Because several tenors have written to me lately describing similar problems in achieving sufficient head voice function, I decided to repost this previous account from Jan. 14, 2014 April 19, 2014: A Long Search Resolved: A Tenors Journey Several years ago, a tenor found me on my website (voiceteacher) and decided to come to New York for some lessons. This young man was an elementary music teacher, but his vocal problems had almost cost him his job. His vocal stamina was severely compromised and he finally took a leave of absence from his teaching position due to diplophonia. Three years previously, his first symptoms were indicating acid reflux. Even though he did not feel burning and later found that he most likely was not a candidate for reflux surgery, he had the procedure without a positive result. His voice still did not respond healthily. So his search for solving the mystery of his hoarseness and multiple pitches continued. He went to many laryngologists (some of them famous), and did a great deal of voice therapy. He was scoped repeatedly and was told there was nothing wrong with his vocal cords. Still the voice did not respond. He became hoarse in both speaking and singing. His upper register was often hoarse and he finally gave up singing altogether because it became painful. He then had vocal fold surgery called (at that time) a medialization of vocal fold. One facility had diagnosed him with a lack of vocal fold alignment, which was causing the problem. The incision was still visible at the base of his throat, where the surgery was performed. Again this procedure was unsuccessful. This young man spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to find his voice. He went to the most famous voice clinics, pursued the most famous voice therapists and yet his voice still did not work. At the point that he came to me, it was his last attempt at finding his voice. He was going to give up music altogether and go back to school to pursue an alternate career. This post is not designed to boast about my abilities. But rather it is to offer an awareness that could perhaps help others who have suffered from similar vocal difficulties and/or circumstances. We began working with Lindquest’s ‘voce cuperto’ or the tiny ‘u’ vowel using a lot of falsetto with the cords closed (solid tone). We worked on bringing this function as low as possible. When a male voice can bring his falsetto quite low, this is one small indicator of healthy vocal folds. The same is true of contraltos and mezzos. When they can bring the middle register (light mechanism) down quite low in pitch, it usually indicates healthier vocal folds. In this first session, I admit that this singer did not make much progress. He was suffering from tremendous emotional stress, and he could not stop listening to the sound and judging it. When a voice has not been dysfunctional over a longer period of time, the singer usually must make ugly sound before he/she can find beautiful sound. The true benefit of any exercise is more about function than sound. But it takes psychological strength to achieve this. The second session proved to be more productive, because we began to delve more into the procedure of releasing the larynx and establishing the ‘laryngeal tilt’. I used one of Lindquest’s exercises that he gave me, a simple and safe form of laryngeal massage. We then moved toward ascending arpeggios. These exercises are designed to drop vocal weight as the singer ascends in pitch and they are on my instructional CD (Instructional CD is available at cdbaby). Amazingly, after staying on the laryngeal tilt exercise in the middle register for quite a while, the vocal folds began to close more efficiently in the upper range. The voice ‘turned over’, a term that is often used in the professional vocal community. What this means is that true head voice functions from a coordination of a deep release (laryngeal tilt) and the wide ‘pillars of Fauces’ or the Italian ‘inner smile’. This inner smile is not to be confused with a wide embouchure or mouth position. We also added the Garcia ‘coup de glotte’ because the cords were not completely closing after inhalation. In session three, we combined what we had done with the laryngeal tilt and gentle closure of the vocal folds with some of the umlaut sounds that Lindquest used with me to connect the male high voice. Lindquest got these exercises from Joseph Hislop, last teacher of Bjoerling. They were designed and used to assist the singer in developing vocal fold strength in the highest range without stress on the vocal folds themselves. At the end of 5 sessions, this tenor could once again sing his high C, something he had not been able to achieve in over 4 years. It was an emotional experience for him, one that brought lots of tears of joy. He experienced this release after working carefully on the laryngeal massage and the laryngeal tilt in the middle register. So many Old World teachers spoke about the free high range coming from the proper alignment of the middle register. They were right. I see this every day of my teaching. Wishing you all al wonderful day! David For more concept of the Swedish-Italian School, peruse David Jones CD at cdbaby.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 11:29:17 +0000
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