Add this entry to Your Favorites | [0] Favorites [4] Comments

Please wait...

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter season. Remembering that Christ died for our sin helps us to refocus and reevaluate our hearts and ministries. This is a blessed time of the year with Spring in the air. Cool spring showers help make the new green leaves and flowers break through the earth. It always gives me a feeling of renewal. So with renewal in mind I want to cover a topic this month that will renew your singing, too.

I want to go into a deeper study of the "open throat" while singing. It is the singer's task to keep the throat open while singing. It is a natural thing to want to close off the throat. But that is the opposite of what we need to do. The usual way for singers to over come singing with a closed throat is to try to push through with more volume. This just tightens up the throat more and reduces range and control.

It can be very difficult to get a student to understand, but it will change everything about their singing and it will make it seem effortless. The throat may be the most important resonator, because it is the first opening through which the phonetic sound must pass. If the throat is not open, there is nothing the mouth or nose can do to overcome the shallow or pinched tone. Since the major muscles of the throat are constrictors used for swallowing, it is difficult to teach the expanding muscles how to hold the throat open.

To get the throat open we must first realize what is happening. To create the open throat the larynx lowers and the velum rises. If you remember from earlier study, we found that the larynx is the area that houses the vocal folds and the place where the air enters the lungs. The velum is the soft palate. So, to lower the larynx and get the velum to rise, we must take a deep breath using the diaphragm. When the air has been drawn in, then we hold the diaphragm in place as if we were holding our breath. This will keep the epiglottis, a flap-type valve that is located at the entrance to the lungs, open and the larynx in the lowered position, and the velum (soft palate) lifted. Another way to achieve the open throat is to yawn or sigh. You can feel how easy it is to breathe with the open throat. The only tension will be in the diaphragm muscle.

The tongue also plays a big part in the open throat. Any tension in the tongue will close off the throat because it activates the constrictor muscles in the throat. So the tongue must be relaxed in the bottom teeth using only the tip against the back of the teeth to pronounce your words.

Here is an exercise that will help you hear the difference that an open and closed throat will make in you singing. With the jaw relaxed and the throat open, sing the "ahh" sound. Experiment with the sound by opening the throat more and then less, while singing at a comfortable volume. Notice the difference in the sound when you force to throat open too far. The sound will become pinched when you don't open the throat up far enough. Find the range and positions that are most comfortable for your throat. There should never be any pain, so if you feel pain then you do not have the throat open correctly.

And don't forget the jaw muscles have to be relaxed too. All of these elements play a big role in getting the pressure out of the throat and the sound more relaxed, easy, and free.

Next month we will be able to announce the long awaited surprise that I have been talking about for the past few months. I am so excited! This is a very large undertaking but I think it will be well worth the effort. Be sure to check in next month. Until then, keep singing His praises!

Reader Comments

Add Comments

If you are seeing this form you are not a Member or have not logged in. Why not consider becoming a Member?

Membership allows you to have a prepared signature of your choice applied to every comment you make, as well as the ability to choose an avatar to display next to your name to help identify your posts. Members are also given opportunity to vote weekly in our Weekly Chart as well as special Members Only contests, polls and giveaways during the year. If you are already a member, login here, otherwise please register here.

**Note: Forums membership is a seperate membership.

By posting you agree to our Comments Policy

Name:
Email:
Location:
URL:
Comment:
	Remember my personal information
	Notify me of follow-up comments?
Please enter the word you see in the image below: