Vocal technique: Why is Smiling Used to Sharpen Notes?
A very common technique in singing is to smile in order to brighten the tonality of a given note and raise the pitch of the note.
When it comes to raising the pitch of the note, is it the overtones or fundamental frequency being raised? My understanding is that the vocal chords determine the fundamental frequency and the second formant does not. So if smiling affects the fundamental, does it somehow then impact muscles in the throat?
In practise, without any technical discussion, smiling really does work! But in theory, from what I know, it should only impact the overtones, like how changing from an 'A' vowel to an 'E' vowel does. And then that makes me wonder, and might make me ask another question on Stack Exchange, "is a note on pitch if its fundamental frequency is way off, but its overtones are on point?"
(2)2 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
No, your facial expression has no direct correlation with the fundamental frequency you vocalise. However, smiling while singing does in fact tend to have a number of favorable side effects.
Traditionally, when I've heard singing (usually choral) instructors explain this, they say that smiling will prevent you from going flat on a note, and that it also prevents you from being monotonous/lifeless. And from my own personal experience, it's seemed to largely be effective advice, especially at lower levels of singing, where the singers may not be as skilled at sustaining a note and keeping it in tune every single time.
If I had to guess (and that's all this is, a somewhat educated guess), I'd say that somehow the act of smiling is closely linked to certain elements of the singing mechanism that are beneficial, and therefore thinking about smiling sort of unconsciously enables the singer to produce the sound more optimally (hence this "sharpening" would really just be a better sound production mechanism being better at singing in tune). And obviously, thinking about smiling can help one be more emotionally aware of the music.
So yes, other answers are correct in that a singer can frown and be perfectly in tune, or smile and be off by half an octave. But choral directors and other singing instructors have been conscious of the correlation between the two human processes, and as such, it makes sense to use this relationship in an educational setting in order to facilitate better singing technique.
Of course, I'm not a vocal instructor myself, so if you're looking to use this idea in your own singing studies or teachings, please talk to actual professionals about how to learn or teach the specifics of this - like many singing ideas, if you do it wrong, it may be more harm than good.
A couple random online sources I found discussing this:
www.ardenkaywinvocalstudio.com/smiling-singing/ https://www.themodernvocalistworld.com/forums/topic/9363-singing-with-a-smile/
The question is being asked with false premises.Smiling won't change the pitch. It will change the timbre or tone. Which may change the number or mix of overtones slightly, all of which will still be overtones of that original pitch.
If the initial pitch is out of tune, then automatically any overtones or harmonics will be too.
So in answer to your embryonic question - the overtones from an off note won't be somehow in tune if the base note is out of tune anyway.
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2025 All Rights reserved.