Bernoulli's Principal

When I heard this expression for the first time, it was tossed of by a previous voice teacher in a way that in no way highlighted its relevance or foundational connection to the process of learning to sing or understanding physical activity of how the throat is set into motion as a producer of tone.  My teacher, when discussing what I think might have been a reference to overtones and resonance said, "You see, the tone goes under and through the vocal cords, bouncing of the false cords, working its way through and around in some way.  It is what they call the Bernoulli effect."  It sounded so technical to me.  I was delighted.  It seemed like secret knowledge as I was carving the words in stone.  Less than a year or two later in a conversation with my friend who ultimately taught me the foundational principals of the voice, Dr. Bennie Middaugh.  We were talking shop (like I knew anything at that point) and I mentioned, Bernoulli's principal, to which he responded with a raised eyebrow, "Tell me about the Bernoulli's principal" I said, " You see, the tone goes through..."  I laugh to myself every time that exchange with Bennie goes through my head.  He said, "No, Bernoulli's principal is what makes an airplane fly, it is a flow dynamic."  While I loved my previous voice teacher who had helped me in so many ways, I realized at that moment, while I had many successes as a singer and had been singing relatively well, I was seriously lacking.  I see from what I encounter all through the industry of singing and teaching singing the evidence that many are unaware of the relevance of this fundamental reality of the vocal impulse.

I have to be careful to not be too snarky here, but I flinch when I hear voice teachers say "you've got to have really good support" or "singing is all about breathing" or I hear of high-school choir directors admonishing the whole choir to flex their diaphragms as the tone:  ascends, is out of tune, needs to be soft, needs to be loud, needs to be articulated etc.  The concept is mis-understood by most, even the "experts".  Not only this, the assertion of diaphragmatic breath support by teachers as the way to sing is in my opinion, the primary fault that leads to most vocal break downs.  A student who is having problems finds another teacher, they get in for a lesson and the new teacher starts in with their diatribe on what the diaphramatic breath really is, and here we go again; the same concept, different spin, still flawed.

To understand how wrong diaphragmatic breath support techniques really are, one must consider the multi-functionality of the throat musculature that I have hinted at previously.  The throat is a valve, period.  It is a miraculous wonder that let's air, fluids and solids in and out of the body,  it can release air and allow us to make sound as it excites the vibratory dynamic of the vocal cords, it can also hold air in to allow is create physical leverage against the contained pocket of air in the center of our chest cavity.  The throat is a wonder of functionality.  But, to sing or phonate, tone must be set into play, sound waves must fly.  While in and of itself the tone itself is resisting gravity as it has to make its way through the atmosperic pressure of the air around us.  An infant when crying at birth is attempting to resist gravity by crying in the new pressurized envioronment of the the Earth's atmosphere; its all they can do in their unstrenghthened, but wondrously knit body that is stregthening itself more and more with every flex; inahale, resist, inhale resihhhhhhhhhhhhst.  This sound impulse and how we assert it as humans is imprinted on us at this moment; as we learn that sound happens as a gentile (but pontentially loud and shrieking) gesture that is simply the vibratory action of the vocal cords being excited by the release of airflow past them; causing them to draw together and squeak, like making a balloon speak.  

Another function of the valve is learned by the young human later in their development when they are learning to walk.  I am often amazed by birds when I, being reminded of my childish imaginings of why we cant fly like they do, realize the we don't have feathers on our arms, and that our pecs would never be strong enough to lift our enormous bodied from the grip of gravity.  If we were able to fly physically, we would look very funny.  Babies experience this pilates moment in their developmental process when they begin to experiment with the skill of getting up on their legs; like pulling themselves up onto a sofa to be with a beloved sibling or pet.  They grunt, and tug, making faces. Digging to find every scrap of their available strength to help leverage themselves higher than ever.  Still learning to resist gravity but on a different scale and in a completely different way.  Again employing this wonderful valve in the center of our throat, but in a way that is the polar opposite to the way it produces tone; stifling Bernoulli's pricipal to acheive more leverage by closing the vocal folds (a better name for the cords in this function) firmly,  the body closing off the release of the contained air like a multi-door bank vault, to use the contained air to wrest ourselves physically toward whaterver the goal may be.  Bennie and I had an aha moment when we mused that this was why the false cords were above the vocal folds.  The false cords were not vibratory but necessary as a final closing gesture against the throat muscles for extreme exersion such as a woman in child birth or world weightlifting records or getting up on the sofa the very first time by oneself.

Diaphragmatic breathe techniques teaches the singer to mingle the bi-functionality of the way the throat processes air.  Like driving with the gas and the brake on at the same time.  Singers may argue that with out breath support there would by no power for getting the voice out over the orchestra.  But, the power of the voice comes through resonance and amplitude.  The power of the voice is a gentle assertion of human strength balanced against the exponential wonder of acoustics through understanding vowels and harmonics along with a strict discipline to NEVER impede Bernoulli's principal as it sets the initial motor of the voice into its tonal revving.  Understanding this is the key to keeping your voice healthy for a lifetime.

The Vibrator

If I were to go in order; Actuator, Vibrator, Resonator, I would have to spend time expounding on its interdependent relationship to the Vibrator and the relational intrinsic musculature helping it to do its job as it relates to human expression through employment of vocal sound.  You see, we don't just make mono-chromatic noises; through the voice we express delight, sadness, caring, wit, anger, fear etc.  All of these vocalisms draw on the voices ability to raise and lower pitch, vary texture and timbre by managing the amount of breath allowed in the tone, and create dramatic fluctuations in volume.  One can think of all of these vocal acrobatics as engagement of the machine or motor; the voice (motor) runs on released breath.  Hence, Bernoulli's principal.  Like an otter swims, the voice vocalizes; the otter manipulates water, the vocalism manipulates air.  It is how it is manipulated that warrants some discussion.

The "intrinsic" musculature of the throat, as it relates to vocal-ism, is a system of interconnected muscles that respond to the release of air through the vocal cords (thyro-arytenoid, vocal process, vocal folds, glottis).  This system manipulates the opening and closing of the valve at the top of our trachea; the same valve we use to speak, exhale, lift heavy objects and cough.  The varied functionality of this system of muscles is why there are so many approaches to singing technique.  I contend that there are only two approaches to developing or repairing a voice; in my opinion, only one is correct; the other has variations, but is largely the same.  If you take the wrong fork in the pedagogy road, there will be blood.

As it relates to vocalism, however, the focus for the moment will be understanding the basics for how pitch rises and falls in an unimpeded way as the vibrator responds to the passing of air in vocalism, and how this unimpeded singularity of a sorts allows a bubbling and effervescent play of emotions in the tonal vortex that is created in the human desire  and assertion to express something vocally.  The keyword to highlighting the action of this process is equilibrium.

The vocal cords are two bands of muscle tissue that are attachtched at a single point on the inside surface of the adam's apple (thyroid cartiledge).  These muscles pull against the back of the adam's apple when contracting.  Muscles when activated can only contract, they have to be acted upon by the contraction of another muscle to return.  Every muscle has an opposing muscle; think bicep-tricep in the motion of moving ones hand toward and away from the chest.  The opposing muscle to the vocal cords (thyro-arytenoid) is the crico-thyroid muscle.  It is attatched on the inner and bottom edge of the adam's apple and runs downward to the top outer edge of the cricoid cartaledge at the top of the trachea.  So when speaking, there is a playful tug of war going on between these two muscles, sort of like lightly challenging a dog with a chew toy.  After the vibratory process has begun we can intesify the contraction of the vocal cord and relax it; causing the voice to rise and fall in pitch and volume based on the emotional assertion being expressed vocally.

The pitch rising and falling is related to the mass of the vocal cord (string); think of a violin and the the action of the violinist's fingers.  A lower pitch is created by more vibratory surface being allowed into the action, and a reduction of mass causes the pitch to rise; this happens by the action of the crico-thyroid muscle.  How would you warn a young child, who out of curiosity might be reaching to place their hand on a glowing red surface such as an electric stove burner?  How would you impulsively say "Hot!"? Starting at a raised pitch, stretching higher and then lower, not a gentle action, but one that is allowed through equilbrium at the vocal cords; the intensity of the intial action yeilds abit to the release of the the contraction.  As the crico-thyoid allows the mass to reduce,  the cord is allowed to retreat slightly which allows the vibratory mass to reduce (like a glissando on a violin)

If the equilibrium is impeded, the action of the play between the vocal cord (thyro-arytenoid, heavy mechanism) and the crico-thyroid (light mechanism) is confounded and made more difficult by its action being stalled. The equalized balance between the involved parties of this intrinsic musculature of the throat is the seed where healthy vocal ism is either nurtured or destroyed.  The lens through which this action is evaluated and developed is in the observation of the actuator; Bernoulli's principal.  If this action, that has programmed our human vocal-ism from the moment of birth, is impeded in any way, even slightly, we have stepped off the path and into the weeds.  This is what I feel so strongly about in the process of developing the voice; it is  what I embrace when I assert that there are really only two methods by which to develop the voice, and that only one of them is correct.