On Singing

I had gone to Vespers for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross a few days ago. I got there an hour early and was told soon after I had arrived, by Fr. Alexei, my priest, that our choir director, Gabriel Meyer, would not be there because of fever and laryngitis. As I’ve been choir director there for seven years, I’d been through that routine before a good number of times: I would be psalm reader for the service.

So I silently read through the music for the Feast, primarily the stichera, litiya, and aposticha of the feast, and the troparion of the feast as well, the troparion of the Cross. There were 20 pages of music there, all courtesy of www.podoben.com. (You can find the music I sang by going to “mixed music”, then “feasts”, and then scroll down to the vespers for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross). Reading through the music took perhaps fifteen minutes at most. I had also found in one of our books a Serbian setting of the troparion of the Cross. That took another five minutes to read and to memorize. I had forty minutes left, and so I started to use that time for the Prayer of the Heart (also known as the Jesus Prayer), to prepare for the service.

About ten minutes later, though, our deacon, Fr. Irinaeus came in. He’s a good guy, and I didn’t want to snub him, so I stopped praying and started speaking with him. He asked whether I would be the only one singing, and I told him “yes”. Fr. Irinaeus then said that he was just as glad that I had come, because he couldn’t sing as loud as I could. I asked him whether he had ever received lessons in voice when he received his diaconal training, and he said that while there was a teacher with an operatic voice who taught him and others how to chant, he had received no vocal training. I said that that was a pity, particularly since I could teach him all that he needed to know about vocal technique in five minutes. He said, I’d like to see you try.

So, I said, all of good singing can be summed up in the following words: balanced, suspended, crucified, open, incense, humming, and shifting.

Balanced Stand upright with your feet apart, as far apart as your shoulders are. Shift balance slightly left and right, and then find the center. Shift balance forward and backward, and then find that center. Stand relaxed in that center, between left and right, front and back. This is a position in which one can stand, relaxed and comfortable, for hours, with slight shifts. When one can do this comfortably, one is ready for the next step.

Suspended For most people, at the top of one’s head, there is a place where the hair of one’s head makes a whorl. While standing balanced, imagine that one is suspended by a thread from that whorl. Imagine that there is a pull of about ten to fifteen pounds upward from that thread. Done correctly, this gives a feeling of stretch that is refreshing and relaxing. (Other than singing, I’ve used this stretch to relax while standing or sitting, especially when driving. It has been very helpful in preventing much back pain for me). When one can do this comfortably, one can go on to the following.

Crucified While standing balanced and suspended, hold your arms stretched out as though you are being crucified. Hold this pose for several minutes, or as long as it can be done comfortably. This has two effects: 1) it keeps the chest fully extended, though relatively relaxed, and the chest and torso become better resonators; 2) in this position, abdominal breathing is the only sort of breathing that can be done comfortably. Spend the time in this position feeling the chest extension and the abdominal breathing. Then lower your arms, while retaining the feeling of chest extension and abdominal breathing. When one can do this comfortably and habitually, one is ready for the next step.

Open While standing balanced, suspended, and with chest extension and breathing abdominally, allow one’s mouth to open, and for there to be about a finger’s breadth of space between one’s upper and lower teeth. This should be the minimal opening of the mouth for consonants and for the vowel “ee” (as in “eek”) Keep in this position for several minutes, and allow the jaw muscles to relax. When the jaws are relaxed, open one’s mouth comfortably until there is a space of between three to four fingers between the upper and lower teeth. This should be the maximal opening for vowels like “ah”. When one can habitually open the mouth and relax the jaw, one is ready for the next step.

Incense While standing balanced, suspended, with chest extension, breathing abdominally, and mouth open and relaxed, imagine holding a flower under one’s nose, or the smell of incense, and inhale. The feeling of smelling incense, or of a flower, or of some fragrance, assists in the throat opening, and both the larynx and the soft palate relaxing and lowering. (another sensation which assists in these parts relaxing is yawning, though not quite as good as what is described above). Continue this until you can attain this feeling of relaxation of the throat, soft palate and larynx at will. One is then ready for the next step.

Humming The reason for all of the preceding exercises is twofold: 1) to relax all of the parts of the body and minimize stress; and 2) to prepare the chest and torso that they can act as resonators. To start activating them as resonators, while standing balanced, suspended, chest extended, breathing abdominally, mouth open, and with a feeling of relaxation from inhaling in one’s throat, soft palate, and larynx, close one’s lips (while keeping the teeth slightly parted) and hum, that is; make an “mm” sound at a comfortably low part of one’s voice. Sustain the hum for at least five seconds at a time. One can first feel the hum as a vibration between the upper and lower lips. When you can do this, put the palm of your hand on your chest (sternum or breast bone) and hum, feeling the vibration of the hum in your chest and in your palm. Continue this humming until one can feel the vibration in one’s chest without using one’s palm.

When you can feel the hum as a vibration in your chest without using your palm, then the next step is to start activating the other main resonator of the body: the head. To do this, put your index fingers in your ears (only enough to close the ears), hum, and feel the vibration, first between the lips, then in the upper teeth, the nose, and the brow. These are the areas where the nasal sinuses are, and where resonance chambers are for most people. This area is also called the “mask” or “masque”, as it is the area which a face mask would cover. When you can hum and feel vibration in this “mask” without putting your fingers in your ears, you are ready for the next step.

Shifting When you can do all of the above (which I shall call the position for singing, or simply, the position), start humming on an “m” sound and shift comfortably up and down the range of your voice. Make sure that you remain relaxed in your body throughout, that the jaw, the soft palate and the larynx remain dropped and relaxed, and that the throat remains open. Pay attention to the vibrations in head and chest, and particularly, how the quality and placement of the vibration changes as you go up and down the scale.

When you can do this comfortably over much of your range, do the same thing with a hum on “n” (with contact between the tip of your tongue and the space between your gum ridge and your upper teeth), then with “ng” (with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, and finally with the sound “nya” (rather like a nasty little child going “nya-nya-nya!” ) Using these nasal consonants will help balance the resonance between the head resonance (or the “head voice”) and the chest resonance (or the “chest voice”).

When you feel comfortable with using the nasal consonants, use them as beginnings and ends of a long line with a vowel, like Nah, neigh, nee, noh, noo. Attend to feeling the shift between the resonance in head and chest of the consonant and the vowel. Do this until you can feel resonance in head and chest with just the vowel. Do this with the rest of the nasal consonants.

Then add other consonants to the mix, both the sustained ones (f, v, h, j, zh, etc.) and the ones that act as stops (b, p, k, g, etc.). Feel the shift between the consonants and the vowels. When you can do all this, the next step is to see how long you can maintain a vowel or sustained voiced consonant. Finally, see how you can go from soft to loud, and back to soft again. Basically, all of these exercises of “shifting” are the basis for most bel canto vocalises, or exercises in the development of the voice.

I told Fr. Irinaeus that anyone who was willing to spend ten minutes twice a day could develop the first six steps in less than a month. Anyone who was willing to spend fifteen to thirty minutes twice a day could develop the last step in six months to a year, depending on how much one wanted to develop the voice. At the end of the process, one would have a strong, clear, resonant singing and speaking voice. Fr. Irinaeus was dubious, and ended the conversation by saying, “I’d like to see you try.” He then left the room, to prepare for Vespers.

I did the same. I went into the church with one of the vespers books, put up a tetrapod as a stand for the book on the right side of the front of the church (or the right kleros), and stood there silently, reciting to myself the Rule of St. Pachomius (Trisagion prayers, the Nicene Creed, Psalm 51, and one hundred repetitions of the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) I have found that this helps to calm the body, still the mind, and prepare the spirit for sustained prayer.

Most of the time, I tend to match the volume and the timbre of my voice with the others who are singing with me. That is only common courtesy, and a rule of good choral singing. But that night, there were no other singers with me. That night, as always, I took a few seconds to assume the position for singing, and then I filled the church with my voice. I could have sung much louder (as I had on one occasion when I filled the nave of the Los Angeles RC Cathedral of Mary, Queen of the Angels, one time after a weekday mass there) and for much longer (five hours is my personal best), but the business at hand was to sing the Vespers of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, to and for all who had gathered there that evening. So I put my voice, my mind, and my heart to that task. It was a good hour of prayer.

When I was done, Fr. Irinaeus asked me if I could write down what I had told him before vespers. So this is for you, Fr. Irinaeus; and for all of those who want to know how to sing.

POSTSCRIPT

I suppose that I should state my interest in the matter. I have never taken a voice lesson while in high school or college. I have taken perhaps five voice lessons in the last 25 years. Just about everything that I have learned has been from twenty eight years of singing in semi-pro and church choirs, and from reading the following three people:

Arthur Lessac

Lessac's book, The Use and Training of the Human Voice, has been of great value to me in teaching the importance of abdominal breathing, of correct structural action in speaking and singing, and in vowel and consonant production. This book has been invaluable in teaching how to develop a good speaking voice, and is an excellent foundation for developing a good singing voice.

Richard Miller

Miller's book, The Structure of Singing, is the most beautiful synthesis of the collected scientific information presently available regarding the human voice and the Bel Canto technique of singing, and the most exhaustive collection of Bel Canto vocalises from the 17th through the 20th centuries. While the book is a very dry read, it is more than worth the effort for the knowledge it gives regarding a complete technique of singing. His companion books, Training Tenor Voices and Training Soprano Voices, are also indispensible for anyone wishing a complete training of these voices. Additionally, there is another book available, not by Miller, but which is a collection of useful vocalises (written and on CD), How to Train Singers.

Stephen Chun-Tao Cheng

Cheng's book, The Tao of Voice, has been of great value in teaching how to relax while singing, and in how to develop resonance in voice. It is well worth getting for that reason alone.