Singing Terms That Changed My Life: Shaping

The vocal tract is everything above your larynx up to the tip of your nose and mouth. Vocal tract shaping quite literally refers to the shapes that we form in our vocal tract. You can “shorten” or “lengthen” the vocal tract to produce sounds that range from “nasally” to “open”. For example, Spongebob Squarepants uses a short vocal tract and Patrick Star uses a long vocal tract.  

When I began with One Voice: Singing Evolved in 2011, the creator of this methodology asked me to sing in the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. At first, I was skeptical. How was this supposed to help? But I did it, and guys, all of a sudden I was able to belt! Why? Because that shaping of my vocal tract allowed me to increase heavy weight in my middle coordination. (The previous two blogs in this series explain these terms in depth!) The short version? I was able to access loud sound on higher notes.

Disclaimer: I’m not a One Voice Coach, but I am a singing geek. Here is the link to take private lessons with One Voice!

One of the qualities of Spongebob’s voice is his natural use of heavy weight, which makes him a great character to mimic when teaching ourselves about the heavy weight used in belting. But does every singer use a nasally, Spongebob-sounding voice to belt? Of course not! All the way on the other end of the spectrum we have Lady Gaga and Cher, who both use very long vocal tracts while singing with very heavy weight. It’s important to learn about weight first and then we can play with the quality of sound made by our vocal tract shaping.

It’s also interesting to note that our tendency is to hear Spongebob as the higher speaker because of the nasally, loud quality to his voice. Similarly, we typically hear Patrick as the lower speaker because of the “open, breathy” sounds we hear from his voice. However, in terms of pitch, Spongebob actually speaks quite a bit lower in his range than Patrick does. This is a great example of how vocal tract shaping can distort the sounds we think we hear.

Here are some examples of singers who use primarily short and long vocal tracts:

Short Vocal Tract Singers:

Male Example: When I Am Older - Frozen

Female Example: Britney Spears - Oops!...I Did It Again

Try it! Does mimicking their vocal tract shaping give you a sense of how they sing those songs?

Long Vocal Tract Singers:

Male Example: Norm Lewis - No One Is Alone

Female Example: Cher - Strong Enough

How about those long vocal tracts? Isn’t it fun to try out different qualities with your voice? Just like weight, there is a spectrum of sound possibilities here, ranging from a “short” vocal tract, through a “neutral” vocal tract, to a “long” vocal tract. The best part is that none of them is “right” or “wrong”. They are all just different choices we can make for different songs!

If we combine the concepts of weight and shaping we get the following speaking examples:

Heavy Weight / Short Vocal Tract - Spongebob Squarepants

Light Weight / Long Vocal Tract - Patrick Star

Heavy Weight / Long Vocal Tract - Scar (Lion King)

Light Weight / Short Vocal Tract - Minnie Mouse

Last week, I posted a video that shows Whitney Houston’s use of weight in “I Will Always Love You”. This week, I’m using the same song to showcase how we can play with both of those weights using our newest tool of vocal tract shaping:

Could you hear the differences? The best way to start discovering vocal tract shaping is to explore your own! What is your “default setting” when it comes to this? You can also check in with your favorite singers and try to hear what vocal tract shaping they use. Here is one of my favorite videos from One Voice coaches who break down Brendon Urie’s (Panic at the Disco) use of coordinations, weight, and vocal tract shaping.

Don’t forget, I teach as well! Check out my current special - Pay What You Can for 4 Virtual Voice Lessons. Spots are limited! Tune in next week for a new blog in this series of vocal terms that changed my life!

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