Sing louder
VOICE CLINIC
Singing louder requires neither shouting nor taking in more air. Power comes from the muscles that take charge of the exhalation, from a free larynx and from the resonators.
Singing and the cry
From a physiological point of view, singing means filling your lungs on the inhalation, then giving the air back on the exhalation while bringing the vocal cords together to produce a sound. You could compare singing to a cry, which expresses a strong emotion such as fear or pain: we do speak of a “cry of joy” or a “cry of pain”. But a cry has no aesthetic aim. Singing tames this function of communication and turns it into something artistic.
To sing louder, the method of the five pivot points asks you neither to push nor to take in more air. Posture sets up the laryngeal suspension, the abdominal muscles take charge of the exhalation, and the resonators give the sound its carrying power.
Adeline Toniutti sums up this division of roles with an image she uses when talking about high notes.
“We can compare the larynx to a car’s steering wheel, and the ribs and obliques to accelerators.”
From piano to forte
Take an A4, the concert-pitch note at 440 Hz. Whether you sing it piano or forte, the same number of acoustic impulses crosses the plane of the vocal cords: only the size of those impulses changes. On a louder sound, the vocal cords close more firmly. On a piano sound, the vibratory amplitude is smaller, and so is the airflow reaching the larynx.
Moving from one dynamic to another without changing the note therefore calls for fine control of the abdominal support. If you do not support correctly, the larynx automatically alters the pitch of the sound.
The in-breath
In ordinary breathing, we breathe in and out about half a litre of air per cycle. When we sing, ventilatory capacity rises markedly, and training lets you increase your vital capacity. Yet the volume of air is not everything. At a public colloquium, Professor Thomas Sinowski, a pulmonologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière whose theoretical vital capacity is around five litres, could not hold a note as long as Adeline Toniutti. He concluded that a far greater volume of air does not make up for the lack of a trained gesture.
Taking in too much air even ends up blocking the active exhalation, because active exhalation relies on an inhalation that is properly measured and supple. Adeline Toniutti asks you to think of a thin in-breath, the size of the vocal cords, and to feel the air settle at the level of the rear floating ribs.
Faced with a high note that looks like an impossible mountain to climb, we exaggerate the in-breath, as if a great reserve of air would stop us “falling off the mountain”. Adeline Toniutti has found that when she asks singers to breathe in very small, twice, very quickly, as if to smell the lovely scent of a flower, they find a good movement and the right sense of placement more quickly.
Illustrations © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
The muscles of exhalation
To produce a sound, you have to empty the lungs. You bring the ribs together and make the diaphragm rise with the help of the abdominal muscles, which exert pressure to drive the air upwards. These muscles form a girdle that wraps around the viscera, and each of them has its own part to play:
- the transversus, the deepest, increases abdominal pressure and stabilises the trunk. It does not work all the time: it is called on mainly during active exhalation;
- the obliques, external and internal, contribute to this pressure and to the mobility of the trunk. The external oblique also makes the retroversion of the pelvis possible;
- the rectus, the “six-pack”, holds in the curve of the abdomen. It counterbalances the inhalation and is the engine of the exhalation.
“It is the obliques that give cohesion between the horizontal fibres of the transversus and the vertical fibres of the rectus abdominis. No obliques, no abdominals.”
Adeline Toniutti describes the sung exhalation in four stages:
- I breathe in. I let the sternum rise, I feel my ribs open.
- I get into the starting blocks. I engage my abdominal muscles, I put my external oblique under tension.
- I trigger the active exhalation. With the intercostal muscles, the floating ribs draw closer together, and the rectus presses on the diaphragm to push it back up and empty the air from the lungs in a controlled way.
- I bring my vocal cords together. The sound resonates, I articulate, I sing.
At the moment of producing a high note, most singers release the rib pressure and let the floating ribs open out again, which lowers the pressure the note needs. That pressure must instead be maintained, provided you are sure of a good laryngeal movement.
Illustrations © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
Laryngeal suspension
“Lower your larynx!”, “Open your throat by yawning!”: Adeline Toniutti has often heard these shock lines, and she considers them false. The larynx is suspended in the throat like a hammock. Its movement must stay supple and must never be locked, whatever sound you are singing, high or low. Singers improve greatly when the laryngeal movement goes in the direction of the exhaled air, upwards.
Dropping the larynx gives the ear an almost instant classical resonance, but over time it can shorten the compass. The base of the tongue collapses and stops the larynx from moving freely: the vocal cords then try to deliver the performance asked of them, sometimes at the cost of the singer’s health.
Illustration © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
Posture keeps this suspension going. You lengthen the back of the neck, with the chin tilted slightly downwards. You free the shoulders, because locking them down or back stops the intercostal muscles from launching the inhalation and creates unwanted tension on the laryngeal suspension. Finally, you retrovert the pelvis while lengthening the torso; without this lengthening, the anterior chain collapses and the abdominal muscles cannot engage to their full potential.
Illustrations © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
Resonators, twang and belting
Sound is born where the air meets the vocal cords, which come together and vibrate at a certain frequency. The sound wave then takes on colour and shape as it meets the membranes and cavities in its path. The resonators are the fourth pivot point of the method, and this is where the voice gains its carrying power.
Twang is the best-known example. It consists of narrowing a small area just above the vocal cords, which acts like a megaphone. It increases vocal power without demanding any extra respiratory effort, because it works on the vocal tract rather than on the vocal cords. Adeline Toniutti has been teaching it for several years, starting from the five pivot points, and calls it “singing American-style”. It is produced with the soft palate raised. Many videos confuse it with an extreme nasalisation of the sound, which on the contrary leaves the soft palate down and is often associated with a lowering of the larynx that is dangerous for the vocal cords.
The search for twang in contemporary commercial music is akin to the search for the mask and for projection in opera: in both cases, you are looking for sound and projection with less effort. The scientific literature describes twang as an effective way of increasing acoustic intensity: it amplifies the high frequencies of the voice, what is known as the singer’s formant.
Illustration © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
Belting, for its part, is a register that keeps mechanism 1, the chest voice, as high as possible in the tessitura. The air pressure beneath the vocal cords rises thanks to abdominal pressure, laryngeal resistance increases, and the laryngeal vestibule compensates by narrowing moderately. It is the sound of River Deep, Mountain High as sung by Tina Turner or Céline Dion.
Illustrations © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
Do not try to hear yourself
When you sing a loud sound, your ear protects itself. A reflex, the stapedius reflex, protects the inner ear against very intense sounds, usually high ones. Its very reason for being is thought to be to protect us from our own voice, since in nature sounds of very high intensity are exceptional. Forcing in order to hear yourself better therefore amounts to fighting this reflex.
To check that a high note has been well produced, Adeline Toniutti gives three markers. Other people must perceive the sound as beautiful. To you, it always seems thin, unless you are heavily amplified. And you feel neither discomfort nor pain after singing it.
Exercises
Smelling a flower
Breathe in as if you wanted to take in the delicate scent of a flower, with your mouth closed. Cross your arms and rest your hands on your floating ribs to feel the movement of the rib cage. You can do this exercise standing, sitting or lying down.
Singing with free shoulders
Hold your upper body like a dancer in first position. Raise and lower your shoulders as you sing, with your hands cupped to free the clavicle, taking care not to lock the shoulders back. This exercise gives the shoulders back their movement: singing with the shoulders locked down reduces the amplitude of the breathing movements.
Singing while holding a plank, with Arthur Rey-Grange, sports coach
Rest on your elbows and the tips of your toes. Push your elbows into the floor to spread your scapulae apart, retrovert the pelvis slightly and keep your legs straight, with the back of the neck in line with the spine. With each breath, feel the abdominal girdle contract, then sing in this position. Your active exhalation will be organic rather than forced, carried by the engagement of the abdominal muscles.
These exercises must be done while respecting the five pivot points. If you have a vocal cord condition, ask your specialist for advice.
CALYP
Work on vocal power at CALYP
The method is set out in detail in Anatomie du Chant (Marabout, 2024). To work on it with Adeline Toniutti and her team, book an appointment.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to push to sing louder?
No. In Adeline Toniutti’s method, the larynx is compared to a car’s steering wheel, and the ribs and obliques to accelerators. Power comes from the abdominal muscles taking charge of the exhalation and from work on the resonators, while the larynx stays free and suspended.
Do you need to take in a lot of air to sing loudly?
No. An in-breath that is too wide blocks the active exhalation. Adeline Toniutti asks you to think of a thin inhalation, as if you were smelling a flower, and advises breathing in very small, twice, when you tend to take in too much air.
What changes in the larynx when you sing louder?
The pitch of the note does not change: on an A4, the same number of impulses crosses the vocal cords, piano or forte. On a louder sound, the vocal cords close more firmly; on a piano sound, the vibratory amplitude and the airflow are smaller.
Is twang a nasal sound?
No. Twang is produced with the soft palate raised. Nasalising the sound to the extreme leaves the soft palate down and does not give the qualities of twang.
Why do I feel I cannot hear myself when I sing loudly?
The stapedius reflex protects the inner ear against very intense sounds. A well-produced high note always seems thin to you, unless you are heavily amplified; what counts is how other people hear it and the absence of discomfort.