5 Keys to Great Vocal Placement: Myths and Solutions
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5 Keys to Great Vocal Placement: Myths and Solutions
Vocal placement is the physical location where your voice resonates inside your body. Where you feel your sound resonating in your head and chest cavities affects the sound and quality of your voice.
Has anyone ever explained vocal placement to you in a way that you’ve understood and been able to use? If not, you’re not alone! Singers and vocal coaches often misunderstand it.
If you’ve been doing my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups for a while, you’re probably a bit ahead of the curve — because we get you using the voice correctly which clears up a lot of issues with vocal placement by getting the sound to ring in the resonating chambers.
First I want to bust through some myths.
“Sing in the mask.”
“Move your placement forward.”
“Feel sound vibrating in your nose or face.”
Vocal Placement refers to working with this vocal resonance to feel or “sense” the resonant sensations and vibrations. Many coaches teach singers to focus your sound into a specific part of your face or nasal cavity to achieve more clarity, volume and better tone.
I have found over time the ideal placement and easiest place to feel resonance is at the soft palate area, which you can monitor by placing or “ringing” the sound right in front of your ear. When the voice resonates there, it doesn’t create an overly nasal sound that pushing the sound forward can create.
Here are my tips to opening up the voice to experience true vocal resonance and an optimal vocal placement that rings easily and effortlessly.
1. Decreasing tension in the muscles surrounding the voice
When your voice is tight or constricted it can’t ring or resonate properly. The muscles surrounding your instrument can constrict resonance and vibration causing problems with natural resonance and voice placement.
Tension in any of these areas will constrict the natural resonance and flow of sound and keep you from striking your natural resonance and placement.
- Jaw
- Tongue
- Neck
- Laryngeals
To decrease tension in the muscles surrounding the voice try this:
- Stretches
- Bodywork
- Yoga
- Somatic bodywork stretches
- Vocal massage
- Acupuncture
- Feldenkrais
2. Straightening up your alignment
Natural resonance and placement will be constricted without correct alignment. There is a “Vocal Path” that needs to be cleared, ready, and available so the voice doesn’t get stuck in detours or constrictions to that path.
The cleaner your alignment the better chance you have at striking the right vocal placement and resonating chambers will resound.
Problems in these areas will constrict your alignment:
- Neck (forward of your body)
- Shoulders pronating (slumped forward)
- Dropped chest
- Weak pectorals
- Tight muscles in the small of your back (waist area)
- Locked knees
Good alignment starts at your feet.
Try this:
- Stand with your feet hip distance apart.
- Stand evenly in the center of your feet. Notice if you place your weight more towards your toes or back on your heels, or too much on the inside or outside of your foot. Looking at the soles of your shoes can reveal some information about where you place your weight.
- Straighten the knees and then release them.
- Keep the knees soft and not straight.
- Tuck the pelvis slightly under you.
- Pull up tall out of the waist.
- Shoulders fall back and down.
- The back of the neck is lengthened up towards the ceiling.
- The chest is lifted towards the chin without arching the back.
- The back is nice and straight with a natural curve.
- The chin is placed slightly down to maintain a neutral position.
Practice this alignment daily right before your singing practice.
Modalities that help straighten up your alignment:
- Alexander Technique Training
- Bodywork – Deep Tissue massage, Structural Alignment, Rolfing, Craniosacral Therapy, Acupuncture, Network Spine (chiropractic), Vocal massage.
3. Practice the "C-shape" during singing
The “C-shape” is the ideal position inside your mouth during singing. It follows the natural curve of your mouth and throat.
Try this:
- Trace the roof of your mouth with your tongue from the back of the front teeth to the back of your mouth.
- Imagine continuing down the back of the throat to the tongue.
- Now drop your tongue and let the body of the tongue rest on the bottom of your mouth.
- This is the C-shape.
- When you sing, imagine the C-shape spreading open and staying open to help maintain more space inside your mouth.
Practicing these positions and movements will help to open your mouth and throat to stay open so the sound can resonate properly. When the tongue is relaxed and pulled away from the roof of the mouth (except the EE, AY, and EYE (i) vowels the tongue does reach up – but you still think of space on top of your tongue to create room to resonate).
For more help opening your throat
To open up your natural resonance and placement you’ll want to get control of opening the throat before singing. This starts with feeling the natural throat-opening movements we perform every day and then integrating that motion into our voice pre-phrase.
Try this:
- Bring an imaginary glass of water to your lips.
- Now imagine you are taking a drink.
- Did you notice the throat open in the back?
- This is a natural movement you do every day when drinking or eating to prepare the throat to open to receive.
- Now apply that motion and add a gentle inhale to the motion and you have a throat opening position to then sing from.
- Just focus on feeling the position and movement. Don’t worry about maintaining it during singing. It’s only a motion to feel before singing.
4. Practice starting and ending the sound in front of the ears
Instead of saying “placing” the sound I like to say “start and end” the sound on the roof of the mouth right in front of the ears. It’s a little more of a specific direction that helps singers feel the right placement without “trying” to place it somewhere which can create tension.
Try this:
- Put your hand in a C-shape.
- Place your fingers on your jaw joint in front of your ears.
- Bring it up to your face tracing the roof of your mouth and bottom jaw with the C-shape.
- Sing KAH starting the sound in front of the ears where your fingers are.
- And as you sing KAH – can you feel the tongue hitting the roof of your mouth?
- Now sing KAH again and place or start the sound where the Kah is.
- Both techniques place the sound to sit in your natural placement to get the optimal sound.
- Imagine the starting and ending sounds here. Carry the sound there throughout singing.
In addition, lifting your soft palate and dropping your tongue will help to create natural resonance in the placement. Once the tongue is dropped and the palate is lifted, there is more space for the sound to ring inside your mouth creating more resonance and setting natural placement in front of the ears.
The soft palate plays an important role in accessing your natural placement and the fullness of your resonance.
Try this:
- Trace the roof of your mouth with your tongue starting behind the top teeth. Notice when you come to the place where the hard palate stops and the soft palate starts.
- To access your full range the soft palate needs to lift. This is a gentle motion that needs to be rehearsed to get control over the movement.
- Look in the mirror to monitor the soft palate movement.
- Notice the uvula (a piece of skin hanging down that is attached to the soft palate).
- Keeping your mouth open, begin a yawn
- At the start of the yawn did you notice your uvula (soft palate) lift?
5. Lowering the laryngeal muscles - creating a deeper bed for the larynx
The position of the larynx affects your resonance quite a bit. The higher up the laryngeals, the less opening you have for sound to ring freely. As you create a deeper bed for the laryngeal muscles you open the throat creating freer vocal muscles that are not constricted and “dampened” by tension which “mutes” your resonance and sound.
Untrained singers generally have little to no control of this area. Even in trained singers I often find higher laryngeal positions due to oversinging and a lack of proper technique.
Try this:
- Place your finger at the top of your throat
- Yawn
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- Now keeping your finger there, gently pull the jaw open with your hand
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- Now bring an imaginary glass of water to your lips and pretend to drink
- Did you feel the throat slip down?
- This is a motion you do every day that you want to get in your reflexes
Try the “pinch position” to set the larynx in its deepest position
A technique to help you achieve an even deeper position for the larynx can help to feel what it can feel like to not “feel” the register shifts is the “pinch position”.
Try this:
- Place your finger at the top of your throat
- Yawn
- Feel the throat slip down
- Now keeping your finger at the top of the throat add a pinch. Pinch your cheeks to separate the jaw.
- See how the throat moves way down?
- Now sing a scale on AH using an “aw” sound, maintaining that position through the scale. Repeat a few times.
- Did you notice how you didn’t feel the shift in registers as much? Or at all?
This shows you what is possible. The way to achieve this is by practicing vocal technique exercises that set up these movements.
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The Singers Gift is the foundation of The Cole Vocal Method, The Singers Gift Warmups are a transformational vocal warmup regimen to:
→ Expand your range
→ Build your vocal resonance and natural placement
→ Experience greater vocal control
→ Sing with more ease
→ Hit better high notes
→ And perform with more confidence and strength!
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This is Part I of the Cole Vocal Method™.
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Hi, I’m Cari Cole.
You’ve got talent, but you want to become great at it. You’re in the right place! My mission is to help you refine your unique artist vision to bring to the world.
About Cari Cole
Cari Cole is the CEO / Founder of caricole.com and CCVM: Label Without Walls. She is a Holistic Vocal Coach, Artist Development Expert, A&R Director, and Songwriter based in New York City helping artists for the past 38 years. She is a mentor for Women in Music and The Association of Independent Music Publishers.
Her latest venture, CCVM a label services company, provides artists with a seamless path from creation to completion. After 30+ years of observing the overwhelm and challenges that artists face, Cari pulled together the best top creative professionals and designed a new approach to supporting our artists.
Disclaimer:
The information provided on Cari Cole's website is informational only and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. Those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on Cari Cole's website. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately.
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