Passaggio? What's that got to do with my vocal range?

Singers, are you well, and keeping in fine voice? All in good working order, sounding smooth and wonderful, with no cracking, yodelling or insecurities?

And, how about your range - confident about that? Let's discuss.

Passaggio problems

Passaggio (Italian pronunciation: [pasˈsaddʒo]) is a term used in classical singing to describe the transition area between the vocal registers.

Arguably the most vexing of singer’s issues, the passaggio justifiably earns its hard-to-handle reputation. Let me familiarise you with its workings and how it can be responsible for the limiting beliefs you hold about your vocal range.

What’s it all about?

Well ... what singers must do to avoid those tell-tale wobbly-sounding gear-changing areas in the voice, is to concentrate 100% on body alignment, keeping the throat open, and correctly balancing the airflow from the lungs to the point of contact with the vocal folds, which are brought together with a HIGH degree of sensitivity and control … all in the moment of delivery, and then simply to maintain it.

That’s all. Yep - just do all of the above and then, rinse and repeat, get out of our own way, without tensing up. Crikey! No wonder we poor singers struggle with passaggio, eh?

Don’t panic - help is at hand.

The Basics: Learn more about those wobbly-sounding gear-changing areas in the voice

So, these passages where you feel a bit wobbly, that is where you really do have to pay attention to how you are responding physically to what you hear and to completely not allow yourself to self-sabotage the sound you're making. It's like jumping off a cliff and knowing that there is a safety net to catch you.

Every singer is uniquely different.

Problems vary from person to person. Teachers cannot apply every single rule in the same way to each individual but think of each person and the way they deal with things, you know, to find the answers they need.

I organise weekend workshops, courses and retreats for classical singers.  A recent takeaway I'd like to share is a very real limiting belief that singers often have about their perceived vocal RANGE. During a recent study weekend, this issue came up in conversation with a lovely bass singer - who had been limiting his choice of keys based on his belief about his vocal range. He always opted to sing songs in keys that kept him singing in one particular register of his voice.

There is always more flexibility in the voice to explore, as I later persuaded him during the course of our work that weekend. It comes down to delicately navigating your way around the point in the voice where there is a ‘register’ change - typically around E-F above middle C … but varies between individual vocal fachs of course!

I don't necessarily hold that you tap into your head voice, you tap into your middle voice and you tap into your chest voice when required. We have one voice, but different registers within it, which you have to be able to access - and it's these passages that link all those registers, where you have to gain mastery.

In a nutshell, that's where the passaggio problems often are because we are prone to monitoring our sound as human beings. We can't help listening to ourselves. And as soon as the sound between those registers becomes a bit dodgy, we our brain steps in to compensate and vocal tension may result, limiting the range.

Learning good vocal technique skills.

Essential learning: all the vocal basics. In this featured YouTube vocal technique video from my channel, I join the dots on the 5 vocal essentials: posture, breathing, what 'onset' is, the all wonderful lip trills, ng hums for resonance and 'ping', vowel shaping and other exercises aiming to extend the range but with a particular focus on WHY posture/alignment is important in terms of underpinning every vocal thing we try to do and to avoid passaggio issues.

Best advice: learn, rinse and repeat

Practice healthily and learn to maintain a consistent & growing gentle warm-up routine, (of which there are many on my channel) covering all the fundamental vocal technique tools previously mentioned ... posture, breathing, onset, lip trills, and sirening.  Watch the video!

These 5 vocal technique basics form the blueprint for vocal success. We each have our individual foibles to watch out for as they emerge to take note of...

As an example, passaggio issues only arise as a result of an imbalance of the 5 essentials system. It's a question of working out your weakest link.

What's your weakest link, do you think?

What is important is the understanding of a basic sequence of simple exercises in a warm-up routine - the steady study of the 'essentials' or 'basics' to enable your voice to flourish safely for the long haul.

And, lastly, remember, your voice is a muscle ...

The featured video is a selected archived Teaching Video from the vast and ever-growing Virtually Vocalise learning library. First screened as part of the A-Z of Vocal Technique journey. © 2017 Gillian Wormley. All rights reserved. Like to join this online membership for classical singers? Our door is always open.

Find out more: www.littlesoprano.co.uk/virtuallyvocalise