"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."
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!
