Being good at four of the other Big 5 coordinations is not enough. If your air flow and pressure coordination is weak, the Sound Designs you execute will be poor, inefficient and in worst case, could cause vocal damage.

If there is no air flowing through the vocal folds they make no sound at all.

A minimum amount of air is required to sustain vocal fold oscillation (movement). This is called the "phonation pressure threshold". 

Air Pressure against the vocal folds and within the vocal tract changes depending on pitch, vocal fold operation, resonance, inertance, size of vocal tract, shape of tongue and embouchure.

In short, if you can't control your air flow and balance your air pressure you will never gain control over your singing. 

Examples
• Breathy tone requires very light, steady air flow & low pressure.
• Mix requires steady air flow, higher pressure but can never exceed a mid pressure level.
• Belt requires steady air flow, higher pressure than mix but never max
• Classical singing requires less flow and higher pressure than jazz, which requires light pressure and higher flow.

Both Air Flow and Air Pressure must be regulated and balanced continually. 

Breathing technique (both active & passive) is an essential element of vocal control.

Being good at four of the other Big 5 coordinations is not enough. If your Vocal Fold coordination is weak, the Sound Designs you execute will be poor, inefficient and in worst case, could cause vocal damage.

What coordination control can you develop of your Vocal Folds?

What do your Vocal Folds do during singing?
• You can't control oscillation (vocal fold vibration) because it is created and sustained by air flow. 

These are the Vocal Fold coordinations you are able to develop.

ADDUCTION (Cord Closure)
• To sustain any sound the vocal folds must close "adduct"
• Adduction can be light or strong. 

LENGTH
• Length determines pitch
• Shorter = Lower 
• Longer = Higher

MASS (Thick or Thin)
• You can regulate the amount of vocal fold surface area you use thereby regulating the "thickness" and "thinness" of the vocal folds. 
• Chest Voice uses "Thick"
• Head Voice uses "Thin"
• Low notes are generally thicker
• High notes are generally thinner

TENSION
• You can regulate the internal tension of the Vocal Folds to tighten of loosen them.
• Louder higher notes are generally tighter
• Softer lower notes are generally looser

Being good at four of the other Big 5 coordinations is not enough. If your pharyngeal coordination is weak, the Sound Designs you execute will be poor, inefficient and in worst case, could cause vocal damage.

What is the Pharynx and what can it do?

The Pharynx is the inside of your throat - the tube that connects your nose to your throat and larynx. Food and water also travel down this tube and slide down the back into the esophagus. Air travels via your pharynx through your larynx and into your lungs. 

The top of the Pharynx is the Soft Palate. 
• Raises to change height
• Closes & Opens the Nasal Port
• Changes Vocal Timbre, Sound Color & Nasality

The Pharynx is made up of three muscles stacked one on top of the other. Naso-, Oro-, and Laryngo- Pharynx.
• Change the internal shape of your throat.
• Create commercial twang sound through narrowing in a specific shape
• Create classical ring sound by narrowing in a specific shape

The Larynx
• Regulates the length of the pharynx
• Raises to shorten pharynx
• Lowers to lengthen pharynx 

The Tongue
• Builds the moveable front wall of the pharynx
• Changes shape to create a variety of "vowel" resonances
• Inseparable element of pharyngeal resonance

A low pitch, dark, round, louder volume sound generally has a closed nasal port, relaxed soft palate, slightly narrowed pharynx and a lower larynx.

A high pitch, bright, soft, medium volume sound generally uses a raised soft palate, closed nasal port, moderately narrowed pharynx and a higher larynx.

Being good at four of the other Big 5 coordinations is not enough. If your Tongue coordination is weak, the Sound Designs you execute will be poor, inefficient and in worst case, could cause vocal damage.

What is the Tongue and what does it do in singing?

The tongue is the largest moving part inside of your vocal tract. 

The tongue acts as a moveable front wall to your pharynx. As such it plays an essential role in resonance and sound color.

Highly moveable - being able to move in multiple directions simultaneously - the tongue is a true acrobat.

All consonants and vowels are created through movement or shapes of the tongue.

Compared with the trained tongue of a singer, the "every day" tongue is slow and awkward. 

The agility and flexibility of your tongue keeps it in motion and allows for more precise vowel shaping. 

Resonance, sound color, vocal timbre, volume, amplification, harmonics, air flow, air pressure, and even the operation of the vocal folds are ALL influenced by the shape and position of the tongue. 

A tight tongue pulls on the hyoid bone disrupting the larynx position.

A low back tongue invades the pharynx and depresses the epiglottis.

In short tongue coordination, agility and tension make or break your singing.

Being good at four of the other Big 5 coordinations is not enough. If your Embouchure coordination is weak, the Sound Designs you execute will be poor, inefficient and in worst case, could cause vocal damage.

What is the Embouchure and what does it do in singing?

The embouchure refers to the shape of your mouth opening. 

The embouchure is controlled by the 43 muscles of facial expression as well as the 6 muscles of jaw coordination. 

That's a lot of small "fine tuning" muscles.

Because we shape our face into expressions that reflect our emotions, these "emotional facial expressions" also color our vocal sound. 

In other words emotions are expressed both visibly and audibly. You can see and hear a persons emotional state.

The embouchure is the "exit" of our vocal instrument. All wind instruments (flute, trumpet, tuba) have various sizes of bell (the part sound exits through). Some are flared enormously, like the tuba, while the bell of a clarinet is much smaller. 

The opening of your mouth - your embouchure - allows you to change color, vowel, brightness, and volume.

Singing embouchure is always impactful and can be extremely fine tuned. 

• A Horizontal, rectangularly shaped embouchure will produce a lighter, brighter, shallower sound.
• A vertical, rounded ovally shaped embouchure with protruded lips will produce a deeper, darker, richer sound. 
• Embouchure adjusts laryngeal height
• Embouchure changes vocal timbre.

Hi, I'm Philippe

For me, your development is personal. I can’t wait to help you maximize your potential. 

After graduating with my BFA, Music Dance Theater from BYU, I started to work in Germany as a professional artist. From there, I've performed non-stop for 30 years as a professional singer, actor, dancer, voice-over recording artist. It was important for me to pursue my education so I earned 2 more degrees from 2 other different countries. A Master of Music in Voice Performance Opera from Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany & Master Voice Pedagogy in Contemporary Singing Styles from CVI in Denmark. 

I created and founded Singing Revealed to reveal the truth about singing by sharing knowledge across borders and methodologies. This knowledge needs to be available to singers everywhere in the world. I understand how difficult it can be - even as a professional singer - to find the answers & solutions you need. I want you to experience the life-changing difference it will make in your voice. I want you to break through your personal vocal limits and reach your full singing potential the fast way, the right way, the healthy way. 

Now I help people just like youfind vocal freedom. Through online education, I can help you make your own impact on the world around you. Whether you’ve never sing before or you are just looking to perfect your singing technique, I look forward to taking this creative journey together.

Former and current students have performed on American Idol, Broadway, off-Broadway, on national and international tours, on national television, cruise ships, at theme parks and in bands touring throughout the United States. He has written articles for the Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice, VoicePrints, American Music Teacher, The Voice, Southern Theatre, and has been a Vocal Coach in Residence for Voice Council magazine. He has contributed to books including “A Dictionary for the Modern Singer” by Dr. Matthew Hoch, “Vocal Athlete” by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, The “Manual of Singing Voice Rehabilitation” by Leda Scearce, “Get the Callback, 2nd edition” by Jonathan Flom, and the Sacred Music, Gospel, and Country editions of the “So You Want to Sing” book series. His book “So You Want to Sing Rock ‘N’ Roll?” is published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishing and was called “an authoritative text on rock ‘n’ roll singing” by Classical Singer magazine.

In high demand for his presentations and master classes on commercial and musical theatre voice, he has presented at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference and Summer Workshop, Voice Foundation Annual Symposium, Acoustical Society of America, Association for Popular Music Education, Southeastern Theatre Conference, Musical Theatre Educators Alliance, Pan-American Vocology Association, United States Air Force Singing Sergeants, Carolina Voices, Duke Voice Care Center, Arts Bridge, at universities including Penn State, Brigham Young, Toronto, Wright State, Alabama, Georgia Southern, Otterbein, Illinois Wesleyan, Mary-Hardin Baylor, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ohio Northern, Northern Colorado, Missouri State, Texas Woman's University, DeSales, Bårdar Academy (Oslo, Norway), and for NATS Chapters in Toronto, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, and Arizona.

Kenneth Bozeman, Professor Emeritus of Music at Lawrence University, holds performance degrees from Baylor University and the University of Arizona, and also studied at the Conservatory of Music in Munich. He has received two Lawrence awards for excellence in teaching, the Van Lawrence Fellowship by the Voice Foundation, and was inducted into the American Academy of Teachers of Singing in 2019 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute in 2024. He is the author of numerous articles and the books, Practical Vocal Acoustics: Pedagogic Applications for Teachers and Singers and Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy 2: Motivating Acoustic Efficiency. https://faculty.lawrence.edu/bozemank/

Wolfgang Saus is an overtone singer, classical baritone, singing teacher, voice coach, voice researcher and author. His website is a base for overtone singers across the world and features access to the Overtone Analyzer software, which he co-developed.

As both a choir member and a solo singer, he performed with over 60 European ensembles and had the opportunity to work with many major professional singers (e.g., the King Singers) and choir leaders. He sang to earn money for his studies.

Wolfgang gave up his position as head of research as a graduate chemist in 1994 in order to devote his entire life to sound and voice. In the early 1980s, Wolfgang's musical world was avant-garde and experimental.

His enthusiasm and fascination for overtone singing began in 1983 when he was able to take part in the promotion tour of Joachim-Ernst Berendt's book Nada Brahma and get to know Roberto Laneri.

During his time as a chemist, he worked with musicians such as Gidon Kremer, Georges Prêtre and Helmut Rilling and sang contemporary operas in the theatre.

From the very beginning, Wolfgang was fascinated by this wondrous world of sound of the overtones in a peculiarly different way than classical music, so he familiarised himself with it, researched it, and developed it further.

Currently, he is one of the best overtone singers in the world (in polyphonic overtone singing). Saus is able to sing Baroque composition in two-tone harmony. He gives overtone singing workshops around all Europe. He composes music specifically for and conducts overtone choirs where each singer sings two tones simultaneously creating polyphonic harmonies.

Recently, he has summarized his broad knowledge into a first comprehensive book on overtone singing ever published in the German language.
Wolfgang Saus has also made a major contribution to the organization of overtone singing: he has founded a large website (www.oberton.org) which has already facilitated contacts between many international overtone singers. He is also the co-author of the Overtone Analyzer computer software, see www.sygyt.com.