I was in the 11th grade, auditioning for the solo in Bohemian Rhapsody, in front of the entire choir. My voice cracked three times, each one more psychologically devastating than the last. At last, the director relented, and gave the solo to another singer.
Why did this happen? Well, 14 years later, I can tell you exactly why.
What is a voice crack? It is a sudden switch in vocal register from chest voice or mixed voice to a pure head voice. That’s it. A flip of a switch. Your vocal folds switch from a thicker adduction, to a more thin one.
So why does this switch take place? Your vocal folds are vibrating rapidly, relying entirely on air pressure. Not too much, not too little. Keep it consistent, and the voice will fly gracefully as a hummingbird. But if the air pressure changes, all hell breaks loose.
To make matters worse, mixed voice (the combination of head voice and chest voice) requires all the more consistency of air flow, due to the sophisticated physiological gymnastics required to navigate the passaggio (the place in your voice where you are most likely to crack).
So what’s the ‘trick’ to never crack again? Trick question! There are two.
Always sing in head voice.
If you always sing in head voice, your low notes will be barely audible, your high notes will sound a bit hollow, and your mid will sound a bit lacking, but your voice will NEVER crack. Simply because, there is nowhere to crack to! (However, keep in mind that at the bottom of your range, you may be at risk of crack DOWN into chest voice.)
Always maintain consistent air flow through your vocal folds
This is the answer most of us are looking for, but it is also the much longer road. I can teach a student to use head voice in a single voice lesson, but to master breath support is an accomplishment I am not sure I have ever seen, short of the greats (Lawrence Brownlee, Luciano Pavarotti, etc).
The following exercises will greatly any singer who is looking for their edge in the breath control game.
Lip drill
Your lips drill using the same Bernoulli Principle upon which your vocal folds rely. Thus, if you are physically able to do a lip drill, then you can practice breath support by singing on a lip drill. Make sure to pay attention to those moments when the drilling stops. That is where you relaxed your breath!
2. Lay down.
Who can argue with that?? But seriously, lay on your back, place a small book under your head to maintain alignment with your spine, relax your body, and breathe. You may be shocked to see your stomach rise with every breath, while your ribs barely move at all. This “cheat code” gives you the perfect singing posture, if horizantal. Singing in this position while paying attention to what breathing feels has greatly assisted my students in mapping their singing to the proper breathing muscles.
3. Repeated five finger scales
If C = 1, D = 2, … G = 5, then sing the following scale: 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 multiple times, connected, which each scale on a syllable of the phrase “I love to sing so much it really makes me glad.” This should sound something like I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I Lah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah to-oo-oo-oo-…. (you get the idea!). If you are doing it correctly, your stomach will begin to grow sore as you run out of air. This will especially be the case if you do the exercise multiple times. Feel free to change the starting note to wherever is comfortable.
What is good breath control, anyway? (Or breath support, breathing from the diaphragm, good breath, etc.)
Physiologically, it is the act of controlling, with great discipline, the air pressure moving through your vocal folds by using your abdominal muscles primarily (and especially the ones located in your epigastric region), and intercostal muscles secondarily. If you can pant like a dog, you will find the epigastric region! Intercostal muscles are the ones located between your ribs, and they are mainly used to keep your ribcage open, so as not to impede on the flow of air.
So there you have it. Zero tolerance of voice cracks? Use head voice! Otherwise, use the exercises above to master breath control and stake your claim in the world of expressive singing.
