Intro
What if I told you that by making a small change in your technique you could have a voice that captures the listener and hits the back wall? Well, you can!
Welcome to The Voice Science Podcast, where we dive into the science behind all things singing and teaching. Here, you’ll learn how the voice works and discover practical tips to train it more efficiently. I’m Drew and I’ll be your guide for this exciting episode about Ring & Twang.
In today’s episode, we’re taking a look at the science and application of brightness. We’ll break down what it is, why it matters, when to use it, and how.
But real quick, if you have questions about this episode or questions about the voice and singing in general, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach out to us on our website at voicescience.org/contact/. We’ll reach back out with an answer, answer your question in a future episode, or both.
Okay, Let’s get started!
What is Brightness?
Brightness is a term that is used interchangeably with the singer’s formant. It refers to an increase in acoustic energy, how fiercely the air molecules are moving. It could be other molecules like water, but you’re probably more concerned about singing above water. This increase in acoustic energy between 2.5-5 kHz, is caused by narrowing the vocal tract at certain locations.
For some singers, but not all, an increase in brightness is accompanied by increased vibratory sensations in the face or chest.
Depending largely on laryngeal height, there are two different methods of increasing brightness: ring and twang.
Ring
Let’s start with ring. Ring is caused by a narrowing of the space between the epiglottis and the arytenoids, sometimes considered a narrowing of the aryepiglottic sphincter. The primary driver of this is actually the tongue—but not the part of the tongue you might expect.
A brief bit of information about the tongue: it is made up of seven different muscles! Because of this, it can move in various directions and even in opposing directions simultaneously. Typically, we talk about the tongue in four parts: the tip, blade, dorsum, and root. The root of the tongue, which is the anterior or front of the throat, plays a crucial role in ring. During fetal development, the root of the tongue forms separately from the rest and fuses later, allowing it to move independently with certain limitations.
When the root of the tongue moves posteriorly (toward the back), it narrows the aryepiglottic space, causing sound waves to bounce differently and intensifying frequencies between 2.5-4 kHz.
Twang
Twang is very similar to ring but with some key differences. Instead of the tongue, twang is caused by a narrowing of the pharyngeal wall much higher in the vocal tract. One teacher described its location as where your fingers would meet if you placed them in your ears and imagined them touching in the middle. While not anatomically precise, this analogy helps illustrate how high in the vocal tract twang occurs.
The narrowing of the pharyngeal wall intensifies frequencies from 3-5 kHz, slightly higher than ring. This gives it a different quality, but both ring and twang can be used interchangeably when needed.
Twang or Ring
You may now be wondering: Can I use ring or twang interchangeably? A well-rounded singer will use both, but there’s an easy way to know which one to use.
- You can only narrow the vocal tract using the root of the tongue when the larynx is in a lowered or neutral position. A higher larynx position would make this action feel like choking.
- The pharyngeal wall naturally widens as the larynx lowers, making twang impossible in low positions.
So, your choice between ring or twang depends on laryngeal height.
To explore laryngeal height, place your fingers gently on the front of your throat and swallow—you’ll feel your thyroid cartilage rise. Now, try yawning—you’ll feel it descend. These exercises demonstrate the extremes of laryngeal movement.
Myths about the brightness twins
One of the things I hear fairly frequently is that brightness is nasality. It’s one of the more interesting misconceptions. Nasality is caused by opening the nasopharyngeal port, which allows air and sound waves to travel through the nose. This is controlled by the velum, also known as the soft palate, nasality can be added or removed independently from nearly every other mechanism of singing. The easiest check for nasality is pinching your nose. If you have nasality in the sound your nose will be vibrating. An important thing to remember is that many languages have nasal sounds so the goal is never a complete absence of nasality.
There is a pretty common opinion from singers that brightness is ugly, especially when singers are just getting used to it. I find this is a two-fold issue. First, as singers we don’t hear ourselves like others do and brightness tends to be very overpowering in our own heads due to the bone conduction into our ears. This is easily corrected by listening to recordings of ourselves but most singers in this stage are extremely opposed to doing this. Second, a lot of brightness exercises are intentionally pushing for an extreme amount of brightness with the understanding that it will be less bright outside of the exercises and lesson. A level of ring or twang is a core part of many styles of singing.
That leads me to myth #3 that all styles use increased brightness. They do not. An increased amount of brightness is common in many styles: classical, musical theatre, folk, and country to name a few. However, more conversational styles like pop may or may not employ brightness in the technique depending on the desired sound. Before ring and twang were viewed as a characteristic of a vocal style they were practical tools for projecting the voice.
Exercises
Let’s look at three exercises to develop ring and twang.
- /nja/
The first exercise is all about ring. Starting on a comfortable note in the bottom 1/3rd of your range sing and ascending 5-tone scale on the sound /nja/.
If you are having trouble with the sound, a few things to think about: Mechanically you can imagine there is peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth and you are trying to scrape it off. Tonality wise I always suggest the sound children make while teasing one another “nananana boo boo”. The goal apart from singing an accurate 5-tone scale is to be as bright as possible, if it sounds pleasant to your ears, it is probably not bright enough. Remember, it sounds more intense to you than to other people.
- Witch’s cackle
Our second exercise is about twang. I find the easiest way to get to the sensation is with a witch’s cackle.
Do a few witch’s cackles and then sustain the end and do a descending 5-tone scale.
Try moving your witch’s cackle higher or a bit lower, remembering that the larynx needs to remain raised.
- High-low/low-high transitions
Fortunately or unfortunately singing rarely takes place with no movement of the larynx meaning we need to master not only ring and twang, but moving between them. I always find it easiest to move from high to low. Find a medium-high note, something that requires a raised larynx and do a descending 5-tone on /nja/. It should be very bright. Sing descending 5-tone scales until your larynx needs to descend, allow it to descend. As it moves down, ensure each note remains bright. Repeat the process from a lower starting note with ascending 5-tone scales. This is normally very challenging for singers as we tend to be good at only one method of brightness.
A few tricks, it can be hard to tell if you are bright in the beginning. Some singers report a buzzing sensation in the face, others hear the sound of a fly or a bee in their ear, and some singers don’t get these at all. I find that practicing, briefly, in a car or in a highly reflective space like a shower can help you hear the harmonics and know if it’s correct. In time you’ll be able to tell more easily.
Recap
- Brightness is an increase in energy between 2.5-5 kHz, achieved through ring or twang.
- Ring relies on the tongue root and occurs when the larynx is in a low or neutral position.
- Twang relies on pharyngeal wall narrowing and occurs when the larynx is high.
- Common myths include confusion with nasality, concerns about sound quality, and the assumption that all styles use brightness.
- Exercises like /nja/, witch’s cackle, and practicing ring-twang transitions can help you captivate listeners.
Outro
Thanks for joining me for another episode of The Voice Science Podcast! If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe and share it with other singers and teachers. For more resources, visit voicescience.org. See you next time!