Unamplified Singing in Classical Styles

Basic laryngeal anatomy/physiology

Primary cartilages (thyroid, cricoid, arytenoids);
Intrinsic muscles (thyroarytenoids/vocalis, cricothyroids, interarytenoids, lateral cricoarytenoids, posterior cricoarytenoids)

Voice Anatomy
https://med.umn.edu/ent/patient-care/lions-voice-clinic/about-the-voice/how-it-works/anatomy

Voice Physiology
https://med.umn.edu/ent/patient-care/lions-voice-clinic/about-the-voice/how-it-works/physiology

Basic Swallowing Anatomy Chart
https://med.umn.edu/ent/patient-care/lions-voice-clinic/about-the-voice/how-it-works/physiology

Alignment

Alignment refers to how the head, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, and ankles relate and line up with each other in order to transfer weight via an aligned skeletal structure. Proper alignment of the body puts less stress on the spine and helps reduce the need for muscular bracing.

● The vertical balance of the weight of the body on the skeletal structure via aligning weight transfer points: Atlanto-occipital joint (between the ears) over the shoulders, hip joints, knees, and the arch of the foot

● Vertically balanced pelvis, neither tipped forward nor rolled under

● Unlocked knees

● Shoulders released to the sides, neither curled forward, nor overly

pulled back

● Chest comfortably expanded (i.e., not collapsed, slumped)

● maintained by free, subtle micro-movements (not fixed or rigid)

Messa di voce

Literally, placing of the voice. To crescendo (increase volume) and decrescendo (diminish volume) a sustained pitch (tone) from soft-to-loud-to-soft dynamic levels.

Acoustic efficiency

Shaping the vocal resonator in such a way as to provide an acoustic “boost” to the sound; getting the most “gain” with the least expenditure of energy.

Voice Acoustics
https://med.umn.edu/ent/patient-care/lions-voice-clinic/about-the-voice/how-it-works/acoustics

Acoustic flow

Acoustic flow refers to pressure sound wave propagation, which travels at the speed of sound. Acoustic flow is what carries the sound signal to listeners.

Airflow

Steady flow refers to the airflow which passes through the glottis and vocal tract, dispersing and declining rapidly upon leaving the mouth. It is not the carrier of acoustic energy.

Belting

A chest-voice dominant vocal quality used in many styles of musical theatre and contemporary commercial singing

Belt Is Legit Article, Robert Edwin Journal of Singing
https://www.nats.org/_Library/Kennedy_JOS_Files_2013/JOS-064-2-2007-213.pdf

Passaggio

A commonly used classical voice pedagogy term for the acoustic and/or physiologic transitions between registers. Sometimes referred to as a voice register break.

Range/tessitura

Voice Range and Tessitura Chart

https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/vocal-ranges

Semi-occluded vocal tract

See SOVTE Study Guide for more information

Subglottal Pressure

A measure of the lung pressure below the glottis during a phonation.

Timbre

Aspects of sound other than pitch and loudness; primarily composed of the relative intensities of the frequencies in the sound spectrum.

Vowel Modification

As pitch ascends, its harmonic set rises, causing its changing frequencies to migrate through their inherent spectral tone color gradients; furthermore, as source harmonics move into and through vocal tract resonance peaks, their intensity rises and falls, changing their individual contribution to the overall, composite vowel percept. This is especially evident when harmonics rise into and through the first resonance (F1)