Once a proper intake has occurred (and that, or rather the deviations from it, is a chapter all its own), the situation unique to singing exists. We are now in the expiratory phase of the breath cycle, with the air seeking to go out and the diaphragm beginning its return ascent. Yet the vibrating “cords” must maintain their phonative position, parallel and very close, which means that the expiration must be radically slowed down, held back. That in turn compresses the air (“subglottal compression”) and gives the “cords” a dual assignment: while they are performing all the subtle movements necessary for changes of pitch, they must also act as a valve, monitoring the compression beneath them. And the compression varies from one split second to the next, depending on the pitch, loudness, and vowel demanded; the valve itself must be elastic, flexible, reactive to instant change. Further, although very small measurements of air are being allowed through the phonation, our high-energy activity is burning up the oxygen at a higher-than-normal rate. It’s as if, while balancing on the teeter-totter, you’re also sensing an inflated balloon beneath you, its circumference rising and falling, that you must adjust for as your legs, in time, begin to weaken. The primary understanding needed here is that once air is drawn in from below, the control of it is from above, and that “support” is, again, a balancing between the outward push of the compressed air and the resistance to it. All the lower muscular co-ordinations (abdominal, dorsal, intercostal, etc.) that have responded to the diaphragm’s descent now play a role in stabilizing its slowed ascent, largely through the use of the holding contractions mentioned earlier. But the essential governance comes from above.

“Resonance.” It’s not, perhaps, the best word for what we mean, which is the bio-acoustical reinforcement of sung tone. After all, there’s forced resonance, whereby vibration is transferred directly from one body to another, and we don’t mean that. (In fact, for those of us who grew up trying to put together the best audio systems we could afford, that kind of “resonance” was highly undesirable.) In voice, all tonal amplification is acoustical, the interactions of sound waves and cavities. And the cavities in question begin in, yes, the larynx, and proceed upward into the pharyngeal spaces, whence tone exits our mouths. The lower part of this acoustical complex is rigid and narrow, favorable to shorter wavelengths, ergo the brighter side of the tone. (In fact, the so-called “singer’s formant”—the overtone that lends what we describe as “ring” to all good voices, is accessed at the deepest point in the system, inside the larynx.) The higher spaces are larger and much more malleable, and thus more inclined to the dark side, and to voluntary adjustments.

This last fact has led to what is in my opinion an overemphasis on vowel manipulations relative to the other two R’s. Because the muscle groups that can create the shapes that form vowels, and can then maintain a particular shape or make quick, often subtle changes in them, are comparatively easy to control and have effects on tonal quality that are immediately identifiable by both teacher and student, they often become cosmetic substitutes for improvements that are needed right at the glottal level, and/or in the respiratory chain below it. These groups are primarily those of the tongue, the soft palate, and the other soft-tissue walls of the pharynx. And because the co-ordinations in the upper, more spacious pharyngeal regions are those associated with the darker side of the chiaroscuro, the overemphasis I spoke of tends toward the darker, plumper, looser technical balance than the brighter, leaner, tauter one. None of this means that this R is anything less than crucial—only that most desirable admixture of D/P/L and B/L/T must be found for each voice, as must the proper role of “resonance” in the three-way balance. You will have to look elsewhere for an authoritative explanation of the physics behind the feedback effect of “resonance” energies on the actions of the vocal “cords” (it has to do with standing waves), and thence on breath control. But it is real, and part of the interaction among the three R’s. Here, we can note that the stretch-and-hold action needed to maintain the general vowel-forming space aids in countering the tendency of the larynx to rise with pitch; it also forms a “bubble” that helps counteract the bigger “bubble” below that threatens to force air up and out, and thus to interfere with consistent clean phonation.