In this video, we are talking about nasality in singing.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
I will also show you how you can find the right amount of nasal resonance or even how
to stop singing nasally if you want to.
Let’s start.
Hi and welcome to this video series about vocal resonance.
If we haven’t met yet, my name is Katarina and I am a speech-language pathologist from
How 2 Improve Singing and on this channel, I share tips on how to sing in a healthy and
efficient way.
So, consider subscribing to my channel and hitting that bell notification icon so that
you don’t miss any of my future videos.
First, what is nasal resonance?
As mentioned in my previous videos about vocal resonance, humans have several vocal resonators
that amplify or change the basic sound created at the level of the vocal folds, including
the pharynx, the mouth and the nasal cavity.
If the sound resonates in the nasal cavity, your nose, we talk about nasal resonance.
In English, there are three speech sounds, so called nasal sounds, that require nasal
resonance: M, N and NG like in the word sing.
All other English sounds are so called oral sounds and they don’t have a nasal component.
During production of the nasal sounds, the port to the nasal cavity, your nose, is open
so that the sound can travel through this opening and then it resonates
in the space of the nasal cavity.
In order to open the port to the nasal cavity, the soft palate has to be lowered.
On the other hand, when you want to produce oral sounds, the soft palate has to be lifted
and close off the nasal cavity from the pharyngeal and oral cavities.
Let’s explore these concepts together.
First, let’s find the soft palate.
Put your tongue up behind your teeth and then slowly slide it back.
First, you will feel hard bony structure, close to your upper teeth that later turns
into soft tissue.
This is the transition between the hard palate and the soft palate.
If you move your tongue back even more, then you will feel the edge of the soft palate
and the uvula, which is the structure hanging down in your throat.
You can use your finger too to feel these structures in your mouth but be careful because
some people have a strong gag reflex.
During singing, we use various degrees of nasal resonance depending on the style of
singing, personal preferences, and experience.
Some singers are known for their “nasal voices” and in some music genres, a higher
degree of nasality is even admired, like in pop or country.
Subjectively, we could measure the degree of nasal resonance present in singing.
For example, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is no nasal resonance at all, which means
that the air travels just through the mouth, and 10 is a full blown nasal resonance, which
means that the air travels through the nose and nothing through the mouth.
Here is a sound “ah”, which is 1 on our scale.
But we can direct the air to go just through the nose, which will become 10 on our scale,
with no oral resonance and only with nasal resonance.
To check for how much nasal resonance you are using, you can pinch your nose and see
what happens.
If the sound stops completely when you pinch your nose, it means that all of the air was
traveling through the nose and logically when you pinch your nose, the airflow is stopped
and the sound also stops.
On the other hand, if the sound does not change at all after pinching your nose, it means
that the air traveled through the mouth.
Finally, if the sound changes slightly when your nose is pinched, it means that there
was some air traveling through your nose.
And this is how you can check for nasal resonance as well as learn to control the amount of
nasal resonance you bring into your singing.
But what does it mean to be nasal?
Even though there is no agreement on how much nasal resonance is too much, there are two
extremes that we need to consider: hyponasality and hypernasality.
When people say: he has a nasal voice, or he is singing nasally, they can mean two things.
They may mean that someone is talking like when they have a cold.
This is so cold hyponasality (hypo meaning less than normal) because the air does not
travel through the nose at all, even for sounds that require nasal resonance and which I mentioned
at the beginning of this video, M, N, and NG.
I don’t think that this scenario really happens in singing.
It’s more present in talking, especially when someone is congested or sick.
The other situation that people describe as nasal singing is true nasality or so called
hypernasality (hyper meaning more than normal), when too much air travels through the nose
but as I said before that is very subjective and dependent on a few factors.
And to make things even more complicated, being “too nasal” can also be a result
of a high laryngeal position or overly bright sound, which are not good for most singers
as they may lead to vocal straining.
What is interesting about this type of perceived “nasality” is that the sound appears to
be “nasal” but in fact there is no nasal resonance present, so no air travels through
the nose.
And let me mention one more concept: “singing in the mask”, which is known for more nasal
sounding type of singing but again, there may not be any air travelling through the
nose.
In fact, you can produce completely oral sounds (so no air traveling through the nose) but
you can still feel vibrations in these facial bones.
That is because the vibrations amplified in your larynx, pharynx and the oral cavity travel
through the bones and other body tissues and you can feel them right here.
I hope I cleared some things for you, if you have any questions regarding this topic, pop
them in the comments below.
Also, stay tuned for my next video about the function of the soft palate in singing.
In the meantime, click the like button below this video and share it with your friends
and check out my other videos right here.
I will see you soon.