July 2024
How do you Teach Dynamics for the Voice?
When they begin to take lessons, all of my students go through vocal pedagogy lessons before they start to sing. I want them to know their own physiognomy and how it works before we start. Then I tell my students that I want them to feel free to throw away their voices, and teach them how to make loud sirens. We add consonants and specific pitches to those sirens after they are mastered. So, at that point, they can make nice loud sounds on pitch, freely and beautifully.
As they progress, I have them sing no softer than mezzo-forte in their first song. Opera Colorado's Choirmaster, John Baril, always says, "There is no 'piano' in opera." New students will drop to a breathy, over-muscled sound if they are trying to sing softly. Keep them at mf until they have more skill and control.
When I feel that they are ready, I will remind them of what they learned about the pharynx (the space at the back of the throat) and that the constrictors (the muscles' names) there can make that space smaller. We experiment going from large sounds to smaller simply by letting the back of the throat be less open than it was for sirens.
Essentially, they are just making the "echo space" become smaller, reducing the amount of sympathetic vibrations and thus, the volume of sound that they release. We are very careful that this is not a "muscled" process, but only a thought. We are careful to continue to keep the soft palate high. We also do not go high in the voice initially, or straining may occur. After this is mastered in the middle and lower voice, we gradually take it higher, insuring that there is no forcing of the muscles involved.
This is the detailed explanation. I once heard a master class teacher say, "Simply close your mouth more," but on high pitches, that isn't possible, so I don't use that concept. (The mouth must be open very wide when high in order to shorten the "tube" between the opening and the vocal folds so that the shorter wave lengths can escape properly. Severe strain will occur otherwise.)