How to Sing - Posture and Breathing

The following pages are about producing a good vocal tone.

They are intended to help the community choir member
whose formal education may not have included advanced
voice training.
1. Posture
There is a good reason to start with posture. It is the foundation on
which all other techniques stand.
You have heard of "good" posture, but what does that mean to a
singer? Certainly it is not the ram-rod straight posture one
associates with a military inspection. Nor is it any stiff and formal
pose. Good posture for a singer is instead:

Spine straight and centered for balance but not stiff.

Ribs raised as if at the peak of a normal breath.
Shoulders squared but relaxed (not rounded).
Head up as though looking in the distance. Note: the chin should be
at a normal angle to the neck, neither stretched up nor tucked
down, to allow the vocal chords maximum flexibility.
Feet slightly apart.
Knees slightly bent.

2. Breathing
Once your posture is correct you can learn to breathe properly.
"What," I can hear some of you say, "is he talking about? Breathing
is a natural thing. I know how to breathe."
Let me explain: if you have ever observed a baby asleep, you may
have noticed that the stomach goes in and out while the infant is
breathing. Think about this for a moment. Take a deep breath. Did
your shoulders rise? Your chests expand? If they did then you have
a lot to un-learn in order to give your voice a properly supporting air
column.
Go back to the baby again. Now, assume good posture as discussed
above - spine straight, ribs slightly lifted, shoulders squared but
relaxed - and then expand only your stomach. Did that feel a bit

awkward? Try to do it without moving your shoulders or ribs. You'll

find a natural limit to the expansion you can get before things start
to move. That is all the breath you need to sing.
Now the next part is easy -maybe. Breathe out. Keep your ribs and
shoulders in position (but not tight) and push in until there is no air
left. Again moving only your abdomen breathe in. Push it all out
again. If you can learn to do this repeatedly with little or no
movement in the shoulders you are well begun. All good choral
singing begins with these two steps.
On the next page we will begin to discuss tone production. What
makes a good singing tone? This page will discuss this issue, as well
as taking a look at some techniques for reducing the risk of injury.

How to Sing - Tone Production

These pages are about producing a good vocal tone. They are
intended to help the community choir member whose formal
education may not have included advanced voice training.
What makes a good tone?
Generally, in Western culture a good vocal tone is considered to be
one which is full, clear, and audible.
A good vocal tone should not be stident, shrill, scratchy, or breathy.
It should also not sound "forced" or "strained," but instead should
sound as if it flows effortlessly from the singer.
Within that definition is still a great deal of room for individual vocal
timbre (pronounced TAM-bur), or characteristic sound, and for
stylistic interpretation as called for by the music being performed. A
singer trained to the Opera would use a different quality of voice
than a member of a vocal Jazz group, yet both must produce a
"good" tone or face the unemployment line. What is considered
appropriate for early music in the style of Palestrina would be
entirely inappropriate for a major work with a symphony orchestra,
such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

How, then, is a singer to produce a good tone appropriate to the

variety of musical styles typically encountered in a community choir?
It all begins with the basics.
3. Producing the Tone: Placement
Beginning with good posture and breath support, the singer must also
relax the jaw, so the air passage is not restricted in any way. The
tongue should be relaxed and behind the lower teeth, and the throat
slightly open - as though on the verge of a yawn. Be careful not to
force the tongue down or exaggerate the yawning sensation, as
these produce tension on the larynx and can make the voice sound
"swallowed" and artificial.
Take a comfortable breath - not too large, but sufficient to support a
sustained pitch. With the jaw relaxed and the throat open begin to
sing with an "ahh" sound. Experiment with this sound, opening the
throat more, then less, while singing at a comfortable volume.
Notice the difference in your sound when you force the throat to
open too far. Also hear how pinched it becomes if you don't open it
far enough. Find the range of positions that are most comfortable
for your throat. That is what you want to feel when you are singing.
4. Putting It All Together:
Now you can put all these elements together: posture, breathing,
and placement. You are ready to begin singing. You now have the
foundation of good tone, so it is time to practice what you have
learned. Try putting these elements together with some simple
songs, ones which are familiar to you so you don't have to
concentrate on the words or notes, but can instead think about
maintaining this comfortable feeling as you sing. Try singing them
first in the middle of your vocal range. Then move up a few keys
into a higher part of the voice. If it is too high, don't push. Instead,
concentrate on your breath support, and you will find yourself able
to sing higher with less strain.
One word of caution here: Learn to recognize when your voice
is becoming fatigued. Much damage is done to the vocal chords of
amateur singers when they are tired, as they often try to
compensate for the fatigue by resorting to poor vocal technique.
Always go back to the basics of posture, breathing, and placement.

This will do much to reduce the risk of vocal injury, allowing for
years of singing enjoyment.
5. Odds and Ends
Some miscellaneous tips for the amateur singer:

Listen carefully at all times.

Learn to hear the other parts as you sing, and work on tuning with
them.
Listen to the vowel sounds. Try to match the vowel sounds of the
rest of the choir. When everyone is singing exactly the same vowel
the perceived volume of the choir will be amplified, as the sound will
be in better focus.
Take a foreign language. Concentrate on the sounds of the
language. Your singing will be improved by your broader knowledge.
Listen to other choirs. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area
with several choirs, be sure to attend some concerts. Listen for what
works and what doesn't. If you don't have access to other local
choirs, look for a variety of choral music recordings at your local
record store. If they don't have a good selection of classical music
then join one of the record clubs and build your library.
Try something new. Even if you don't like it, you will have learned
something.
Enjoy yourself. Relax and have fun. Remember, you sing because
you like to sing. Sometimes the stress of rehearsing and performing
can tend to make you forget that. Get back the enjoyment.

Blending the choir - part 1

Many people who listen to our choir comment on how each section
sounds like one voice. This is not by accident, or good luck, but is a
tribute to the work our director puts in on fine-tuning the choir.
It takes a well-trained ear to match voices so they reinforce the
sound he is after, and it is not something I could possibly hope to
teach in a text article online. I can, however, offer some tips that
will make your director's job easier.
First and foremost is intonation. If you can't sing in tune you will
never achieve the blend that's necessary for a top-notch choral
sound. There are some excellent ear-training resources available.
Check out your local college bookstore for the kinds of material
being used by the school to train music students. But the most
important part of intonation is active listening.
Active listening involves learning to hear your own voice when you
sing, and recognizing the difference between what you hear in your
head and what others hear. A tape-recorder is an excellent tool for
discovering what your voice sounds like to others.
Once you can pick your own voice out, listen to the sound of your
section. Are you producing notes that match exactly the pitch of
your section? You should not hear any 'beats' or waves of sound.
Those indicate a difference in the pitch.
Another, often neglected, component of singing in tune and blending
the sound is vowel alignment. By that I mean singing exactly the
same vowel sound that everyone else in the choir is singing when
you sing the same text. It is easy to hear the effect of different
vowel sounds if you sing vastly different vowels, for example some
people singing an EEEE sound while others sing an OOOO on the
same pitch. That's because the shape of the vowel alters the
overtones of the pitch, and affect the intonation. What is not so
obvious is that the SAME problem with intonation exists when you
have two different versions of AH going on at the same time.
This is just the beginning of the problems a choir faces with
blending. Next article I'll discuss some of the common solutions, and
which ones are better than others.