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First of all I want to thank Professor Schutte not only for the invitation. I want to thank him

and the other scientists who really helped me to improve and correct (!) my voice teaching

with their deep insights. Opera singers made me what I did not want to be at first: a voice

teacher. I had some success in teaching exercises to reduce the vocal load for these stressed

professionals (helping to remove recent oedema). This means that I worked very much with

closed, rounded vowels and so called head voice exercises.

Today with the help of the voice science we can create different exercises of our own using

the vowel chart, choosing initial consonants to get a lower first formant for middle (mixed,

full head), a vocal tract nearly closed at the mouth, gradual reduction of the vibrating mass

of the vocal folds, correct coup de la glotte exercises after Garcia (1) connecting the vocal

folds, diphthongs which are suited to cross the vowel chart in search of harmonics.

The view of the ENT-doctor

In over 20 years of practice as an ENT-doctor and voice teacher I have seen damage of the

vocal folds primarily from too much breath pressure (hyperfunctional abuse of the voice)

due to lack of information on the part of the singer. This in turn causes imbalance of the

forces which make a voice acoustically strong, imbalance of the vibrato and pathology of

the vocal folds (e.g. oedema, nodules, varicosis). This is why a good voice teacher does not

teach powerful abdominal support, but balance!

Three possibilities which make a voice acoustically strong must be in balance (2):

1. Above the glottis

Impedance of the epilarynx
tube or any narrow Vocal tract
part of the vocal tract

2. At the glottis
More adductional contact
Vocal folds,
Higher closed quotient

3. Below the glottis Trachea

Raising the lung pressure
Dan ger

Fig. 1 Balance
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To be honest I have also taught things that I now regard as errors. The main reason for this

is the fact that some of the most important acoustic laws important for singing seem to be

counterintuitive. Let me address three of them, which often lead to dangerous clichés.

(After Seth Riggs: Singing for the stars, 1998)

1. “Place your tone forward“

One cannot direct or project sound or place the voice forward (especially not with the help

of breath support). Air can be directed. After the passage of the larynx however, airflow is

transformed into acoustic energy and aerodynamic laws are no longer applicable. In the

vocal tract the acoustic laws are valid (omnidirectional propagation of sound)! The feeling

of “placement” or focus depends on the vowel formants together with the

configuration of the vocal folds (formant tuning).

This means: placement and projection are by-products of correct tone production rather than

a means to it.

2. “Give your tone more space“

Unlike the aerodynamic (Bernouilli) pressure, the acoustic pressure is higher in

constricted regions because of the higher impedance of the air column(3). This is why a

narrow larynx outlet may be one of the ingredients of a gifted voice.

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Fig 2. Two tubes of inequal diameter: in an area of contraction the transmitted acoustic

pressure Pt is larger than in the expansion, indicated by the larger arrow. Titze 1994.

Of dogs, pigs and men or the narrow epilarynx tube.

Vocal tract
Glottis Mouth
dog

Glottis Pigs and men Mouth

Fig.3 the narrow epilarynx tube (dashed lines)

Dogs can only bark (chest) or howl (falsetto).Pigs and men in contrast are able to create

powerful high tones in middle register depending on the dimension of their epilarynx tube.

The narrow epilarynx tube * provides feedback energy to the glottis through high inertance

(dashed lines). Nevertheless there is a weak point at 600-700 Hz in this computer model

(arrow in Fig.4 left side) indicating a register transition at one half of this frequency (pitch

frequency times two because high chest is a F1/H2 –first formant/second harmonic-

configuration)(4).

But there‘s a trick: a vocal tract nearly closed at mouth.

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larynx * larynx
Mouth closed

Fig.4. A vocal tract nearly closed at mouth

With that occlusion at the mouth (Fig.4), we have an advantageous situation with a positive

inertance all the way through from 300 Hz (E4b) up to 1300 (E6) Hertz where most singers

have to earn their money (5). This is why exercises with that small mouth as lip trills, closed

vowels, hummings are so well suited to study the mix(ed) or middle and the shift to the

dominant second formant. For the female highs (700-1000 Hz) there is a better

solution with the F1/H1 configuration. We need that appropriate degree of inertia or

sluggishness of response (narrowing of some part of the vocal tract) in order to avoid an

unconnected falsetto (cracking) or a register violation. This mechanism is often called

middle, mix(ed) or full head register. The reader might object that tenors usually sing high

tones with a rather open mouth. Of course the mouth tends to be more open than in the

passaggio for the same vowel. But it is usually more rounded at the mouth than in high

chest.

DVD-example: at the end of “Ah si, ben mio” from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” Pavarotti shows

an even more rounded and closed vowel at the B4b “in ciel” in mixed (middle) than in the

following chest tone “precederti”for the same open [ae].

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3. “Give it more support“

Chest/Abdomen and Larynx are unequal partners regarding muscular strength. Large

muscles of the body can furnish more than 200 watts. Our glottis can use only about 2 watts

(3).

With high abdominal pressures singers risk damage of the vocal folds!

glottal valve glottis: 2 watts

Fig.5. unequal partners

Those large muscles should initially “learn” to deliver a steady flow. But they cannot even

achieve this, when the connection of the vocal folds is not perfect. The glottal valve has to

adjust the pressure with the help of the energy fed back from the vocal tract.

Hence the large abdominal and chest muscles are not suited to do the fine adjustment of the

subglottal pressure and the glottal adduction, because this 100 fold lever is too big. It‘s like

setting our watch with a pipe wrench. We rather destroy the watch. It is the other way

around: the glottal valve must have the leadership, and the chest and abdomen must learn to

adapt to it. 4 kPa of pressure (4 kilo Pascal or 40 cm of water) would be the weight of an

apple over the surface of the glottis and may be already enough for a forte tone.

One of my former voice teachers used to repeat that saying of Enrico Caruso: the high C of

a tenor affords the same power as a weight lifting of 100 kg. It is our duty as voice teachers

and medical doctors to eliminate such dangerous nonsense!

With today’s live DVD recordings we are all able to observe the great singers of our time.

None of them seems to “support”, but the abdomen seems to follow the needs of the glottis!!

Sundberg (6): is it the absence of such instances of increases of glottal resistance that

singing teachers call support?

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The often quoted saying: he who knows how to breathe well, knows how to sing well, is

less than a half-truth. It is totally misleading. (Compared with an organ: he who knows how

to tread the bellows, knows how to play the organ). Here too: effect is mistaken for the

cause. Breath support or correct breathing is a by-product of correct tone production rather

than a means to it!

Fig.6. Inspiration is comparable to filling a balloon with air.

When the closure of the valve (vocal folds) is not sufficient, even the strongest external

intercostal muscles (arrows) cannot prevent running out of air. The glottis is the controlling

apparatus and the most vulnerable part at the same time. Singing never causes oedema,

haematoma or other pathological swellings of the abdomen or vocal tract.

Victor Maurel (Verdis first Jago and Falstaff) says: “All is won when we regard the vocal

folds directly as the breath regulators and relieve them of all overwork through the

controlling apparatus of the chest muscle tension.“(7)

Formant Tuning. Formants are the maximum resonances of the vocal tract. Harmonics in

the vicinity of these formants are boosted. The two lowest formants “form” (are!) the vowel.

When the fundamental is high (high chest, middle and upper register), the harmonics may

be so widely spaced, that not all the formants can be energized. The fundamental (pitch) and

all the other harmonics are prescribed by the composer, so the adjustment must take place in

the vowels. With a subtle vowel modification a formant can be tuned to one of these

harmonics and boost the vocal intensity dramatically(3). The singer might gain 30 dB in

extreme cases(6). With a doubling (!) of the lung pressure the gain is only 6 dB.
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Which formants result in which vowels?

Barney and Peterson diagram In the mouth and pharynx it looks like that

2. Formant
i 2. Formant

u
a i

1. Formant
u a

1. Formant frequency

Fig.7. The vowels as a function of the two lowest formants (vocal tract resonances ; )corner vowels emphasized.

With the positions of the tongue below.

F2

F1

Fig.8. “corner vowels” (extreme positions of the tongue)

The corner vowels are not suited for the middle register, because they have a tendency to a

first formant-tuning (head or chest)

With the very With the very

closed vowels open vowels [a]
[i] and [u] there and [ae] there is a
is a strong I strong tendency
tendency to a to a F1/H2-tuning
F1/H1 tuning, = straining
(belting)
Which may not
OE extension of the
always be
chest voice
desired because
of the sound A
quality (warm, U
„middle“
female).
„falsetto“ narrowing „belting extension“

Fig.9. narrowing also in the acoustical approach

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There is another advantage of this acoustical approach. The singer keeps a relatively low

larynx without the fixed conscious control of the outer neck muscles, but stays flexibly

consistent with an optimal formant tuning, because the position of the larynx is important

for the wavelength and the frequency of the vowel formants! Sundberg (6): vowels sung

with a low larynx are… in the vicinity of [oe]:

Fig.10. Sundberg: Low larynx vowels

Compare the low larynx vowels in illustration 10 above with the vowels suited for the
passaggio to middle in figure 9.

Registers and Formants(4). (Middle and mixed are used as synonyms.)

High chest: F1/H2 including belting extension. F=formant, H=harmonic(partial)

Male mixed (middle):

a. lyric: F2/H2 . b. robust: F2/H3 for back vowels, higher CQ than in a.,

F2/H4 for front vowels.

Female mixed (middle): more variations (middle range, less tension than in male middle)

Open vowels: F2/H3 or H2.

Closed vowels: also F1/H1 (see sound qualities below)

Female head (upper): F1/H1

Sound Qualities.

F 1 / H 2: male or female chest (belt) quality sound.

F 2 / H 2: lyric mixed

F 2 / H 3 or H 4: brilliance, more “metallic” mixed.

F 1 / H 1: warm female sound for open vowels in the upper range

and for closed vowels in the middle range .

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Audio Examples, VoceVista.

1. Audio example “un aura amorosa“ Luciano Pavarotti F2/H3 (lyric spinto), Leopold

Simoneau F2/H2 (lyric Mozart tenor) both on A4, vowel [o].

2. Classical belt: end of “Goldfinger” sung by Shirley Bassey F1/H2 on D5b, “he loves

g[a]ld” instead of “g[ou]ld”, because for this frequency only F1 of [a] and [ae] is available

Fig11. Only F1 of open vowels at 1108 Hz (554 Hz x 2 because of the H2- tuning).

3. VoceVista: young female pop singer a capella, singing “somewhere over the rainbow”:

“Where you find me”

H2
where

H3 find
d

Fig.12. Female pop singer high chest (belt)F1/H2 on the word “where” above and

healthier belted mixed F2/H3 on the word “find” below.(4)

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In the power spectrum (right part in VoceVista above) we see the line spectrum of the

harmonics(8). Scientists might argue that the continuous spectrum of the formants cannot be

seen as such, but mainly in its influence on the harmonics (higher amplitude = boost). But

voice teachers and singers do not need to measure formants. They want to train their ears

with the help of a visual feed back! They want to coordinate their auditory impression with

the vocal tract (F) /voice source (H) configurations mentioned above. They want a diagnosis

of the registers and they want to find suitable vowels or diphthongs in order to create their

own exercises, when problems emerge. Notice also the loss of vibrato in “where” in (figure

12). The first passaggio (bridge) to the female middle and male upper range needs a vowel

modification customized exactly for every singer. Thus figure 13 can only show the

principle of narrowing or centralizing of the vowels like in the following words: we to sit,

let to German Lehm as in the Irish faith, cat to let, father to mother,

hot to but, boot to could…etc.

Fig.13. narrowing or centralizing, principle.

Singers have different vocal tracts and vocal folds. So diphthongs may be the better choice

in order to find an appropriate vowel/harmonic combination in a gliding manner paying

attention to any emerging boost without (!) increasing breath pressure of course (because

many singers mistake the boost created by increased lung pressure for an improved focus).

Especially the English language has many useful diphthongs for this purpose.
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F1/H1 in female upper register.

Fig.14. VoceVista female upper register: L. Price Nile aria C6.

The first harmonic (arrow) is dominating 25 dB (!) above the second harmonic. The dotted

vertical lines are at 1000 Hz intervals, the dotted horizontal lines are at intervals of 10 dB.

1985 Miller and Schutte wrote a very important paper on the effect of F1/H1 tuning in

soprano high notes (4). At that time it was difficult to explain how the high female

singing voice, with its relatively short closed quotient, can sustain long phrases of high

intensity, instead of running out of breath prematurely. Schutte and Miller measured the

pressure variations just above and below the glottis and found that the airflow actually

reversed during a short part of the glottal cycle. It is the experience of many female singers

of high notes that a properly tuned vowel along with a correct muscular adjustment in the

vocal folds offer an increased resistance to breath pressure contributing to a feeling of ease.

The sound reflections of the powerful F1/H1 tuning from the vocal tract may be so strong

that they even override the subglottal pressure and the airstream from the lungs.

This unexpected finding again shows the overestimation of breath support in voice teaching.

Singing means to make music with an invisible instrument for the most part. But even

beginners can recognize the relatively large respiratory movements of chest and abdomen.

So the overestimation of breath support at the cost of glottis and vocal tract is a specific

mistake of the beginner (singer and teacher). This even involves danger.
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Conclusion. Breath support, placement and vibrato are by- products of correct tone

production rather than a means to it.

But what can be seen as pre-condition for this correct tone production? Respiration: correct

posture for a regular breath supply (legato). Larynx: a correct connection of the vocal folds

in respect of pitch, intensity and register. Vocal tract: a correct vowel adjustment regarding

the desired pitch, intensity and register.

Today our singers need an up-to-date analysis of their problem, which leads to a diagnosis

up to the standard of science and exercises with a predictable effect.

This is aimed high, but we come closer to it every year.