Caitlin Craig McKinney Chapter 11

What are the areas of vocal technique that are most strongly dependent on the student’s ability to coordinate various functions? 1) extending the vocal range to its maximum potential, 2) developing consistent vocal production (tone quality, 3) developing flexibility and agility, and 4) achieving a balanced vibrato.

What are the 5 purposes McKinney gives for vocal exercise? Warming up the voice, extending the range, "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically, acquiring vocal technique (such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals), and correcting vocal faults.

What are his recommendations for range for the warm-up part of vocal exercise? Warm-up exercises should start in the most comfortable part of your range.  Avoid singing high notes until your voice is thoroughly warmed up; it is better to start with limited range exercises and then move to wider and wider ones as the voice becomes responsive.

Summarize the recommended sequence of events for warming up. 
1) General body stretching and bending that help to loosen and tone muscles. 
2) Certain exercises that will help release tension in trouble spots like the neck, shoulders, and throat. 
3) 5-note descending exercises to help active the articulators and promote resonance, starting in the most comfortable part of the range, moving down by half-steps. Once you have gone to the lowest part of your range without tension, return to the middle of your range, but this time move progressively upward by half-steps. If the highest note in the pattern begins to feel strained, stop immediately.
4) Arpeggiated exercises that start fairly low in range and then extend upwards, starting with limited range, and then moving to wider ranges (a good sequence might be an exercise that doesn't exceed a fifth, one that doesn't exceed an octave, a tenth, and finally, a twelfth).

What is the key to good vocalization? Vocalizing in an intelligent manner, not by repeating rote exercises, but by thinking constantly about the kind of sound you should be making and the kind of sensations you're feeling.

What is the first step in coordinating the voice so that you may start to work on range extension? The first step in coordinating the voice is to establish good vocal habits in the most comfortable tessitura of the voice. 

What are the three factors which significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower? Energy, space, and depth.
These 3 factors can be expressed in three basic rules: 
1. As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you must use less. 
2. As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower you must use less.
3. As you sing higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less.

As you sing from the bottom to the top of your voice there should be a continuum of carefully graduated  changes in the amount of energy, space, and depth.

What is meant by the energy factor? As you sing higher, you must use more energy. The word energy has many different meanings in this case: it refers to a total response of the body to the making of sound. It refers to a dynamic relationship between the breathing-in and breathing-out muscles (a.k.a. the support mechanism). It refers to the amount of breath pressure delivered to the vf's and their resistance to that pressure, and it refers to the dynamic level of sound.

What is meant by the space factor? As we sing higher, we must use more space. This space factor is needed for several reasons: placing a larger aperture on a resonator will cause it to resonate a higher frequency. Adding space will help maintain the proper laryngeal position. Adding space will help to keep the upper voice from whitening. And lastly, adding space can help in vowel modification in the upper voice.

What are the 2 sources of more space? 1) an increase in the mouth opening, and 2) creating internal space in the back of the mouth.

What is the depth factor? The higher you sing, the more depth is required. The natural tendency of the human voice is to thin and tighten as the pitch rises; this is a result of the larynx being pulled up by the supralaryngeal muscles. Adding depth as the pitch rises will help to prevent this from happening, and will help maintain consistency of tone quality. In this case depth has many meanings: depth in both the body and the vocal mechanism, and also depth in terms of tone quality.

What is meant by lining up the voice? To line up the voice is another way of describing the process to unify the voice, equalize vowels, or to blend the registers. 

What approaches can one use to unify the voice? An obvious way to approach this goal would be through the coordination of energy, space, and depth; other approaches would be through coordinating vowels, registers, and resonance.

What is horizontal vowel alignment? Being able to move from one vowel sound to another on the same pitch without a noticeable change of tone quality.

What is vertical vowel alignment? Being able to sing vowels throughout the whole vocal range without any obvious changes of quality.

How do we maintain the vowels’ phonemic identities and still produce them without noticeable change of quality? By adjusting so that the transition from one vowel to another may be made with minimum effort and the least movement of the articulators.

What are the two aspects of vertical alignment of the voice? Vertical alignment of the voice has two aspects: 1) singing throughout the range on the same vowel (such as [a]); and 2) singing on a random sequence of vowels (such as normally encountered in a song). This helps to coordinate the singer's ability to produce consistent and beautiful vowel sounds at random, and therefore will help them when working on songs. 
McKinney lists yet another aspect of vertical alignment.  What is it? Another aspect of vertical alignment is the ability to sing wide intervals without distracting changes of tone quality or dynamic level. 
What are the ‘secrets’ to the ability to sing high notes? Unless authorized otherwise, make a legato connection to the high note from the lower note preceding it; do not disconnect and then jump at the the upper note. If the lower note is long enough, crescendo on it before moving to the upper tone; do not wait until you get to the high note or it'll be too loud. And lastly, try not to think of the upper note as "high"; think of it as a note that requires more energy, more space, and more depth, with a smooth connection from the previous note.

What are the ‘secrets’ to negotiate large leaps down into the lower voice? The singer must learn to not maintain so much support after the upper note that he cannot be heard on the lower note; too much support tends to cut off the lower notes of a voice to the extent that they are almost inaudible. The secret in negotiating large leaps down lies in relaxation of effort. Connect the two notes smoothly, and try to feel the lower tone more in the mouth-brighter and more compact in feeling than the upper tone. Don't use extraneous effort to reach down for the lower note as it may restrict the freedom of the larynx.

What are the 3 majors types of exercises that use falsetto? 1) Those that start  softly in falsetto and tehn move down the scale until a transition into "chest voice" occurs, with the dynamic level gradually being raised and more muscular strength being used in the transitional area; 2) those that are based on a loud falsetto sound (called "supported" falsetto or "resonated" falsetto) and are either "pushed over" into modal voice on the same pitch or carried downward until a transition occurs; and 3)those that start quite low in modal voice with a firm ringing sound and then jump 2 octaves or a 12th into a fairly loud falsetto sound on [u] usually or sometimes [o]/

The resonance system in adjusted in some way for every different vowel and every different pitch.

McKinney state that many voices encounter a problem area somewhere between C4-G4.  What are the 4 explanations for the problem for males and the 2 for women? 
Men- There are 4 explanations for this problem area in the male voice: 1) the resonant frequency of the tracheal tree creates acoustical impedance at this pitch level; 2) this area coincides with the first formant, which plays a key factor in vowel determination; 3) this is the area where vowel modification plays a prominent part in the male voice; and 4) this is the area where a transition into falsetto can occur.
Women- In the female voice this area lies between the lower and middle parts of the modal voice. Two of the possible explanations listed above apply here also: 1)the resonant frequency of the tracheal tree, and 2) the area of the first formant. 

What is cover? Cover is related to the deepening process which has already been mentioned. The term cover refers to a tone quality characterized as mellow, rich, round, and darkened, appearing in connection with a longer and wider pharyngeal cavity (larynx low, and soft palat high).

What is open? An unpleasant spread or yell-like quality appearing in connection with a raised larynx and constricted pharynx. 

What are the steps to eliminating problems in the lower transition area in the female voice? 1) make sure that the brassy high-larynx sound is not being used, because this will never negotiate the problem area.  Adjust the resonators properly (i.e. the tracheal tree resonance), this will help with the location of the first formant.

What is vibrato? A pulsation of pitch, usually accompanied by synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness, and richness to the tone. It is caused from the pendulum-like movements of the intrinsic laryngeal musculature. 

What are the parameters of good vibrato? Rates between 5-7 sometimes up to ten per second. Average pitch variation is a half-step (roughly a quarter tone above and below the desired pitch). 

What are the 2 main causes of vibrato problems? Imbalance in the support mechanism coupled with tension in the laryngeal mechanism is the primary cause of vibrato problems.

What are the 2 causes of bleat? Pulling in on the abdominal muscles/ imbalance of the support mechanism, and the alternately grabbing and releasing of the vf's.

What is primary cause of straight tone? Laryngeal tension.

What are the main causes of wobble? Lack of physical exercise and lack of vocal exercise.