Breaking the Breaks

Have you had the experience of air gaps, cracks, or breaks in you middle or upper middle range? Formally, this range can be called a "passagio." Some high singers also have a second passagio after high F-sharp or so. In my experience, the breaks and cracks do not need to stay. The passagio can become so fluid that you don't even think about it. No need to mix, be overly conscious about shifting to your "head voice," do mutated vowels, change mouth shapes, consciously adjust outflow, etc.

How can I make these claims? Because I have seen it and fixed it, over and over for the last 30 years. This is not about me, though. It is about giving you tools and approaches you can work on in a way that proves this works.

So let's talk about the problem. Like anything in voice, it stems from humans living relatively unnatural lives and therefore having posture, air flow, in breath, out breath, mouth shapes, head positions, etc. all out of alignment from the way the body is intended to function. In my experience, an aligned spine and head position with steady air flow never has cracks or breaks. So when the body is not in it's ideal alignment, cracks and breaks can occur.

What do they sound like/ feel like? For many people, it goes something like this...you sing up to around a b-flat or so in a nice full voice but once you go past that note, something breaks and you go into a thinner sounding voice. For some people it also includes a gap with no sound. For some, the shift includes cracks. For others, the transition is softer but still leads to an airy sound.

A "tips and tricks" approach would tell you clever ways to mutate vowels to create a mix. This is useful if you have to perform tomorrow, but it is best to build that airy range into the full voice so that you never have to consciously mix again.

How do you do this? Much of this requires a coach who understands mechanics. But even without one, I can give you some pointers. The head position is one key. Imagine a string holding you to the ceiling. The imaginary string does all the work of pulling your head up. It should feel lighter, your back longer and wider, your neck and spine longer. Position the string where it would be on a marionette puppet. This causes the chin to go slightly down.

You have to have mastered the in breath so that you can breathe in and out without moving the chest up and down. You also need forward diction and a tall vocal space (back of tongue and soft palate). Finally, you need an air flow out that is a steady unbroken, unwavering stream. Once you get all this together, you are fully ready to be able to eliminate breaks.

As you see, it is a lot to get right. That's why for this I recommend a vocal coach. There are exercises to establish forward diction and elongate the back of the throat for max resonance. There are exercises to establish flow, most involving using z or v consonants to connect air and sound. Sometimes crescendo/ descrescendo exercises are necessary. It takes time and effort, but for most people, in a matter of months you can fully eliminate cracks, breaks, and transitions.

Once you do this, you will be able to sing from the lowest note of your range to the highest with no breaks, cracks, or transitions in your passagio. This can happen. It takes patience and a little faith, but you can do it. I have proven it time and again with many singers. I invite you to explore this and prove it to yourself.