Functional Freedom of the Vocal Instrument

My favourite passage in vocal pedagogy texts - and the pedagogic idea that has become the most transformative for me, both as a voice teacher and singer - is what Cornelius read writes in The Free Voice (p.18):

“The undeviating purpose of training is functional freedom, not, as is commonly believed, beauty of tone quality. An artist desires above all to communicate, and the benefit to be derived from a healthy coordinative response is that it provides absolute spontaneity of expression. With the attainment of functional freedom, the singer then becomes able to express what he has to say the way he wants to say it, not the way he has to. He has been released from the strictures imposed by ‘tone consciousness.’ Functional freedom alone is able to fully release sensitivity, insight, emotional and intellectual depth, and musical perception.”

 As singers, we want to sound good. Most of us are, in fact, preoccupied with the kinds of sounds that we’re making and we’re hoping that our audiences find them pleasing, moving… and maybe even a little bit impressive.

Is there anything wrong with having desirable aesthetics as a training goal? Of course not! Singing is, after all, largely about sound. When we’re listening to recordings of our favourite singers, we’re struck by the tone, timbre, and textures of their voices and how potently their vocal sounds manipulate our emotions. They may even give us goose bumps or bring us to tears.

However, as a functional voice teacher, I know that some singers sound good DESPITE their technique, not BECAUSE of it. Some singers are able to produce acceptable sounds even though their instruments are locked and fighting against a great deal of physiological and acoustical interference, including undesirable tensions. Some sounds that seem, on the surface or at first listen, to be ‘good,’ may actually be produced in an inefficient and/or unhealthy manner that is unsustainable as a technique over time. But most singers struggle for years to achieve a given vocal aesthetic and never fully achieve it.

I believe that many singers find themselves unable to produce the kinds of sounds that they deem desirable or professionally viable because they’re not focusing on ‘first things first.’ They attempt to superimpose their desired aesthetic on an existing technique (coordination) that is not serving them well to begin with. They take an instrument that is not functioning well and then expect it to make the right sounds. Reid also writes:

To make beauty of tone the direct object of study is to put the cart before the horse. In the first place, no one can know the true textural quality of a given voice until functional freedom has been attained. Therefore, without functional freedom the natural beauty of the voice is unknown. Thus, the only conclusion to be reached is that the teacher who strives for tonal beauty as a direct object of study either has prescience, or is merely imposing his own aesthetic evaluations onto his students. Success in achieving pure tone quality will only come with the release of wrong tension, which is the meaning of vocal freedom.” (The Free Voice, p.18)

 When a singer is focused primarily (or only) on creating the target sound, he or she is placing the cart before the horse. We cannot find our natural or unique sounds, nor achieve what we’re truly capable of as vocal technicians, when our instruments are not functioning freely enough to produce those sounds effectively. We may be able to create a poor imitation of the desired aesthetic, but at some point, our lack of functional freedom will betray us. Those sounds are never quite ‘perfect’ and we’ll spend years being ‘almost there.’ So we need to first address the lack of freedom of our instruments that is preventing us from being able to find and unleash our true, full, and natural vocal sound. And as our instruments begin to become freer and less impaired by unwanted tensions and other interferences, we’ll then start to hear our real sound emerge, along with an ever broadening array of textures, colours, and qualities that would otherwise not be accessible to us if our instruments were still fighting within themselves.

My primary objective as a voice teacher is to help my students achieve functional freedom. When their vocal apparatuses are functioning freely, they’ll be able to make the kinds of sounds that they wish to make whenever they wish to make them, instead of being limit to a ‘default’ sound. They can’t make those sounds with any degree of healthiness or sustainability, however, if their instruments are ‘stuck’. So, my first responsibility is helping singers learn to position and ‘play’ the various components of their vocal instruments in ways that are mechanically advantageous and functionally conducive to achievement of their singing goals, including their aesthetic vision.

When singers are very tone conscious and aesthetics driven, they tend to be impatient and lack trust in the process of voice training. They want to achieve the target sound NOW! They don’t always have the patience for, or see the wisdom in, first taking the time to free their instruments. But in the long run, voice training is far more productive, efficient, and successful when the horse is placed before the cart.