A PSA for all careers: Don't practice perfection, practice life-long learning

How many singers out there dread practicing in some way or another?  How many of us want to keep going until we know we've 'accomplished something.'  But what are we trying to accomplish?  Perfection?  Being better at that high note than your peers?  What drives you in the practice room will become what drives your performances.  If your motivation is to compete with peers, then you will always be disappointed, because you will never be "the best" at any one time to every person who hears you sing.  

Singing is so subjective.  We all know this.  Ask ten singers who their favorite singer is of all time and you will probably get ten different answers.  Why?  Is one of those world-class singers really better than the rest?  No.  Not really.  The truth is we all have our own unique connection to the music which will communicate that music in a way that will speak to some and not to others who hear it.  If you're more concerned with being the best than you are with communicating the human element, you're not going to get anywhere, either professionally or in the practice room.  

If, however, you know vocal technique is the tool that allows us to express the music as we wish, then you might be in a rush to attain "perfect" vocal technique.  But that goal is nothing more than a dangerous rabbit hole many excellent artists get stuck in during their youth, and one many folks who suffer from vocal distress or injury get trapped in as well. 

How many times have I heard from my students, "Sometimes I'm afraid to practice at home, because I'm afraid I won't get it right."  What do I say to that?  First, getting it right takes a long time, so it won't happen in one day in the practice room and conversely, one week of practicing something slightly "wrong" won't kill your voice or end your career.  But second, I say:  Find joy in practicing through taking on an attitude of journey and discovery rather than the drudgery of wanting to get everything right the first time out, cause the second attitude is setting yourself up for failure.  The singers with real longevity in opera don't try to compete with their peers or the up-and-comers, they try to constantly better themselves so they can better serve the music they love.  That's what keeps them at the top of their profession, not the attitude of competition.  (Don't believe me?  Search out any great singer's interviews on youtube, and you will see what I am talking about.  Their love for their art form imbues every word and gesture they make when they talk about what they do.)  

I believe it is that sense of discovery, of adventure, that will allow a person to make larger gains in the practice room with shorter practice sessions than they will with the attitude of "giving 200%" to force something to happen. We all know in singing that the idea of using "force" of any kind tends to hinder vocal development rather than helping it. 

I am now finding out this concept applies to pretty much every field out there.  In SLP, especially among students vying for a position in a graduate school, there are plenty of "competitors" who aren't enjoying the field much at all.  They're so invested in competition that they have forgotten why they wanted to be in this field in the first place.  Then there are the folks who are very passionate about why they want to be an SLP, usually to help people who need their services, who are absolutely impeccable SLPs, even if their test scores aren't the top in the class.  People perceive excellence in these students and professionals because the job they do is not impeded by comparing themselves to others.  They just simply do their job to the best of their ability.  These people aren't interested in having success for successes sake; they are in love with life-long learning.  They are in love with the process of bettering themselves so that they might help others to the best of their ability.

May we all, what ever field we find ourselves in, find joy in the journey, have a passionate love affair with life-long learning, and seek to do our best for the sake of our field and for the sake of others affected by what we do.

Anatomy and Physiology series: Pharyngeal Musculature

It's that time again.  Time for some A&P!  Oh yeah!  The next few posts in this series will be just straight-up anatomy.  I'm going to cover pharyngeal musculature here, tongue musculature, palatal muscles, and possibly a few facial and jaw muscles as well.  It's going to be a little while before the physiology really shows up here, because I will also cover the nervous system, at least conceptually, that's in charge of this whole thing before getting into the really interesting physiology of the articulatory system.  On to the pharyngeal musculature!  As you read, remember that the pharynx refers to the space, as well as the structures, above the larynx.  There are three sections of the pharynx, the laryngopharynx, oropharynx, and nasopharynx that I'll refer to just for orientation.

Pharyngeal musculature is biologically big-time involved with swallowing.  As such, these muscles are divided into pharyngeal constrictors and openers.  There are three main pharyngeal constrictors:  The superior pharyngeal constrictor, middle pharyngeal constrictor, and the inferior pharyngeal constrictor.  (Can't tell you how much I loved the easy naming system during my final exam last semester!)  These three constrictors overlap, a bit like shingles, and form the side and back walls of the pharynx.

All three of these muscles have a lot of attachment points, so I won't get into them too much here.  Let's just talk about the main function.  The superior pharyngeal constrictor forms the sides and back walls of the nasopharynx and also a portion of the back of the oropharynx.  It's function is to pull the pharyngeal walls forward and constrict the pharynx.  The middle pharyngeal constrictor and inferior constrictor both constrict the pharynx, but the inferior constrictor is divided into two parts, the cricopharyngeus and the thyropharyngeus.  The cricopharyngeus constricts the upper portion of the esophagus.  

Our pharyngeal openers, or dilators, are:  The stylopharyngeus, and the salpingopharyngeus.  (I always thought that last one sounded like a name for a dinosaur rather than a muscle...maybe it's just me.)

Same image, but the arrow is pointing at the stylopharyngeus.  It originates from the styloid process at the top and inserts into the pharyngeal constrictors and the thyroid cartilage.  The stylopharyngeus opens and elevates the pharynx.

And in the red above, we have the salpingopharyngeus.  This image is looking from behind, as if you could peek through the back of the head to see the pharynx.  This muscle originates from the lower part of the Eustachian tube and inserts into one of the palatal muscles we'll get to later called the palatopharyngeus.  It elevates the side of the pharyngeal walls.

These muscles are pretty closely tied into muscles of the tongue, face, and laryngeal musculature.  In normal speech, these guys don't usually do too terribly much, since they're much happier and better at being swallow muscles, but during singing, they can create issues in terms of constriction if you're compensating for something.  I'll get into some of that a lot later if you hang in here with me.

*Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). Anatomy and physiology for speech, language, and hearing. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.

A voice teacher vs. medical professionals: An important distinction

Of course, there are those of us who either are working toward, or who already are, both a medical professional and a voice teacher/singer, but there are distinctive differences in these professions that need to be remembered.  I'm going to draw that line of distinction the way I see it.  Why?  Cause when the lines get blurred about who the true "vocal experts" are, the people who suffer the most are singers who are the most in need of guidance.

There is an epidemic in the voice-teacher community of folks who feel they have enough (cursory) scientific knowledge about the voice and vocal disorder stuff that they feel they can successfully assess and diagnose specific vocal problems in their students.  And you know what, maybe a few decades ago those voice teachers did know more than the medical community.  But now, this epidemic needs to be stopped.  Along with the many, many singers I've known whose voice teachers "diagnosed" vocal nodules, acid reflux, etc., I myself fell into this "assumers paradise" when critiquing other's voices that didn't sound "quite right."  Luckily, though, I was humbled out of it quite quickly with my therapy experiences and SLP classes without actually putting any of my assumptions onto my own students.  Whew!  But, although I survived without public humiliation in class or otherwise, I still felt ashamed of myself for being so presumptuous.

The truth is that the medical field has made huge advances in their knowledge of vocal and articulatory function, down to the neural organization of coordination for these functions, in the past two decades, and the advances are expected to just continue. Voice teachers and singers should know about the healthy function of the vocal system for the sake of monitoring their progress and protecting their voice from harm, but normal, healthy function is the point where medical professionals begin their understanding.  They must start from normal function, because their ultimate goals are to help treat and/or cure people suffering from disorders or injury.  And the level of detail needed to fully understand each and every disorder and effectively treat them is rather mind-boggling.

A very condensed look at the responsibilities of these folks is something like this (for the singer suspecting vocal difficulty):

An ENT is the guy with the medical license to actually diagnose an issue using advance technology in combination non-invasive assessment tools to determine the source of a problem.  They also can perform surgery and prescribe medication, so they have some ability to treat the issue they diagnosed with those steps.  They can give a general timeline of recovery for surgeries based on how invasive the procedure is and the patient's own medical history, age, etc.  In order the have the ability to legally diagnose and treat disorders requires a whole lot of knowledge to diagnose and training to treat.  But, if regaining vocal health requires more than just surgery and/or medical prescriptions, then the ENT needs to refer the patient to a therapist for further treatment.  This is where the SLP typically comes in (at least in relation to ENT offices.)

The SLP is the person with similar medical knowledge as the ENT in regards to the systems of communication and swallowing, but they are not able to diagnose legally at all.  This is because their assessment tools can show if something is wrong and can narrow down where in the body the issue is located, but they cannot say specifically what is wrong.  SLPs can assess the health of a person's linguistic and communicative system, from higher processing of language all the way down to specific anatomical functions, and they are trained to treat whatever problem might be present with therapies proven to be effective.  They have a professional license that they must maintain, like ENTs, in order to legally do these assessments and therapies.  This makes SLPs very good compliments to ENTs who are not trained to treat with non-invasive, therapeutic methods.

A voice teacher is someone who, ideally, takes an intricate knowledge of healthy vocal function and applies that knowledge to train a person's voice to do something beyond ordinary vocal function.  But, that singer's voice/communicative system only requires healthy function to train effectively.  No more, no less.  (Just as an Olympic gymnastic coach only needs a healthy body to train to do gynmastics.)  A voice teacher does not have the full medical knowledge to either diagnose nor scientifically assess the health of a person's system.  What a voice teacher can do is suspect an issue...much in the same way a mom or teacher can suspect a child has an illness based on a handful of symptoms they observe.

So what happens if you are a voice teacher and you suspect a student has a possible medical issue?  You can inquire about symptomology and try to narrow down the possibilities, which can be useful in getting the student to agree to see a doctor.  But all a voice teacher can really do is refer the student to an ENT, or an SLP, for a vocal assessment.  An SLP assessment is usually a cheaper option, but since they can't diagnose, if the screening turns up results that are outside of normal function, then they will have to refer to the ENT for full diagnostic tests.  If it turns out the student does have an issue that needs surgery and/or therapy, the student just needs to be in the hands of excellent medical professionals for a while.  Once treatment is over and further assessments have determined that the student has returned to perfectly normal health, vocal training for singing can resume with the voice teacher again with the understanding that training might have to start at "square one" at first if any old compensation exists from the injury or disorder.

But, what a voice teacher should not do is try to officially diagnose the issue, try to treat the issue, or distrust the medical professionals assessment of normal, healthy function.  And likewise, a singer should not seek a voice teacher for those issues.  What I see happening most often is voice teachers using technical issues during singing as evidence of a problem, which may or may not be true, but this is exactly why SLPs assess vocal health from speech and measurements taken during speech.  Healthy speech is some thing they have data on that they can use to compare/contrast someone's unhealthy function.  Tension during singing, however, has so many possible origins that only having that to go on can only lead to assumptions that may or may not be correct.  In contrast, when my voice teacher suspected my vocal injury, she wasn't only going on my technical issues during singing, she also noticed tension present when I was just speaking too...even speaking before singing at all at the beginning of a lesson.  This teacher also works very closely with SLPs and ENTs, so she knows a bit more of vocal assessment than the average voice teacher.

Now, are there medical professionals who get things wrong sometimes?  Of course there are!  ENTs misdiagnose, miss problems altogether, and SLPs can miss some abnormality on assessments if they're only thinking about communicating for daily speaking.  Also, the SLP field is a very, very broad field, so getting someone who doesn't specialize in voice might not do a whole lot of good.  This is why seeking out the best, most meticulous professionals that are available to you is vital for a professional voice user.  But if you're going to seek out the best, trust them too.  The prevailing attitude of "They might not really know what we singers require" is not only inaccurate, it is arrogant and insulting to the medical professionals who are trying to help us.  And the prevailing epidemic of voice teachers using their cursory knowledge to diagnose or treat anything is a bit like a teenager assuming they know everything and therefore don't need to listen to adults ever.  Both attitudes are damaging to what I believe should be the goal:  These three professions collaborating and working as a team, with responsibilities allocated to the right person at the right point in the singer's recovery, to ensure the singer's recovery is on the right track.

Anatomy and Physiology Series: Laryngeal Physiology (Part 2, muscular coordination)

In my last A&P post, I went over the air pressure laws that keep the vocal folds in motion during phonation.  Now, we're going to go over the muscular effort required in changing the pitch and volume of the voice in general.

There's one thing very basic to the muscular process of phonation to understand:  It is only the onset of phonation where active muscular contraction is required.  During sustained voicing, the adductors are being held in position by background muscle tone, which is regulated by the information the sensory nerves of the muscle spindles send to the central nervous system.  So the continuous vibration of the vocal folds is a result of subglottal, intraglottal, and supraglottal air pressure/air flow and the physical shape of the glottis from the vocal fold properties and not from repeated adducting/abducting of the musculature.  Also, your folds need not be completely adducted in order for voicing to occur, although that usually results in a slightly (not abnormally) "breathy sound."  So onset is all about the active contraction of the adductors moving simultaneously to close the glottis.*

Now, the ideal adductor position for phonation would involve the minimal contact needed to maintain the minimum driving pressure, 3-5 cm H2O, of the vocal folds.  (Typically, this results in a vocal volume of comfortable, conversational speech.)  If a person goes past that ideal by increasing medial compression to an uncomfortable amount, pressed phonation occurs.  Pressed phonation increases the volume of the voice, but also tends to have a harsh sound quality, like someone shouting.  (This is pretty much the equivalent to "pushing" the voice in singer-language.)  Breathy phonation is the opposite of pressed, resulting from inadequate closure allowing too much air to escape during the closed phase of the vibratory cycle.  It can be a sign something is wrong or it can just be when you're trying to speak softly, like in a library or something. In solo singing, excessive breathiness it can also be a sign of inefficient coordination or it could be due to age in that young voices are naturally more breathy.  (Important take-away here for teachers:  Don't jump to "diagnose" a voice disorder from breathiness alone, refer the student to an ENT if you're concerned.)*


I think we should certainly go over pitch change in the voice to better understand the coordination that singing requires throughout the vocal range.  Most students of pedagogy know that pitch change occurs from the cricothyroid and thyrovocalis muscles stretching and tensing the vocal folds.  But why does that change the pitch?  It all comes back to physics, yet again.  It works the same way tightening a violin string works:  Increasing tension and decreasing the mass results in a higher fundamental frequency for that string.  Now, we don't actually change the overall mass of the vocal folds.  But we do change the mass per unit length by stretching them out over a greater distance.  This is called the effective mass of the vocal folds--or the mass that's actually making contact during vibration.  If a body has more mass, it will vibrate at a slower rate, resulting in a lower frequency.  If we decrease the mass per unit by increasing the distance (stretching the folds,) the vibration will be faster, which will result in a higher pitch.* 

Here's where things start to get messy for us singers:  Increased subglottal pressure typically results in increased vocal fold contact time during each vibration and complete glottal closure during vibration.  This results in a louder voice (or higher amplitude sound waves).  Because increasing pitch increases the tension of the folds, the vocal fold edges don't normally completely meet up at extreme ranges, resulting in that falsetto sound we all know so well.  If you want to maintain vocal loudness at extreme ranges, it could be through increased vocal fold contact during vibration and thus maintained subglottal pressure like when you were lower, or you could create the impression of maintained vocal loudness by shaping the vocal tract such that certain harmonics get an amplitude "boost" without having to actually increase vocal fold contact.  The tricky thing to figure out as a classical singer is when you are voicing loudly in an efficient way and when you are "pushing"--where you're really on the verge of screaming.  Most advanced singers I know mentally consider their loudest dynamic to be mentally within their "normal inside voice" speaking loudness.  That would require a lot of resonance work to balance out and still produce a professional sound that travels, but it does explain why so many of the greatest singers look like they're just hanging out with their mouths open on high, loud notes.  It's likely that advanced singers use a variety of these coordinations in their high ranges to produce various dynamics.  It's also likely that figuring out the ideal coordination on high notes is very individual, involving an intricate, flexible coordination of the respiratory system to the laryngeal system to the vocal tract such that different vocal colors and dynamics can be achieved.  So, if it took you a long time to "master" resonance and dynamic contrasts throughout your range, you're not alone!  It's the hardest and most complicated thing to master as the "how to" is so very individual--and receiving guidance requires a teacher with both the skill to explain things well and the ear to hear professional-level resonance/vocal balance versus vocal strain.  (Let's face it, a lot of amazing voices out there can still produce pretty good sound when they're straining.  The issue with this is they might not be able to sustain that throughout a career and it puts them at higher risk for voice injury in the future.  I see just as many classical singers "push" as belters out there and just as many well-balanced, unstrained singers in both genres, so singing "classically" does not in itself "protect you" from strain.)

Now, when we speak, we're changing the pitch and loudness of our voice all the time with our inflections, so these changes occur waaaayyy in the background of our conscious mind.  Where this becomes an issue in singing, I believe, is when we consciously train this correct balance of muscular tension, adduction, and subglottal pressure as we move well outside of our daily speaking range.  I believe the correct coordination requires training the proper balance of subglottal pressure throughout the range. The ideal balance will result in the unconscious coordination of subglottal pressure with medial compression up and down the whole vocal range.  When this coordination is relegated to the background functions of our brain, it tends to be the most efficient and therefore, it feels as though you're doing "nothing" to sing the way you do.


I feel, as a singer and a teacher, that we have a tendency to keep this coordination under our conscious control for far longer than we should, which does result in inefficiency since the conscious portion of our brain is not the best equipped to maintain fine-motor coordination.  Conscious muscular training is a pretty quick process, and once that is completed, it is time to allow the body to discover the proper coordination without encouraging our "control" over it, which requires an attitude of educated play and discovery rather than control or "right and wrong."


I feel I would be remiss in not mentioning a little about the extrinsic musculature here.  The extrinsic musculature can make adjustments to the laryngeal posture--raising it or lowering it.  The larynx tends to rise in coordination with an increase in pitch in untrained individuals.  The muscles that elevate the larynx are usually coordinated to the pharyngeal muscles that constrict the vocal tract.  This coordination is really, really important when we swallow, but we don't really want it to activate when we sing.  If you're painfully aware of those raising or lowering adjustments in the form of neck tension, the coordination at the fold-level is very likely compromised and inefficient.

(Updated: 08/23/2015)  


*Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). Anatomy and physiology for speech, language, and hearing. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.

What made me choose SLP?

Good question.  I intended to answer this question a while ago, but got side-tracked with life and my A&P series I've been all geeked-out over.  I'll go ahead and answer this question now.

About six months after the end of my voice therapy, my singing was coming along fairly well.  I began to toy with the idea of going back to school for a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts for any non-musicians, or non-Americans out there).  I got myself a vocal coach and started planning my hours-worth of music I'd need for the auditions.  My brilliant idea, I decided, would be to go back for a pedagogy-intensive degree and to do a lot of research in voice science while I was there.  I was thinking of finding schools that would allow me to sort of build my own curriculum of speech pathology courses instead of vocal pedagogy courses so I could go into more detail and perhaps even do some research with speech paths. on the treatment of the professional voice.  

It seemed like a decent plan, but it came with some reservations on my part.  First:  I was not sure how viable this plan really was.  It seemed great in my head, but I wondered about the practicality of being interdisciplinary like that in a DMA program.  The other reservation I had was going back to music school at all.  I had never fared well at music schools.  I'm sure part of that was from the deadly combo of my paresis-inflicted voice and lack of confidence, but the dynamics and politics of most music schools always rubbed me the wrong way.  I'm a very straight-forward person, so trying to figure out how to "play the game" of "politeness above all else with some back-stabbing on the side" that seemed to be the MO of my previous music school experiences tended to make me very, very unhappy.   But, I thought maybe this time, it wouldn't be so bad since I'd have my fiance (now husband) with me for the ride this time.  Since he's very much not in the "musical world," I figured I'd have a great source of grounding waiting for me whenever I got home.  

So I went to a voice lesson with my plan in hand.  At the end of the lesson, I discussed my plan, my main objective, (the interdisciplinary research idea,) and I discussed both of my reservations with my teacher.  She was very patient listening to my whole plan, but at the end of everything she just simply said:  "Why don't you go back for a degree in speech pathology directly?"  I was a little stunned...mainly because I wondered why, with all of my planning and reasoning, did I not think of that?  She continued to tell me she thought I would make a great voice therapist, and I would be able to get a much more detailed grounding in voice science and therapy if I just get the actual degree and the actual license to practice.  I left saying, "I'll look into that."  

It was seriously not more than five minutes after leaving that lesson that my mind was set on getting the SLP degree.  I was so excited about the idea of going back for a degree that calmed both of my reservations about going back at all and provided even more science training than my original plan.  It was brilliant!  And, what's even better, it returned a fire to my belly that had been missing for some time.  I had a mission and a plan to complete it!  Very little in life feels as good as finding that plan, or path, after a few years of floundering.  

I immediately set aside the graduate school applications I had printed off of music schools' websites and looked up SLP programs in my area instead.  I bought a GRE study guide and signed myself up to take the test one month from when I bought the guide.  (Didn't do as well as I hoped, but fared pretty well for someone who hadn't touched algebra-level math for nearly 15 years.)  Everyone kept telling me I'd make such a great candidate that I did not anticipate not getting into the program that year, and so, of course, I didn't.  Not as a master's candidate like I had applied for.  I was bummed, but undeterred (thanks to the fire in my belly), so I called up the program that rejected me and asked what I could do to make myself a better candidate for next year.  They suggested an SLP "leveling" program, which allowed me to take the necessary junior and senior level undergraduate courses that I would have to take anyway before becoming a full-fledged master's candidate.  The leveling program also turned out to be far cheaper than taking the same leveling courses at the institution with the master's degree, so that actually turned out rather well.  

That is just one example of how this journey has been far less straight-forward than I originally thought it would be, as nearly every journey you ever take in life is.  But here's the big secret:  The path I'm currently on, although not very straight-forward, is turning out a whole lot better than the one I originally envisioned for myself.  Sounds pretty cliche, but that might be because it's the one thing in life you can always count on, inconsistency.  And when you get joy out of the turmoil of life's inconsistency, you just have to laugh at the genius of the whole thing.  

Anatomy and Physiology Series: Laryngeal Physiology (Part 1, Say Yes to subglottal pressure--No to Bernoulli)

I'm going to split up laryngeal physiology into two posts because we've got two major things to discuss.  The first one, and the topic of this post, is the interaction of air pressure laws on vocal fold vibration.  The other, is the ideal interaction of the musculature to encourage efficiency.  I'm starting with air pressure laws because these are vital to understanding why the musculature must maintain such a delicate balance.  So here we go!


There are two main laws of air pressure we're going to talk about, the Bernoulli effect (which many folks speak of) and subglottal air pressure. 

We're going to go through the Bernoulli effect, or Bernoulli's principle, first, since it historically preceeded sub-glottal air pressure as an explanation for vocal fold movement.

Update (08/23/2015)
SCIENCE CORRECTION:  The Bernoulli Principle actually has nothing to do with vocal fold motion.  I know this is going against pretty much everything any of you have ever heard in your vocal pedagogy coursework, but the truth is that you only need the air pressure difference below the vocal folds (subglottal pressure) and above the vocal folds (supraglottal pressure) and the shape of the vocal folds themselves (the mucous lining in particular) to sustain vibration.  The issue with the idea of the Bernoulli Principle is that if that law really applied to vocal fold motion, the vocal folds would have no way to open back up again.  For all practical purposes for a singer, this doesn't really change much, but it is very important for those ENT's and researchers out there looking for ways to repair vocal fold scar tissue surgically and all that stuff.  The other nice thing about this as a singer (for me at least) is this: For all practical technical purposes, it's all about the subglottic pressure, which is great for us since subglottic pressure can be maintained through a lot of difference respiratory coordinations and configurations.  There might be an ideal out there for singers, but this, for me, explains why breathing is so important and such a variable, and sticky, pedagogical area for so many singers.

Subglottal air pressure is the measured pressure below the vocal folds.  This pressure and our intraoral (or inside the oral cavity) air pressure are pretty much equal to the pressure inside the lungs.  If we close the passage with our vocal folds, however, we instantly create an increase in the pressure below the vocal folds.  This is caused by the lungs continuing to exhale air which then "pushes" against that blockage (the vocal folds.)  While that is happening, the closed vocal folds also cause our intraoral pressure to drop to atmospheric pressure.  This increases the pressure difference between subglottal and intraoral pressure.  Now remember, air particles will always move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, so subglottal pressure being significantly higher than intraoral pressure is a critical component to vocal function.  When this increased pressure exceeds a certain amount (3-5 cm H2O), the folds are blown open from the bottom, and the vibration known as phonation begins.* 

Here's how vocal fold vibration really works:  
The vocal folds are set into vibration through two mechanisms:  1. The glottal geometry (or shape of the glottis--the space between the vocal folds) and 2. The inertia of the vocal tract above the vocal folds.  As the subglottal pressure increases below the vocal folds, the vocal folds begin to separate at the bottom.  This is when the glottal geometry is convergent--when the top of the vocal folds are closer to each other than the bottom of the vocal folds.  In this configuration, the intraglottal pressure is high (that's the air pressure between the vocal folds themselves). This causes the vocal fold tissue to move away from the middle of the glottis.  But, vocal folds have elasticity thanks to that mucosa over the muscle.  This elasticity will generate a force that wants to restore the vocal folds to their original configuration.  This force will eventually overcome the force from the increased intraglottal pressure--this step happens from the bottom (inferior) vocal fold edges to the top (superior) edges and results in a rotational motion of the medial surface (middle of the vocal folds).  The vocal folds then take on a divergent configuration--the bottom of the folds are closer together than the top.  At the same time this rotational motion is happening, the intraglottal pressure decreases rapidly.  This causes the vocal fold tissue to change direction and move toward the middle of the glottis--this also happens from the bottom to the top.  The vocal folds either come together or get very close to one another (they don't actually have to make contact to create a sound wave--that's how you make breathy or lightly-voiced sounds) and then the glottis goes back to the convergent configuration and the cycle starts over again.  

From:  Titze, I. (1988).  The physics of small-amplitude oscillation of the vocal folds.  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83(4), 1536-1552.

The inertance of the vocal tract (#2 listed above) plays a part in this cycle in that as the vocal folds move outward from the middle of the glottis, the airflow through the glottis increases.  This makes sense, cause there's a larger glottis being created so more air particles can rush through.  This rush of air particles accelerates the air above the glottis that was previously relatively still. This increases the air pressure above the glottis (supraglottal air pressure) cause there's a higher number of air particles in that supraglottal space than there was before.  This increase of air pressure creates a force that moves the vocal folds outward.  This is where the elasticity of the vocal folds from above comes back into play, the vocal folds move back toward midline and the glottal flow decreases.  But, all those air particles that rushed through previously continue to move up the vocal tract because the inertia set those particles into motion and they want to stay that way until acted upon by another force.  This causes the pressure both above and within the glottis to decrease, allowing the vocal folds to come completely (or almost completely) together at midline and allowing the air pressure to build up below the vocal folds again.  Thus, the cycle continues as long as there's enough subglottal air pressure and continued air flow through the glottis at each cycle. *

So let's model this with a group of air molecules called Larry.  Larry gets sucked into the lungs during inhalation, he hangs out there a little bit, exchanges his oxygen for some CO2 and the forces of exhalation send him out.  But before he gets to go far, he encounters a blockage through his path.  This causes Larry to get smushed together with some of his other friends right under the vocal folds (like a little traffic jam).  Meanwhile, the air above the folds is decreasing in pressure, making it look like a really nice place to be.  The pressure Larry is under eventually overtakes the medial compression of the vocal folds, and the bottom of the folds begin to open.  Larry rushes through the vocal fold opening (unaware of the elasticity of the vocal folds cause, hey, he's just an air particle!) and then Larry runs into the air particles above the glottis and gives them a "push" to get them moving too.  As Larry and his air particle friends above the vocal folds travel up the vocal tract, the air pressure above and between the vocal folds decreases, the vocal folds come back together, another traffic jam starts up below them and the cycle repeats.  But Larry doesn't particularly care, cause he's already through the traffic stop.  A great visual model of this can be found at The National Center for Voice and Speech's website.  Scroll down for a more scientific explanation (certainly better than my "Larry" one) and some visuals that show this process.

The other nice aspect of taking out the Bernoulli concept is that it makes the concept of different vocal fold configurations for different voicing relatively simple to understand.  The vocal folds do not have to completely contact each other to create a sound pressure wave.  This is seen in regular voice users with videostroboscopy where you can see the vocal folds approximating during breathy or soft voicing and having a lot of contact during loud voicing.  It also explains something about the respiratory systems coordination for classical singing.  At high respiratory pressures, like when you've taken a really big breath, you are usually using high subglottic pressures to voice.  This increases the vocal fold contact time, resulting in greater swings of air pressures and producing louder (higher amplitude) sound waves.  Thus, vocal folds come together and stay together longer when voicing loudly. *

Another interesting aspect of this vocal fold vibration/air pressure relationship is that what is going on above the level of the vocal folds is just as important as what's going on below.  Therefore, if you have excess constriction above the vocal folds, you've changed these air pressure/air flow relationships that alter vibration and vocal fold contact times during vibration.  So, if you've ever had that "squeezing" feeling when singing, you likely had excess constriction above the vocal folds.  How to get that excess tension out is a whole different topic pedagogically, but I think it's enough to say that it requires a "resetting" of the air pressure/air flow relationships during that aria or difficult phrase, or maybe anytime you sing.  This will likely require some amount of "vocal play" between a new respiratory coordination (likely a bigger, lower breath), some amount of inspiratory checking (at least at the beginning of the phrase), and some concept that allows the supralaryngeal space (area above the vocal folds) to release the excess tension (like maybe the concept of an "open throat" or "singing on a yawn" or "inhaling a rose and singing with that space" or some variant of this).  

*Referrences:  

Hixon, T. J., Weismer, G., and Hoit, J. (2013).  Preclinical speech science: Anatomy, physiology, acoustics, and perception (2nd ed.).  San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing, Inc.

Raphael, L. J., Borden, G. J., & Harris, K. S. (2007).  Speech Science Primer:  Physiology, Acoustics, and Perception of Speech.  Lippincott Williams & Williams:  Philadelphia.

Titze, I. (1988).  The physics of small-amplitude oscillation of the vocal folds.  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83(4), 1536-1552.

Am I ever going to get back to telling my journey?

I had someone I know in my personal life ask me that the other day.  The reason I'm sharing this anatomy/physiology series with everyone is that it is a vital part of my journey thus far.  I recently had the pleasure to sing for a dear friend of mine who has heard my voice pre-therapy and in all stages of technical development post-stage, and who is a very talented, professional singer himself.  He agreed my voice has a much richer, fuller sound from top to bottom and that I have finally achieved a good "ringing" resonance in my middle voice, which is no small feat for a coloratura soprano.  


Now, I made a lot of gains in my singing before going through a year of undergraduate courses for SLP, but I must say, my largest gains have come from this year.  I haven't had many voice lessons at all this year due to time (note to self:  Do not plan a wedding while going to school full time while maintaining a full voice studio ever again!), and I certainly haven't been practicing as much as I'd like, so this breakthrough still isn't as consistent as it could be, but I have made huge gains in my singing.  How?  Learning in more intricate detail how the respiratory, laryngeal, pharyngeal, and articulatory systems work, in addition to some other things about how the brain works in terms of motor-development, etc., has really allowed me to take the concepts from my lessons that I never understood and play with those concepts during practice sessions, combining them with a great understanding of how it was all supposed to be working.  Not only that, but I can take a clear understanding of some biological functions and recognize those functions by a different name in pedagogical texts when I need another resource to turn to.  I have also become a much more effective teacher armed with this knowledge as well. 


In the current operatic world, young, professional singers are expected to have a solid enough grounding in technique to launch into a professional career at a young age.  At the same time, they are restricted to one-hour-a-week lessons either at the university, and sometimes, they get less time than outside of the university if their finances don't allow for once a week.  Yet, we expect them to not only arrive at the technical level of the singers of the past decades at a young age, but we expect them to maintain that level throughout their career with infrequent lessons scheduled between professional gigs.  Some singers do quite well with this model, and some are falling by the way-side.  Perhaps it's lack of talent, or perhaps some just don't get the "luck of the draw" in terms of getting in with a great teacher at a young age, but we can still do more to help all singers to succeed vocally with the current business model than we are doing (speaking of the operatic world in general terms here...there are pockets of great, intense training, but they aren't the norm).  


In the past, singers trained very differently.  They had a lesson nearly every day, rather than once a week.  Their training more closely resembled that of Olympic athletes in terms of personal attention, time, and training with the best coaches and teachers.  So they were able to make great debuts at young ages on the major opera stages of the world.  While the current financial situation many schools find themselves in don't allow for a return of that model, we do have more knowledge to offer our students.  We know so much more about the science of how the body and voice work, and what can go wrong.  Offering this knowledge to the students and singers of today shouldn't be seen as unnecessary or tedious, rather it should be seen as offering our students a safety-net with which they can save their own voice from harm while out on the professional circuit.  


Certainly, there are other things that lead to vocal demise, poor role planning, etc., but the signs of demise are so often overlooked by the singer, or are noticed, but the singer has no way of fixing the issues during the run of their show.  I personally believe that the most determined singers out there have the mental aptitude to learn about their instrument in more detail and to apply that knowledge to their own singing.  We expect singers to be so intelligent about so many things, languages, musicality, individual expression, yet we give them a pass when it comes to the detailed science of how the voice works.  Will this knowledge produce better singers?  Who knows.  But I bet it would to serve to protect some of the great unknowns out there, help them to separate the good pedagogy from the bad, and perhaps even expedite their vocal training.  


So that's why I'm going through this series.  I want everyone to have a resource through which they can understand how I went through my process and what helped me, including what I believe could help them as well.