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What even is placement? (Singing Teachers)
So placement (or the idea of placing the tone?) is something that a lot of singing teachers seem to use. Like placing it in the “masque” or a forward placement or something like this. But I’ve never seen it in action, and i admit to knowing very little about it.
What I DO know is that obviously when people say “the tone is coming from blah” or that it “stops the tone from coming from the throat”, this is pretty erroneous. Obviously the model of air comes from lungs -> vocal fold vibration -> resonance and vocal tract filtering is basically what happens regardless of where you imagine the sound coming from. Moreover, as far as I know, things like placing the resonance in the sinuses has more to do with feeling sympathetic resonance anyway, rather than any actual true resonance.
So what is going on here? Are there any studies that show physiological effects of placement techniques? Do any of you use these techniques? What do you use them for? I’d be super interested to know. If any of you use these techniques effectively, I’d LOVE a vid or sound bite so I can hear the difference it makes for you or your students.
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4 Replies
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I’d like to add “what even is twang” to this little vocal adventure! As well as “metal” which is a word some teachers use which doesn’t sit well with me.
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Yeah, interesting. Metal I don’t know about but I assume it’s similar to twang?
For me twang is the sound that’s created when using a “pharyngeal” voice. But to me this is still more to do with sound rather than placement. I’ll use it to encourage vocal fold adduction, and to bring out harmonics to allow a voice to “cut through”. -
The thing I’ve learnt about twang recently that has changed me, is the fact that the narrowing of the mouth helps the sound resonate better so that you can actually project with little effort. Amazing!
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For sure, narrow vowels are super helpful. It’s all about finding that place of efficiency!