto, tenor, bass.  And I'm not talking about body parts, like the throat and the larynx and the soft palate.  I'm talking about parts of the SOUND.  These parts are called harmonics, or overtones.  

Barbershoppers like to make a big deal about overtones, and for a long time I thought they were some bizarre, rare natural phenomenon that only appeared when conditions were just right -- like tornadoes, or quadruplets.  In fact, overtones are present in our voices all the time.  

        EVERY PITCH I SING IS ACTUALLY MANY PITCHES MIXED TOGETHER

When I sing a middle C, I am actually singing a lot of different "pitches" -- overtone frequencies -- all at the same time.  We naturally think that we are singing one pitch at a time, but it isn't true.  Every note that we sing is made of a whole bunch of different notes. 

If you find this fact unsettling, you are not alone.  When I first learned about it, I felt like I needed to go sit in a dark room and process for a few days.  But if you can grasp this one basic, freaky idea, you will be in a much stronger position to make use of the information coming at you from directors and coaches.  

                                                         HOW IT WORKS

When I sing middle C, I am also singing the "first overtone," which is one octave above middle C.  It's usually not as loud as the middle C frequency (which is called the "fundamental frequency"), but it's there.  You don't believe me yet, but you will. 

Here comes the strangest part.  Not only am I singing the octave -- both middle C and high C at the same time-- I am also singing the G above high C (the "second overtone"), and the next C above that ("third overtone"), then E, G, Bb, and more.  

Most of these overtones are wicked high, and not very loud, relative to the fundamental (middle C) frequency.  But some are louder than others.  We all naturally amplify some overtones more than others -- without even thinking about it.  This is very, very important, not just in barbershop, but in everyday life, because . . .

              PEOPLE IDENTIFY YOUR VOICE BY ITS OVERTONE PATTERN

If my director, Nikki, and I take turns singing an "Ah" vowel on middle C at approximately the same volume, we will both be singing the same overtone frequencies (C,G,C,E,G, Bb, etc.).  

However, we won't be amplifying the overtones in precisely the same way.  Nikki's first overtone (C) might be a tiny bit louder than mine, and my second overtone (G) might be a little louder than hers, and so on with all the other overtones.  

The differences in overtone amplification are what enable a listener to tell the difference between my voice and Nikki's voice.  

                                                    I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP

I know what you are thinking:  "This can't be right.  There is no way I'm singing a high G and an ultra-high Bb at the same time that I am singing middle C.  Because that would mean that I am singing CHORDS all the time.  And I know I only sing one note at a time."

Amazingly, you do sing chords all the time.  You even speak in chords all the time.  We all do.  

                                                        I CAN PROVE IT

The best way to grasp what is really going on with overtones is to look at a voice spectrogram.  This is a miraculous device that can record your voice and let you filter out different overtones so you can listen to them individually.

Here is a youtube video of a spectrogram. Skip to the 9:20 mark and watch for about one minute.  Pay particular attention to the cluster of ultra-high overtones called the "singer's formant."  If you have never seen this kind of voice analyzer in action, prepare to have your mind blown!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQWnU1nBtco

Notice how the individual overtones in the video sound completely inhuman.  Only when they are all, or nearly all, mixed together can you tell that you are listening to a man's voice.  

Perhaps the strangest part of all is the "singer's formant," which the video points out at 9:57. A formant is a cluster of overtones.  Even though it just sounds like white noise, the singer's formant is what allows the voice of a trained opera singer to be heard, without a microphone, over the noise of a full orchestra.  Strange but true!

The reason you don't notice all the different pitches in your own voice or anyone else's when they sing middle C is that our ears and brains focus on the lowest frequency (the fundamental frequency) for the purposes of identifying pitch.  

But that doesn't mean we aren't hearing the higher frequencies.  If we weren't hearing the overtones, then every middle C would sound exactly the same to us. We wouldn't be able to tell whether a particular middle C was being sung by a man or a woman, or an adult or a child. 

          GREAT BARBERSHOPPERS KNOW HOW TO AMPLIFY THEIR OVERTONES 

When you hear coaches and directors asking for "more resonance," it's easy to get the idea that they just want you to sing LOUDER.  This is not what they want.  They want you to make the overtones in your voice louder in relation to the fundamental.  

If you tell untrained singers to "sing louder," they will generally do it in a way that introduces muscle tension in their throats, jaws, and/or tongues.  This is called "pushing" or "pressing." 

This kind of "louder" actually dampens some of the overtones, because when we tense those muscles, we constrict the resonating spaces in our throats and mouths, making them slightly smaller.   So we sound "louder" because we are amplifying the fundamental frequency, but we lose some of the overtones.  

From a barbershop perspective, there are two problems with singing this kind of "loud."  First, it sounds tense and strained to the judges.  Second, it doesn't blend well with other voices.  When a singer sings loudly with tension, her voice sticks out of the chorus.   So it's important to sing in a tension-free way that lets the overtones ring. 

When quartets and choruses get really good at amplifying their overtones, they sound like they have twice as many singers as they actually have, and they sound ageless.   

                                               "CAN I DO IT, TOO?"  YES, YOU CAN

For singers, it's useful to divide overtones into two categories: the low overtones and the high overtones.   

Low overtones get amplified in the back of your mouth -- the soft-palate area.  High overtones get amplified in the front of your mouth -- the rigid, front-teeth-and-hard-palate area.  

If you want to experiment with the LOW overtones in your voice, open the back of your mouth (like there's an egg back there).  Put a lot of space between your molars.  Then, imitate Julia Child. Or sing like a parody of an opera star-- a big fat female opera star with a deep voice and a Viking helmet on her head.  Low overtones are the ones that make a female voice sound "dark," "deep," "womanly," "mature," "rich," "warm," and "round."  

If you want to amplify the HIGH overtones in your voice, show your front teeth and imitate a kitten saying "Meow, meow."  Or imitate a baby crying: "Waaah!"  Or Fran Drescher or Edith Bunker.  High overtones are the ones that make your voice sound "piercing," "penetrating," "brilliant," "bright," and "forward."  This is also what some people are talking about when they use the phrase "singing in the mask." 

The goal for barbershoppers is to amplify the lows and the highs at the same time, resulting in a sound that is full, rich, and penetrating without any undue tension.   This is called "balanced resonance," "full resonance," or "singing with your whole voice."

                               EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT 

Most of us naturally have either more highs or more lows -- we either tend towards a "bright" sound (amplifying high overtones) or a "dark" sound (amplifying low overtones).  If you aren't sure where you fall on the spectrum, ask your director or a voice teacher, or just start experimenting with both ends of the spectrum.  

I know that my voice has more highs than lows -- it is more "pretty and bright" than "deep and rich"-- so I am working to develop more low overtones in my voice.  

I do this by starting with the Julia Child space --very open and far back in my throat-- and then I show my front teeth to try to maintain the forward brightness.  Then I try to relax the muscles in my throat, jaw and tongue.  I am looking for a focused sound that fills the whole room, yet feels effortless.
    
                                          WHY YOU MIGHT HATE THIS

Experimenting with resonance can be interesting and fun, but it can also be scary.  We Sweet Adelines take great pride in our ability to sing in tune, and messing around with your resonant space, even a little bit, can interfere with your pitch accuracy.  

As soon as I started opening up the back space in my mouth and adding more "Julia Child" to my sound, I found that some intervals were more difficult to sing accurately.  My voice was suddenly trembly and unstable on some pitches and some vowels.  

I was finding more resonance here and there, but my voice felt slightly out of control, especially when I really focused on releasing all muscle tension.  Nobody likes to sing out of tune, and nobody likes to have their voice sound unstable, even a little bit, especially during chorus rehearsal.  

So, for a while I just worked on adding more low overtone resonance while in the safety and privacy of my home and car.  I played around with the Julia Child space and the meow-meow-meow space while singing with my warmup CD on the way to rehearsal.  But as soon as I got to rehearsal, I would revert to my tried-and-true, accurate-but-not-very-resonant default voice.  

Gradually I began to feel more stable and secure in the new, more resonant space.  I still slip into old habits during difficult passages in chorus rehearsal, but that is happening less often. It's a process, but I am confident that I am becoming a little more Swedish every day.  

                      INTERPRETING ALL THAT COACHING ADVICE

Now that I understand how adjusting the space in my mouth can amplify some overtones while dampening others, I have more insight into what directors and coaches want me to do.  

I understand that if they ask for "more depth," "more warmth," "more richness," "more womanliness," etc., they probably want me to experiment with opening up more space in the back of my mouth, because that is where the low overtones live. 

If they want "more focus," "more ping," "more brightness," "more brilliance," or "more in the mask," I probably need to show my teeth and think about that forward, penetrating, crying-baby sound. 

And of course, there is no such thing as "too much" when it comes to overtones in barbershop -- we always want more of everything, as long as we can get it without tension in the throat, jaw, or tongue.  

There's a whole lot more to resonance, but these are a few of the broad strokes.  Enjoy!