Alright, alright! All you guys snickering in the back of the classroom knock it off! It’s not what you’re thinking. This article is about singing so you can go back to sleep and wait for the bell to ring. For the rest of you, pay attention and you will learn a few things about the mechanism that helps us make the noises between the notes that define the difference between vocal and instrumental music otherwise known as language. If you are interested in singing more effectively, writing better songs or producing better vocal tracks hang in there with me. This could get boring.

During my 30 plus years teaching voice I’ve had some interesting students with challenging goals. The inspiration for this article comes from an actor who recently asked me to help him speak English with a Viennese accent. During 2008 I produced Two bands from Austria, ConFused5 and Solidtube and since both bands performed in English I had some work to do in accent eradication with these artists. Coaching an American actor to adopt a convincing Austrian accent seemed at first just a matter of reverse engineering or getting him to do what I taught the Austrian singers not to do. During the process I realized that it’s really all about consonants and the difference between voiced and un-voiced consonants is a subject over which all too few singers have mastery.

For the purpose of this discussion, I will loosely define vowel sounds as music and consonants as noise. These noises can be a hiss, a short burst of air under various degrees of pressure and can be created in various areas of the mouth. For the untrained performer consonants can be the worst enemy in attempting to sing intelligibly and effectively but an understanding of how they are created can make them a singer’s best friend when it comes to executing difficult and sometimes poorly written passages. Many young songwriters compose what seems to be a pleasing melody and cobble together some verses which rhyme admirably but come up short when it comes to ease of singing. Great songs, those which great singers love to sing, are written by songwriters who understand, either by instinct or education, how to place sounds in areas of singer’s range with a minimum of booby traps.

Cross section of the mouth

Voiced and un-voiced consonants come in pairs or partners which are made by the same mechanical method. Whenever I work with a student in describing how consonants are made I ask, “What two pieces of meat are you slapping together to make that nose?” Let’s start with a hard ‘K’ sound. The ‘K’ is made by closing the back of the mouth. The back of the tongue rises slightly to meet the tip of the soft palette or uvula which you will recognize as the punching bag hanging in a cartoon character’s mouth when he screams. Air pressure is built up in the throat and released as the closure is opened suddenly resulting in a hard ‘K’ noise. There is no noticeable pitch. When the vocal cords are engaged as the closure is released the the resulting sound is a hard ‘G’ as in god or dog. The difference between the voiced and unvoiced versions of the same mechanical process allows us to tell the difference between a deity and a codfish and a canine or a physician.

Now let’s take a look at the ‘T’ sound. What pieces of meat or bone do you use and how do you use them to make a ‘T’ sound? The tip of the tongue comes into contact with the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth. Build up a little air pressure, release it by dropping the tongue and Voila (that’s French for Ta-dah). The release of are pressure results in a ‘T’ sound which is no more than the noise of escaping air under pressure. Engage the vocal cords simultaneously and you will create the ‘D’ sound or “Duh.” Once again to illustrate the importance of these sounds to clear language, substituting voiced for unvoiced sounds at either end of our previous example, our god can become got, cod or cot and our dog can become completely unintelligible.

Before I go into why this is so important and how it can save a singer from gagging let’s take a quick look at the other pairs of voiced and un-voiced sounds. The ‘P’ sound (you in the back, stop your giggling) is produced by releasing air pressure behind the lips. Add pitch and the ‘P’ becomes a ‘B’ sound. ‘F’ is made by air escaping from the slight opening between the lower teeth and upper lip. add pitch and the ‘F’ becomes ‘V’ as in love. Ever notice how a native German speaker pronounces “Love” as “Luff” and “we” as “vee?” The sibilant ‘S’ sound is made by air escaping through an opening formed by the tongue in the same general area as in the ‘T’ sound. Sustain the hiss and add pitch to produce the voiced ‘Z’ sound. Mastering the correct mechanics of the ‘S’ has actually helped me coach a lisp right out of a singer’s repertoire.

How then, do we use this knowledge to our best singing advantage? One might think that the un-voiced consonants present the most difficulty in singing a legato line but this is in error. It’s the voiced sounds that cause the most problems in sustaining pitch and also in singing intervalic leaps accurately. When singing a lyric like “My dog begs for his dinner” on one sustained pitch many singers will fall into the trap of singing only the vowels and dropping the level of support needed to sustain the line at the points where the consonants interrupt the flow of pitch. Looking just at the word “begs” for a moment we see that the initial ‘B’ sound is a voiced consonant so support must be maintained and the ‘B’ must be produced on the same pitch as the vowels surrounding it. Otherwise there will be a noticeable scoop in pitch. The voiced ‘G’ followed by the voiced version of S (sounded ‘Z’) at the end of the word “begs” must also be supported or the pitch will fall off and interrupt the line connecting “begs” with “for.” Careful examination reveals that these six words contain eight pitfalls for the inexperienced vocalist. Only the ‘F’ in “for” and the ‘H’ in “his” allow for an interruption in pitch.

Most American kids can sing “My Bonny lies over the ocean” so I’ll use the phrase to illustrate how knowledge of mouth mechanics can cure scoops or slides when approaching intervalic leaps. In the key of C the word “My” is sung on G and the first syllable of “Bonny” is sung on the E above at the interval of a Major 6th. Since the ‘B’ in the word “Bonny” is a voiced sound it must have pitch.If the singer falls into the habit of not sustaining support through the consonants the ‘B’ will resemble a spoken sound at some random pitch and the singer will have to scoop or slide up through the interval finally landing on the E. In order to sing the interval accurately, the ‘B’ sound must be approached as actually having the same pitch as the vowel which follows it. This is just one small example from a dumb little children’s song so you can imagine how many exist in songs you might be singing every day.

I have said in the past that singers should not allow themselves to be thought of as the least capable musicians on the stage or in the studio. One of the most effective things any vocalist can do to raise their level of musicianship is to study their material, recognize potential road hazards, make notations and address those areas that can be executed more musically. Singers who are also songwriters should be especially aware of composing potentially difficult passages that could, with a little effort, be written more effectively. Singing should be expressive, emotional and relevant. Knowledge shouldn’t take away from this but should enhance a singer’s ability to communicate with an audience. Sometimes a scoop here, a dip there and a slide up or down is just what a song needs. But just as a singer like Joni Mitchell uses the break between head and chest voice for intentional effects, so too should every vocalist develop their particular style according with intent and not because of limitations in technique and knowledge.

Okay, you guys in the back of the room can wake up and go home. Class is over.

Carl Orff’s lusty Carmina Burana holds a special place in the hearts and ears of many non music lovers. Most who have never enjoyed a full performance of the piece may refer to sections of Orff’s work as “that music from Excalibur” or “the theme from Glory.” Indeed, the emotional impact of the cantata, based upon Medieval texts discovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803, is so universal that sections of the piece have sonically illustrated war, peace, braggadocio, militarism and even instant coffee.

The power of the music rests firmly on the art of choral singing. For un-classically inclined musicians this roughly translates to “a lot of people singing at the same time without making a lot of mistakes.” Standing in the midst of 20,000 basketball fans screaming “We Will Rock You” can get the old adrenal glands pumping, but that experience is smashed to ashes against the timpanic downbeat and opening “O Fortuna” of the Carmina Burana when performed by a skilled ensemble.

On May 3, 2009 I had the pleasure of witnessing just such an event as the Pasadena Master Chorale under the expert baton of Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein presented the Carmina Burana to an overflow crowd at the First Congregational Church in Pasadena, California. Big budget organizations normally perform the piece with full orchestra but the impact of the music was certainly not compromised by Mr. Bernstein’s use of the smaller chamber version of instrumental accompaniment. Melodic/harmonic chores were handled on piano by Shawn Kirchner and Renee Gilormini while Wade Culbreath on timpani and percussionists Theresa Dimond, Joe Mitchell, John Magnussen, Ken McGrath and Aaron Smith kicked what can only be described as serious ass in executing Orff’s challenging percussion score.

The eighty voice Master Chorale sounded twice their number from the opening phrase on. This group is not your average community choir. Sopranos and basses can be found at most decent church choirs these days for about $4.75 a gallon for the high octane models, so it is not surprising for an ensemble like the Master Chorale to be well stocked. It’s the inner voices, however, that often can be the difference between a competent choir and an exceptional one. Genuine tenors and sonorous altos, like the meat in the middle of a choral sandwich, can sometimes make even stale bread taste like a French dip from Philippe’s. Although the Master Chorale’s tenor section is the smallest by number, the sound palette of the entire group is well balanced. As any vocalist can attest, singing with power offers less challenges than achieving blend, cohesion, intensity and expressiveness at pianissimo levels. Mr. Bernstein has trained this highly skilled choir well and from top to bottom, they sing with a purpose and as one voice.

The Carmina Burana was composed in modern times and the score is well-stocked with metronome indications. As a musician of the heart as opposed to the clock, I normally don’t question the conductor’s choices as to tempo but I couldn’t help feeling as though some sections of the piece were performed a click or two faster than I would think comfortable. The text is extremely wordy and I sensed a bit of hastiness in the brighter sections. Perhaps it can be written off to the acoustics of the venue but one or two beats per minute less here and there might have allowed more definitive interplay between the voices and the intricate accompaniment. It also would have guaranteed a longer performance which, when the closing “Fortuna Imeratrix Mundi” was just an echo in the rafters, would surely have pleased everyone in the house. As it was, the audience rose instantly to their feet and stayed there for an appreciatively long ovation.

Jacquelynne Fontaine

Abdiel Gonzalez and Jacquelynne Fontaine went above and beyond in rendering the lush melodies that Carl Orrf composed for solo baritone and soprano. The baritone solo can be particularly challenging for the “Dies Nox Et Omnia” requires the soloist to sing the opening melody as a lyric baritone, the release section almost in the manner of a counter tenor, yet maintaining sweetness and size, and then deliver the final “Per un baser” in the low range with authority. This is not a role for one dimensional singers and Mr. Gonzalez sang the piece with emotion, dexterity and musicianship beyond what might be expected of someone with his youthful appearance. As for Ms Fontaine, anyone who knows the piece will be on the edge of their seat halfway through the jaunty “Tempus Est iocundum” in anticipation of the climactic “Dulcissime” and Ms Fontaine did not disappoint. The highlight of the soprano solo is only four measures long but requires the soloist to execute flawlessly a very difficult, emotional and exposed line with minimal accompaniment.

Jeffrey Bernstein

Another welcome feature of the performance was the appearance of an actual children’s choir. The Washington Middle School Glee Club, directed by Cynthia Abbot, patiently waited until their turn at bat and proved why music education in our schools should be nurtured at a high priority. Well done.

The Carmina Burana, from a choral standpoint, is not a particularly difficult piece. It is high on the list for many crack high school choirs. The harmonies are sonorous, the dissonances logical, the vocal ranges not insurmountable. But when real men and women roll up their sleeves and go to work as Mr. Bernstein and co. did on May 3rd, look out. Simplicity performed with mature conviction is something altogether different than getting a high school group to pretend they know what they are supposed to be conveying. The piece will grow hair, don medieval chain-mail and the audience will see the 12th century sunlight glinting from the points of marching halberds.

Next up for the Pasadena Master Chorale is The German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. The introspective piece is a departure from the traditional requiem mass format and for it, Brahms has composed some of the most glorious choral music in the literature. I am already salivating to hear what Mr. Bernstein and his excellent choir have in store.

Building an effective vocal track is essential to any recording whether it is a writing demo, a demo intended to showcase an artist, or a finished master. Re-reading the last sentence I realize I’ve stated the painfully obvious, but the truth is that the painfully obvious can become the painfully impossible to accomplish when putting theory into practice. One of the most useful tools in building a great vocal is the instrumental track itself and here are a few tips on how to use it effectively.

Singers can be the laziest of musicians. They have no buttons to push, no keys to depress, no strings to strum and no finger positions to learn. And, in the case of my protege Theo, pictured above, they sometimes learn their craft without the aid of opposing thumbs. They just open their mouths and “Thar she blows!” Singers can hit the ground running whereas instrumentalists have to master a modicum of physical tasks before they can make anything resembling music. Unfortunately, and as is usually the case, the easier it is to get started, the less one is likely to work out the details that result in masterful technique. A reasonably competent singer can hear a melody and recreate it immediately without ever having to learn the rudiments of musical notation. But it’s been my experience that any vocal performance can be improved upon by fine-tuning the grossly ignored apparatus protruding at opposite poles of the cranium known as the ears.

A vocal performance, unless performed a capella, must exist in relation to the instrumental track. In building an arrangement, we normally take great pains to build a track from the bottom up. We align the bass and kick drum parts rhythmically as well as sonically and all the subsequent instrumental parts have unique relationships with the bottom end. Consequently, it makes a lot of sense to make the bottom end the focal point when working on a vocal as well.

When I was in school studying voice, I spent days, hours and years learning all the usual technical exercises, sat through hours of students wrestling Italian songs to the ground and reading every book on the “science of singing” that I could get my hands on. Soon I was giving lessons on my own and one day I made a great discovery that had not been addressed in my formal education. I had just moved house and my piano was too horribly out of tune to give a lesson. During my time in Vienna, Nikolaus Harnoncourt had used a small cello to teach us vocal lines. Well, if it was good enough for him, who was I to quibble? The nearest thing at hand was my old Jazz bass so I started to vocalize my student, a competent soprano, using my bass as accompaniment.

I was surprised to find that she had trouble matching pitch with notes played two octaves lower than those to which she was accustomed! Up to that point, I had always played exercises in the same octave they were to be sung but this was really interesting to me. Student after student, I found that singing in relation to the bass was completely out of the comfort zone. Applying this discovery to pop songs, I found a parallel in the songs of Franz Schubert. Schubert often shifted between major and minor keys and sometimes omitted the third of the chord from the accompaniment. This left the singer completely responsible for the quality of the chord. If singers aren’t focused on the bottom end the intonation will suffer.

Many pop vocal tracks are recorded with the aide of guide tracks which lay out the melody. When the guide track is not used, the singer usually relates to piano, strings or perhaps guitar lines that lie in the range of the vocal line. Although reasonably effective on the surface, I don’t think that guide tracks or instrumental cues go far enough in giving the singer a focused image of where to lay the vocal. After all, if you really want to play guitar like Jimi or Eric, listen to them, but study and play close attention to the music and players that influenced them. Applying that same logic, rather than just listening to parts built upon and influenced by the bottom end, why not go to the source and build the vocal on the same foundation.

So, here are some helpful household hints. When I record basic tracks, I always like to have the singer lay a guide track for reference and to give the band some inspiration. And who knows? Sometimes you catch a break and get a performance that turns out to be a keeper. Then, when it’s time to start working on the vocal, I might warm up the singer at the piano just to make some sounds and get comfortable. I might move over to guitar and play either exercises or song fragments to get one foot out of the comfort zone and acclimate the vocalist to something a little different. And finally, without lecture or purpose, I’ll just casually pick up the bass and continue to work in a very relaxed way. Without having to think, the singer has become comfortable singing to a completely new set of references.

When I set up the vocal session, I will start by letting the singer decide what should be in the headphones. I try hard to remove any time constraints or pressure from the session as these always end up costing more time than they are worth. I’ll run the song, always recording, as many times as it takes to get the singer comfortable. And then, when it’s time to go for keepers, I’ll start to thin out the upper instruments. I’ll put the bass up a bit more than what a final mix might be and also get the kick drum in there big and fat.

Getting the bottom end dominant in the cue mix is not a matter of sheer volume. I want the singer to be influenced by the bottom end without having to think. I’ll play with equalizers so the kick is warm and comfortable and not loud and snappy as it might be in a live floor monitor. The idea is to replace the upper register comfort zone with something rhythmically solid yet warm and comfortable. If the upper parts are too prominent, the vocal can get lost in the mix. The usual tactic is to turn up the vocal, then crank up some keyboards for pitch reference, then try to fight through the frequencies and turn up the vocal some more. With the bottom end as the focal point of the cue mix, there is less for the singer to fight through. When the pulse is felt more than heard, the singer will tend to sing more in tune with the foundation of the track.

A welcome side effect is that the vocal will find a more comfortable relationship with the rhythm of the track. When a singer struggles to cop a feel, the result can be close but often uncomfortable. Over-thinking tends to be constrictive to feel. By creating an audio environment in which the vocalist can perform instinctively on a more primal wavelength you may find that the finished vocal performance will even inspire you to revisit some of the upper parts.

To summarize, singers should practice and become accustomed to listening to the bottom end. Singing teachers should address the ears of their students as well as the singing apparatus and spend some time accompanying exercises in lower octaves. And if you are working with a singer at any level of recording, try building the vocal from the bottom up. The results might surprise you.