Tone Onset – The Germ of Good Vocalism

​Tone Onset – The Germ of Good Vocalism
Incorporating topics: “Freedom of Voice” and “Singing with Speaking Voice”
Written for Walton Voices by Zoran Milosevic
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For a budding singer there are several milestone events that mark a break-through in vocal technique and lead to a noticeable improvement in his/her vocalism. There are, of course the essential prerequisites: proper posture, breathing and breath support, and the concept of deep (beginning-of-a-yawn) inhalation, that all singers start from, but for many the really momentous experiences are:

• Realisation that singing is actually prolonged speaking, and adopting that concept.
• Discovery of the “head voice” for male singers
• Having said the above, realisation that the “chest voice” has to be further strengthen, because it will greatly assist the head voice, and the production of a consistently resonant sound throughout the vocal range; in short: finding resonance in voice.
  • Female voices experience a similar kind of step change once they find the way to produce a full, resonant voice in their high middle range and upwards ( from E5 up).

All of the above starts with a proper tone onset.

Tone onset (sometimes called “attack”) designates the beginning of phonation – setting the vocal folds in vibratory motion and thus initiating the sound.

The singing voice can only be as good, as good the tone onset is. In the well-regulated and balanced tone onset lies the germ of all good vocalism, and preparatory to it is the proper, deep inhalation.

Nothing in technical accomplishment in singing is more beneficial to the vocal instrument than the proper positioning of the vocal folds for a clean tone onset. The combination of laryngeal muscle action and exact degree of lung pressure and air flow provides the basis for good singing.
Many singing errors are corrected by going back to and practicing the clean attack.

If you can commit to only a few minutes on vocalising daily, the time best spent may well be to practice the balanced tone onset.

But before we consider the production of proper onset, let us first clarify what kind of voice will we use for that? We can sing a note in several ways, using different vocal positions, resulting in very different timbres.

Most schools of singing agree that teaching proper vocalism has to start from the speaking voice. But then, teaching singing via speaking voice requires to start from a proper tone onset. So, the two topics are inter-related, and I will cover them in a single article, starting with the description of how “singing is prolonged speaking”.

Singing is Prolonged Speaking
“What kind of voice to use when I start singing?” may sound like a funny question, but I cannot emphasise the following strongly enough: to sing by attempting to “sing” will not produce good vocal sound! The brain needs to be retrained to think differently about singing. “Singing” sounds hard, but “prolonged speech” sounds much easier. When you think of singing as “singing” it becomes difficult. This is because as soon as we start to think of singing as anything but prolonged speech, we try to sing, we try to make our voice sound like something it is not. And that is where we go wrong. Instead, we should focus on speaking and just holding the notes for longer. Singing is intensified speaking, elongated and musical, and the same is equally true for a beginner as it is for an international opera star; the latter sing the most demanding arias with conversational smoothness. To achieve it, a singer must have the ear that directs the instrument, and a sensitivity to manage the breath for a prolonged speaking voice. Many pedagogues point this out, but none as succinctly as J.A Cohen in his “Powerhouse Singing” book.

Let us illustrate the speaking-to-singing conversion. Say the word “no”, as if saying no to an unacceptable proposal. Then again so, but holding the “no” a bit longer. Now again but holding it for about 3 seconds; the sound may seem dull to you, but that is absolutely fine, the listener hears it differently. Finally, you say “no” as if calling it out to someone across the street who is about to fall in a ditch. Really give it a go and, while supporting the sound, hold the “no” for 5 seconds and let the voice ring. The two “no” sounds illustrate the kind of voice that you ought to produce when you sing notes in the low and the high registers. In vocal terminology, they roughly correspond to the “chest” and “head” voices. Lower notes are like a conversation with a friend, the high notes are like calling out to a friend across the street.

Starting with the speaking voice leads to mastering the free singing voice - one of the pillars of good singing. In the higher echelons of vocal mastery, freedom of voice ranks above the beauty of voice, because the latter can be fully developed only after the former has been perfected. The freedom must be nurtured from the beginning of vocal training: the singing voice must be taught to be free and unconstrained, and the throat, neck and jaw have to be relaxed at all times, irrespective of the vowel or the pitch sung. – Something hardly conceivable by an amateur singer.

How do we achieve a free voice?
It is essential to remove all constrictions. It is a constriction in the throat what causes the voice to sound poorly, and to feel that the voice is not free. This constriction problem is so important, that it merits an explanation in slightly more technical terms: The bulk of vocal folds consists of the vocalis muscle; it can tighten and loosen the folds, thus changing the pitch of the sung note (one of the three available pitch adjustment mechanisms in singing). However, sitting on top of the vocalis is another muscle whose function is solely to close the glottis when swallowing. We call it “false” vocal folds. We instinctively tend to tighten that muscle, and this creates a constricted larynx. To pass air through a constricted larynx requires an increase in lung air pressure. The true vocal folds consequently face high lung air pressure and must close tightly to control the air flow – causing constriction and the tension in the sound produced. The singer must be trained to retract the false vocal folds at all times. False folds naturally retract during sobbing and laughing. Use laughing to practice retraction; the feeling in the throat is one of width.

Exercise 1: Laugh silently and with energy for 10 seconds and observe and memorise the accompanying muscular activity. Next, voice the laugh, and then turn the laugh into a sung note on a vowel of choice.

Now you need to do this at higher pitches as well; it is trickier and needs practice.
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Note that even with the false vocal folds retracted, the true vocal folds can still act as constrictors: if you use them to control the air flow while vibrating, the voice will sound squeezed and not free. For the voice to sound free, it is essential that the outward flow of air is controlled by the muscles of breath support system and not by the vocal folds. You may wish to revisit the blog on breath control here.

​From Speaking to Singing Voice
Ross Campbell in his excellent textbook “Singing” (Novordium 2016) proposes following exercises to assist in first moving from speaking to prolonged speaking, and then to singing by using the speaking voice: 

​With the longer phrase and exaggerated pitch change you get close to singing. Perfecting the control over breath and pitch is a basic goal of training the singing voice.

Now let us try to sing a classical song in the “speaking manner” and with the voice that is free.
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The example is taken from Saint-Saëns’ “Panis Angelicus” for middle voice (sopranos and tenors sing a minor third higher, starting with a C).

If you managed to sing with the “speaking” quality and conversational smoothness as discussed above, and with free voice (the laughing quality), it should be reasonably straightforward to negotiate the first four bars in that manner. However, the following D (or F for high voices) on the word “Dat” while not being a problem to reach for many, will not be that easy to sing in a free speaking voice – the voice may come out squeezed, constricted and with raised larynx, and may require time and practice to master. I would argue that even though the D falls within your reachable range, it does not fall within your actual singing range if you cannot produce it as if speaking and with completely relaxed throat, jaw and neck. I am tempted to redefine “range” as the pitch span that you can sing with a speaking quality and free voice. It is that range which needs to be worked on and extended. Consequently, when you vocalise, you only do that within your comfortable, relaxed range.

It may take a while for you to finally conclude that singing really is just prolonged speech. But once you accept it, if will change your singing forever.
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Now, with all that was said above, let us turn to the main topic of the article.

Tone Onset
A good onset originates in the mind of the singer before the physical act takes place; it includes preparation for the correct pitch, the correct tone quality, and the correct dynamic level.
The pitch must be attacked cleanly, without scooping up to it or sliding down to it. In order to do so, singers must form a habit of hearing the pitch mentally before the attack, not during it.

A perfect attack occurs when the breath support mechanism and the vocal folds are brought into action simultaneously and efficiently, without unnecessary tension, or wasted breath.
It starts from the “speaking voice” quality, following deep inhalation, and keeping the larynx open, and the throat jaw and neck completely relaxed.

There are three different kinds of tone onsets that singers can produce: (1) soft or aspirated onset, (2) glottal attack, and (3) balanced onset.

The glottal (hard) attack happens when the vocal folds are adducted (approximated) prior to phonation. Because the glottis firmly closes, there is a greater degree of pressure below the folds. When phonation begins, the suddenness of the release of this pressure produces the audible catch, the glottal plosive, a grunt, usually denoted by [?]. It is not endorsed as pedagogical practice for standard use.

The soft (aspirated) onset happens when a singer consciously feels the flow of breath before the vocal sound. The onset is breathy and is preceded by a sound of whispering [h]. It is seldom used in classical singing.

The balanced onset happens when, following deep inhalation, the exhaling action and the lung pressure build-up are well synchronised with the closure of the vocal folds prior to phonation. It can happen only when the glottis has been fully opened with the preceding inhalation, carried out as the “beginning-of-a-yawn” action. The full abduction of the vocal folds is followed by clean and precise closure. A partially open glottis, as in normal breathing (i.e. not deep) does not produce subsequent clean onset required for skilful singing.

Exercises for finding the balanced muscle co-ordination of artistic tone onset:
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Exercise 6: Repeat the spoken sequence: “ha, ha, ha, ha, ha” several times. Slowly and deliberately, lingering over the initial aspirated [h] of each syllable. You should be able to sense when breath passing over the vocal folds is followed by sound that results from closing of the folds (feeling “breath before tone”).

Now repeat the following (different) spoken sequence: “ah, ah, ah, ah, ah” several times, lingering over the initial glottal plosive [?]. You should be able to sense the moment at which the glottis is sufficiently released to produce phonation.
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Now repeat the spoken sequence “ah, ah, ah, ah, ah” several times, imagining a brief [h] before each syllable, but not allowing it to become audible. There should be no sensation of breath expulsion as there is with “ah”, and no sensation of breath moving before tone.

Compared with the above exercises, this short excerpt is harder to sing in a free, unconstrained conversational voice with a clean onset. The single bar will expose all your weaknesses, should you have them. The opening Bꚝ is especially testing for middle voices. It requires skill to make it sound clear, un-constricted, free and beautiful, and the subsequent notes are not any easier either – long, low, quiet, and hard to sustain in uniform timbre. I can happily recommend the excerpt to be included in the daily routine of practicing the free speaking-singing voice with balanced onset, and to be used to monitor your singing progress through repeated recording of the resulting sound.

Summary of the practice of good sound initiation. Use this routine:

• Breath in as if beginning a yawn.
• Feel your body expand around the middle.
• Suspend your breath just as you are comfortably full of air.
• Start the sound by merely thinking to do, and letting it happen, without conscious physical effort.

It is not necessary to use any local effort, such as pulling or pushing the upper abdomen, to start a sound well. With good breath and posture all that is necessary is there, without any conscious adjustment.
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The singer needs the correct mental image of the pitch, tone quality and dynamic level desired, and let the reflex action take place. Think about the kind of sound you want to produce, while directing your attention away from the voice box. As the old saying goes - “A good singer is a head and a chest and nothing in between!”