What Singing Should Feel Like
I don't know why it has taken me so long to write this post because it has needed to be written and blasted around the web for a long time.
I wish I had known what singing should feel like when I was much younger and having a lot of issues with my voice.
Let’s get the Should Not’s out of the way first
You should never lose your voice after singing.
You shouldn't feel tightness, pushing or pain in your throat.
You shouldn't have to tense any part of your body to excess.
It should feel GOOD.
But some parts of the body DO have to be active + in motion
Breath support (perhaps the part of the singing puzzle that is most often taught in vague or confusing ways) has a number of moving parts (ribs, diaphragm, belly, vocal cords).
But it’s the RELATIONSHIP between them that’s most important.
But in short….
YOUR RIBCAGE
The ribs expand a little on the inhale and we resist their natural collapse on the exhale.
Which means our intercostal muscles (between the ribs) are ACTIVE, working.
YOUR BELLY
As we use our breath, our diaphragm muscle NATURALLY (you don’t have to do anything to this muscle) moves upwards.
BECAUSE OF this movement, the belly will move inwards (again, without you forcing it).
How active or fast this happens will depend on how high the note is you’re singing and how powerfully you want to project.
AIR PRESSURE
If our vocal cords are connected (our voice is clear rather than breathy) SOME SINGERS will feel pressure build up in their chest.
This is what we want to happen (air pressure in the lungs means the throat isn’t doing the work) and again will change depending on the pitch and the intensity of what you’re singing.
Okay, so aside from the pieces of the puzzle associated with breath support, what else will you feel?
NECK AND UP
When everything is working in relationship with each other, everything from the neck up should be able to be pretty relaxed.
We might make changes to what we do with our jaw, lips, tongue and vocal tract to change the colour, but we don’t want them to be “helping us to project.”
RESONANCE/VIBRATION
You’ll also be able to feel some resonance (vibration created by the voice) but WHERE and how much you feel it will (again) depend on how high the notes are and how loudly you’re singing.
You might feel these vibrations in your chest, throat, mouth or moving up your face.
They can be “forward” at the front of your lips and in your nasal passages (like on an EE sound) or more muted inside your mouth (like an AH sound).
Resonance is often connected to what we hear as the “fullness” and warmth and “sing-y quality” in someone’s voice, so it’s a good sign!
A word on consistency and control
So as we’ve now discovered, HOW you feel the sensations that come along with singing with change and flex depending on the intensity of what you’re singing and the emotions you’re conveying.
I hear a lot of singers begging for CONSISTENCY, but trying to achieve this can actually lock our bodies up and cause us to create tension because we’re aim to recreate the same feeling across the board.
The same can be said for CONTROL.
If we begin to trust our voice and let our emotions colour our voice, we can actually feel quite out of control.
This is why I gently remind singers that we can’t prioritise both perfection and expression / flawlessness and authenticity.
Training technique is a logical act of discovery whereas expression is an emotional act of vulnerability.
So instead of putting “consistency and control” on a pedestal, you can aim for a deeper understanding of your voice and collect the colours and expressions you can make with it.
You can learn about technique for efficiency and to iron out the creases/breaks/tension that make it feel like you don’t have ONE voice that can seamlessly tell the stories you long to tell through song.
And you can learn to trust your voice and embrace the loss of control that comes with genuine, goosebump-giving expression.
