Ask Dean: Muscle Tension Dysphonia

In this latest edition of ASK DEAN, Becky Gilhespie asked a question about vocal strain.

QUESTION: Occasionally I come across a student whose voice opens up much better with slides, glides and vowel sounds much better than with the addition of consonants. As soon as consonants are added, some strain occurs. I’d like to know more about what is going on inside for students like this?

I must add, the type of student I’m referring to doesn’t necessarily sound overly “pressed” at the vocal fold level – often the voice sounds breathy even?

And is this related to Muscle Tension Dysphonia? My instincts tell me that the strain in this case is coming from the extrinsic muscles and ligaments.

What else can we do besides lip trills and narrow vowels?

ANSWER: Thanks for the question. I will remind everyone again that the 3 elements singers have to work with are air, muscle, and vowel. When a good balance between these items is achieved there will be a smooth transition through the bridges and an even, connected sound on all the notes. (I should add to that…’relaxed’ as well. One of the main things we as teachers are trying to do is to locate tension and get rid of it. Some singers are gifted enough to be able to pull or squeeze through their bridges and sometimes teachers can think they are mixing because they are singing through the bridges and even higher, but they pull up too much weight and carry too much tension and they need to find greater freedom in the vocal fold vibration.)

The basic result of consonants is that they mostly all stop airflow to at least some degree. This can be used as an advantage by the teacher to try and get better vocal cord closure when needed, but many times adding a consonant stops the necessary airflow to keep the vocal folds vibrating properly and freely. So it is often easier to begin with only vowels in exercises (or bubbles or tongue twirls, slides and glides, etc), then gradually add consonants without allowing the consonant to stop the airflow. It is usually easier to start with consonants that stop airflow the least (sh, s, y, w) and then move to consonants that stop air the most (g, k, etc). There are those in the middle like m, n, etc. as well.

Remember that every person is different so what you do with one person won’t always work for everyone, but generally you will find these basic rules and approaches work. And eventually all singers are going to need to be able to sing ALL of the consonants and ALL of the vowels. So eventually they are going to need to exercise with all vowels and all consonants. But you will definitely find that most all singers will have more success with certain vowels and consonants than others.

One last little thought, when you are looking for more “release” on high notes, closed vowels work better (oo, ee). When you are looking for more power, open vowels (ah, agh) work better.

And about MTD (Muscle Tension Dysphonia). That is a diagnosis that pretty much every ENT gives to pretty much every singer that is having vocal problems. It simply means they are using too much muscle tension to hold the vocal folds together and as a result the voice tires faster than it should and can also lead to vocal fold issues like nodules or worse. It is our job as teachers to help the singer get a powerful sound without squeezing or unnecessary pressure. A good visualization of this is watching what a violinist does. In order to play louder she bows quicker and more aggressively “digs in” to the string. When she plays softly she bows slower and doesn’t “dig in”. Airflow is the singer’s bowing. It doesn’t help for the violinist to squeeze harder on the string with her non-bowing hand. Likewise a singer doesn’t need to squeeze the vocal folds to get a louder sound, in fact it actually makes it more difficult for the string to vibrate freely and to move from note to note. Like the violinist, the singer will “throw the air faster” and “dig in” (get more vocal cord closure and vibrate with a more full thickness of the vocal fold instead of just singing on the edges of the vocal fold). But now we’re starting to get pretty technical and it would be easier to demonstrate rather than to try and explain. Just remember that whether the violinist is playing aggressively or softly, it still should be done in a relaxed way with no unneeded tension or squeezing. The same is true with a singer.

Hope that helps. Keep singing!

Dean