How not to tire your voice

In Adeline Toniutti’s method, every movement of the body has a direction: set the right way, it optimises singing, and set the wrong way, it degrades it. Here are the gestures that tire the voice when they are set the wrong way.

When the abdominal muscles do not take charge of the exhalation, nothing measures out the air any more. The lungs have no motor muscle of their own: it is the transversus, the obliques and the rectus that make the diaphragm rise and drive the air out.

When you lock the ribs open during the inhalation, the breathing freezes. Adeline Toniutti asks you instead to think of a vertical lengthening of the torso, without ever locking the ribs open sideways.

When you lock the larynx down, following instructions such as “Lower your larynx!” or “Open your throat by yawning!”, the base of the tongue collapses and stops the larynx from moving freely. Badly guided in this way, singers can lose a fifth at the top of their voice in a flash, darken their timbre artificially or give themselves a lesion in record time. Suspended in the throat like a hammock, the larynx should instead follow the movement of the exhaled air, upwards, without being locked at the top either.

A tongue that falls back weighs on the larynx and stops it from being freely suspended. The tongue is attached to the larynx by the hyoid bone, so their movements are linked.

A jaw that is too relaxed, as in a yawn, slackens the anterior muscular chain, reduces the range of movement of the soft palate, alters the suppleness of the laryngeal suspension and interferes with articulation. Opening the mouth does not mean opening it to the slackness of a yawn: think of the mandible as toned.

An in-breath that is too wide, for example in front of a high note that frightens you, ends up blocking the active exhalation. Adeline Toniutti has found that when she asks singers to breathe in very small, twice, very quickly, as if to smell the scent of a flower, they find a good movement more quickly.

When you release the ribs on the note, at the moment of a high note, the floating ribs open out again and the pressure the note needs drops. That pressure must be maintained, provided you are sure of a good laryngeal movement.

Singing on the inhalation does produce sounds, but the result is not aesthetic and is rather exhausting. We speak and sing using the exhaled air.

A posture that slackens takes its toll on the laryngeal suspension: locking the shoulders down or back creates unwanted tension on the larynx, and without a lengthening of the torso the abdominal muscles can no longer engage to their full potential. The osteopath Jean-Marie Legé has even observed that when the first cervical vertebra, the atlas, slips sideways, the patient’s voice is “veiled” and tires easily.

You must be able to repeat the gesture as many times as you are asked to, without tiring the vocal cords.

A high note, for example, is healthy when you are able to approach it in every way: start it from below, sing it staccato or legato, bring it in with agility, in every dynamic and in every register.

The stage, on the other hand, is gruelling. For the physiotherapist Estelle Moltenis, a singer’s preparation, recovery and lifestyle are comparable to those of a top-level athlete. Hydration also has to be planned ahead: according to the osteopath Jean-Marie Legé, water takes about six hours to be digested, so you need to drink plenty before the effort.

This is the reasoning Adeline Toniutti defended on franceinfo, about Céline Dion’s decision to lower the key:

These exercises must be done while respecting the five pivot points. If you have a vocal cord condition, ask your specialist for advice.