The human voice poses some interesting challenges for those who wish to use it to its musical potential.
It’s an instrument, yet you can’t see it, Dunedin singer, vocal tutor and academic Judy Bellingham notes. Thus it’s important to have some understanding of how it works.
"Singers need to understand how it feels when it’s right as well as when it’s wrong.
"I expect my students to know a bit about physiology. They need to know where the larynx is; they need to know about vocal folds, which are tiny, about the size of a 10c coin.
"When a soprano sings a top C, their vocal folds vibrate around a thousand times a second.
"When a piano is tuned, the reference is A440, meaning the A string has to vibrate 440 times a second. So, too, do the vocal folds. They are a phenomenal piece of machinery. Thus I think it’s important for people to understand a little bit of that."
Bellingham points out that singing also uses different areas of the body.
In simple language, there are three key voices: head (used for singing high notes; in men, this is sometimes referred to as falsetto); chest (used for lower notes); and middle voice.
"It’s a bit like a recipe. When you learn to sing a scale or song, you might have to have a bit of chest, a lot of middle and a little of bit of head voice. Or if you are singing higher, you might need a lot of head voice and a little of middle and no chest at all."
Breath management is key to a good vocal technique.
Being able to sing long phrases with no apparent loss of power, tonality and/or subtlety (without passing out from a lack of oxygen) is an obvious advantage.
"Relaxation is huge," Bellingham says.
"If you look at Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing, it appears as if she is doing absolutely nothing. It’s like the proverbial duck swimming on the pond: it looks as if it is gliding along serenely, yet it is paddling hard underneath."
Although physical exercise is important for singers, Bellingham warns certain exercises can be counterproductive.
"The larynx in prehistoric man was actually a valve to keep the stomach contents in. It closes tight. When you do crunches or similar exercises, you close that valve tight in order to sit up,and that’s exactly what you don’t want to do.
"You can always tell a tense voice. When I’m auditioning people for the university, I listen to them as they speak. If they sound really tense, it can be difficult to get that out of their singing voice."
