Mix it up Monday: The “forward placement” chart

In the early days of voice pedagogy, voice teachers were desperately trying to find ways to communicate how they sang to their students. These teachers were working before we had scientific tools available to develop fact-based teaching methods. One popular approach for teaching was the use of voice placement charts such as this from Lilli Lehmann’s book “How to Sing.”

While some singers may find these charts useful, for many others trying to place the tone can be detrimental to vocal development. Richard Miller explains why in his book “Solutions for Singers.”

“Much subjective terminology directed to resonance perception is less than utilitarian, because perception of sensation is such a highly individual matter. ‘Forward placement’ is one such term. Sympathetic vibration during singing varies greatly from person to person; to expect everyone to experience the same thing is unwise.” (Miller, p. 81)

If you are not familiar with the term, “sympathetic vibration,” here is a definition from Dr. Matthew Hoch’s “A Dictionary for the Modern Singer”:

“In acoustics, the phenomenon that occurs when a passive vibratory body responds to external vibrations. In singing, sympathetic resonances are sometimes subjectively felt in the singer’s body in areas beyond the vocal tract resonators” (Hoch, p. 172-173).

Richard Miller says you can experience sympathetic vibrations on a piano if you place your fingers on the music stand portion while the instrument is being played. While the music stand vibrates, it could be removed from the piano and there would be no noticeable change to the instrument’s timbre. This is because the music stand’s vibrations are sympathetic only, they are not part of the instrument’s resonator. Hard surfaces such as wood and bone are ideal for transferring sympathetic vibrations, which is why singers are often aware of vibrations throughout their face and skull when singing (Miller, p. 69). 

Miller goes on to say:

“It is not possible to literally place tone. Yet sensations for some singers are registered in specific parts of the body, one being the region called the mask, or masque. However, similar mask sensations can be generated by a variety of physical means, some desirable, some not. Certain forms of sympathetic vibration in the mask actually are the product of undesirable timbres. Problems often are exacerbated when the singer is told to place tone. Responses to tone-placement requests frequently generate unwanted by-noises, nasality, pharyngeal distortion, localized control, and breathy timbre. After a tone that exhibits ideal resonance balance has been identified, it is then appropriate to ask the singer to describe the recognizable differences among the several kinds of sensation experienced, including their location.

Significantly, improved sound often emerges when the attempts at forward tone placement are abandoned. The teacher may hear from the student “but now I’m not putting it anywhere!” Yet the resonance balance shows remarkable improvement. The best way to build on the singer’s proprioceptive response to sympathetic vibration is to avoid confusing the sensation of tone with its actual source. Many problems that continue to plague even advanced singers stem from previous attempts to put tone in some precise spot or slot. Sound does not work that way.

There are many ways to discover identifiable sensations without inventing either acoustics or physiology. Do not ask any student to place tone forward, back, down, under, up, over, or up and over, because such actions are not possible. Instead, make certain that buccopharyngeal resonator shapes properly match laryngeal configurations. As students systematically work through resonance building exercises, they discover their own resonance sensations. If a singer feels the tone is now “forward,” excellent! I personally have a great deal of vibratory sensation in the frontal regions of my face, but not as a result of trying to put tone there. The singer will develop his or her own imagery after experiencing the presence of sympathetic vibration that results from efficient resonance balancing.” (Miller, p. 81-82)

Pedagogues other than Richard Miller have also described problems associated with forced sensations of forward placement. Robert Caldwell and Joan Wall, authors of “Excellence in Singing, Vol. 2” write:

“When you teach resonance, you need to discover what sound or kinesthetic sensation your student has in mind and then help her sort out her sensations and the corresponding sounds by giving her precise feedback. Always appreciate that your student’s sensations are subjective: the words that correspond to your sensations might not correspond to hers. Stop using the word immediately if your student has a different one that she uses. The point is to get her to develop her own system of remembering and accessing sensations. Use your eyes and ears rather than words to test whether she has reached the desired resonance.” (Caldwell & Wall, p 208-209) 

In his book “The Free Voice: A guide to natural singing,” Cornelius Reid says: 

“Early tradition had the right answer, because the Tosis, the Mancinis, the Lampertis, and the Garcias knew that by establishing a properly balanced registration through adroit use of pitch and intensity they could awaken correct symptoms of vibration. Contemporary instruction is remiss because it persistently attempts to establish a correct functional arrangement without regard for mechanical principles. To suggest ‘placing the tone high,’ ‘to sing forward,’ or to ‘get the tone up and over,’ will never improve the response patterns of the laryngeal muscles involved in phonation. Ends are not means.” (Reid, p. 35)

Meredith Bunch Dayme, author of “Dynamics of the Singing Voice” states:

“While it would be comforting for singers and teachers to find such a definite place as the nose or a particular sinus where the sound could be placed each time one sang, the fact remains that every singer is physically unique, therefore each singer has to develop (by trial and error and help from his teacher) his/her own set of clear, reproducible sensations in order to stabilize the vocal technique.” (Bunch Dayme, p. 143)

W. Stephen Smith, author of “The Naked Voice: A wholistic approach to singing” writes:

“Because we can change the shape and size of our primary resonators, it might seem as though we could manufacture resonance. However, resonance is always passive. It is a response to another vibration – it is something that just happens, not something we do. We seem to be able to make resonance happen in a specific place and are therefore lulled into thinking that it is active rather than passive. This concept is often referred to as placement, meaning we are putting resonance in a specific place. However, the nature of resonance is passive response and can’t really be placed anywhere.” (Smith, p. 16-17)

In his book “Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy,” Kenneth Bozeman says:

“The acoustic sensation of a sung tone is comprised of various facets, resulting in part from it being composed of several formants, each of which create standing waves at different frequencies and therefore vibrational foci at various locations along vocal tract. In addition to vocal tract sensations are those that result from considerable bone conduction of vibration in the head, neck and even in the chest wall. The singer’s perception of tonal sensations will therefore be due in large measure to the facet to which their mind is attending. Sensitivity to vibratory sensations and bio-feedback also varies from singer to singer. These acoustic sensations change dynamically with change of pitch across the singer’s range. Furthermore, they interact with kinesthetic sensations of anatomic shape, position, or posture of the vocal tract. The complexity of the sensory signals necessitates flexibility, ongoing discussions with and feedback from the student, and avoidance of dogmatic insistence in the use of specific “placement” or other sensory imagery.” (Bozeman, p. 46)

In conclusion, while some students may find placement charts such as the one above useful, many others will not. If you are getting good results with all of your students using placement terminology – great. However, if a student fails to respond, it is likely because their perceptions of resonance are different than yours or the creator of the charts they are using. For those students, focusing on vocal function will yield much better results than continuing to force the voice into a place it does not want to go. If you feel like your description of placement is not working for a student, try making adjustments to the vocal folds and vocal tract instead. When you get the sound you are looking for, ask them what they are experiencing; the answer may surprise you. They may describe a sensation of placement or they may give you a color or aural description. It is also very possible that they may say the sounds is going out of the back of their head while to you it appears to be coming through the mask. Take note of what the student experiences and use it. You will likely be surprised how quickly they progress compared to when they attempt to force another singer’s placement on their body.

I am sure this post will stir a lot of conversation on the blog; you may post your comments below and respond to others as well. If you are not already following the blog, you can sign-up on the bottom of this page to receive an email every time there is a new post. If you enjoyed this article, please share it on social media. As always, thank you for reading.

~Matt