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The right way to sing

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m an extremely mediocre singer with no technique at all, although I once took a short series of voice lessons during which my teacher managed to say that my singing voice was “not unpleasant.” Faint praise, indeed.

So I have no way of evaluating the helpfulness of the vocal techniques outlined in this piece, which describes how modern methods of singing have added strain to singers’ voices and how to sing in order to reduce that strain.

What I want to write about is the singer Adele. The article says:

Voice specialists liken the physical toll on singers and stage performers to what athletes endure. Surgery to the professional singer’s vocal cords is what ligament reconstruction has become to the football player’s knee. Dusty theatres, stuffy airplane cabins, erratic eating and sleeping patterns, the stress of living off stingy contracts – all affect the vocal cords. Add to it the occupational hazard, at least in opera and classical music, of taking on roles that require you to sing above your natural range, and the cords become extremely susceptible to injury…

The rise in vocal injuries is linked to a change in what we consider good singing. Across all genres, it has become normal to believe that louder is better. (One reason that Adele is such a big star is because her voice is so big.) As a result, singers are pushing their cords like never before, which leads to vocal breakdown…

…the emotionally charged, full-throated, operatic singing style Verdi and Wagner made popular in the late 19th century – and that Puccini amped up even further in the early 20th century – [has] infiltrated all singing genres and public performances. With each passing decade, the style grew more extreme.

So apparently a combination of straining for emotion as well as volume has damaged vocal cords, and this is what happened to Adele and many others.

I don’t know about the many others (especially the opera singers), because I’m not familiar with them. But I have noticed something about Adele and certain other pop singers, which is that even as an amateur who knows next to nothing about voices, I hear tremendous strain and artificiality in their voices all the time. But to my ear it doesn’t depend on volume at all. The goal seems to be to express emotion, particularly suffering and sorrow, although at times it might be passion, and I hear it as a squeeze or a grind in the voice in addition to a tendency to slide from note to note rather than to be crisp.

Diction is affected, too. The words are somewhat slurred, and the effect is of someone slightly tipsy or under the influence of some drug or other, or just awakened from sleep or about to go to sleep. To me, they all sound rather the same and quite repetitive. How this is accomplished vocally I have no idea, but I figure that if it sounds like stress even to me, it most likely is stress.

Comments

The right way to sing — 39 Comments

  1. I’m always amazed at how so many hard living rock singers have any voice left to be out performing in their 60s, 70s etc. All the drinking and smoking can’t be good on the vocal chords and lungs.

    Granted many can’t sing their songs in the same key as originally recorded but they can still be out there putting on a show.

  2. I recall an interview with Bruce Springsteen in which he was asked about vocal injuries because he often sang loud and hard. He said he hadn’t had any problems but speculated it was because when he sang loud, he didn’t try for a pure sound but allowed his voice to go hoarse and raspy.

    Maybe so. I don’t know how well that theory held up over time.

  3. I dislike the currently trendy nasality of voices, both singing and speaking. Especially in women. That chirpy childish voice that so many, 30-somethings use. Adele’s singing nasality, with the dissonant sliding tones rather than actual notes, bleh. You can remove that nasality with practice. I have no idea what the problem is with regard to slurring or mangling diction, but my ancient ears just won’t process it. Give me Jackie Evancho.

  5. Oy, it’s a big subject, this. Wanting some cordoning off maybe.

    Electronic amplification is a whole deal in itself. Wagner, Verdi, Puccini had no inkling of this. Rockers, I guess, can’t live without it.

    Beauty in the voice (think say, Jessye Norman, recently deceased) isn’t what pop seems to desire. Nor strength as a component of that beauty.

    To say nothing of the rise since the mid to late 70s of a tidalwave of over ornamentation. Simple vocal line? Ha! Fuggetaboutit!

  6. physicsguy,

    Yep, Ann Wilson may be the best. Her vocal on ‘Crazy On You’ in the 1970s is killer. And her performance of it at their Hall of Fame induction a few years ago was still pretty good.

  7. Of course the major change in recording in the last 20 years or so is auto tune. It’s really folly to praise the vocals on almost any recording from this century as they are likely not true.

  8. The true vocal cords (there are “false” cords immediately superior) are an incredible example of our divine creation. The two cords are arranged in the transverse plane as a V, with the apex of the V anterior, the gap progressively widening between them in posterior direction unless that gap is partially closed by vocalization, the tightening of the cords, which are delicate muscles. Think of them as the equivalent of piano wires, tuned to different notes by nerve impulses as they come close and closer to each other with a given note. In some folks, the brain can recall the precise settings of the cords (Give me an “A” !).
    The entire larynx is an incredibly delicate, amazingly complex muscular structure.

    Evolution? Nah!

  9. Some people have naturally big chests; the resonant chamber (think cello body here) vs other singers who do not (so think viola instead) make for “big” sound. The vocal power produced by these different bodies, given an assumption of equivalent wind column control and pitch range in each, cannot be the same.

    So “roles”, “repertoire”, what-have-you, will divide or parcel out to fit capacities, propensities, etc. To these resonant bodies we add the face/head shape and conformity — the sinuses’ volume, shape of the articulating surfaces, soft tissues of the throat, glottis, palette, teeth, tongue, and the rest add to make “voice”, whatever the heck that is. But that it is something we can recognize instantly as distinctly this one, not that one, we little doubt.

    Pitch range of a full voice is a wholly different matter (setting falsetto aside for the moment). Yet again this will largely be governed by the nature that brung us, with some limited extension possible at the margins.

  11. Julie Andrews arranged for a procedure on her vocal chords. It turned out quite badly and she had to stop singing professionally. Joan Rivers was undergoing a bronchoscopy investigating the causes of her raspy voice when the procedure went haywire and she was left in a coma. Rivers had had a long history of employing surgeons to attempt to arrest the aging process. (What was curious about Rivers is that her career never at any time depended on her looks or her singing voice; as for the rest of her life, both she and her sister married late in life and never re-married after they were widowed).

    There comes a time when you just gotta shuffle off.

  12. This was a really interesting article. I had to do a search for Adele, to listen to her (I don’t keep up with popular culture or music at all). That is a big voice, and it’s as if she’s shouting all the time. No wonder it got hurt.

    I am an untrained choir singer with a nice soprano, a little over two octaves in range. My current choir director spends her time telling me to try to suppress my natural vibrato, and that’s really hard to do. But I can increase my volume without the sort of forcing I saw Adele doing on You Tube. My breath control and voice control have improved significantly with ten years of Pilates mat classes. I can sing the soprano line in the Hallelujah Chorus, for instance, taking breaths only with phrases and not in the middle of them. I’m hoping to be able to sing for some years to come. If I shouted, like these singers, I’d probably have to quit sooner.

  13. full-throated, operatic singing style Verdi and Wagner made popular

    And here Bernard Shaw claimed that Wagnerian singers would live forever because singing Wagner’s operas was such healthy exercise.

  14. My favorite female vocalist is Tracy Nelson lead vocalist for Mother Earth, and a long, still active, solo career. I do like Adele, but she is limited in terms of what types of songs she can sing. I also enjoy Kelly Clarkson: The Trouble With Love Is happens to be my favorite female vocal.

    And then there is the smokey mystery of everything Dusty Springfield ever recorded. So many talented singers, some well known, others obscure such as Karen Savoka.

  16. Jo Stafford. And Paula bar Giese on youtube doing “Mille Regretz”.Enya, afaik, had two advantages; she sang the really good works, and she didn’t strain.

  17. I was once enchanted by the young Charlotte Church’s version of the “Flower Duet”:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrqjcQQMdtg

    I read up on Church and discovered there were professionals (at least so-claimed) who were aghast her teacher allowed her to perform the song. Something about Church being too young and therefore risky.

    I have no idea, but found it interesting.

    Soon after Church crossed over into pop and made millions, so happy ending I guess. Sorry to say, she also became a predictable political wacko.

  18. I can sing the soprano line in the Hallelujah Chorus, for instance, taking breaths only with phrases and not in the middle of them.

    Kate: Well, I’m impressed! I’d like to hear you…

    I was once surprised to hear my fave quirky female trio, “The Roches,” (really sisters) take on the Hallelujah a cappella with great verve and heart. Not their territory at all.

    “The Hallelujah Chorus” performed by The Roches
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiwMoW003Fo

  20. Nobody Atall on October 28, 2019 at 4:58 pm said:
    I dislike the currently trendy nasality of voices, both singing and speaking.
    * * *
    It’s bad for the singers too.
    If the voice is properly projected, volume alone will not harm the vocal cords; as sdferr points out, the cords are not where the volume is generated.
    Emphasis on “properly” – I suspect the electronic age accessories of mic and speaker don’t give very good training in the early years of modern singers, and that’s beginning in the fifties. Some exceptions for Broadway and operatic stars, but I’m not sure any current ones could get their pipes past the footlights anymore.

    Kate – hoorah for you!
    I am a moderately decent singer with fairly good technique (excellent instructors in HS & afterward); one of them commented that the voice was at its best after age 40.
    So, hope for us old geezers after all — but now I can’t stay up late enough for stage work.
    (Just for blogging!)

  21. For those curious about the soprano line Kate sings, check out Terre Roche at the 2:00 minute mark in the previous link:

    “The Hallelujah Chorus” performed by The Roches
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiwMoW003Fo

    Tradition is the audience stands during the “Hallelujah Chorus” because King George II stood when he first heard it performed.

    Some argue George II stood because he had to acknowledge the Divine King. Others say he was so moved by the piece he had no choice. A few say he stood just to stretch his legs….

  23. Wow, huxley, I enjoyed the Roches’ performance. I especially enjoyed the moment when the soprano was holding those long notes while examining her nails, a pose which she had to abandon as she went up the scale. 🙂

  24. Very interesting voice article.

    But I came here, now, to mention how surprisingly fine a movie was the Russian “Bolshoi”.
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6278008/

    Probably not as much dance as Neo would hope for, but great drama. Young Julia actually cuter than the young adult Julia, in the flashbacks.

    Many good side notes. Late in the movie a male dancer complains about aging, being 40, and losing a milimeter in his jump, maybe every day, and there’s nothing he can do. Mostly a girl overcoming obstacles story, with surprises, and done very well.

    Dancing, not singing, but both are art. And conservatives need to conserve …
    beauty.

  25. 1. In the current age of amplification and digital enhancement, it is not necessary for singers to shout, or “project”. This means that many are pushed into the limelight with little training. Paradoxically amplification has led to longer concert/theatrical runs, with less off-time for singers.

    2. Jazz and musical theater have created a taste for growly, raspy, non-croony “authentic” or unpracticed voices.

    These two factors, rather than volume of sound, are causing this problem in pop music.

    3. In opera – the gals profiled in the article are harking back to the well-known “Bel Canto” or “appogio” singing technique, which never disappeared. It got pushed out of the conservatories by “scientific” instruction by academic “experts” who never sang.

    4. While these gals perpetuate the age-old tradition of weaving Svengali-like mystique around vocal training, any number of other teachers use these techniques. Look at master classes on Youtube by singers like Joyce DiDonato and Thomas Hampson (who has had a long career) and coaches like former opera singer Michael Trimble – they are all talking about effortless singing based on deep breathing that maximizes resonance, with little muscular exertion in the throat.

  26. I have the Roches’ album, bought because of their Hallelujah chorus version, which I heard on (college) radio (KFJC – the jr college in the Bay Area). It’s quite good, sort of amazing for three women. The studio version is a bit better on pure acoustics, but seeing how good they are live was perhaps more impressive.

    They also have some humor, and did a fine version of Steady with the Maestro
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oc-c2iAPzU
    (and she raises his baton…)

    I was in the choir for a couple of years at the Naval Academy. After I left, they filmed a Christmas Messiah performance of their’s (in great dress blues uniforms).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEm_s6fA6P0 (28 min)

    https://youtu.be/sEm_s6fA6P0?t=1541 (keyed to Hallelujah)
    (arghh, last minute cut! how could they…???)

    Joining the choir was one of the few ways first year midshipmen could get off of the (beautiful) campus. They’re known as plebes all year, but in chorus voice & singing were most important. I have great rhythm, good voice, barely ok keeping on key and hitting the right notes. (Am Idol killed the karaoke star – I miss karaoke all over).

    Memories. Singing was part of the good times. Including singing in the car on family trips, which has also almost died due to smartphones.

    Hope the authors of the article are successful in getting back to less loud, more natural singing.

  28. Regarding singing; the ability to sing appears to be much more distributed among the female genome. It seems like most women can naturally sing well, or at least appealingly, whereas most men cannot. My wife and daughter both have good voices and neither has spent any time studying singing, or voice. They also have an amazing ability to recall lyrics. My sons and I “know” more about music and spend more time playing instruments, but we aren’t natural singers, and this seems to be relatively consistent with the human race, from what I see in church and elsewhere.

    My guess is my wife and daughter are better mimics. They hear a woman like Adele sing a song and can reproduce the performance, in the manner a mynah bird would; whereas my sons and I think about the components and attempt to piece them together when we sing. My son who is by far the best pianist of our group is a horrendous singer. I’ve tried to help him. My guess is he is overthinking it; actually thinking about the notes and their relationships to one another without using his ear and listening. I think this is similar to a mistake a lot of people make when trying to speak a foreign language; over thinking it.

    I’ve thought about this a bit. I’ve held to the theory that men evolved to be stoic and silent while hunting; whereas women evolved to be in constant communication to keep predators away from their groups as they gathered. Also, perhaps, mothers mimicking the sounds of their own children may help with bonding?

  29. On the unfortunate occasions when I am exposed to it, I find pop music depressing; the lack of innovation in the compositions themselves, and the lack of talent in the singers. As others have mentioned, auto tune is an abomination, as is over amplification. It’s incredible how many poor singers make a good living singing!

    On the other hand, it’s astounding how many amazing singers there are! Talented singers like Kate and Tom Grey are rare, but supply still outstrips demand, as it also does for musical instrumentation as well as the visual arts. If you listen to a jazz station on the radio or Pandora or Spotify or Youtube there is a never ending conveyor of (mostly female) amazing singers. As good as the best that ever were, yet many barely earn a living off their talents.

    It’s hard to argue against the “American Songbook” being the best music for singers. It seems like all singers, no matter their origins, find their way to it. Even Rod Stewart is recording albums based on the classics! I doubt that will change. Songs will be added to it (likely from theatrical musicals, where many of the current songs in that genre originated), but it’s a guarantee great singers will be singing, “My Favorite Things,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and, “Mack the Knife” long after today’s pop hits are forgotten. Just as singers still gravitate to Handel’s, “Hallelujah Chorus” 279 years after it was written.

  30. The male vocalist in the band I am in took ill and I was pressed into service to fill in. I have now sung four numbers in front of 5 different crowds. My first performance was at a formal dinner of over 300 people!

    Except for a few numbers in a blues band I was in over 20 years ago I’d never sung on stage for a crowd. To top it off, I’m not a particularly good singer! So, I took it upon myself to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible to not embarrass myself. The good news is I have decent pitch. I can generally hit the right notes.

    It has been an interesting process. Although it seems obvious now, the biggest realization for me was that singing is its whole, unique thing, entirely. I know get what vocalists mean when they talk about their “instrument.” There are all kinds of things you can do to make sound come out of your mouth, beginning with how you open your mouth, and form sounds, and what you do with your jaw. As someone pointed out already, whether you push more sound out your nasal cavity or throat… Initially I was just hoping to stay in key and not forget any lyrics. As I sang more and more I realized there are a tremendous number of levels and layers of things one can do, and it could take years to become adept at a basic level.

    At my 3rd performance I actually forgot the lyrics at the end of a stanza and was grateful it had happened. I knew it was inevitable. Just as I botch plenty of things when playing my instrument, I knew a key to singing would be learning to cover for mistakes without it impacting the performance, or the audience noticing.

    A surprise has been that my verbal, reading skills are a great benefit to singing. I’ve always been a good listener. Based on the writing and personalities I read here, I imagine a fair amount of the commenters, and Neo herself share this trait. When I speak there is a part of me that remains detached and acts as an editor or critic, tweaking my word choices as I go along and staying ahead of the words that come out of my mouth. When I got up to sing in front of an audience that Editor/Critic was there, and I quickly understood it could be a useful asset to make up for my lack of a naturally great tone. I found myself “editing” my sounds to compensate for my strengths and weaknesses; holding some notes longer, clipping other shorter, skipping still others entirely.

    Like me, I imagine most musicians can carry a tune, but now I understand how, even a talented singer (which I am not) can devote a lifetime to mastering singing, and still have hills to climb.

  31. Another interesting surprise:

    When I focused on a song from the standpoint of my having to sing it, with a group, in front of an audience, I found my preferences changed. A song I was never particularly interested in has become one of my favorites because it fits my limited abilities well, whereas I’ve learned a few of my favorites don’t fit my range* and/or lack of technique.

    *Since I’m currently only singing a few numbers at about half our gigs I don’t expect the band to learn songs in new keys for my sake.

  32. “On the unfortunate occasions when I am exposed to it, I find pop music depressing; the lack of innovation in the compositions themselves, and the lack of talent in the singers. As others have mentioned, auto tune is an abomination, as is over amplification. It’s incredible how many poor singers make a good living singing!”

    Endorsed. So endorsed.

    Too, I think many good voices, even possibly fine voices go to waste or ruin, either in misapplication of material or in misuse of the voice itself. Alas, such are the demands of commerce or popularity.

  33. sdferr,

    To your point, I think that is why so many truly good singers end up on the American Songbook. It’s wonderful, beautiful music made for singers. A talented singer can add so much to her or his interpretation. Most pop and rock songs have a very limited range and a great deal of repetition. There isn’t much a singer can do with them, no matter how talented.

    Many years ago comedian Joe Piscopo sang a medley of big band arrangements to rock hits impersonating Frank Sinatra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKT7cJGpY4

    It’s pretty fun and worth a listen if you’ve never heard it (just 4 minutes and 39 seconds of your life).

    Paul Anka did a complete album, “Rock Swings” following that same formula. I actually like some of the Anka versions.

  35. Parker, I am also a huge fan of Tracy Nelson. I was lucky enough to see her perform in a small club in Berkeley about 15 years ago. One of the most underappreciated singers ever, easily as good as Bonnie Raitt.

  36. Ben David, you are absolutely right. My folks were conservatory-trained classical musicians (back in the late ’20s), and Dad was an operatic tenor. Up until sometime in my 30s, at least, I’d inherited Dad’s vocal talent…in those days, you didn’t cheat in Aeolian Hall or at the Met by using a microphone — at least not in opera or lieder, you didn’t. Point being, yes, a properly trained sing was taught to breathe from the diagram, to be able to hold a note or sing a long phrase on a single breath, to project project project. (Actors, too.)

    Also, you were supposed to be able to sing on pitch.

    .
    Rufus (er, Groucho):

    “On the unfortunate occasions when I am exposed to it, I find pop music depressing; the lack of innovation in the compositions themselves, and the lack of talent in the singers. As others have mentioned, auto tune is an abomination, as is over amplification.”

    sdferr on October 29, 2019 at 2:50 pm : What You Said. Also on October 28, 2019 at 5:17 pm on “over-ornamentation.”

    AesopFan on October 29, 2019 at 1:18 am: What You Said, too.

    It seems to me that beauty in singing isn’t in vogue much these days. What’s wanted is noise noise noise, a good steady 4/4 rhythm, and the more clichéd the harmonic progressions the better.

    When “musicians” have to wear earmuffs so they won’t go deef, Music has fled over the hills and far away, with her hands over her ears.

    And playing this junk at top volume in the house all the time can’t be doing people’s hearing any good either.

    Whoever above praised Jackie Evancho, at least when she was 10 or so (?), was right. I remember a duet she sang with Sarah Brightman, and if you didn’t know which was the professional, you’d swear it was Miss Evancho. She had the voice, and mirabile dictu, she sang on pitch! Miss Brightman, not so much.

    Don’t know what’s become of the young lady. I hope that she doesn’t give in to impulses that betray or even destroy her talent. (Of course, she used the microphone too…but her voice had depth to it — a full, rich sound that I haven’t elsewhere lately.)

    Very interesting discussion. Thanks.

  38. Random thoughts:

    Saw Ian Andersen about ten years ago. His voice was almost totally shot. He had to have a second vocalist to take some of his work.

    Rosemary Clooney had a wonderfully mellifluous voice.

    My vocal cords have issue such that if I speak long or loudly, it is quite painful. I can’t carry a time, but singing hurts, too. So I cringe when I hear Adele, in sympathetic pain. Her vocal cords have to be in worse shape than mine — and I took a long time to get to this degree of bad.

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