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.