"Open throat", "sing with your diaphragm", "point it out the tip of your face", "support with your stomach", "go for the buzz in your nose", "sing from the bellows in your head" (that one is my favorite!) -it seems there's no end to the misleading terms that are used to describe vocal technique. I've heard these terms used by both students and teachers, and always with the conviction that what they are saying is correct. I've been told that a singer should breathe in through the nose, lift the chest, pull in the stomach and keep it hard, all while the singer attempts to 'sing freely'! Would someone please tell me how you can sing at all, let alone freely, while you are contorting yourself so unnaturally?!

All I've ever seen from such contortions are bulging veins in the neck and tense wrinkled faces bright red from contricted blood vessels -in short, people who look like they are about to pass out from lack of oxygen! And the sounds emanating from these tortured faces are those of pain. If you go against the natural coordination of the muscles, there is no possible way to produce a free and unconstricted sound. The results of such an unnatural process is so far from what the human voice is capable of that I can't understand why anyone would go to all that trouble.

Now don't get me wrong. Trained singing is not completely natural. The sounds you make now in your untrained state are what the body does naturally. However, once you start taking lessons to perfect your natural instrument, you have left the realm of "natural singing", hopefully for something better! Trained singing is trained, practiced behavior that is supposed to lead to a systematic approach to phonation. Supposed to. The difference between trained singing and the 'methods' just discussed is that in the latter you are forcing muscles to operate in a fashion alien to them. Trained singing makes use of natural muscular movement, with the goal being the most efficient production of sound.

Now let's take a look at some of those phrases. "Point it out the tip of your face" is sometimes disguised as "point it through the mask" or "point the sound from the bridge of your nose." First of all, you can not "point" sound. You can turn a stereo speaker towards the wall but the actual sound travels by frequency vibration through the air. If there are enough high frequency vibrations in the sound, the sound has more carrying ability, giving it the effect of being projected. However, that is an effect. In truth, the more fundamental the sound and the more overtones or upper partials included in that sound, the more efficient the sound is and the further it can carry.

When you attempt to point your sound through the face or the nose, what is really going to happen is that you will produce a nasal sound. The nose and the nasal cavities are involved in the sound process but if they are contracted when you sing you will stop the air flow through the mouth, resulting in an over-abundance of nasal resonance. Not only is that nasality unbearable to listen to, it also contributes to the deterioration of the strength of the larynx. By encouraging tension in the facial muscles, you encourage the use of a 'vocal crutch'. Relying on an over-abundance of nasal resonance to achieve pitch or volume eventually leads to loss of function in the larynx.

If you "go for the buzz in your nose" (whatever that is supposed to mean) you probably won't get anything that anyone would want to listen to! Sometimes, when you are singing correctly or even just powerfully, the bones in your face, neck and chest area sympathetically vibrate. This buzzing effect is sometimes felt in the bridge of the nose. But this is clearly the result of phonated sound, not the cause. To achieve a simulation of that you would have to use your voluntary nervous system to deliberately manipulate muscles. Since muscle function can only become habitual in the involuntary nervous system, your forced manipulation could never be reliable. You would have to constantly and consistantly manufacture; it could never be automatic. And that makes for lousy technique.

To "sing or support with your stomach" you must first tighten the pelvic and abdominal muscles. This sets up a chain of tension which leads to bulging veins in the neck. Forcing air or forcing muscles has nothing to do with proper technique. Correct singing is done with a minimum of muscle action. The effect of ease is created by training muscles to do the jobs they are most naturally suited to. You should be able to achieve the maximum effect with a minimum of exerted effort. In this situation, should you be called upon to put out a little more during performance, there is plenty to spare.

I think by now you've got the point. There's only one more thing I'd like to add: there are no "bellows" in your head! I've been studying the art and science of singing for two-thirds of my life and I have yet to locate "bellows" in any anatomy book. There seem to be bats in the belfry, but no bellows as far as I can see!