When I’m working with singers we look at placement when they want to explore creating different colours in their voice.
There are a couple things that I would check on first…
It’s Not About “Not Singing From the Throat”
Sometimes a singer will feel, or have been told, that their voice sounds like it’s being swallowed, or it feels like they “sing from their throat”. ( I have an upcoming blog about this – keep an eye out for it.) It can mean loads of different things and sometimes it means their placement is in a place that they don’t want to be.
Perhaps the singer’s voice sound a bit muffled, or imbalanced to my and/or their ears.
If this happens there are lots of things that I’ll explore and one of them may well be placement.
When I Look at Placement (something doesn’t sound right)
I will look at placement when a singer’s voice doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the “right” place, whilst always being aware that “right”, unless it’s about vocal health, is a subjective concept. Usually the singer will know that it doesn’t sound right to them. It may be that it’s possible for them to sing more easily and it may be that their voice just doesn’t sound right for the genre.
We will have already warmed up, looked at alignment, muscular flexibility, and the tongue and jaw stretch – (you can find videos about this on my socials and youtube, I’m adding to them so make sure to subscribe to stay up to date – linktree
Check for Unwanted Nasality
Firstly we will check if they are hyper or hypo nasal –https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=rebecca+Schwarz+nasality&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
If there is no unwanted imbalance in nasality then it’s clear the blockage is elsewhere and I will usually then explore placement.
Accents and Placement
I think this singer isn’t so much “backed” as not forward and very British. I think she’s gorgeous and I wouldn’t change anything. Most of the singers I work with are English and, more often than not they are from the Midlands where I live.
Years ago when I studied the Neurovocal Method with Meredith Colby (https://www.meredithcolby.com/certifiedteachers/rebecca-schwarz ) I remember her discussing how having the voice “too far back” is not right for pop and that her example of this was a British accent.
Her example was the sort of “far back in the mouth” type that is RP, (received pronunciation), like I have, the accent that is often considered kind of posh. This is generally considered much too far back for most pop. Sometimes that sort of tone can sound “round” when it’s in the spoken voice but it can be too “backed” when that person is singing. Sometimes it just sounds like someone is swallowing their voice when they speak and sing.
This singer sounds not so much “back” as round and not forward. She also sounds really British. I think her voice is gorgeous.
The main thing is that microphone music comes from the USA so the singing voice is placed further forward in the mouth
When the Singer Wants to Sound less forward
Sometimes that singer wants to sound like that. Check out the Aldous Hardingl song song where she is really playing with this at the start. Then her placement becomes really light and bright. She goes between the two really nicely.
If someone wants to sound like their voice is coming from further back, perhaps they don’t like a bright tone, my only concern is whether they’re doing that without excessive tightness that is impacting their instrument. If they’re not I will keep a close eye, (well ear), on if they are getting tighter and/or if their aesthetic choices are leading to compensations elsewhere.
If their voice sounds pretty easy for them then I’m all for them placing wherever they want to.
But most of the singers I work with either want to bring their sound forwards or are dealing with problems from having a “backed” sound.
How Do You Want Your Singing to Sound?
We may also have to explore the singer’s concept of what makes singing sound good. Whilst the singer’s aims and tastes stay at the front of what we are working towards I may well have to get them to really listen to the singers they love to see what they really are doing.
The voice never sounds the same in our head as it does in the real world (another blog, video post I hope to write/make soon, again, make sure you’re following my socials).
We aren’t trying to copy the way that the singers they love place their voices but we are looking at exploring how that will sound in their voices. One example of people often hear big rock voices as being far back but they often aren’t at all. Check out Bruce Dickinson here.
The next blog will be about ways we play with placement in singing lessons.