creating space and shortening the tract

Master Class, Boston. October 2015.

At a Master Class and acoustics lecture this month, I picked up on some new language regarding how we can talk about dropping the jaw, the sensation of pharyngeal space, and creating "warmth" in the sound. 

This instructor emphasized that is important to map the back of the throat to where it truly ends, right by the ears. When singers imagine the back of their throats going beyond that, or the need to create extra space behind the tongue , this is almost always done by pulling the tongue back and over depressing the larynx.  It is hard to for most people to interpret the idea of "creating space" as a passive sensation. They want to do something, which usually results in the tongue pulling back, which ironically creates even less space in the pharynx.

This is why many people think the /a/ vowel has the most space behind the tongue and /i/ has the least space behind the tongue. In reality it is the opposite. We take the information from the front of the mouth, I see a larger mouth opening for /a/ so therefore there most be a larger opening everywhere. I see a smaller mouth opening for /i/, it therefore must be narrower everywhere. When creating an  /i/, I also have no sensation in the pharynx or behind the tongue. I therefore assume I'm not doing enough, not creating space.  

/a/ has a small pharyngeal space and /i/ has a large pharyngeal space, contrary to many people's sensations of 'space'

It is  important to realize where people sense space. If the majority of our feedback to ourselves comes from the front of the face, should we even talk about the pharynx? Is too hard to not want to feel something occurring back there? And that 'something' is most likely the tongue pulling back, which is the opposite of what we're looking for.

That being said, a good point was brought up that singers often try to do too much in the front of the  face to create lengthening in the tract or a 'darkness' or 'warmth' to the sound.  That quality usually occurs when the space in the pharyngeal area is large enough to resonate the fundamental of the pitch and not a higher harmonic. The instructor pointed out that if you are using some over lip rounding  machination to  fulfill the pharynx's acoustical job, it's already too late.  The sound will just be muffled and manipulated. 

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The final image I enjoyed  was the sensation that  the length from your bottom of your jaw to your ears shortens   as you get higher in pitch.  Often times when we drop the jaw the head tilts up or the larynx rises or the tongue pulls back. Thinking that the length just shortens and everything else's general shape stays the same seems to really improve stability across the range.  It made me think of how a nutcracker's jaw is droppped which goes along with a lot of language of 'verticality' when dropping the jaw, to discourage the head from tipping backwards and the layrnx rising.

~Laurel M.