Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater: The Muscular Basis for Register Adjustment

Abstract

Abstract: Registration in singing has long been considered to have its basis in adjustments of the intrinsic laryngeal musculature, but most pedagogues also agree that there is an acoustic or resonance component to the production or perception of vocal registers. Shifts in thinking about register adjustment may have led some pedagogues to concentrate on resonance adjustments to produce a particular quality, sometimes without adequate attention to balanced muscle use. This article provides some context for pedagogic consideration of pitch/register adjustment and examples of what can happen if muscular balance is not optimized in singing training for all genres.