What is tension?

Not all tension is bad! In fact the reason you're able to sit upright in front of computer right now and read this is due to muscular tension. This is helpful tension. However, some types of tension interfere or are not productive for the task you're trying to perform. This is unhelpful tension. Unhelpful tension in singing may be defined as anything that interfers with free and efficient vocal function.

Singing involves an integration of many processes - posture, respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation and expression. Unhelpful tension in one part of the body (or process) can easily interfere with others. For example, a tight jaw will affect you ability to communicate text (articulation) AND your ability to produce beautiful vowels (resonance). Similarly, tension in the abdominals will alomost always lead to squeezing or tightness in the throat.

Every year on April 16, voice professionals worldwide join together to recognise World Voice Day. This annual initiative aims to increase public awareness of the value and importance of human voice and remind individuals how to look after this extremely valuable commodity and prevent injury and damage.

The theme for World Voice Day 2011 is We Share a Voice, which reminds us that the voice is at the core of what connects us and defines us as humans.

For a short history and further information on World Voice Day

• Aus Voice Association History
• American Academy Fact Sheet

Today's post was inspired by some questions a student asked me. His questions were: "How does Adam Lambert sing so amazingly? Is he a tenor or a bass?" and "will I ever be able to sing like that?"

It's not always easy to find a great singing teacher!

You cannot practice as a doctor without a medical degree and relevant training and that's true of many professions. However, it seems that almost anyone can call themselves a voice coach or singing teacher.

There are many miconceptions about singing teachers and some of these are:

• The teacher has a great voice so they must be able to teach me to sound like that
• This teacher has an exclusive method which s/he claims is better than any other method
• This person is popular so they must be a good teacher
• This teacher claims to have taught a lot of pop stars so they must be good
• This person has had a distinguished performing career, so they must be able to teach.

There are many methods of singing and many styles for teaching someone to sing! No single teacher has all the answers and no single method is right for all students. Some students will always succeed, despite bad teaching, on their talent alone. Please click "read more" for a list of ideas that will help you choose a good singing teacher:

When you learn any musical instrument, you need to learn how to hold the instrument and this is the same for singers. If you want to sing well, then you must understand that your body is your musical instrument. When we sing, we don't just stand a certain way because it's a nice thing to do. We do it because there is a bio-mechanical advantage - or in other words - because the muscles work more efficiently and our tone is more resonant when the body is aligned a certain way. Good vocal production is utterly dependent on the singer’s posture and solving posture and alignment problems can create dramatic and instant improvements in your vocal tone.

We all breathe every minute of our lives! It seems crazy that someone has to learn to breath all over again when they learn to sing. While it may share some similarities, breathing for singing is not the same as breathing for living! Singing places demands on our breath that are not encountered in day to day life. A normal breath cycle lasts between 4 and 5 seconds, but singing requires us to extend (prolong) the breath cycle (sometimes for as long as 20 seconds) and to manage the outward flow of air. To do this skilfully requires practice and that a singer develops their body-awareness.

The larynx (commonly called the voicebox) is an organ made of cartilage, muscle and bone which is suspended in your throat. It houses your vocal folds and the most visible part of the larynx is a lump or protrusion in the neck formed by the thyroid cartilage and commonly referred to as "the Adam's apple. There are two families of muscles connected to the larynx. The Intrinsic muscles sit inside the larynx and are responsible for controlling the vocal folds, while the extrinsic (outer) muscles are responsible for adjusting the vertical position of the layrnx within your neck. Singing with a stabilised larynx is just one of the co-ordinations needed to maintain a healthy and functional voice technique.