Speech Level Singing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Speech Level Singing (SLS) is a school of vocal training developed by Seth Riggs which focuses on reducing strain, improving endurance and range, and developing strength and evenness in a singer's voice. SLS is named for its philosophy that singing should be as easy as speaking, and that the larynx should remain at the same level as it does during speaking, i.e. it should not move up or down.
[edit] Technique
SLS technique is based on the principle that each pitch should be sung in the appropriate vocal register. If a pitch is sung in the correct register, the tone quality should be full-bodied, relaxed, and continuous with that of the adjacent pitches. Although the exact definitions of the various vocal registers are somewhat controversial, they are standardized in SLS:
- Chest voice, so called because the resonance is primarily felt in the chest, refers to the coordination in which the entire length of the vocal folds vibrates. Chest voice is the most natural coordination for most people.
- Head voice, so called because the resonance is primarily felt in the head, refers to a coordination in which only the front 1/3 of the vocal folds vibrate. The range of pitches which head voice can produce is higher than that of chest voice because a shorter vibrating body produces sound waves which have a shorter period, and therefore a higher frequency. Head voice can be more difficult to access, and in untrained singers often produces a weak sound which they may confuse with falsetto.
- Falsetto test refers to a coordination in which only the edges of the vocal folds vibrate, causing them to be pulled apart. The gap that is created between the folds allows an uninterrupted stream of air to pass through, which creates a sound which is often described as hollow and breathy. Like head voice, falsetto also produces a range of pitches which is higher than that of chest voice. Although the difference in tone quality between chest voice and falsetto is most pronounced in men, women are equally capable of producing falsetto sounds.
SLS primarily focuses on chest and head voice because falsetto cannot produce a full-bodied sound, and it is also very difficult to blend with chest voice. Head voice, on the other hand, can be developed by strenghening the appropriate muscles and can be blended with chest voice. This blend, in which the vocal folds alternate between vibrations along both lengths, is referred to as the mix. SLS teaches students to use chest voice for lower pitches, head voice for higher pitches, and the mix for pitches where head and chest ranges overlap. The first of the notes in the overlap is referred to as the bridge, or passagio. The mix should involve more chest voice and less head voice for lower pitches and less chest voice and more head voice for higher pitches. The balance should shift gradually from pitch to pitch. If the singer attempts to sing in full chest voice past the bridge, he will probably find himself using his digastric muscles, which are ordinarily employed in swallowing, to push the larynx up in order to produce the notes. This technique produces a very strained sound and it can also cause the voice to wear out fairly quickly. If, on the other hand, the singer attempts to sing completely in head voice when he should be singing in the mix, the sound will be too light.
Although the combined ranges of head and chest voice allow singers to produce most of the pitches required of them, the vocal folds in fact allow an arbitrary number of registers above head voice. As with head voice, each of these registers has an associated bridge, and they are produced by successive shortenings of the vocal folds. By developing these registers, a singer can produce arbitrarily high pitches, although the tone quality of the notes does thin out as the pitch gets higher.
[edit] Exercises
Training in SLS mostly consists of exercises designed to train the singer to quickly find the correct vocal register for each note and to create a fuller tone in the head voice and higher registers. The majority exercises in SLS cover at least one octave, and involve no intervals smaller than a minor third. This is so that the voice gets used to moving quickly between the registers. Some of the more advanced exercises are sung on a major scale, which requires the singer to make more gradual register adjustments. The exercises are sung either on a lip bubble (a sustained rolled "b"), a tongue trill (a sustained rolled "r"), or any one of a number of syllables, such as "mum," "gug," and "nay." The vowel and the consonant used in the syllables are both significant in determining the effect and the difficulty of the exercise. For example, low sonority segments, such as stop consonants like [g] and close vowels like [i], assist in keeping the vocal folds from blowing apart. A singer may perform exercises on syllables with low sonority segments like "gee" in order to learn the sensation of keeping the vocal folds closed, and then tranfer that sensation to syllables with high sonority segments, such as "ah".
