One thing that comes up in our vocal training every day is the development of a fully connected voice. What does this mean?
Over the full range of our voice, which could be two octaves for some and four octaves for others, we have sections of our voice that sound different. Our vocal folds are special in that they have a variable thickness, meaning that they can change how thick they are, which changes the sound quality.
When we sing lower notes our vocal folds are thicker. As we move higher in pitch the folds need to thin or they won’t be able to stretch far enough to create the higher pitch. However, they don’t need to change thickness at each note. When there is a change in thickness it feels like shedding weight, much like we release a sand bag to make a hot air balloon elevate higher. This will give us another section of notes at the new thickness before we have to change again to reach even higher pitches.
This process reminds me of two things,—releasing sand bags to make a hot air balloon fly higher, and shifting gears on a car or bicycle, which I cover in another analogy video.