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Let’s talk about something important – speech level singing. One of the comments that comes up a lot in voice training is the discussion of volume. What is the optimal volume for singing at, how loud/soft should one sing etc? While that is far too broad a topic to cover in one post, one aspect I do want to cover is the appropriate volume for the BEGINNING of vocal development, and this leads to the idea of “speech level singing”.
Let’s start from first principles.
Firstly, we all have unique instruments. Some of us speak with an average pitch that is relatively high, and others at a pitch that is relatively low. We have different tonal characteristics to boot. We also have different “sizes” of instrument, some of us speaking at a naturally louder level than others, and some who speak at a naturally quieter/softer level than others. The point is, we all have different instruments with different calibrations.
If we assume that a voice in question has no serious pathological issues or speaking disorders, this means that the way we speak represents and reflects the manner in which our instrument operates.
Secondly, this natural calibration represents the most strain-free version of our voices. Think about how when you try to constantly speak louder than normal (e.g. noisy environments, to be heard over others, etc), how quickly your voice fatigues. This is because you are departing from your optimal calibration or ‘speech level’.
Similarly, you may also notice when you try to reduce your speaking volume for long periods (e.g. whispering in a library, trying to keep hushed tones in a public space, etc) you also experience that kind of wear and tear on your voice.
In both cases, departing from your natural speech level leads to fatigue and strain in the voice.
Thirdly, to summarise this, you can imagine this natural speaking volume is like a base-line that the voice naturally wants to sit at in a comfortable manner whenever you speak. It takes control and sustained effort to increase your volume from there, and it takes control and sustained effort to decrease your volume from there.
First conclusion
Hopefully from even this brief discussion, you can see that finding our speech level in exercises and singing (for development purposes at least) is extremely beneficial and important. It’s like finding our “zero” point, the point of least energy and effort required to sustain our voice. We do need a little bit of preliminary technique built into the voice to achieve even this, but to build the bulk of the technique we need to establish this.
If we want to sing louder than our natural calibration, this will take greater control and effort than that “zero” point of speech level… and at the beginning of vocal development we simply don’t have enough vocal control or the ability to regulate our expenditure of effort to do this correctly without departing from good technique. In the same way, if we want to sing softer/quieter that will also take a similar level of control and regulation of effort applied, which at the beginning of vocal development we just don’t have.
This is not to say a given singer is incapable of singing louder/quieter. We obviously want a huge dynamic range available in our voices. All I’m trying to say is that excessive volume (or insufficient volume) for a given voice will interfere with acquisition of correct muscle memory and technique for that voice – that’s all. If we are trying to ensure that a voice-in-training is maintaining correct technique and greatest ease of singing throughout, then we MUST find that “zero” point of speech level for each singer. This enables us to reflect their vocal calibration from the very beginning of development.
Second conclusion: What happens after this
Here’s where a lot of people misunderstand the idea of such a speech level singing approach, or take issue with the technique of “Speech level singing”. They often think that means ONLY singing at speech level or staying close thereto. This is really not the case.
Once we started to establish sufficient technique that control and regulation of expenditure of effort in a singer’s voice, we MUST start to introduce dynamics into their singing. We must explore a true forte in their voice to ‘pressure test’ their technique (as we’ve already explained, it is always harder at higher or lower volumes), and to exploit maximum harmonic output from their voice. But to do this we MUST ensure a strong foundation of technique and ease in their technique from which to build from. Without this foundation, even the tiniest bit of strain or instability will only become further magnified as they try to increase volume or decrease volume We’ve got to get the technique right at their zero point, where it requires least effort, and build from there.
Similarly, if someone tries to build their technique at a volume level that is incorrect for their vocal calibration, they will ALWAYS struggle with their technique. Singing too softly for one’s vocal calibration will yield problems just like trying to sing too loud for one’s vocal calibration.
Long story short:
We MUST set up finding that “zero” point from which to build from. Never forcing it, but never under-fuelling it. Everything we need to correctly build our voice stems from there, to find that ‘speech level singing’ point for your voice.
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