- Phonatory gap.
A fancy term deserving a simple explanation.
Today we'll look at the effects of the phonatory gap,
and I'll show you a couple of exercises
that will help you to fix this all-too common
vocal fold posture.
I hope you'll stick around.
- [Woman] Sound check.
(feedback)
Check one, check two.
(upbeat music)
- Hello, everyone.
Welcome to Voice Essentials where everybody sings.
My name is Dr. Dan,
and I'm a contemporary singing voice specialist.
I look forward to spending the next few minutes with you
as we define and workshop a thing called phonatory gap.
Firstly, what is it?
Well, the clinical label for a phonatory gap
is often called a mutational chink.
We generally observe a mutational chink in adolescent girls.
The Dictionary for the Modern Singer explains that
during puberty, "the arytenoid cartilages grow faster
"than the interarytenoid muscles.
"The result is the inability to attain full closure
"of the vocal folds during phonation,
"resulting in a chronic gap and an airy tone quality."
Essentially, when the vocal folds don't fully adduct,
that is close, along the full glottal line,
we can end up with a chink or a gap
at the rear of the vocal folds.
Now, typically the mutational chink self-resolves
as the young singer moves through and completes puberty.
But there are times when the vocal fold posture
does not mature properly, leaving the now adult voice
with an overly breathy, and at times, raspy tone.
In modern society, a breathy, raspy voice can be heard
as being sexy and alluring, but this sound can come
with a high cost to the voice user
because a phonatory gap can be the precursor
to voice disorders such as nodules.
So, I've got a couple of singing exercises for you
that will help to bring your vocal folds together
with full and complete closure.
(crowd cheering)
- [Woman] Sound check.
As we dive into the exercises, I want to stress
that if you and your voice are still going through puberty,
I strongly advise that you do all vocal activities
under the guidance of a qualified singing teacher.
I have a whole other video that discusses voice change
during puberty which I'll leave a link to below.
Suffice to say, any breathiness in a teenage voice,
especially a pubescent female voice,
needs to be guided gently towards clear phonation.
The exercises we are about to do together
require a balanced approach,
and the voice should not feel tight or pressed at any time.
So, the first exercise is sung
on a single note using an NG.
Have a listen, and I'm gonna do mine on a G3.
(piano note)
♫ Sing (sustained)
Our aim is to have a clean, consistent tone
that is neither tight or pressed.
The NG sound is designed to encourage
a complete closure of the vocal folds,
but if your voice's current normal is a breathy tone,
it might take some time and practice
before the tone gains increased clarity.
Once you've a got a consistent, balanced tone going,
start stepping the note up in semitones like so.
(piano note)
♫ Sing (sustained)
Extending the phrase.
(piano notes)
♫ Sing (sustained)
Keeping it nice and balanced.
(piano notes)
♫ Sing (sustained)
Notice how I'm extending the note
until the end of my breath stream.
I don't want you to squeeze at the end of each note,
but I do want you to finish note on each breath cycle.
There's no need to go higher
than the range of a perfect fifth.
But equally, don't feel the need to go higher
than what feels comfortable either.
So, if you can only do three semitones to start,
then three semitones, it is.
The second activity is taken from my exercise CD,
Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials.
Using track six, we're going to be moving
between an NG and a variety of vowels.
I'll continue to use my keyboard for now.
Have a listen.
And I'll do this up
on the female starting note of C4.
(piano note)
♫ Sing ahng ayng eeng ing ohng oong
(piano notes)
♫ Sing ahng ayng eeng ing ohng oong
You can hear the voice just get
a little bit of a wobble there.
Hopefully, you can hear how my voice maintains
a clear focused resonance as it moves
between the NG and the vowels.
To start, you might like to only try moving
from the NG to a single vowel like this.
(piano note)
♫ Sing ah
(piano notes)
♫ Sing ay
(piano note)
♫ Sing ee
(piano note)
♫ Sing i
(piano note)
♫ Sing oh
(piano note)
♫ Sing oo
Again, I want to stress that these activities
should not be achieved with any sense of tension.
The aim is to create a balanced and clean tone.
If you've got any questions relating to today's video,
be sure to leave your queries in the comments section.
I'll be keen to hear how the exercises help
your overall sense of voice and clarity of tone.
And if this is the first time you've watched
one of my videos, welcome.
I invite you to subscribe and join
our ever-growing community of singers
from across the globe who, just like you,
want to raise their voice in song.
I look forward to seeing you
in the next Voice Essentials video.
I'm Dr. Dan, sing well.