All of us suffer blocks from time to time and very often the way forward is simply to take a different path, turn our ideas upside down and shift our thinking, even, dare, I say it, try out what you may think is the “the wrong thing”. Many of the great scientists have made discoveries like this when all else has failed.
The passaggio has been concerning me again lately, and as I am convinced that the passaggio holds the key to unlock the whole voice, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about it and waiting for an epiphany. I still, after many years tend to have a very slight clunk as I go from chest to head voice. Occasionally I am lucky and steer through it but I am not convinced that I have really pinned the process down exactly in my vocal muscles. The other day with the help of a very enlightened teacher I steered my way through the passaggio as never before. Without her encouragement I would never have executed the manoeuvre. Just at the point where I normally change into head mechanism (Eb to E) she told me to continue to hold the position and not change! Horror of horrors it felt as if I was pushing chest too high then just at the point where I would have given up I suddenly emerged into a head tone of such resonance I could hardly believe it. I had radically changed what I thought was my truth and found the answer. I suddenly realised that having this cut-off point – no chest beyond E – had locked me in and I had not discovered what would happen if I stuck it out. What did happen was that the percentage of chest voice got less and less (something Marilyn Horne talks about in “Great Singers On Great Singing”) and by waiting a bit longer I slid effortlessly into a very vibrant head tone. By the time it was necessary to be in head voice I was already in it! There has to be a feeling of stretch during this manoeuvre and you must leave the sound connected to the diaphragm. “Zen In The Art Of Archery” comes to mind as you must maintain the tension at the point of change just as an archer does.
So take my advice and don’t be afraid to take another path – you may find the answer you are looking for. Classical singers in the main treat their voices with kid gloves but even if you end up doing a manoeuvre that fails at least you can discard that idea and you are unlikely to damage your voice. Vocal damage happens over a long period of time – it does not happen with the odd bum note! Practice is not necessarily about making beautiful sounds – it is an opportunity to look at the raw material of your voice. Sculptors start of with a very rough block of stone and carve it into something beautiful and we should do the same with our voice. Practice should be about sound-making and the singing comes out of that.
PS Warning - if you are inexperienced you need to work with the help of a good teacher, as manoeuvres such as the one described in this post have to come after you have established a basically healthy vocal production.
1 Comment
October 31, 2008 at 12:52 am
Navigating the passagio is indeed the key to great singing…even just good singing. What you are describing is mixing and it needs to happen at every passagio: the vocal folds are allowed to shorten and thin out in order to accommodate the pitches of a new register. Thus a passage, or bridge is created by keeping some of the pressure required to maintain the approximation of the folds during this transition and introducing some of the new register at the same time. Descending is usually a bit easier, but it still requires the same mixing. In that case, it feels like settling in. Pretty cool!