Dynamics for Singers 101: What do forte and piano REALLY mean to the voice?

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 1:44 pm. 6 comments

I have had a concern in studio with my singers singing too quietly or, conversely, singing so loudly the sound seems like a paint ball hitting the wall.  Too quiet, and the vocal chords can’t engage and create steady vibrations, so the sound is sparse and inconsistent.  Too loud and the poor little vocal chords are overblown – they can’t handle the force of the air blowing through them.  So, I decided to study the WORD “dynamics” to try to gain some insight into my students’ approach to volume, especially loud and soft.

First, I remembered reading one of my favorite books Lies My Music Teacher Told Me by Gerald Eskelin. In this book he makes you take a look at certain “truths” taught to students and question them.  In this vein, I decided to find a better definition of “dynamics” than just the volume of the sound.  I found many definitions, but chose this as the most complete of the word “dynamic:”

Etymology

From French dynamique < Ancient Greek δυναμικός (dunamikos) “powerful” < δύναμις (dunamis) “power”

Adjective

dynamic

Changeable; active; in motion usually as the result of an external force.

The environment is dynamic, changing with the years and the seasons.

He was a dynamic and engaging speaker.

1. Powerful
2. Able to change and to adapt
3. (music) Having to do with the volume of sound.

The dynamic marking in bar 40 is forte.

Synonyms

• (changeable, active): active, fluid, moving
• (powerful): energetic, powerful

Antonyms

• static

Noun

dynamic (plural dynamics)

1. A characteristic or manner of an interaction; a behavior.

Watch the dynamic between the husband and wife when they disagree.

The study of fluid dynamics quantifies turbulent and laminar flows.

1. (music) The varying loudness or volume of a song or the markings that indicate the loudness.

If you pay attention to the dynamics as you play, it’s a very moving piece.

1. (music) A symbol in a musical score that indicates the desired level of volume.

Synonyms

• (a characteristic or manner of an interaction; a behavior): apparatus, course of action, design, effect, function, functioning, implementation, interchange, interplay, mechanism, method, modus operandi, motif, nature, operation, pattern, process, regimen, workings

The non-musical definition of the word has NOTHING to do with volume and everything to do with power or energy and how it’s used (either as a noun or an adjective).  The musical definition is related to volume.  How, then to apply the non-musical definition to singing?

The way I approach this concern in the studio is to relate the term dynamics to group dynamics.  I relate the forte to a large group participating in an event all together – how does this type of energy work? For piano singing, I relate it to an intimate conversation with your best friend.  These are both different forms of energy, but not necessarily less intensefrom one to the other.

Another way to approach dynamics is thinking of the vocal energy (NOT the vocal tone) as a laser beam: the more highly focused the laser beam, the more powerful it is.  BUT, if you thought of putting pressure on a light (something that can’t physically happen, I know, but it makes a good image), it will diffuse the focus and lose power.  Forte is a highly focused bright laser beam.  Piano is the laser beam that just barely pierces the darkness, but travels a long way.

A third way to think about this concept is this: can a voice ever produce more decibels than many instruments (even a violin)?  How can a voice be heard over an orchestra?  The key word here is over.  With nasal resonance, balanced by pharyngeal space, comes a balanced tone – the overtone series produced create groups of overtones called formants.  These formants are what give the voice power.  The more balanced the resonance and therefore the overtone series, the more power (and focus) the voice has.

When a singer thinks purely in terms of volume, the tendency is to force air pressure through the vocal chords (only 10-15mm in length and thinner than the edge of an index card) to get more volume.  This increase in pressure ensures that the chords will NOT cleanly come together – there’s just not enough muscle to create a good “seal” in the chords to allow them to vibrate regularly.  If a singer thinks in terms of pressure for piano, often times the chords don’t come together cleanly at all (creating a sound that is “disconnected” or “off the voice”).  The cleaner the seal, the more regular the opening & closing of the glottis can be, creating a more regular sound wave & therefore a “better” sound.  This can then be modified through vocal resonance balancing of vowel & pitch to create what are almost “illusions” of volume (although there is definitely a component of vocal chord musculature engagement involved).

There are many more thoughts and concerns that go into creating a good, clean, free & consistent sound, but this is the basis.  Forte does NOT mean loud.  Piano does NOT mean soft.  The quality of the intensity changes, just as changing the size of a group changes the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships.  Just because there are only 2 people speaking, doesn’t make the topic of conversation less intense.  When there are 15 people focused on an activity, they are also intense, but in a very different way.  This is how I conceive of dynamics in the voice, so that vocal function is not impeded, but is instead as consistent as possible.

What do you think of this approach?  How do you approach forte and piano (and their variations) in the studio?

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