{"id":52,"date":"2016-03-18T11:02:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T11:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vocalskills.co.uk\/blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2016-05-24T16:56:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T16:56:30","slug":"how-can-you-place-your-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vocalskills.co.uk\/blog\/vocal-technique\/how-can-you-place-your-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you place your voice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/p>\n

All sound is vibration. In other words, waves moving through the air, like ripples on a pond.<\/p>\n

Singing is no different – when you sing, you disturb the air between yourself and the listener.<\/p>\n

That’s a scientific fact, and not one that many people – even singers! – would dispute.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to the movement of air inside<\/em> the body, it seems that a lot of singers and teachers get confused.<\/p>\n

“Place your voice in your … (fill in the blank)”<\/em> is a phrase that lots of us have heard. It’s certainly one that caused me much confusion when I was learning to sing.<\/p>\n

Let’s think logically:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. sound is produced by the vibration of the vocal folds<\/li>\n
  2. the air above the vocal folds is disturbed<\/li>\n
  3. this disturbance travels through the air above it in waves<\/li>\n
  4. these waves are absorbed and reflected by the various structures of the vocal tract (throat and mouth, essentially)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So where’s the ‘placement’?<\/p>\n

    Below is my all-time favourite video of the voice, and one which a lot of pupils are amazed by. On first hearing, it seems fake, as it some post-production editing was used to produce the sound.<\/p>\n

    In essence, it shows the effect that different shaped resonating spaces have on a fundamental vibration. As you watch it, bear in mind that the vibration stays the same, it’s the shape of the resonator that produces the ‘human’ sound.<\/p>\n