If one wants to be a good singer, he/she needs to be able to control when they want their voice to be breathy and when not.
Of course, there are moments when a singer wants to add breathiness to their tone but a good singer chooses when to do so and when to sing without it.
So, to help you in your singing journey, I will teach you two things in this article–
To understand the cause we need to know how the human voice works. Whenever air passes through the vocal cords, cords come closer and vibrate hence producing sound. This process of vocal cords coming closer so they can vibrate against one another is called ‘adduction’. When a singer is using just the right amount of air to produce the sound, the vocal cords adduct and vibrate seamlessly. As a result, the sound is clear, efficient, and easy to produce. If the singer uses an excess of air to sing, adduction isn’t as efficient. The sound, coloured by the extra air rushing past the vocal cords, becomes breathy. This may be the result of improper vocal technique or some health issues.
Try to notice if your voice is breathy when you speak or is it just while you are singing? Or is it when you are singing in a very specific part of your range? Narrowing down these questions will make it much clearer what to do to be able to fix the issue. For instance, your voice is nice and clear when you are speaking in your lower range but as soon as you sing in your higher range, it starts to get breathy, which means that your vocal cords are pulling apart as more tension is put on them when they go up to a higher pitch which is forcing them to spread apart. If that’s the case, putting in more effort to find cord closure of your voice in a higher range would be the priority rather than spending more time honing your lower range since it is already under control. If your voice is breathy all the time while speaking as well as singing despite the range you use, Visiting a doctor would be preferable. Untreated breathiness can be caused by chronic swelling, pre-nodular lumps, and other serious issues that could lead to vocal haemorrhaging or vocal nodules. If these issues become too severe, they can require therapy and even surgery to fix.
If you are using breathiness as a stylistic tool for singing, still some measures have to be taken to avoid any further risk:
If breathiness is undesirable and you want to balance it out, then here are some tips:
People want to hear the variation in the singer’s voice. It’s what they enjoy. But for singers, it is important to get hold of the basic techniques first and then be dicey with it and play around adding variations. The most important thing is to be consistent and you will feel your voice building up fairly quickly, provided you have the right guidance.