The human body is an amazing thing. We have these things in our bodies called proprioreceptors, found primarily in the muscles, tendons, and joints, that responds to stimuli produced within the body. They receive or perceive certain states of activity of the different body structures. Think of them like GPS signals within the body.
Throughout our body internally, these proprioreceptors transmit information to the nervous system about location, state of contraction, relaxation, stretch or muscular recoil of muscles and limbs. These sensory organs enable us to conduct ourselves through space accurately and efficiently avoiding impact and trauma to the body. They are a vital part of our successful evolution.
Try an experiment: close your eyes and take stock about where your different body parts are. Assuming that you are relaxing, you can still reach out and perceive the sensory returns from your limbs and torso about their state of being and relative position to the body and your environment. When you pay conscious attention to the input from the proprioreceptors, you can develop a very clear idea with regard to effort, relaxation, and proximity of your body to itself and surroundings. Your brain is always processing this information behind the scenes, allowing us to breath, maintain heartbeat, blink, swallow, all involuntarily to maintain the health and viability of the body. Imagine how helpless we would be if we had to think about every heartbeat.
Now here’s the thing: we have almost no proprioreceptors in the larynx. You can sense when your vocal folds are adducted or abducted – closed or opened – but you cannot sense if you are stretching them or thickening them, or both, actions that are as definitive to vocalization as walls and roofs are to structures. We can sense certain levels of pain and discomfort on and to the vocal folds, but don’t have the same tactile sensation that we have with most other external skin structures, and thank goodness – we would tickle ourselves to death when we sang or spoke!
This state of being of the human body is the major hurdle to overcome when it comes to vocal training. We find correct means of phonation through trial and error primarily by means of indirect feedback. Was that note comfortable or uncomfortable? Did it sound free or pressed? Was it on pitch? Did the sound have spin? Was the sound flexible? As singers, we have to rely on our ears – an inexact source of information about ourselves – and the ears of our trusted mentors to help us train the complex coordinations that comprise singing.
Vocal training through lessons can be a lengthy process precisely because we have to learn what the sensation of correct and free sound is through indirect feedback. All because we lack feeling!
More tomorrow…
Barrett Music Studio 