There are a handful of different aspects of our voice that have to be in place in order to sing well. One of these is having good cord closure. But what is cord closure? Cord Closure describes the process by which your vocal cords come together to create sound. If we have the desired thin edge of cord closure, then we will create a solid sound with very little effort. Cord closure also helps a singer find the proper resonance…
as a mentor of mine would say, set the cord and your voice will automatically find the proper resonance (talk about singing chest, head, mix). So how do we know if we are singing with cord closure? Well, the biggest tell that the cords are not coming together is the voice has a breathiness or hiss to it. This is because there’s too much space between the vocal cords, and quite a bit more air is escaping during the singing process. So, if you have a solid sound, then you are most likely singing with cord closure. All of this being said, there are varying degrees of cord closure. The cords can mostly close, giving a little bit more texture when singing. The cords can stay open, creating an overly breathy sound. The cords can come together on a light, thin edge, creating a solid yet effortless sound. And, the cords can over squeeze together, causing unneeded tension and strain on the cords. Heck, you can have so much closure that sound never escapes, there’s only pressure building up underneath the cords. If you want to get super technical, there’s also everything in between. Anyway, I’m going a bit far down the rabbit hole, but I wanted to mention that there are varying degrees of closure and that you can go too far with cord closure. Finally, you may be wondering how can you easily create cord closure? Well, I put this video together to demonstrate my favorite way to get to cord closure: Vocal Fry. This video will show you how to vocal fry as well as give you vocal fry examples. It also shows you how you can use vocal fry to start your sound, helping you more easily create cord closure. I don’t suggest you use this all the time because it’s simply not necessary, but if you’re having issues creating closure, then vocal fry will likely be a really great tool for you. Check out the video and let me know what you think in the comment section below. I hope this helps, and if you’re interested in taking voice lessons to help you through this process, I’d be happy to help. Just check out this link in the previous sentence for information on my voice lessons. Also, if you’re interested, you can read this article on What You Need to Know About the Vocal Cords for more information. Happy Singing! Vocal Coach Ken Taylor
Cord Closure and Singing [VIDEO]
