One element of my teaching that is constantly changing and evolving is my choice of words. Knowing that the way I give directions or explain pedagogical concepts can either help or hinder learning, I have to be especially careful when using “loaded” words that often have vastly different meanings to different people. This includes words like “support,” “open throat,” and “head voice.” But, for me, the king of all loaded words is “placement.”
The book Master Singers: Advice from the Stage (which I reviewed here) highlights the disparity of views on placement in its interviews with prominent opera singers about vocal technique. In the book, Thomas Hampson unequivocally states, “I do not use the word placement,” whereas Alan Held says, “Placement is the most important aspect of my singing.” Kathleen Kim says, “I don’t try to place the sound. I just try to feel the sensation, which for me is more space in the back of my throat.” Eric Owens counters by saying, “...I never feel that this space is in the back. If anything, I’ll feel like the space is through the top of my head, in addition to the forward placement.” Owens also says, “I feel resonance and placement, mostly, in the front/mask area,” while Jonas Kaufmann flatly states, “I do not feel the voice in the mask.”
To help elucidate the issue, I look to Scott McCoy’s Singing and Voice Science chapter in the NATS-sponsored So You Want to Sing books. McCoy makes a distinction between forced resonance and free resonance. Forced resonance in singing refers to our "private" resonance, meaning the vibrations we feel in certain areas of the body, like the chest, the head, and in the mask (generally defined as the cheekbone area of the face). These vibrations impact the way we perceive our sound and, in my estimation, provide a reference point of sensation that can be used to make our sound more consistent. But those internal vibrations do not result in sound that our audience hears.
On the other hand, free resonance is what occurs when sound travels through the open spaces of our vocal tract. Some of these sound waves reflect back on our vocal folds and boost certain frequencies of tone. This sound does reach outside listeners and is what gives each of us our unique vocal quality.
I believe that when most people talk about “placing” the voice, they are referring to the internal vibrations they feel through forced resonance. I encourage all of you to identify and explore these vibrations by placing a hand on your chest or throat or cheekbones while vocalizing. Then remove your hand and see if you can still feel those vibrations using only your internal awareness (proprioception).
Once you can acknowledge all the areas where you feel vibrations, you are able to choose which of those areas will receive the focus of your attention while singing. In this sense, the only thing you are “placing” is your attention, not your sound. By mentally highlighting an area where you have already identified you feel some sort of vibration or sensation, your “placement” is a result of a freely produced sound rather than your initial intention in singing.
Is all of this merely semantics? As long as it brings results, does it matter if you are feeling, focusing, or placing your sound? Perhaps not. But just as the words “attack” and “cut off” imply a degree of activity that “onset” and “release” do not, I find that when many singers try to place their sound it often involves additional activity that manifests itself through scrunched noses, furrowed brows, and overly-engaged tongues.
What are your thoughts on vocal placement? How has your singing been this week?
Now go practice.
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| My happy "place" (at least one of them) |
Interesting! I'm not entirely sure what my thoughts are on vocal placement. As I reflect on my own singing lessons, sometimes I like to be told where to place my sound -- whether that be in the mask, chest or further back of my throat. I think about exercises like "GUH" where my teacher demonstrates with a droopy mouth with the sound resonating in the back of the throat. Verses a "NAY" where the objective may be to feel the resonance in the front of the mask. These exercises, I assume, are to play around with placement and explore the extremes. I personally like to be told about placement. It is true that no-one can really understand where I alone feel resonance. But my hope is that my singing teacher has a trained ear to give me constructive feedback on where she thinks its resonating for me, and challenge me to move the sound elsewhere or perhaps find a more balanced placement. Because my perception of how I sound is distorted because of resonance, I find value in my teacher's unbiased feedback on how it's being received by ears other than my own. Though I may not be feeling resonance in my throat, she may communicate that the sound is too swallowed or muggy. That gives me an understanding as to where I get to move my placement to give a more balanced sound. So overall, perhaps it is semantics. If the word "placement" is confusing or unclear for some, maybe it is best to find other terms. I think I've heard it for so many years, I don't overthink it. For me, it is a word that I am comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteMy singing this week has been alright! I did have a moment where I became very frustrated with my inability to sing a song I want to add to my audition repertoire. The voice is so complex! I was a bit overcome with how insanely layered this instrument can be. But I recovered and told myself to focus on my exercises only. I find myself wishing I could afford all the singing lessons my heart desires. But adulthood. On that note, cheers to a week ahead of patience and chill pills!
I find that the more i TRY to have some specific sort of placement, the more i tense up at the throat and ultimately the vocal fold level. It's hard for me to directly place my voice in my mask, or my head, or my throat, or whatever becuase I, like everyone else, have a unique voice that likes to do what it was made to do which is sound like it sounds. (wow what a run on sentence). Knowing this i tend to rely heavily on vowel modifications, air flow, or sound mimicks (ie the "super covered classical place" or the "pity the child" place) which may mean nothing to anyone else, but it works for me and that is what matters ultimately.
ReplyDeletePlacement in general tends to frustrate me, due to the raspiness in my voice, the naturally further back in my throat that my voice likes to live, and my physical makeup i sometimes find it hard to adapt to certain styles of singing, which is why thinking of vowels and airflow makes it a bit easier for me to find my perfect version of a particular song or style. The voice is super complex, and remembering that every single person uses different language to explain their experience with singing is both daunting and comforting.
When I started singing, the words like head voice and chest voice really helped me focus on where the sound should resonate. Now that I am actually learning about the vocal folds and diagram of the voice, I realize that those words do not give justice to the diagram. But as a singer it helps me know where I should be feeling the vibrations. But the science geek inside me realizes that those are improper wording. It's mind boggling how I grew up listening to those placement words and now it annoys me that it was used wrong. I'm not sure if I should still be using the placement words : head voice or chest voice but as long as it helps me than I believe those placement words work. As for my voice its seen better days. I am getting over a cold that I caught over the weekend. It hurts to sing high and I feel my voice resonating in the chest area more than normal. I feel like my voice is dry ( not sure if your voice can be dry or not). Hopefully this cold will go away soon:)
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic for me because I always thought of vocal placement like Kathleen said "I just try to feel the sensation, which for me is more space in the back of my throat.”This is both right and wrong in my opinion. I am someone who likes to show how powerful my chest voice is. In class I am working on the song Not While I'm Around, and there are some really high notes. I can hit these notes if I really really wanted to, but they actually tense up my throat and hurt my vocal folds. I thought it would make me look "weak" if I switched to head voice. It turns out that it actually helps the song, the character, and even myself. I may not feel that "sensation" but I know it's in the right spot, and that It's helping with story because it's lullaby. There is so much that the voice can do and I'm so sick of having the expectation that belting and being really loud is what makes a "great singer." AMII RIGGHT??
ReplyDeleteVocal placement for me has always been this mystical realm of where I "should" be placing my voice. Looking back on the years I have had in vocal training makes me realize that my teacher would always tell me to "put my voice...*insert body part here* and I thought of it more like a way to think about where to place my voice rather than where to resonate from. I now am realizing that our voice is an amazing instrument with so many places it can resonate from and thats something I never knew I was able to do until it was brought to my attention. And as someone who plays a woodwind instrument I have found many similarities of what I would do to get different tones in that instrument work for my voice as well. Singing this week has been going well! my voice finally feels healthy again and I am not so timid about really going for it!
ReplyDeleteI need to focus on holding back. Giving myself somewhere to go. Helping my vocal chords by not always feeling the need to push. My placement helps with this, along with my vocal health. I was very sick last week but I still warmed up before every show I had over the weekend because I knew I couldn't just go into a high energy show without perpetration. Dynamics are going to be really fun to play with in my finals and in the show I'm in now and the upcoming musical. I am really realizing how much I need to continue to keep having healthy vocal placement, and keeping my vocal chords healthy.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I'm so tired. COME SEE YOU NEVER CAN TELL
Placement is such an interesting idea for me. When I first started to dive more into the technical side of singing back in middle school, I often heard those “loaded” words and I never really understood what they meant by chest voice or head voice because I always just focused on where the vibrations decided to resonate. But after a while of countless times of being told I was wrong for doing that, I caved into the idea of pushing myself to control the vibrations and sounds from these areas making it HARDER for myself. There were even times where I pushed myself further to the point where it could have led to damaging my voice. Once I chose to read about the concepts behind head voice and chest voice, I concluded for myself that these are merely thoughts that help provide a label of sorts to the sounds origin. After that point, I produced sounds from where it was most comfortable for my voice that had the vibrations in the right area. This, alongside classes such as singing and voice and speech, have in return, helped my voice to be not so tired after hardcore karaoke sessions or ensemble work. As for my singing, I think it’s going okay. I’m still making those strides. But I have discovered that more fast passed songs are slightly more difficult for me to sing confidently for fear of doing it wrong. I noticed this when we did the “half” warm ups in class. I can feel myself straining to keep up the sound to my standard and control of my breath. But when we hold out notes, it’s easier for me to maintain pitch and breath. So hopefully the next performance of What’ll I Do, I will be able to perform it by myself with confidence since it is in a comfortable placement for me.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely have struggled with forced placement. I hold a lot of unnecessary tension in my jaw, lower lip, and tongue. I have found that some of my most successful performances of difficult songs have come when I just let go and listen to my body. I am interested to try the thing you mentioned about using proprioception to determine where I feel vibrations. I think that could be helpful.
ReplyDeleteSinging this week has been pretty good. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with all of my music. I thought I was completely memorized going into class, but once I started thinking about blocking, several things escaped my head. So, more work to be done before Tuesday!
Through voice lessons I've often been taught that you'll feel more resonance in your skull and face when singing in your head voice. One thing I have found helpful is imagining the sound coming off the top of my head or almost out my eyes. I think that I have always had a difficult time understanding when people say breathe into your belly, or breathe low. It is beginning to make more sense through work in different acting classes, because I think before this year, I would try to but I was tensing my abdomen and belly at the same time.
ReplyDeleteAs far as singing goes, I think one thing I'm struggling with a little bit especially in "What'll I do" is breath, I need to find or mark places where I can breath without having it be in the middle of words or phrases. And also I think when I get nervous, I forget to breathe and run out of air, so that is something that I need to focus more on next time I perform.
GO CUBS
I feel that the subject of this post is something I should definitely be more aware of when I practice. I often feel as though I am trying to force the sound out (especially with higher notes). I am not sure if this is what is meant by "forced resonance," but it definitely doesn't feel or sound great when I do it. I'm certainly guilty of more than a few scrunched noses and furrowed brows.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not entirely certain I'm grasping what is discussed in this post, I will try and explore vibration, focus, placement, etc in future practice.
Going back to a previous blog post, all of these talks of placement tend to feel mystical versus being based in any anatomy of the voice. Being told to place a sound in my nose never made sense logically, but when I heard someone else make the tone, felt it in myself, and found how I had to open/close my soft palate and throat to obtain the sound, I was able to accomplish it. I think it's super helpful to simultaneously define a "placement" along with the precise feeling of vibration and engagement in your face and throat. This has been super helpful in my own practices.
ReplyDeletePlacement has been a point of difficulty for me; much like other aspects of the voice and breathing it seems that talk of placement has little concern for actual anatomy. I tend to feel vibrations in my throat or chest, but the vibrations I feel around my mask and anywhere else that isn't throat or chest are so small that focusing on them is hardly any help. I think everyone has a sort of intuitive knowledge of the "placement" of their voice, but for me that word is still rather vague and (like the blogpost said) loaded, that I don't personally find of too much use. I try to focus on what I'm trying to do with my voice, as that tends to be a little more clear. I hope that made sense.
ReplyDeleteMy placements usually coexist in my chest and throat because that's where my baritone/brassy sound sits. I find it to be a lot more forced when I try to place it elsewhere. I think it's hugely beneficial to play around with different placements, even if it's just a matter of bringing awareness to that set placement. Being able to access a variety of placements allows you to fully access the capabilities in your voice, giving you that much more of an advantage. Placement is also different for everyone. I have to think specific ideas rather than attempting to locate the vibrating sensation, but to counter that, there are specific placements that I can only describe by sensation. When I try to access my "leading man on broadway" placement I take a larger opening in my throat and think of my sound moving completely vertical. When I am singing songs that work through my passaggio, I will bring my sound more forward towards my nasal to make the transitions more smooth and unnoticeable, as well as giving me more control over my voice.
ReplyDeleteSinging has been swell. My focus right now is memorizing a consistent breath pattern in my songs, as well as building the stamina to sing them back to back for my jury.
I actually feel like use of terms can drastically change results, because of how minds process them and try to carry them out. For example, the word attack can lead to very harsh results with glottal onsets and strained vocal chords, rather than using something more along the lines of making a pointed note. I feel like most of my sound comes from or resonates in my chest or heart area, even when I'm breathing deeply. I'll often feel it in my mask when practicing. I haven't really played around with the sound too much however, aside from how I'm adjusting the idea of how it comes out of my mouth or where in my head it hits (ex. soft palate vs. nose). That's something I should try to play around with more though so I can figure out what works best for me.
ReplyDeleteSinging this week has been going well for me. I feel like my voice has had more support and I've been trying to take care of it more, and I've noticed the results.
Before coming to school here and taking classes from the teachers here, I didn't even know that placement was a thing. I always just assumed that there was only one way to sing and that was classical. None of my vocal teachers growing up ever told me that there was a way to modify the vowel so that it could have a better sound. So, learning that made a huge difference in my voice and added a whole range to what my instrument can do. However, because I'm just learning to do that and use my new found mix-tone, my bad habits of tension and misuse of muscles are starting to shine through. I find that I use my tongue a lot to help placement when it really doesn't do anything at all for me. I have to take a step back and really feel what muscles are actually making the shape I need and relax the ones that aren't needed.
ReplyDeleteThis week has been busy. With Thanksgiving coming up and finals just around the corner, there seems to be no time for any extensive work with my voice. I've only really had time to warm up enough to get through my jury songs, work one thing here and there on each song, and do my best to apply it in the next practice session. I will definitely be better this next week since I'll have two extra days off.
I have yet to develop the skills to tactfully “move” my placement when I’m singing. I feel like when I speak, it’s pretty easy for me to access my different registers, and I could pretty confidently tell you when I am speaking with more chest tones, nasal, mask etc. When singing however, I feel like I lose the ability to choose the placement of the sound, and instead my voice moves of its own accord. I feel like something I’ve learned this semester though has been that I don’t need to consciously make the decision to sing in head voice. I am capable of hitting certain pitches that have a much different quality when compared to my low notes, and the more I release into that, the easier it has become to sing higher without being concerned about how “weak” I think my head voice sounds. So I think what I’m trying to say is that thinking placement hasn’t been helpful in regards to my singing, not in the same way releasing into the sound and taking care not to hurt my voice has.
ReplyDeleteSinging has been okay. As I get less sleep, more stressed, and nutrient- deprived, it’s no surprise my voice begins to suffer. But that’s the end of the semester for you I suppose.
I have to say I was always confused when my choir talked about placement. It didn't make sense to me because you don't place your vocal folds anywhere in your throat other than where they stay. When I put my hand on my chest, throat, and nose and feel those vibrations that's what placement is to me. However I lose feeling when I try and feel the vibrations in my face, but I can still feel it with my throat and chest. What does this mean, maybe I need to spend more time in my higher ranges and play with different resonate spaces of my body. Singing has been ok, it's not what I would like it to be, but with the end of the semester and Thanksgiving coming up it's been hard to maintain a schedule. But I still do my best when I am practicing and playing with my voice.
ReplyDeleteI used to have the most difficult time with placement. I always fell back into my throat the higher I would sing, and this would lead to intense tension in my neck and jaw. Ever since I got to college and got with the proper voice teacher for me, I noticed a rapid decrease in all of the things listed above. My placement was much more forward, I was experiencing less and less tension in my higher register, and my sound just felt all around more free. Chest voice and head voice confuse me and I cannot really think about my voice that way. Just as Devin had mentioned in his post, my voice is what it is and sits where it likes to sits; it is one voice. I am definitely guilty of overusing the word "placement" and would like to feel the sensations first rather than thinking of it as placement.
ReplyDeletePlacement has always confused me a lot, but I feel like I'm getting a better hold of it in my lessons. Thinking about where I'm placing my voice, and the technique which goes with the different placements, has helped me to achieve new and exciting heights in my vocal career. I always think it's funny when we talk about visualizing the voice in different areas of the back space. Just the other day Brian was discussing with me the pros and cons of "back space" considering it should ~technically~ be called middle space according to anatomy.
ReplyDeleteAs always, I'm more likely to practice when I enjoy the material I'm singing. Lucky for me, I really enjoy the material I've been working on recently, so practicing has been a lot easier, more active, and a lot more constant!
As I've been practicing this week I've found that when I try to sing in "proper placement" sometimes I'll contort my vocal tract into odd configurations resulting in the weird thing we've talked about where the sound feels as though it's caught in my mouth. Instead I've been trying to sing with the vowel placement we use in voice and speech and I think it's resulting in a freer resonance placement. The tone produced is easier to manufacture, smoother, and more pleasing to listen to. However I have been sick all week and my voice has really started to give out these last couple of days so I'm not sure exactly how much of the weeks discoveries have been influenced by a sick voice. I do think though that I had fallen victim to placement being a loaded word that I was misinterpreting while it helped others conceptualize good vocal technique.
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Placement is something I'm continuing to discover and play with. Because I lack experience with singing, it presents the opportunity to learn something new about my voice. Something that I'm not mindful of is paying close attention to where my placement is. I tend to often believe that it is mostly my chest voice or perhaps head. I couldn't tell you. However I can tell you that I hold unhelpful tension in certain areas of my jaw, I feel as if that might get in the way of my ability to recognize my placement. On my journey in this class I have discovered that behind beautifully trained voices there are technicalities and practice of technique. In regards to my singing, I've actually been more consistent with my work outside of class, I am forcing myself to set aside a minimum of thirty minutes to at least to vocal warms, whether thats when I'm getting ready or in the car, I am doing it! I have also found myself less nervous to get up and sing. This is perhaps very random but I read an interview from Variety I believe that featured Millie Bobby Brown (she plays Eleven in Stranger Things). She opened up to being partially deaf and having no prior acting or singing experience. She recently visited Jimmy Fallon and got up on stage and rapper a couple of verses about Stranger Things. I was blown away at her ability to just have fun. In the interview she said “I just started to sing, and if I sound bad I don’t care because I’m just doing what I love. You don’t have to be good at singing. You don’t have to be good at dancing or acting. If you like to do it, if you genuinely enjoy doing it, then do it. No one should stop you". It's amazing how I've found inspiration from a young 13-14 year old girl. But from reading this interview I've decided no one should stop me, not even myself. I like singing, I enjoy it even if I'm not gifted so I'm going to continue to sing.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE7TS2Rituo
DeleteFor a really long time I was confused about the idea of placement, and a lot of other aspects relating to my voice, because I was hearing a lot of different advice from people I comsidered to be knowolagable professionals. I kept taking these peoples advice as always the right answer but something I have learned during my time in college is that a large part of our education is figuring out what works for us and makes us a better actor, and that's not the same for everyone. So I think to a certain extent, all of the authors are right because they know what works for them and makes them better singers, but that may or may not be what is right for me. I have found that the idea of placement, for me, has a lot to do with putting a thought behind the sound I am putting into a space. I made a sound fuller, I often have to put an intention behind it. If I want a sound produced by more resonating space, I often have to think "up" because this increases the size of my resonating space.
ReplyDeletePracticing has been hard this week, just because I'm starting to get sick and have had a lot more then usual going on, but I think in the coming week I will be back on track.
To be honest, I've always struggled with imagery relating to resonance and placement. They help me, but when they don't work I get frustrated because I don'g actually understand what's happening in my body.
ReplyDeletePractice has been great this week! It's been tough to find time with the closing of YNCT, but I've been proud that I've been practicing anyway.
I've always tensed up when an instructor has told me where to place my sound. I feel that it is better to sing, feel where resonance lies, and then experiment accordingly. Being sick for a full semester has done a number on what I would consider my norm--it's been interesting to see how it's changed and how I've needed to adapt to the fluctuating swelling and irritation. I have, however, been too consumed with what others have told me my placement should feel like/should be. It's ultimately more helpful for me to experiment with my own understanding of what that means to me.
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad that you touched on this. I often have a hard time visualizing how to move the physical placement of vibration. I notice that I often feel resonance in varying places, depending on the work I’m doing and then range I’m in. The voice work I’ve been doing in You Never Can Tell is different than how phonate in an Italian Aria. It’s been a busy week, so I’ve been focusing on memorization.
ReplyDeleteMy singing this week has been sporadic. I am getting over a messy sickness and haven't been practicing a whole bunch for the past couple days. However, this post is very relevant to the practicing that I have been able to do for the past few days. My nose has been really stuffy, so I've really had to focus on "placing" my voice somewhere where my congestion won't get in the way of the sound that I am trying to produce. I find that, when I'm congested, I also tend to feel vibrations more in my nose and it becomes really apparent kinesthetically when I am placing my voice forward, which is probably likely due to the forced resonance that you mentioned. I'd like to move forward a) as healthy as I can or b) knowing how to tell the difference between forced resonance and an open resonance when I am not feeling my best.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm going to play devil's advocate... I like the use of the word "placement." When I think of placement I think of whether or not I am singing in the "place" that creates the healthiest, best-sounding, easiest singing. It's really important to me to have conversations about placement because I want to know when I am singing in the correct "place" and when I'm not.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I struggle with is recreating placement. If I sing something well in a lesson or in my own practice sessions I have a hard time knowing how to articulate what the placement feels like or how to recreate it. Sometimes I feel like it’s one place but it ends up sitting better in another. Something I want to work on is consistency. Being able to consistently find and articulate my placement so I can recreate a specific sound even if I’m under pressure. Last week I sang at a Caberet for the dept. and my placement felt so wrong. In a song that I feel pretty confident in in my lessons or in my car. So I would like to work on being able to find that place under any circumstance!
ReplyDeletePlacement is something that I've been working on a lot lately. I was messing around with a friend and found a nice forward sound in my voice. A more round and rich sound than what I've been doing. This week has been a little rough due to a sickness I picked up where I lost my voice but I am handling it.
ReplyDeleteI think I fall into the category of students who equates "vocal placement" to where I am focusing the sound and where I personally feel vibrations. I do think that as long as it brings results, it doesn't matter if you're focusing/feeling/placing etc. the voice. For me, it's the connecting the vocabulary to the practice and the sensations and actions that all have to somehow click into my finding better coordination and consistency. While I feel like I can more often than not, re-coordinate my instrument into producing a consistent sound in lessons; doing this during performances feels like a whole different game I am always learning to play.
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