SCIENCE LOOKS AT SINGING THE SEMINAR

as Research and New Views Make Better Choral Singing Easier

(Adapted from the handout and visuals of a seminar given at the Maine Music Educators Conference, May 2003)

Hi, Im Ray, this is Pete, and you all look eagerly waiting to soak up new information!
Were all here to look at some interesting views of singing as suggested by recent research
and progress in the tools and pedagogy for singers. First, lets consider whats been known for
years in the sciences of acoustics and physics a brief review in the mechanics of singing.

SOUND
(Deep breath) Good old AIR! Its all around us. We need it to breathe, and though we
cant see it, we know its there; we can hear it in the wind, see a breeze ripple curtains, blow
smoke and scatter papers. But most of all, for our purposes, it brings sounds to us from other
places.
I clap my hands, and you hear the pop. Ive just quickly compressed some air, then
quickly released it. This compressed air wants to expand to resume its usual state of equal
pressure, so as it expands, it presses the air molecules about it sending out a pressure wave in
all directions, pushing nearby molecules that push their nearby molecules that push their
nearby molecules out and so on. But right behind the pressure wave there is a void a
rarefaction a place where there is less air pressure, because, for a moment, there are fewer
air molecules there. So, we have created a wave of higher air pressure, followed by a wave of
lower pressure moving out to become SOUND. You heard the pop, didnt you? These
waves of more air, then less air are similar to the waves you may see in the ocean, where
a heap of lots of water is followed by a trough of less water.

Random Air Molecules Compressions of Air Figure 1

Please direct your attention to
the solid black vertical bar in this
figure. Imagine the arrows moving it
back and forth rapidly, pushing air
molecules to the right creating a
compression of air, then moving
rapidly back to the left creating a
rarefaction, a space of many fewer
molecules. If the vibrating vertical
bar were to be vibrating regularly,
that is, each vibration happening at
the same interval of time, when
these compressions and rarefactions
strike the ear of a nearby listener, he
would very likely hear a tone of a
specific musical pitch.

Rarefactions from NEXTEP Incorporated

Now, were we all to stand side by side in a line holding hands and I squeeze the hand of a
person at the end of the line, telling him to squeeze the hand of the person next to him, and
he squeezes the next hand, and so forth, the squeeze moves down the line in a wave
although no one changes position. The wave propagates through the medium as a scientist
would say it. Youve now had a slight taste of physics. Lets go on.
 SCIENCE LOOKS AT SINGING

Sound Figure 2
In the right hand graph of this figure, the
height of the line represents the amplitude
or amount of pressure of the sound wave,
which in turn is heard as loudness. The
troughs, the low points of the graph are the
rarefactions. or points of lesser air pressure.
At the left, there is little or no pressure,
which is heard as quiet random noise, or no
sound at all
from NEXTEP Incorporated

Lets recognize that there are a few different types of sound; (1) those made by random or
unorganized waves, such as the clap I may make now and then, in no particular pattern, or
(2) like the sound of hissing steam, or of the wind. In general, even though the sounds are
complex, and can often be named these random, irregular sounds are usually called noise,
especially when contrasted to (3) periodic sound, where the pulses occur regularly, so many
cycles per second, lets say 261 cycles a second the frequency of middle C. The term
cycles per second is called Hertz, named for that famed German physicist Heinrich Hertz,
and abbreviated Hz. When waves of air pressure recur at regular intervals, we identify these
sounds as having pitch, and thus as tonal elements of music.

Figure 3
OOOOOO
A The boy turning bicycle pedals is
A an example of regular periodic motion;
by pedaling at a constant speed, each
B wave in the air is the same smooth
shape a sine wave.

B The boy blowing over the top of a

bottle causes air in the bottle to
resonate in a regular in-and-out
periodic motion, producing the same
Smooth sine wave smooth sine-wave shape.

C When the boy drops the bottle,

C the crash creates a sudden high-
amplitude wave, followed by random
sounds and amplitudes as each shard
of glass hits the pavement
Crash!

D The hiss of the surprised snake is

D Hissss
a great example of white noise, in
which all frequencies are represented
more-or-less equally. We use white
noise when we whisper.
2 from NEXTEP Incorporated
artwork by Stephanie Farrington

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As an example of all this in practice, imagine a person standing at one end of a hall and
waving the air by singing middle C at 261 Hertz. These waves of pressure and rarefaction
(sound vibrations) move through the air at over 1,100 feet a second to strike an eardrum that
then also vibrates at 261 Hz, moving tiny bones in the ear, the ossicles, that convey the
vibrations through an oval window to that spiral thing, the cochlea, where there are
thousands of little hairs called cilia. Each of these receptor hairs is arranged in position in the
fluid of the cochlea and responds only to a certain rate of vibration. These cilia, now
selectively responding to the singers pitch, send electro-chemical impulses up the auditory
nerves to the parts of the brain that have learned to interpret these as SOUNDS of that
certain pitch. In a gross oversimplification, in order to view an overall aspect of the process, a
singer sets up a pattern of vibrations in the larynx that, in turn, transmits an analogous
pattern of vibrations into the air, which pattern then impinges on the listeners eardrum and
transfers this pattern through the ossicles to the oval window, that vibrates in accordance
with that original pattern, exciting the cilia in the cochlear fluid that responds best to that
pattern of vibration and thus sends a signal up the auditory nerve to the brain area that
recognizes that particular pattern of sounds. From the moment that sound is produced in the
larynx as vibrations of the vocal fold lips, all that physically exists is patterns of vibration in
the air, which patterns more or less complete their journey as a pattern of vibrations in the
auditory nerves and the brain.
from Rossing, The Science of Sound

Figure 4 How sound reaches through the air, the ear, the cochlea and on into the brain

So much for Acoustics 101. There it is at one end of the hall people move the air by
singing; at the back of the hall, people are moved by the story, the perceptions of sound
patterns and emotions produced by these vibrations in the air. There you have it! Next
subject, please.

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HOW SINGING WORKS
Well, theres more to sound than what we just talked about, isnt there? Yes, there is.
Here, well look into using sound as singers. You all know a lot about singing already, but for
the mechanics of it, the way the scientist sees it, this, in a nutshell, is what happens:

Mentally, of course, we need to be prepared; to have a goal in mind as to what we want to

sing and how we want to do it. But physically, it all really must start with good singing
posture, the body relaxed, but properly aligned. Theres much to be learned and practiced to
get posture done right, but having done this, were back here again with our old friend: AIR.
To best use the AIR, we have to fill up the tank and the reserve tank, too it could be
a long trip! So, we open the top, the throat, and pour air into the tank. Theres plenty of it up
there thats pressing down on us at 14 pounds per square inch, so we neednt do any sucking
in; just open the top of the tank and let the air fall right in. Weve all been breathing for a
long time now, but our everyday breathing is rather shallow; really no more work than just
getting a little air in every few seconds. BUT, when were about to sing, we need more than a
couple of pints we need GALLONS! we need to be able to fill that tank!

Figure 5
The man in the left sketch (a) has distended his
abdomen, thus pulling down on the diaphragm,
as happens naturally when he relaxes and allows
it to permit inspiration. When he does this
effectively, as good singers do, and in a relaxed
fashion allows his larynx to remain open, the
atmospheric pressure forces air to rush into his
lungs with little effort from him. Our man has
also held his chest cavity expanded and can feel
his ribs grow outward, taking in even more air for
the reserve tank. (Very handy for singing)

In view (b) he has tightened the muscles of his

abdomen and the intercostal muscles of his chest
and back to force air out of the lungs up through
the trachea where, at the larynx, the muscles
restrict the air flow until they let air begin to
pass, thus causing vibrations of the vocal folds
and the puffs of air that exit therefrom to strike
the ears as sound.

from Rossing, The Science of Sound

As you know, if we do this using our abdominal musculature, we make as much room as
possible inside, down there. To make all this room in the tank, we need to kind of let the
bottom drop out by pushing out on the belly to make more room inside. And we also need to
expand the rib cage to make even more room for air. Then, if weve done that right by
opening the throat, the pressure outside pours the air right in. Neat, eh? This is the only good
start for singing well. But, if you do it wrong, youre in lots of trouble trying to do all the
other stuff you need to do to sing well. You wont sing well with half a tank if you need more.
Remember, its all about Air Management. The air is free; the management isnt. One needs
to work at getting it right! Then, in time it becomes habit, and is automatic.

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After filling ones lungs with air, singing begins with tension of the many abdominal
muscles forcing in and up on the diaphragm and causing pressure on the lungs. The singers
firm and steady control of the these abdominal muscles, as well as a counter-action by
thoracic muscles, gives the needed control of air pressure to provide that elusive function
known as support, so necessary to maintain a steady tone quality. Lack of support causes
faltering vocality.

The Valve (Glottis) and the Vocal Tract

Figure 6
from Rossing, The Science of Sound

This air under pressure coming up from the lungs then arrives at the larynx, where its
either stopped or admitted by the glottis, the open-and-close part of the larynx. Bringing
terminology up-to date again, vocal folds are the lips that open and close, to produce our
sound. We once called these vocal cords; but they arent cords. Actually, the primary
physiological purpose of this rather complex structure, the larynx, seems to be that of keeping
anything other than air from going down the windpipe. Without this really effective gate, our
lungs could fill up with bits of food, or one could drown with a drink of water.
With enough air in the lungs, and the muscles doing their job to provide pressure, the
larynx may relax some, allowing air to pass through in a relaxing sigh. But with a little extra
tension, or a little more pressure, these lips of the glottis pull in and start to flap together,
making a sort of motorboat sound. That vibrating air then makes its way up through the
vocal tract, where the shape of the tract fashions the sounds of language and song.
Many singers try to force a sound of singing upon themselves that really doesnt fit their
vocal mechanism. But theyd sound far better if singing in the most natural voice they have,
without pushing the sound. The better they can really hear themselves, the better theyll be
able to find how they really sound to others and how their body is designed to sing. When
they can find that voice when singing along with their natural-born equipment then
they can build on making the best sounds for them. The voice should fit the singers body. In
so many ways, fit, or concinnity, is really important.

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COMPOUND TONES
Sounds are produced by vibrating bodies. Tones are generated by periodically vibrating
bodies; that is, the vibrations recur at the same regular intervals of time ---- they have pitch.
For instance, there are 440 vibrations per second in 'concert A'. Its fundamental is 440 Hz.
The sine-wave tone we saw earlier (the boy on the bicycle) is a "pure" tone, resulting from
what physicists would call "simple harmonic (going around in a circle) motion." It has a
definite pitch, but that's all it has. It somehow lacks character, or color, or (musically
speaking) it lacks interest. Compared to a violin, a piano or the human voice, it lacks much of
what makes music so vital.
Luckily, most tones are 'compound' tones; in addition to their fundamental, they also
contain other so-called 'overtones' or partials. At their fundamental frequency, all
periodically vibrating bodies, such as a piano string or a pendulum, swing back and forth over
their entire length when struck or plucked. With no outside influence, theyll wave for a while
until their energy gives out, moving the air as we've previously mentioned. BUT, while they
swing back and forth for their entire length they can also act as if they had a pivot spot
halfway down from the end, and the two halves both vibrate, in opposing directions, at a
frequency twice that of the whole string, similarly moving the air and sending out waves at
twice the fundamental frequency. Some principles of physics in the movement of energized
bodies explain all this, but that's not quite where we want to go today.
Now, if that werent enough of a surprise, get ready for this: our vibrating string also acts
as if it were three strings strung end-to-end, so that each of the three thirds of the string also
vibrates ---- at a rate three times that of the whole string length, and also vibrates at four and
five and six times the fundamental frequency, and so on. The result is that in playing or
singing one specific pitch, many multiples of this pitch the partials are also produced,
even though we don't seem to hear them as separate pitches. Instead, we hear them en toto as
the 'quality' or character of that particular instrument or that person's voice.
What has this to do with understanding singing, or with bringing about better singing? A
lot, really, as you will see. Now that we know that this one voice singing this one note is
actually singing several maybe dozens of pitches, then other facts about singing become
more clear.

from Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone, 1863

Figure 7 THE HARMONIC SERIES, sometimes called the chord of nature

Shown here are the compound tones of C2," 66 Hz, strung out in arpeggio
fashion. Each succeeding tone adds the frequency of the fundamental to the
previous tone. In practice, any pitch may serve as the fundamental. Diagonal
bars indicate pitches not quite identical to the pitches indicated, as might be
heard from a piano tuned to equal temperament.
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Frequency (Hz)

Ordinal number of partials

dB

from NEXTEP Incorporated

Figure 8 This spectrogram shows Helmholtz first eleven partial tones from
Figure 7, up as far as partial 11, or f at 726 Hz. The partial heights represent
sound pressure levels in decibels, equivalent to relative loudness. This gradual
decrease in loudness for successive partials is typical of most compound tones,
but the contribution of timbre (see below) can significantly alter this pattern.

Added Partial: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Approx. Pitch: G2 G3 D4 G4 B5 D5 F5 G5 A6 B6 C6 C6#
Frequency: 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200

from NEXTEP Incorporated

Figure 9 Here in musical notation are the partials, shown as they progressively
build into a compound tone. For this figure, a fundamental frequency of 100 Hz
has been chosen (rather than 66 Hz) simply to make the harmonic relationships
more clear. 100 Hz not a true musical pitch on the scale is approximately a
G2.
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There are many ways to represent sounds when we study them. In Figures 7 and 8, we
show the same information in two ways first on a musical scale and then on a spectrogram.
In Figure 9, we show this chord of nature as it builds from simply a pure-tone fundamental
into a compound tone chord of twelve partials. The musical scale shows us the notes most
closely representing the pitch of each partial tone, but starts to fall short around partial seven
because conventional musical notation is designed to tell us what fundamental pitches to sing.
The spectrogram is not limited this way, and can show us any pitch accurately.
Moreover, the spectrogram shows us accurately how loudly each partial is sounded. With
musical notation, wed need to add markings ranging from fff through ppp to each successive
note, and even then it would be only an approximation. The ability to show precise sound
levels is critical to our study of timbre in the following section.
Figure 9 shows a specific example of the tones produced when a bass voice sings a low G
the bottom line on the bass clef, technically designated 'G2' about 100 Hz. This pitch, the
fundamental or lowest tone, is the first in the series of 'partial tones' that together comprise
the compound tone. Compound tones for singers can have audible partial tones as high as
10,000 Hz or higher.
The second partial tone, up in pitch from the fundamental (the first partial) is double the
frequency 200 Hz, or G3 an octave higher. The next higher third partial is three times
the fundamental 300 Hz, a D4 and so on. As these multiples ascend, adding the
partials of the compound tone, the quality of the tone grows in richness. (Starting here with
100 Hz as the fundamental simply makes understanding the multiples clearer).
As youll see from Figure 9, we can make a series of familiar chords out of these tones, up
through about partial ten. Above that, the musical 'closeness' of higher partials starts to create
discord in our habituated ears. For example, partials ten (B6 at 1,000 Hz) and eleven (C6 at
1,100 Hz) are just a semitone apart, and when they're played or sung together we begin to
hear the difference as harshness in the sound. But those of you familiar with chords will
recognize right off that partials one through ten form a chord: root, root (an octave up), fifth,
root (again), third, fifth, minor seventh, root, ninth and tenth (the third again). This is a
major minor seventh chord with added ninth (and lots of roots and fifths). In one sense, it's
like singing harmony with yourself! There's a physical 'fit' of these tones together
concinnity again. We'll see more of the importance of 'fit' as we go on.
The contribution of each of these many partials to the compound tone of course depends
on how loudly each partial is generated by the instrument. The boy blowing on the bottle, or
a perfect tuning fork, would have all its energy concentrated in the first partial, the
fundamental; higher partials would essentially be silent. A flute also might have much of its
energy in the fundamental and not much in the next few higher partials; a clarinet's haunting
sound is the result of a rich compound tone, but one almost completely lacking in its second
partial. This characteristic quality of a compound tone is usually referred to as its 'timbre'.
More about that in a moment.
But first, while we still have this fresh in our minds, we should explore how these
mathematically related partials (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6 . . . ) that are present in almost every sound
we hear ---- even in a young mother's lullaby ---- have hugely influenced our concept of
harmony and our standard musical scale. In fact, in mathematics, the series 1, 2, 3, 4 is called
"the harmonic series." How about THAT?
Thanks to Guido d'Arezzo, who gave us solfege and the scale around 1,100 A.D., the first
eleven partials are DO, DO, SO, DO, MI, SO, TE, DO, RE, MI, and FA. (Please note: that
TE is the flatted TI) These pitches that warmly embrace us every day have become the
backbone to our familiar and beautiful musical scale.

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TIMBRE
Simply put, the varied characteristics of sound quality are defined as 'timbre' (as in
"tambourine").
Every tone we hear has a unique timbre, independent of its pitch. Because music has been
with us for so long, we've borrowed hundreds of words in an effort to describe timbre: bright,
dark, breathy, sweet, harsh . . . It's timbre, in fact, that we use in hearing the difference
between vowels: a, e, i, o, u. If every sound were a pure sine wave, we'd never need the
concept of timbre. But since all natural sounds have compound waveforms, containing
partials, we can draw a direct link from timbre to partials.
This fact has been known to musicians since at least the 19th century, and probably
before. Hermann Helmholtz recognized this in his seminal work "On the Sensations of
Tone" in 1863. These harmonically ascending pure tones ---- the "harmonic series" ---- have
come to be called "the chord of nature," because they're everywhere.
As singers, it's our job to create the right compound tones ---- the ones we want the
audience to hear. And creating a sound is a whole different thing from hearing, or analyzing,
a sound.
Let's see how it looks, and how we do it.

BRIGHT VOICE DARK VOICE

AH AH

Figure 10 from NEXTEP Incorporated

These two spectra of one singers voice represent differences in brightness

and darkness singers may produce in their timbre involuntarily or at will.
Note the greater loudness of the lower partials in the dark voice.
Contrary to many of the singing functions that are not in conscious control,
this color of the vocal quality is relatively easy to attain. The singer or
director, or both, may attempt to color the singers voice to more readily match
the timbre of the choir as a whole, while the singer must listen to the choirs
vocal quality, then listen to his/her own to assess the match. Also, they should
consider the rule that singers should darken their sound a bit as they rise in
pitch counteracting the tendency to become more shrill (harsh, bright) as well
as the temptation to increase their loudness as they get into a more powerful
area of their range. These efforts may well help maintain that sonorous balance
of voice parts necessary for good choral sound.
All this strength of control over the voice will help the singer to enjoy better
singing with the group. As mentioned before, LISTENING is a vital function in
singing well. The singer must know how the ensemble sounds by purposeful
listening. And singers must know, personally, how they sound to be able to
match the choir; one reason why they should space themselves apart so as to
hear themselves well, or should employ an accurate feedback device to assess
their own actual vocal quality.
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After taking a deep singers breath, the muscles in our abdomen and chest begin right there
to fashion the quality of the voice as they push up on the diaphragm, pressing air in the lungs
up the windpipe to the larynx. The degree of control of these muscles upon the lungs effects
that strong and steady tone we call supported, the starting point of all good vocal quality.

Figure 11 Figure 12
Bottom to top, how Top to bottom, these airflow graphs Figure 13
the vocal folds move indicate the timing of vocal fold open Bottom to top, these airflow graphs
open and closed due and close motion, and how the speed show the general shape of the airflow
to air pressure from of closure, in particular, affects the pattern as we increase the stress in
below. loudness of what we hear. our voice from a whisper (lots of flow)
to a tense, tightly pressed voice.
from Sundberg, The Science of the Singing Voice

What we do with this supported pressure is to create sounds. One way to make a sound
a very quiet sound is to simply breathe out: an exhalation. Another way is to adjust
our vocal tract to cause a whisper. Even with a whisper, we can speak intelligently
amazingly enough.
But to sing on a pitch, we need to engage our larynx. Here is where we begin to study voice
quality or timbre one way of expressing our emotions. Seconds after birth, a baby takes
her first breath and screams her heart out the primal scream. And her mother soon
responds by singing her a lullaby or comforting cooing sounds. The beginnings of language
Looking more closely into the function of the larynx, Figure 11 shows the function of the
vocal folds in a frontal view. Vocal folds are not chords or strings, but have thickness similar
to your lips, that can be seen as having an upper part and a lower part. When we prepare
to speak or sing, laryngeal muscles pull the folds gently closed. As air pressure from the lungs
increases below the folds, this pressure begins to force the folds open from the bottom.
Depending on the amount of pressure from below and the muscle resistance of the folds, the
action of opening may be slow and gentle or more rapid and forceful. In either case, when
the folds are blown open and as air leaves the folds into the cavern of the mouth up above,
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the air pressure at the folds drops. With the air pressure on the folds now lessened, the
amount of force needed to close the glottis is less. As the singer tries to maintain a constant
(sub-glottal) pressure on the larynx, this action of pressure buildup and release allows periodic
bursts of air up into the vocal tract. The frequency of these air pressure waves determines the
pitch of the fundamental. If we sing softly this way, as in a lullaby, the gently balanced open-
and-close action creates a sweet sound that would lull a baby to sleep.
(Note: In graphs 12 and 13, when the height of the line on the graph is high, it indicates
greater airflow through the glottis; when the line is close to or on the bottom (the baseline)
there is little or no airflow. These varying conditions of air flow are not regulated by direct
conscious control of the singer to the muscles involved; rather theyre governed by the
singers choice of the sound he wants and the acoustic feedback he receives.)
The graphs in Figure 12 show the steepness or speed of opening or closing the left
and right sides of the bulge. The steeper the angle, the sharper the change in air flow and the
edgier the sound quality, creating greater loudness as compared to softer changes in closure
with sweeter sound and a lower volume. The sharper the closure, the more partials that can
be heard. In fact, when we really try to sing loudly, Bernoullis forces (from wind velocity; the
same effect that lifts an airplane) can actually suck the folds closed with a violent snap.
Conversely, if the closure is so gentle that the airflow isnt cut off at all, then we hear a
breathy, sultry voice quality.
In Figure 13, types of phonation are shown by their name, from top to bottom: pressed
phonation, flow phonation, normal phonation, breathy phonation and whisper. Notice,
at one extreme, there are periods of no air flow, (the folds are completely closed) and
contrasted with this is the situation of no air cutoff (as with the breathy or whispered voice).
So, the quality of the singing sound, the timbre, begins here with the various manners of
opening and closing the vocal folds. To some extent it can be controlled by the singer, but
specific articulation of this musculature is beyond direct conscious manipulation. Moreover,
ones ability to control it is further mediated by the singers age, physical condition, amount
of vocal training and degree of warm-up.
This unrefined sound produced at the sound source the motorboat lip trill p-u-u-u . . .
travels up into all the areas of the vocal tract where other acoustic shaping transforms it
into words and its owners unique singing sound. In the vocal tract, the sound moves from its
source through the pharynx, the buccal cavity the mouth and tongue, through the teeth
and the lips, all the while causing the air in these cavities to vibrate at something akin to their
own natural frequencies which arent necessarily related harmonically to the frequency of the
sound source. In addition, the air moving through this irregular tube creates turbulence and
its own sounds. These other sounds that we dont want, we call noise. Few singers, if any, can
produce a timbre devoid of these other different sounds. The more noise in ones vocal
production, the less of the beautiful sound that people want to hear especially in a choral
group.
Everyone starts singing with what may be described as their natural uncultured voice
quality. But a person may accept what came naturally with the body and develop their own
characteristics where they seem to want to fit naturally or they may choose to modify their
timbre, within reasonable limits, to achieve a particular vocal style. Its a choice
Ones timbre is composed of several factors. We wont get too technical here, but ones
voice might have the general quality of: loud or soft; bright or dark; very dark back in the
throat; or very bright harsh and reedy; very light a childrens choir having little
resonance; very full as some opera stars having a great deal of resonance; breathy as a
young child may sing; pressed forced and rather rattly; or very airy almost
whispering, to name just a few characteristics.
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A balance of light and dark vocality is known as chiaroscuro, Italian for light-dark (see
Figure 9). Voices can move from a darker timbre to a lighter one or vice versa to approach a
quality near the middle. Male voices would tend to have relatively more of the lower
(frequency) partials, while female voices tend to have relatively more upper partials. This
balanced chiaroscuro timbre works well for matching voice quality in vocal ensembles.
Certainly an important consideration of timbre is the concept of registers, the various
voices to which a singer has access: the normal chest voice, a higher head voice or mixed
registers and the familiar concept of the falsetto voice, that in a male often sounds as if he
were trying to sing with the quality of a woman. Female voices have a falsetto, also, but being
higher in pitch already, because theyre women, the change in timbre is not as evident.
Trained singers develop this upper voice (or voices) to match the timbre of their lower more
normal voice, with no obvious of difference over this break. Above a certain point in any
singers range is a place where the vocal folds will not function the same way as they did at a
lower pitch, when they produced the timbre of the singers chest voice. This change in
function usually happens abruptly near some fixed pitch in a singers range. Notes around
that pitch are difficult to sing without switching to a different voice register.
This transition or break is much more difficult to control than to mention, and
maintaining a consistent timbre across the passage is in itself a lifes work for some.
Fortunately for the everyday singer who enjoys choir or chorus singing, there is little need to
develop this added singing skill, as ensemble singing usually has four voice parts, or more, all
in different ranges allowing the singer to choose the range into which they most comfortably
fit. Just another of the reasons ensemble singing is so popular.
These days, the wizardry of electronics and the convenience of computers makes it
possible to record and print out a spectral analysis of the voice. This map of the singers
timbre can display on the screen, or on a printout, a graph of the voice showing the
amplitude the loudness or energy of the fundamental and of all the other partial tones
and the location (in Hz) of each partial. Partials may run to 8,000 Hz or higher for some of
the harsher, sibilant or fricative sounds. Examples of this vocal topography are shown in
Figure 9.
The advantage of this vocal topography is that the timbre of the voice can be viewed as
measurable energy loudness of all of the specific partials. The practical permutations of
these quantities are many. Much important information can be seen by analyzing the wiggly
lines of the singers graphic spectrum.
Considering the preferences of the individual, we must know how to control and alter
timbre, or, in a sense, configure this sound to the needs of a variety of vocal styles. All the
thousands of possibilities, with different amplitudes for each of the many partials, plus the
subtle but meaningful expressions in phrasing and articulation, allow us to develop the
sounds and feeling-tone of a particular singing style. Lets acknowledge that the singers
timbre should employ the good sounds he wants for his vocal style along with a minimum of
what harmonically unrelated sounds are necessary for the quality appropriate to the style.
In addition to control of timbre, there are other tools of expression, such as vibrato,
somewhat variously defined as fluctuations of pitch or amplitude, but easily recognized as a
voice with its pitch going up and down on notes. Vibrato is more a vocal technique than a
timbre, but it too is used to convey an emotion or to help an individual singer be heard above
the background (sometimes other singers) or accompaniment. Because vibrato is a fluctuation
in pitch its usually inappropriate in sections singing especially in the higher parts
because the unmatched, crisscrossing pitches result in harmonic discord, harshness and
unmusical annoyance.
There is some disagreement among the experts as to what specifically causes vibrato, and
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how to control or to minimize this vocal effect. But the opposite of vibrato, if opposite is
the other way of seeing it, is straight tone singing, where there is no variation in the
frequency of the sung tone. Few singers, if any, can produce a tone with no pitch variations.
Piano strings can do it easily, but humans cant. However, attempts to attain the straight
tone, or to avoid vibrato as much as possible, are recognized as desirable for most ensemble
singing; where the goal is to consolidate the timbre and pitch of all the singers together for
the least noise and greatest uniformity in sound quality. A solo singer backed up by a chorus
appropriately uses vibrato to stand above the rest.
Before leaving sound waves and voice quality, lets summarize that in general, for the
utmost beauty, a singer should seek to develop the smoothest wave he can produce, with as
little as possible of sounds that dont fit, still recognizing that in some styles of singing, a
rough-sounding untrained voice is characteristic of the style, and thus maybe desired by the
singer.

RESONANCE
Resonance is the acoustic effect resulting from periodic pressure waves of air as they strike
and activate a body or a cavity whose natural vibrating frequency responds to and reinforces
the frequency and loudness of the sound source. Resonance plays a central role in the
phenomena that generate compound tones.
A body resonates most strongly when its acted upon by a driving force oscillating at
exactly that bodys natural frequency, and responds less strongly as the driving force differs in
frequency. Singers use, and feel, resonances inside their vocal tract to vary the sounds of their
voice

from NEXTEP Incorporated

Figure 14 Figure 15
Resonance results when pressure waves bounce The classic example of resonance in the study of
back and arrive where they began at the same time physics is that each push of a swing at the right
as the next periodic wave starts out. These two moment adds energy to the forward momentum
waves add together or reinforce each other, of the swing. This build-up continues until friction
building up to a stronger and stronger sound. The in the swing limits it. The lesson to learn is that the
speed of sound is 1,127 ft/sec, so this 513-foot push in the right direction at the right time creates
room would resonate at 1 Hz, or one pressure the bounce back-and-forth in the room just as it
wave per second. does for the swing.

Dr. Katherine Verdolini, an up-to-date researcher in voice science, defines resonance

simply as that buzzing in the front of the face, feeling easily produced as the voice produces
its maximum loudness with quality. (At the 2005 NATS convention in Minneapolis.)
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FORMANTS
In addition to the singers trying to make simply good sound at the right pitch, they also
need to form the sounds of vowels and consonants clearly if they want to convey the lyric
message of the song. From a very early age, we have learned, in speaking and in singing, just
how to make these vowel and consonant sounds with little understanding of how we ever did
it. Simply put, the vocal tract extends from the larynx to the lips and nose, and its shape can
be altered in many ways, such as the opening and shape of the mouth, jaw positions and
configurations of the tongue and other parts of the tract. However, much of vocal tract
configuration is beyond conscious (verbal) control. Various geometries in the vocal tract act
as resonant cavities to facilitate proper articulation. (See figure 17)
The resonant response of the vocal tract is what gives color (its own particular sound) to
the different vowels its what makes whispering possible. Go ahead, exhale loudly thru
your throat and hear that whooshing, no pitch sound. Remember the snake, with its hissing
sound? how it was just random white noise? Just as white light contains all the colors,
white noise contains all frequencies. That missing sound in your throat has all kinds of
frequencies in its chaotic spectrum. But, by using our vocal tract, we create resonant cavities
of our own choosing without hardly thinking about it now. Try whispering the sounds
OO, AH, and EE. Can you hear them? Of course you can. Yet all youve changed is the
shape of your mouth; the sound source, the hiss, is always the same
Imagine a long hallway, with tiled rooms on either side, up and down the hall. Each room
is a different size it has its own resonant sound. Now choose which doors are open and
which doors are shut much as you might finger a clarinet. Obviously, the rooms that are
open will be waiting to resonate to any sounds coming down the hall. In our vocal tract, we
open doors with our tongue, with our lips, with our nose. You might say that we articulate
our vowels with our articulators.

Figure 16
Shown here are three spectrum envelopes for
the vowel sounds OO, AH and EE. From
left to right are the frequencies and amplitudes
of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd formants. Note their
bell-curve shapes, showing that resonant
responses occur even away from the resonant
pitch.
Its easy to see the OO vowel resonates
very little at higher frequencies, giving it a
strong, pure fundamental sound. AH is
strong in the upper soprano range, with a
bright resonance, and EE has a strong low-
frequency peak, as well as two high-frequency
peaks that give it that buzz even when sung
by a low bass.
from Benade, Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics

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Figure 17
This figure tabulates the formant frequencies we
use when we speak a number of different vowels.
The world-standard International Phonetic Alphabet
symbols are shown at the left, followed by English
clues as to where we usually find these sounds, while
keeping in mind that English is spoken is so many
dialects that that task is really impossible.
For an example, when we say AH, as in the word
palm, we use our tongue, mouth and lips to shape
our vocal tract such that resonances are formed at
700, 1200 and 2,600 Hz. Compare this with the
center spectrum envelope in Figure 16. Any sounds
we create in our vocal folds whether a whispers
hiss or a primal scream will be filtered by this
envelope and understood by the listener as an AH.

from Appelman, The Science of Vocal Pedagogy

Now stop whispering for a moment and say slowly and loudly the word, why. Say it
again, and concentrate on the three distinct shapes of your vocal tract: OO-AH-EE. Think
about your lips, OO-AH-EE; your cheeks, OO-AH-EE; the back wall of your throat (look at
Figure 17) OO-AH-EE. Now try saying men. Try pinching and unpinching your nose
during the M, the EH, and the N sounds. Hear the difference? Try to whisper men and
think about where the sounds are coming out of you.
The raw vibrations produced in the larynx, by the vocal folds, the sound source, hardly
sound like OO or EE maybe a little like AAH but there are five major resonant areas in
our sound system that are critically important to manufacturing vowels. Singers form
different configurations in the vocal tract as resonant chambers for particular frequencies.
These are called the formants, and they stand ready to form every sound that we make.
Formant number one is largely controlled by the front of the mouth, near the teeth.
Whisper WOW (OO-AH-OO) and hear the pitch go up as you say AH. Formant number
two has mostly to do with the arching of the rear part of the tongue. Formants number one
and two together seem to be the most important in vowel discrimination, while formant
number three, in the pharynx tube just above the larynx way back in your throat, is very
influential in a singers unique timbre. When these three regions are properly formed, they
allow certain frequencies of the singers sound to be augmented to sound a bit louder than
usual thus producing the sounds we identify as a particular vowel. Even when we whisper.
As a simple illustration of how this all works, refer to Figure 18. When we shape our
mouth and our tongue so that our first formant frequency is near 700 Hz and our second
formant frequency is close to 1200 Hz, our vowel is recognized as AH. The third formant,
controlled just above the vocal folds (our sound source) plays a minor role here at 2,600 Hz
also. This is an oversimplification, but it should still help to make the mechanics of vowel
formation more understandable. All the other vowels similarly have frequencies of formants
1, 2 and 3 (and more) that produce their own vowel sounds and nuances.

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OO AH EE

Figure 18 Shown above are copies of vocal tract X-rays for three vowel sounds: OO, AH and
EE. The vocal tract has three dimensions, so what may appear as minor modifications are also
modified by the width of the tract as well. Formant 1 is largely controlled behind the teeth, formant 2
behind the tongue and formant 3 in the pharynx tube, in the lower part of the tract. These spaces
resonate to the frequencies necessary to produce our familiar vowel sounds.
adapted from Denes & Pinson, The Speech Chain

Although this use of formants is a vital part of the function of speaking and singing, its
even more important in ensemble singing, for in addition to the need to tune the voice parts of
the chords so that their pitches all fit together well, remember that formats one and two are
augmenting certain partials (pitches) also, and they need to be tuned well to get smooth
sound and less hash. If half our singers are from the Midwest and sing God as G-AH-D,
and the others are from Boston and sing G-AW-D, the vowel AH will fight with the
vowel AW and not sound anywhere as good as it could even if their pitches are the
same. Theres that fit thing again.
Beyond properly produced vowels lies one last consideration on formants the so-called
singers formant. Just as vibrato is a vocal embellishment used to express strong emotion or
to stand out from the background, a singers formant is used most often by male singers
to consolidate the third fourth and fifth formant to effectively amplify partials in the very
high 3,000-4,000 Hz region. When a baritone cuts loose with a singers formant, he can be
heard above a full orchestra playing at fortissimo! Needless to say, trained singers using the
singers formant do not fit well as chorus members. The trumpet shall sound . . .
Many choruses may hear mention of something like, Pay attention to your vowels, now,
but the percentage of choruses and choirs whose singers all produce internally-consistent
well-defined vowels is very low a rarity. (Fred Waring was famous for his dedication to this
goal.) Very little time is usually spent on this area of improving the quality of singing, and if
most choral singers cannot identify or agree on the correct sounds of the target vowels, how
can they expect to produce them? The sad news is that as simple and easy as this is to do
by far, most singers are not matching the same sounds of the target vowels; they are
missing the target! And if they cant hear the sound of their own voices in the midst of the
singing multitudes, how can they ever hear how well theyre doing or what they should
change? Problems, problems! Yet doing all this correctly is a simple way for the chorus to
sound a lot better without any complicated training.

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THE CHORAL SOUND
Well, weve talked at length about how individuals sing, and learned a bit about what they
can do as individuals, but what about the full choral sound that harmonious, moving
experience of joy and emotion that only an excellent ensemble can produce? As well see
next, the whole can be more than the sum of its parts or less

WHAT THE SINGER HEARS

Singing in an ensemble is a daunting task. The one voice you hear the least is your own.
Critics may argue that this is a blessing, but the fact is that the singer individually is the only
person who can control his output. Singing in a single row, or the back row, your voice carries
forward and away from you. Singing in a section of like voices (SATB), you distract one
another when any individual in the section makes a momentary mistake. Often, the entire
section falls like a house of cards. Singing in a forward row, the voices behind dominate your
sound environment. There are problems to be solved here!!
To paraphrase from Dr. Sten Ternstrms Acoustical Aspects of Choir Singing: This special
character of singing the choral effect arises when voices and their reflections create
such complexity that the normal mechanisms of localization and fusion are disrupted. In a
cognitive sense, the chorus effect can magically dissociate the sound from its sources and
endow it with an independent almost ethereal existence of its own. The sensation of this
extraordinary phenomenon, strongly perceived inside the choir, is one of the attractions of
choir singing.
Weve just mentioned some of the findings of Dr. Ternstrm, who has conducted
extensive research on choral singing. One of his conclusions is that singers need to hear
themselves as well as the sound of their ensemble. Singers accurately hearing themselves does
not often happen in choral practice or performance. And if you cant hear it, how can you fix
it? The logical question for the singer then is, How should it sound, and what do I do about
making it sound better?
There are several ways for the individual choral singer to know if he or she is producing the
right pitch, vowel sound or timbre. One time-honored method is for singers to sing to a
teacher in front of them, and then to be guided by the teachers hearing and judgment as to
the accuracy and acceptability of the vocal product. This doesnt happen very often in
choruses or choirs, and in this case no one really monitors the individual singers sound. Or
some singers make a tape recording of their singing to review later. The advantages are
apparent, but the lack of immediacy and the complexity of using electronic equipment within
a chorus is obvious. Cupping the hand to the ear can return some of the otherwise lost
sounds to the listening singer but hands are useful to hold music, and the human hand is far
from a great guide for the sound, so what the singer hears is considerably less than what a
listener out front would hear.

By far the best method available today is an acoustic device called HEARFONES that
accurately guides the singers sounds from the mouth to the ear. HEARFONES carry sounds
over a wide spectrum through two ellipsoidal sound reflectors to the ear. The hands are left
free and the singer hears in good fidelity whats going on right now. The singer is wrapped in
his own sound but still hears the chorus or accompaniment as accurately as before. The
ellipsoidal surface of the HEARFONES is the most exact shape to guide sound (or light) from
one point to another with no distortion. The ceiling of the Mormon Tabernacle and some
auditoriums and science museum demonstrations show that a person even whispering at one
end of the room can be heard clearly at the corresponding focus at the other end of that
room.
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This is what HEARFONES do.

Figure19

HEARFONES use ellipsoidal reflectors,

with one focal point at the singers mouth
and the second at his ear. This way,
single-path reflections carry his true voice
accurately, so that he can hear and work
on his technique.
With appreciation to Sunil Mickelson, a
member of Stewart Shusters Southern
Maine Boys Chorale.

from NEXTEP Incorporated

INTERESTING NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Another look at the problem and a view of fresh solutions

Focus the sound, from mouth to ear.

How we sing . . . and what we hear! Figure 20

Men are taller; women are shorter. So lets put the men in back. What do the men hear? The voices
of the other men to their right and left, certainly, and a bunch of stray reflections from around the
room. What do the women hear? The voices of the men right behind them, of course. Now, how do we
expect these folks to work on their singing? All we like sheep are led astray by the loud pitches we
hear.
An ellipsoidal reflector at each ear allows us to hear exactly what we ourselves are singing, so that we
can finally hone our skills and build neural motor memory like a pianist that well never forget.
from NEXTEP Incorporated, artwork by Stephanie Farrington
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THE CHORAL SOUND

Fitting all the skills together

How it's done Ternstrm on choral singing

The joys of choral singing can be achieved through Small random fluctuations in phonation
the artistic presentation of an emotionally moving frequency called flutter and wow
message, with vibrant sound conveying the feelings
are always present in human voices. With
of the song in a very meaningful human fashion.
The quality sound occurs as all the singers, multiple voices, flutter and wow cause,
individually, find and produce vocal qualities that through interference, a pseudo-random,
fit together the ensemble presentation. The independent amplitude modulation of the
listeners really hear all the voices. Chorus or choir partial tones, which is known to cue the
has no place to hide poor singing performance. perceptual chorus effect.

Each singer has the personal These won't fit really

responsibility to monitor his/her
own vocal quality to contribute:
Accurate intonation from serious listening
Firm, supported tone quality; good breathing skills
Well-defined vowel sounds (that's tuning too)
Timbre matching the ensemble; chiaroscuro model
Good articulation, phrasing and legato singing
Balance of loudness no oversinging
Feel and participate in the mood of the song
Sing with confidence; enjoy the whole presentation

These elements and skills must

fit together as bricks in a wall
Nor will these...

Mush Hash

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THE SMOOTH WAVE THEORY
Immediately upon first using HEARFONES, the inventors discovered that singers using this
instrument had a softer, smoother, less harsh sound and this with no instruction to change
their singing. Where individual choral singers volunteered to demonstrate this, the looks on
the faces of their fellow chorus members showed a dramatic response to the improved sound
of their guinea pig singer.
That singers could now hear themselves better was not unexpected. As a matter of fact,
this was the purpose of the invention in the first place, and it worked! What was not
expected was the sudden dramatic improvement in almost every singers sound quality when
hearing their voice more faithfully rendered to themselves. Encouraged by this success, the
inventors launched a serious program of research to find out more about this unexpected
phenomenon. Pleased though they were, they were also baffled to explain exactly what was
going on with the singers. Much study and research began to make the picture more clear.
Recording solo voices and entire ensembles both with and without HEARFONES led to
producing spectral analyses of the voices under with and without conditions. These spectra
of the voice quality those graphs that show the amount of energy in each of the partials or
overtones revealed that singers using HEARFONES spontaneously produced less noise in
their voice. Noise, after all, is defined as those unwanted sounds not a part of the normal
overtone series based on the fundamental pitch being sung. In addition, the spectra showed
that fewer of the upper partials were present. In compound tones, many of the partials above
the 10th contribute to discordant sound, as weve described earlier, and it sounds best if these
can be suppressed. To stray into the realm of oversimplification, it can be said that although
the voice quality is a bit softer and the loudness less, and because the quality of the tone
produced is so much improved, the individual voice will fit better with the other singers and
add more harmonically-related tones to each other. Because higher partials also add
complexity to the wave form and less harmony to the sound, weve come to call this cleaner
sound The Smooth Wave less loud, but more sound.

LOOKING AT IT ANOTHER WAY

Fit Singing Smooth Waves Together
Consider the simple example of two smooth-wave singers harmonizing; the smoother each
of their waves that is the less noise accompanying the quality sounds in their voices
the easier it will be for them to fit harmonically. Should the waveform each singer produces
be cluttered with noise, it would be more difficult to fit with other parts waveforms. The
analogy of clean bricks fitting together or pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fitting together represents
a visual metaphor of this situation. When the vocal parts have a minimum of unrelated
sound, they will fit together better. And when you hear this, it sounds so good! As the smooth
wave parts fit, the good sounds they produce will almost always have some common partials
with other voice parts that reinforce each other. This allows previously weak partials to
become more prominent by increasing their volume, often making them audible and
producing more notes of good matching sound rather than just more volume. Multiply this
smooth wave singing by several choral singers, and good sound abounds without having
been pushed.
When all the singers are singing matching vowel sounds, they likewise reinforce each other,
because, as you recall, the vowels are the product of energizing certain parts of the vocal
spectrum emphasizing certain tones, if you will and if this is all done the same way,
their good sound builds upon good sound, and the ensemble produces volumes of beautiful
sound without having to over sing or be shrill or shouty. And when the timbre of this

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ensemble matches, there is almost literally one voice singing in many parts with great sound.
Notwithstanding the guidance of the teacher or director, and their important influence on
the sounds of an ensemble as a whole, the individual singer is still the only one solely
responsible for the sounds he makes the only one who can ultimately do anything about
what sound goes out front to the listeners. The singer must be taught what sounds to sing
and how to achieve these. As well, the singer must be given the opportunity to accurately
hear just how he does sound, so that he (the only one running his equipment) can make and
learn necessary corrections.
As a singer sings in a room, he does not hear how he sounds out front the sounds the
listeners hear. His ears, behind his mouth, are in a poor place to hear himself, and although he
can hear and feel some of his lower partials through bone conduction, many of the higher
partials of his timbre go straight out front like the beam from a flashlight and only return to
him later after being absorbed, deflected, reflected and distorted by the acoustic qualities of
the room! In addition, if he is in the midst of other singers, or accompaniment or both, he
hears even less of himself. He may well know much less of how he really sounds than the
person right in front of him who probably doesnt know how she sounds either! Our
embattled singer needs someone to monitor his own vocal production while hes at it. A
coach in front of each singer? Singing the right sounds all the time is just not an easy job.
There are schools of singing that teach the singer to know his own equipment and to
manage it so that he produces the right sounds, and thus repeatedly produces the desired
vocal result. This approach has great merit, but in the end, the right sounds must come from
the singer while he is producing them. And when all the dust has settled, its how he sounds
that counts.
The serious singer may need a talented instructor right in front of him to monitor his vocal
production and verify that any particular sound he makes is the desired sound. Its all a bit
complex, and it can be a daunting problem to the singer in the midst of a choral group,
hearing all those other sounds. But its very important to solve the problem for the singer to
sound good, so the chorus sounds good.

QUALITY CHORAL SINGING

Many people like to sing. Some prefer to do it alone or in the shower, or with instru-
ments, while others prefer the comfort and socializing of singing in a group sometimes, the
larger, the better! Some of these folks would not sing alone as they lack confidence in their
singing ability, even though many are quite good at singing. While singing in a group often
has the synergistic effect of bolstering and encouraging a weak or unconfident singer, some
choral singers feel that their shortcomings, imagined or real, will be lost in the forest of
several other singers. This is The Choral Fallacy because the sound out front comes from each
of the individual voices in the chorus, good or bad. You cannot take a poor voice, multiply it
by thirty, or a hundred thirty, and then have good sound. Lots of loudness, exuberant sound
perhaps, yes, but not good sound!

Research in choral singing and sufficient attention to choral needs has languished.
Perhaps this is on the assumption that less professional singing ensembles would benefit
little from some form of training, hoping that if enough singers do it together bolstered by
accompaniment perhaps no one will notice how it sounds.
The observation of many directors and researchers is that while singing amidst others,
singers cannot hear themselves clearly and tend to oversing, thus producing a louder, but
more shouty quality not a sound they would care to own if they really knew more
accurately how it sounds. Studies and observations have indicated that singers having
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sufficient instant feedback achieve more accurate intonation, phrasing, articulation and vowel
definition. Some directors will randomize their voice sections to accomplish this; others may
increase singer spacing. More studies are needed to give greater understanding to this
phenomenon and to learn how to improve the choral sound.

Positioning Singers has a lot to do with listening, and that subject reopens the importance
of where to position singers to accomplish any of several ends: how to distribute the singers
and the voice parts to sound best out front; how to help the less confident singers the
leaners; how to let the singers experience the total sound of the ensemble to fit into that
sound and to enjoy it; how to attain the most solid part sounds so the director can balance
an artistic performance . . . Where to position the singers is both an interesting and a long-
time problem that may have several answers depending on the material at hand and the
directors goals. There are several schools of thought on this that we can briefly survey. To
mention a few approaches and their rationale, some of it starts with the general quality and
experience of the singers in the chorus. If the singers are good, the director may choose to
shotgun them so they can all hear the parts, the full sound of the voices and the harmonies
of the piece. More work for all, but its nice work if you can get it!
Or the director and singers may feel more comfortable with all singers in the same voice
parts together. Assuming that the singers in each voice part can hear each other, more or less,
and generate one matching voice part sound, then the director has only four or however
many voices to balance and collect for his performance. While investigating these many
different approaches, theres also the opportunity to combine the two just-mentioned views
where one strong voice may be flanked by two less confident voices, with these little trios
sprinkled as the director finds best.
There are other approaches and many more questions than answers, but available research,
tools and qualified observation will provide more information for teachers and directors to get
the best quality singing from their ensembles.

The Room: Wow!. This can be a problem, especially where there are two (or more)
separate rooms that singers use for practice and performance. Acoustically speaking, any
room used for singing makes its own contributions (you may also read that as problems) to
what the singers hear, what the director hears and what the audience hears. This again
emphasizes the critical nature of Listening in Singing.

Figure 19
Acoustic reflections within a room can be
catastrophic to any good performance. In
addition to simple reflections coming back
to the performer from everywhere, sound
energy can build up in select locations by
resonance so that what the singers and
the audience hear are far from that desired.
from Rossing, The Science of Sound

From the practical standpoint of eliminating problems, if an ensemble usually practices in

the same room where it performs, they have made life a bit easier for themselves. However,
even in these felicitous circumstances, the room is different when an audience sits out there,
soaking up sound that changes the acoustic configuration of that room. For the director to
recognize the problems of the room is a big step toward solving the problem.

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Acoustical aspects of the performance venue and positioning the singers are problems that
often are met by a chorus on the stage and the audience out there in the auditorium.
Difficulties to be aware of include the fact that many stages have sound absorbent curtains at
the back or side or up above, all of which will soak up the singers sound. Any means to
reasonably avoid the use of these curtains or to be out in front of them should be considered.
These can easily capture much of the sound intended for the listeners. In addition and this
is very important especially if the singers have practiced in a lively room on such a dead
stage singers will not hear themselves as they had before, and may not even be able to hear
the other singers at all! No foolin. In such cases, the whole world has changed and actual
panic sets in, not to mention loss of familiar sounds and loss of personal confidence. The
importance of this effect on the singers cannot be overemphasized. It is not unusual for the
whole thing to unravel, at least for a while, until the performers realize that their fellow
singers are really singing but cant be heard and the director institutes dramatic damage
control.
One other problem, sometimes simple of solution, and sometimes not, is the presence of
the proscenium arch. Sometimes this has a sound soaker or a curtain for decorative effect,
and sometimes not. However, the chorus is often positioned behind the curtain line which
decision really puts the singers in another room. Think of this a moment: if theyre in
another room they wont be heard as well out front by the paying patrons. And, to make
things worse, if the singers are on risers, those higher up in the back may well be singing right
into the proscenium rather than out into the audience. Please consider these facts most
seriously and do what you can to avoid these pitfalls. One obvious solution is to move the
singers to the front of the stage as far out toward the audience as possible even if some people
object or weve never done it that way before. This may put them close to microphones at
the edge of the stage, but if the whole sound system scheme hasnt been planned well and run
right, it may make little difference because you want the listeners to hear the singers as
directly as possible. These little points come from some considerable experience, and may
well save the day if considered seriously and followed through thoughtfully.
Positioning the singers (in each venue), positioning the director, and the acoustic
characteristics of the room (or no room at all) bear heavily on what the Director hears.
Although he doesnt produce the sound, he orchestrates what he hears of the sound to be the
best product from his perspective. Those reverberations that ping-pong around the room,
then return from the back of the hall, cause confusion in different sounds the director hears
at different times. Even awareness of the situation can suggest solutions to the problem.
There are learned observation, tools and research information available to guide the
director and his singers toward recognition of, and at least some means of solving, these
problems. Take heart; you are not alone with the problem. Some solutions are under serious
consideration. MENC has a handy booklet: TIPS, Improving Acoustics for Music Education.
Manufacturers and suppliers of acoustic systems and equipment offer their advice and
products. Two of these are Acoustic Systems at <www.acousticsystems.com> and the
Wenger Corporation <www.wengercorp.com>. We dont necessarily endorse or recommend
either of these, or any other, but they are a source of information, among others. Visit several
schools, concert halls and churches in your area. Talk to the folks who use them for music.
Ask a lot of questions! Also, ask information of contractors in your area or who build or
renovate music rooms and concert halls.
We have heard some soul-shattering stories of the design of music venues tales of years
of woe living with poorly designed singing venues, the result of insufficient information or the
desire to save a few dollars. Get the facts and get the best; the room may be the most
important asset you have for years of future performances. An important added point: your
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present practice and performance rooms may easily be acoustically upgraded at little or no
extra cost. Get the information and get going. In our experience, most of the singing practice
and performance places leave much to be desired. And are often easily fixed. All you need is
information. Sometimes, it is a simple as a carpet for the floor, repositioning the director
relative to the choir or moving a coat rack to cover a very reflective wall. Get someone
another director or yourself maybe to go out there in the hall and listen. If it sounds great,
great; if it doesnt, do something about it.
Phrasing almost falls outside the purview of choral presentation, but its vital to the
quality of any singing performance, especially at the concert when everything is on the line.
Proper and artistic phrasing of the song can make or break the quality of your singing
performance. This is very dependent on proper individual singers breathing to be able to
sustain passages as they demand, air management producing good breath support, to
maintain a full steady tone quality, and well-defined articulation of consonants as well as
accurate target vowel sounds. The phrasing, itself, is more artistically construed rather than
an event lying within the physics of sound. But, many of the physical skills needed for
successful phrasing are components of this seminar.
Electronics: For the moment, lets forget about mikes, amplifiers and sound systems. They
exist. Under the right circumstances, they can be used to considerable advantage. People
accept their use, and kids, especially, seem to have fallen in love with what they think mikes
can do. For all their advantages, new complications and disadvantages, sound systems are
here to stay. But apart from their necessity in recording concerts or analyzing sound, to date
electronics contribute little if at all to good choral sound. Suffice it to say that
microphone type and placement with relation to the choir and the room is critically
important and that electronic mastering can radically affect the outcome.

THE CHORAL PRESENTATION

Interpretation is another topic that technically lies outside the physics of singing, but
thats most worthy of mention in any discussion of quality choral singing. Its difficult to
think of a means to engineer the interpretation of a song. Successful interpretation is so
intrinsically human as almost to defy making a scientific approach a practical consideration.
Its an art difficult to explain and often more difficult to teach to singers who just dont
have a feel for the song or the ability to deliver it in an artistic, moving fashion. Some day,
well get better at this. Right now, it seems somewhat hit-or-miss, depending upon the
individual having the talent for doing this well and there are some out there. Covet their
assistance. After doing all of the practice and singing well, there is still the actual presentation
to listeners. Otherwise, why do you practice?
Planning for the presentation can be a source of focus and encouragement for the director
and the singers. Being able to imagine the event of the next performance and savoring that
thought can help motivate the activity using all the physical skills we consider here.
Following the suggestions explicit or implied in this seminar can go far to make a thrilling
artistic experience enjoyable far beyond the thoughts of doing all these physical things right.
Careful thought to the material to be sung, such as how to make the performance good
theater, can pay handsome dividends to the planner of the Show, even if its a short one.
As weve been considering many scientific means to make the ensemble sound good,
consider that some selections, although great names in the literature, may lie beyond the
abilities of your singers to really pull off successfully, even though other choruses may have
swung it. And dont forget the fact that some arrangements, even by big names, are not
harmonically construed to showcase the good sounds of which your ensemble may be
capable; there might be a dearth of good solid consonant chords with which to show off the
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great sound of your people.

The Smooth Wave Theory Makes It All The Way To ATOS

All too often a choral performance falls short of being a moving artistic experience. Rather
than fill the heart, it fills time or just kills it. All too often the director passes out the score
for a new song for the chorus or choir to run over a few times for the next scheduled
performance. When the words and notes are done right, more or less, the piece is adjudged
ready for presentation. Sometimes, when the ensemble can deliver the score with some
accuracy, the director may even suggest that its time to put in a little feeling daubing on
emotion as if it were a coat of paint. This may not be the case with your chorus, but it is
sadly the case for many where the audience hears few of the words and none of the feeling of
the song because no one put any feeling into it! And the singers and the director and the
listeners are all deprived of the wonderful emotional experience the song might have
provided. And the poor composer moans in his grave. And the audience goes away
unfulfilled. And maybe no one knows the difference, because they never really heard the
song. Some words and notes, maybe, but the song died.

It would take more time to consider how this could be made right how the song could
really be there. But all is not lost. From such an unexpected source as the study of the science
of sound with all its factors and formulas and frequencies and formants comes hope to
achieve the soaring artistic performances of song (some) directors dream of.
Choral Performance is an event that can engender real feeling for the emotions of the song
in the singers, to be delivered with passion to the listeners. All this is within the scope of that
performance. The scientific attitude that seeks to understand the aspects of sound in singing
is the same attitude that investigates the means and ways we deliver the emotions of the
song. (Behavioral scientists, the psychologists, are scientists, too) These two fields are sibling
parts of the whole.
Our investigations into the science of singing have brought us to The Smooth Wave
Theory with its indication that all those acoustic, physiological and psychological goings-on
are part of the realm of feeling. (Looking more deeply into the psychology of the art of music,
it can be found that it is all emotion; but this is a little further than we will go right now.)
The song does not lie in the score. The words and notes are for reference only. When the
singers find out that the song and sounds are all feelings, then they will begin with the
feelings rather than tack on whatever they can imagine will breathe human emotion into the
show.
There are many little and subtle things not indicated in the score, but that can lie in the
hearts and imaginations, and even in the souls of the singers and can be brought to the
ears and souls of the listeners. These are the vital aspects of the song that make it human.
We call this ATOS. This is not a science, but an art that can be understood and learned.
There is a way to teach it. Were working on it.

Thanks for listening

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCE SOURCES

The Science of the Singing Voice, Johan Sundberg, KTH, Northern Illinois University
Press

The Musicians Guide to Perception and Cognition, David Butler, IU, 1992 Schirmer
Div. of Macmillan

Acoustical Aspects of Choir Singing, Sten Ternstrm, KTH, 1989

The Psychology of Music, 2nd Edition, edited by Diana Deutsch, UCSD, 1999
Academic Press

The Physics of Barbershop Sound, Dr. Jim Richards, SPEBSQSA, 2001

The Speech Chain, Denes and Pinson, Bell Laboratories, 1973 Anchor Books

On the Sensations of Tone, Hermann Helmholz, 1954 Dover Publications

The Structure of Singing, Richard Miller, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, 1996

Schirmer Books

The Science of Sound, Thomas D. Rossing, Northern Illinois University, 1989

Addison Wesley Publishing Co.

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics , Arthur H. Benade, 1990 Dover Publications

Principles of Voice Production, Dr. Ingo R. Titze, U of Iowa, 1993 Prentice Hall

The Science of Vocal Pedagogy, D. Ralph Appelman, IU, 1967 Indiana University
Press

A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology, Cornelius L. Reid, 1994 Recital Publications

Our own research at NEXTEP Incorporated

Publications by Raymond C. Miller

And other sources too numerous to mention (or lost to memory)

2007 NEXTEP Incorporated

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