Being a Singer

The process of obtaining the correct jaw position and consequent throat shape from which every vowel flows is called 'Normalisation.'

 The concept and pursuit of Normalisation was for me persoanlly a great help conceptually and technically. Once you really get the idea that all the vowels have to be made in exactly the same place, right down in the deep centre of the throat, and that there is actually only one way to get that to happen, it becomes much clearer to you exactly what it is you need to work on.

The hurdles we face in trying to achieve truly normalised vowels are:

• The different vowels cause different sensations, which are rather strong. These sensations, although important to register on you mental 'control and monitoring' panel, are NOT the sensations which allow us to correctly direct the body to make the voice. (A bit like trying to drive a car by looking only out of the side window at the great view..) 
• The cords and the throat are not proprioceptive in other words do not directly give us feedback as to their state. We therefore have to understand other proxy signals to get feedback. These are mostly negative signals, e.g. it doesn't feel tight; my range is not limited; it's not breaking on the bridges and so on. From such absence of bad things happening we learn to understand the feeling of maintaining a relaxed open throat.
• Developing sufficient precision in the way we make the vowels so that they create a strong and vibrant sound rich in singers' formant. Only once we achieve this do we begin to habituate the ear to the correct sound, adding another useful, positive, feedback loop.
• We must be both strict in maintaining the correct throat position while at the same time allowing the actual throat muscles to remain relaxed and refusing to help the pitch in any way. (after of Seth Riggs). Similar to a golfer learning to make that hard but relaxed swing.
• Developing good and consistent cord closure so that all notes feel right. When notes fail, it can disturb the balance in the throat.
• Maintaining the balance of air from the lungs and correct muscle use in the throat to avoid tension.

In other words once we have found that place (which takes a while at first... be patient, practise and exercise) the trick is to learn to discard all extraneous muscular movement. At first we have little connection to and feedback from the throat (see below article 'The Shared Nerve Problem) and it's a bit like a lot of interference on the channel but the miraculous human brain will with practise, time and experience develop greater sensitivity to and focus on the feedback loops, thereby giving you greater and greater control over the precision elements of vocal production.