Why Opera Singers Tilt the Larynx (And How to Do It) #opera #singinglessons #howtosing #tenor — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hi friends, why does the larynx tilt
2. 0:02forward in oporatic singing? Why must it
3. 0:04and how do we feel it? Let's talk about
4. 0:06it. Oporatic singing isn't just about
5. 0:09volume or hitting the high notes. It's
6. 0:11about creating a sound, a certain kind
7. 0:13of sound that is rich and powerful and
8. 0:15effortless enough to soar over an
9. 0:18orchestra.
10. 0:19One of the secrets of this sound is
11. 0:22something that singers, most singers
12. 0:23never think about. That's the forward
13. 0:25tilt of the larynx. The forward tilt of
14. 0:28the larynx. Today we're going to explore
15. 0:30exactly what that is, why it matters,
16. 0:33and how to feel it in your own voice.
17. 0:37Inside your neck, the thyroid cartilage,
18. 0:40the main body of the larynx, sits on top
19. 0:42of the crycoid cartilage. They're joined
20. 0:45by the crycoid thyroid joint, which acts
21. 0:49like a hinge. When the crycoid thyroid
22. 0:51muscles contract, the thyroid cartilage
23. 0:54tips forward slightly towards the
24. 0:56crycoid. This does this does three
25. 0:59things basically. It lengthens and thins
26. 1:02the vocal folds raising pitch and fine
27. 1:05control. It allows full adduction
28. 1:08without pressing. So the vocal folds
29. 1:11vibrate freely. Yeah. H and it works in
30. 1:14harmony with a lower lingial position
31. 1:16giving the voice more space and
32. 1:18resonance.
33. 1:20The this isn't a a trick for high notes.
34. 1:23It's an essential part of a healthy
35. 1:26resonant production across the whole
36. 1:29range. You don't just tilt forward for
37. 1:31the high notes. You always sing in this
38. 1:33forward tilted position. It's what
39. 1:35Pavarotti meant when he said he always
40. 1:37sings in a covered position. Yeah. He
41. 1:39meant his larynx was always in that
42. 1:41optimal position. Really optimal for
43. 1:43high notes. Then you lose any sort of
44. 1:45concept of pancho. Then
45. 1:48how the tilt works with the fings. The
46. 1:50tilt doesn't work in isolation. Above
47. 1:54the larynx sits the fernx, the
48. 1:57resonating chamber. Think of the fernx
49. 1:59as the soundbox in a violin or an
50. 2:02acoustic guitar. The vocal folds of the
51. 2:04violin strings or the guitar strings.
52. 2:06They create the initial vibration by
53. 2:10setting the air into motion. They
54. 2:12agitate the upward flow of the air. The
55. 2:15fairings is that wooden acoustical box
56. 2:17of the violin or the guitar. It
57. 2:19amplifies and colors the vibration into
58. 2:22something rich and beautiful. The air
59. 2:23buzzes around and bashes into each
60. 2:25other. That's how sound is made. The
61. 2:27tilt of the thyroid cartilage tunes the
62. 2:31vocal folds. Just as adjusting string
63. 2:34lengths on a violin tunes a violin, but
64. 2:38if the violin or guitar didn't have a
65. 2:40sound box, you'd barely hear it. the
66. 2:41sound would just go shooting off and all
67. 2:43you'd hear is the little bit of it
68. 2:45vibrating against each other as it goes
69. 2:47away without the resonance of the
70. 2:49fairings that containing box. The
71. 2:53operatic sound would be thin no matter
72. 2:55how perfectly the folds vibrate. This is
73. 2:58why the tilt and the resonance work
74. 3:00together. The source must be tuned and
75. 3:03the filter must be open and responsive.
76. 3:06You know, let's think about some more
77. 3:08ways we can we can uh picture it. We've
78. 3:11talked about the violin uh and and the
79. 3:13door being the body of the violin and
80. 3:16the tilt is what tunes the strings
81. 3:17inside of that body. Think of a door
82. 3:20hinge. The thyroid cartilage rocks
83. 3:23forward like a door subtly stretching
84. 3:26the fold. Plon the re a reed instrument.
85. 3:29The tilt is like adjusting the read on a
86. 3:32clarinet or an obo to change pitch and
87. 3:35breath response.
88. 3:37How do we feel the tilt? This tilt is
89. 3:39subtle. You can't push it into place
90. 3:41with without tension. It's one of the
91. 3:43worst traits of the maloy. Technically,
92. 3:45if done badly, you try to push your
93. 3:47larying slow. It should never be that.
94. 3:49These supplementary muscles that we've
95. 3:51talking about here in other videos.
96. 3:53Well, what we don't need to know the
97. 3:55names of them. We don't need to uh be
98. 3:57able to sort of speak the names uh in in
99. 4:00in a surgical way, but we need to know
100. 4:02how to strengthen them so that this tilt
101. 4:05happens without depressing the tongue.
102. 4:08Uh you can find this tilt through
103. 4:10natural familiar reflexes. These natural
104. 4:13movements automatically engage the tilt
105. 4:16whilst keeping the throat open. Yawning
106. 4:18at the start of yawn, notice I said at
107. 4:21the start of yawn, the larynx lowers and
108. 4:23tilts forwards and the ferings opens
109. 4:24wide. Uh the start of yawn because then
110. 4:27the negative part of the tongue comes
111. 4:29in. We don't want that. Gentle sobbing,
112. 4:32a sighing, crying sound engages the tilt
113. 4:35without overtightening.
114. 4:37The vomiting reflex very popular in
115. 4:40German vocal pedology coding technique.
116. 4:42The wretch sensation tilts the larynx
117. 4:45and opens the ferings. Whimpering, the
118. 4:48quiet cry position of the voice places
119. 4:51the folds in a tilted elongated
120. 4:53position. Again, all these natural
121. 4:56reflexes if taken too far engage the
122. 4:59depression of the root of the tongue and
123. 5:00that can be very bad. So the teacher is
124. 5:03always there to listen and adapt. Yeah,
125. 5:05that's why you need to be doing all of
126. 5:07these exercises in front of a teacher.
127. 5:11The tong's role. The tongue is anchored
128. 5:14to the hyoid bone which connects the
129. 5:16larynx. A tight tongue lock root can
130. 5:19lock the larynx and stop the tilt. In
131. 5:22good technique, the front of the tongue
132. 5:24stays high and forward for the clear
133. 5:26valves. We always say the tip of the
134. 5:28tongue should go just down there, just
135. 5:30in behind the front teeth. Yeah. The
136. 5:34tongue root remains relaxed. So the
137. 5:36larynx can move freely. The tilt happens
138. 5:39naturally without pulling the tongue
139. 5:40back and down. That's the optal
140. 5:43position. Ha.
141. 5:45We can train it. How to train it? We can
142. 5:47use the silent and the sigh. Hum. I have
143. 5:52chronic hay fever at the moment, so my
144. 5:54nose is totally blocked. So, it's very
145. 5:56difficult for me to hum because when we
146. 5:58hum, all the air is going out of my
147. 6:00nose. So, I apologize. But if we hum
148. 6:05into a vow without losing that tilt
149. 6:08feeling,
150. 6:11we can sum into pitch.
151. 6:19I'm very tilted but my tongue is very
152. 6:21high. We can sustain it. We can keep the
153. 6:24resonance tall.
154. 6:30Think about yawning. Start a yawn and
155. 6:32then sing while keeping that shape that
156. 6:34beginning shape. As I said, yawns must
157. 6:36always be the beginning of a yawn.
158. 6:42Jack Nini talks very eloquently about
159. 6:44this this idea of sobbing and then
160. 6:46getting that h the sound when the chords
161. 6:49meet when the chords have booked in that
162. 6:51forward tilted position. Yep. A
163. 6:54descending siren. Stephen Steven Smith
164. 6:57the American New York teacher talks
165. 6:58about sirening beautifully. It's a great
166. 7:00book that he wrote. I recommend it
167. 7:02highly. Uh you start high uh stay
168. 7:05resonant to feel the larynx rock the
169. 7:07forward rock of the larynx as you
170. 7:09descend.
171. 7:18My larynx is very tilted forward
172. 7:23but I'm very conscious of my tongue
173. 7:25being in that forward tilted easy free
174. 7:28position. Yeah, I love sirening
175. 7:30repertoire phrases. apply this feeling
176. 7:32to a real phrase for pachini ver or any
177. 7:35piece with sustained singing. Yeah,
178. 7:38we can do
179. 7:41[Music]
180. 7:47I'm just sketching in the consonants.
181. 7:50I'm very conscious of that forward
182. 7:51tilted position, a yawny position, but
183. 7:54with a very loose tongue.
184. 7:59singing as if I'm a bit like a zombie,
185. 8:01but I'm very conscious of my larynx
186. 8:03being in that forward tilted position.
187. 8:05Look, the forward tilt is one of those
188. 8:09key mechanical truths between behind
189. 8:11oporatic sound and too many singers
190. 8:14ignore the importance of it and look for
191. 8:17solutions in other places. There are
192. 8:20definite benefits to really making a
193. 8:23full study about this. It's not
194. 8:25something you do in isolation. It's a
195. 8:28result of balance between breath
196. 8:32resonance and a healthy langial
197. 8:34position. When it's working, you don't
198. 8:36feel like you're straining. The voice
199. 8:38feels buoyant, resonant, and free. You
200. 8:41start with these reflexes, these
201. 8:43yawning, sobbing, vomiting reflexes that
202. 8:46we're familiar with, and we build this
203. 8:48feeling with very simple exercises. And
204. 8:51then we let it live in our music. Hey,
205. 8:54it's just been a short video today. I'm
206. 8:56making a series of videos uh which if if
207. 8:58you're following you'll see this is
208. 9:00another one where we talk about very
209. 9:01technical uh issues but hopefully we're
210. 9:04trying to talk I know we're throwing in
211. 9:05technical anatomical terms which is
212. 9:07testing my ability to pronounce them
213. 9:09properly. They're really not important
214. 9:11as singer teachers should know deeply on
215. 9:14a very deep level the truth of what they
216. 9:16are but we don't have to fetishize about
217. 9:19about them too much. We need to be able
218. 9:21to train our students to have to have
219. 9:23them working efficiently.
220. 9:26But we need to get that through
221. 9:27sensation and feeling. Yeah. But if
222. 9:29you're a singer teacher and you've not
223. 9:30made a really deep study of the
224. 9:32anatomical truth of the larynx and the
225. 9:34fings and the support and how it all
226. 9:36works, then please stop teaching. Go and
227. 9:39learn because you can damage your
228. 9:41students. And if you feel that you're in
229. 9:43that kind of relationship with your
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231. 9:46a video, talk to me, and I will help you
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