Piper Smith
English 1010 HH1
Mrs. Rhea
Problem/Solution
17 November 2014
Singing with Incorrect Form is the Enemy of the Vocal Chord For years, singers have failed to reach their full vocal potential due to lack of basic understanding of singing. Adele, John Mayer, and Bob Dylan are just a few of the many celebrities who have had corrective surgery on their vocal chords from improper form while singing. The single most important element in singing is correctly breathing. Even individuals who have never taken a voice lesson before have heard that there is a correct way for singers to breathe. Sadly, many vocalists push, strain, and permanently damage their voices from incorrectly inhaling and exhaling air, and using incorrect form when they sing. Many solutions to vocal chord preservation have been proposed such as shouting instead of singing and taking in minimal amounts of air for control. These tactics have failed miserably in the vocal world because these techniques only lead to vocal damage. However, strain and damage can be avoided because how you inhale and exhale can control the quality of sound, volume, pitch, and tone. Fully filling up your diaphragm with air while inhaling is imperative if a vocalist wants to sound great and produce melodies with skill. Therefore, it is important that you not only learn how to take air in properly through inhaling, but is equally important that you learn to exhale properly. Also, to successfully sing with correct form, the head should remain upright along with your posture. This is also true for your neck and jaw to be relaxed. In order for a vocalist to preserve full use of their vocal chords, the multiple steps mentioned in the previous paragraph must be executed. Using a single technique instead of the complete combination will ensure vocal chord strain as well as discomfort. The most crucial step for correct form is inhaling and exhaling properly. When you inhale properly, your abdomen shifts downward which causes your abdomen to expand and your lungs to inflate (Higgs 23). When exhaling properly, one must simply let go of the air in the diaphragm while not feeling fatigued or tight (Vocalist Lewis). Another way you can ensure vocal chord preservation is do an inhale and exhale exercise through a straw. Also, and solution to establish the habit of correct air patterns is to lie on the floor and inhale for twenty seconds and exhale for twenty seconds. The diaphragm is a muscle and this exercise helps strengthen it. Correct form in the head, posture, and jaw are also essential to avoid strain on the vocal chords. It is common for singers to shake their heads while singing, but the head should remain still because head movement could cause air to get trapped in tension areas. Equally important, posture should be upright with your shoulders back to ensure that the diaphragm completely inflates. Your jaw is the final key to acquiring total protection for your vocal chords. These four steps must be attacked consecutively because one step relies on the other. For example, your must have upright posture for the diaphragm to fully inflate or you will not get the full amount of air that one needs to sing subsequently. The main problem that stems from incorrect singing is serious abuse to the vocal chords. An audience does not want to hear a performer who has a terrible tone caused by mutilated vocal chords. If bad habits are not broken when singing, polyps or nodules can form along the chords. If some singers have harmed their vocal chords to the point of irreversible damage, surgery might have to be performed.