Unlocking the Power of the Voice: The Physical Vocal Athlete
A performer’s artistic interpretation of a lyric cannot be complete without accessibility to paint with a diverse palette of vocal colors. When listening to a coordinated and balanced voice that is both flexible and free, we become mesmerized with wonder of how they are capable of producing such a quality of sound. Many believe that talent alone determines a performer’s access to ease and flexibility. And while natural ability is an undeniable contributing factor to performer’s coordination, it is not representative of the work required to shape a reliable and consistent vocalization. Vocal function is the product of a number of muscles tensing and releasing in a delicately balanced way. In order to execute complex vocal tasks, such as songs, one must “warm up” by way of stretching the muscles involved so that they may coordinate the movement of said muscles in a balanced and efficient way. Otherwise, the muscles may compensate in ways that result in fatigue or even potential injury. In order to unlock the power of the voice, we must shift our understanding of a person’s vocal coordination as being a “product of talent” to the result of the awareness, focus, and diligence of practice that is equivalent to that of an athlete.
"Singers are often regarded as vocal athletes due to the significant physical and physiological demands placed on their vocal apparatus during performances"
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, Volume 45, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 18-25
How are singers “vocal athletes”?
You may have heard singers as having been referred to as “vocal athletes”. However, have you ever understood the reasoning behind the reference of such a phrase? To understand why singers are considered “vocal athletes”, we must first examine the concept of athleticism itself. Athleticism is defined as a person having “the physical qualities that are characteristic of athletes, such as strength, fitness, and agility”. However, how does one determine if a person possesses such qualities?
Beginning in the 1920s, researchers sought to develop a comprehensive test to measure an individual’s athleticism, or general motor ability. These evaluations continued to evolve throughout the 1950’s during the Cold War as an effort to ensure the physical condition and strength of the U.S population compared to that of their international counterparts. From the 1960s-1980s, physical fitness tests were administered during physical education classes in public schools as a way to continue understanding the general motor ability of the American youth. And as a result of continued research throughout the 1990s, and into the 21st century, we now have a more comprehensive definition of athleticism being that it is “the ability to repeatedly perform a range of movements with precision and confidence in a variety of environments, which require competent levels of motor skills, strength, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and endurance” - National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).
If we focus our attention on the community of professional voice users and substitute the word “athleticism” for “singing”, the definition listed above maintains integrity of meaning. The development of a singer can be described as developing the “ability to repeatedly perform a range of [vocal] movements with precision and confidence in a variety of [musical] environments, which require competent levels of motor skills, balance, coordination, endurance”, etc.
What are the physical demands of singers?
One may wonder how singing can be described as developing an individual’s motor skills in a precise and balanced way. However, in its most simplified form, singing is the coordination of intricate muscles that are influenced by their interaction with subsystems of the body; primarily being the release of airflow through the vocal folds and vibration through supra-glottal pharyngeal spaces. Because vocal function is a byproduct of processes that occur internally, we cannot physically see the movement of these muscles with our eyes alone. However, with instrumentation, we are able to gain insight as to how much these muscles move in order to phonate.
For a review on understanding “how the voice works”, please reference my previous post titled “Vocal Health: Is My Voice Healthy”. There, you will find an animation that explains how basic vocal fold function works. In short, the air pressure, generated in the lungs, blows air through the vocal folds (that are in a nearly-closed position). The vocal folds, housed in thyroid cartilage of the larynx, become set into a vibratory pattern and generate sound waves. Those vibrations travel upward from the larynx and pass through the vocal tract or the resonator. Before exiting the body, the sound waves become altered by the shape of our lips and mouth, also known as the aperture. If we were to have a person sing during an MRI, we could sagittally observe the movement of some of these muscles within the vocal tract, being the lips, the tongue, and the velum (or soft palate), in real time.
You can see how much movement is required of these muscles to produce perceivable vowels in speech and singing. Notice the differences between the first two examples and the latter. The first two examples demonstrated a balanced and coordinated vocalization of the vowels while the latter two were intentionally inefficient. While one may perceive the change in movement of muscles not to be significant, the change in perceivable production of sound is notable.
In this imaging, we are unable to see what is happening with the intrinsic musculature of the larynx. We are only able to acquire that imaging superiorly by way of a laryngoscopic exam.
While a person is speaking or singing, the vocal folds are vibrating together hundreds to thousands of times per second. In this laryngoscopic exam, we hear the vocalist sliding from the bottom to the top of their range. We can see that the vocal folds go from a slacked, thicker vocal fold contact level to a more stretched, thinner vocal fold contact level. The vocal folds have the ability to vibrate in a number of vibratory patterns given the vocal task being asked of the singer. These vibratory patterns are determined by which musculature is activated thus altering how the vocal folds come together.
These videos highlight the motor skills required to produce basic phonation. A higher level of coordination is required when other variables, such altering pitch, shifts in registration, and demands of repertoire, are demanded of the singer. It is important to note that these videos only provide us with observation of the anatomy and physiology from the neck up. Freedom in the functionality of these muscles and the coordination required to execute complex musical tasks is influenced by a singers relationship to their entire body and it’s accessibility to move freely. If there is a part of the body that is over-engaged, such as the pelvic diaphragm, there may be ripple effects along the chain reaction of muscles involved in the phonatory process that must be balanced for a sustainable and efficient production of sound. That is to highlight that while singing is not commonly perceived as involving full body engagement, it demands the attention and motor skills equivalent to that of an athlete.
“Singing demands the coordination and control of multiple muscle groups, much like the precise movements required of athletes"
- Johan Sundberg
How do we measure a singer’s vocal “athleticism”, or coordination?
Just as the understanding of how to properly evaluate the general motor ability of an athlete developed throughout the greater part of the 20th century, research in voice science has provided insight as to how voice teachers can better assess an individual’s physical coordination as a singer. While no “standardized” assessment is practiced, voice teachers guide vocalists through a series of exercises that are designed to provide information as to the flexibility and behavioral tendencies of the musculature involved in phonation. Does a singer have access to all vibratory patterns of the modal voice? How does the singer navigate through all registrations? Is the vocal quality perceivably easy, released, and clear? Does a singer feel free to make vocal color choices as an artist? These are only some of the qualities we listen for as the aural presentation of what can be observed in the two videos listed above. We are familiarizing ourselves with the individual and their relationship with their instrument so that we can know the most effective adjustment to make so that the singer feels a positive shift towards an easier production of sound. And no two singers are exactly the same -we all come with our own unique needs to unlock the power of our voices.
It took the collective work of researchers in the field of kinesiology close to a century to develop a detailed understanding of what athleticism means today. They have concluded that there is no single test that comprehensively measures or evaluates the physical capabilities of an athlete. Rather, guiding an individual through a series of movements and “challenges” provides a more accurate insight as to how one measures in proximity to fulfilling a desired physical task when compared to their peers. The same logic applies to the individualized nature of singing. When working with a student, voice teachers will guide a singer through a series of physical tasks to understand the functionality of the singing voice and the body on that given day. They will make adjustments to the system accordingly in an effort to have the singer feel more physically flexible and released so that they may perform the demands of the repertoire in the most efficient way possible. This repeated execution of this process builds a singer’s physical ability to perform in a consistent and reliable way so that they feel more confident in displaying their skill sets as an artist in progressively more challenging environments.
"Training the voice is akin to training the body of an athlete; it requires consistent effort and skill development”
-Richard Miller
An integral component for an individual to unlock the power of their voice is the understanding that they must approach their craft as training like a “vocal athlete”. The physical biomechanics involved in executing musical repertoire demands a singer’s ability to repeatedly perform a range of precise micro muscular movements in a way that requires competent levels of motor skills that are both balanced and coordinated. Electrifying vocal performances are not the product of talent alone - they are the result of a performer’s diligent work ethic of consciously practicing and fine-tuning their coordination so that their instruments remain flexible, consistent, and free. Too many singers believe that their vocal function is something that cannot be altered. Just as atheltes train to improve the efficiency of their ability to perform a given physical task, so must singers.
The parallels between vocal athletes and sport athletes do not stop at the physical level. I discovered when writing this article that it was necessary to break this subject down into a series of posts so that each topic was discussed comprehensively in a digestable way. In future articles, we will explore how the psychological components of performance compare to that of sports athletes, discuss how behavioral tendencies outside the studio impact the functionality of the voice, and deepen our understanding of motor learning theory and how to make the most of the content in private voice lessons. If you have made it this far in the post, I appreciate the time you have taken to be introduced to the concept of what it means to be a physical vocal athlete. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to go to the “CONTACT” page and send an email. I would love to work with you to discover what unlocking the power of your voice means for YOU!