The right larynx position in your throat is crucial if you want to sing in a healthy way. When you swallow, you can feel your larynx move upwards. When you yawn, you can feel it lower. When you sing, the neutral position, not high and not low, is the best way to sing. It is the position most people use when speaking. From there the larynx is free to move a little up and down. This movement is a natural thing, it has something to do with the notes and vowels you sing.
High notes ask for a little higher larynx position than low notes. Also, the opera sound asks for a little lower position and baroque for a little higher. Many singers tend to sing with too much tension in the root of the tongue or pull the tongue backwards. By doing that, they disturb the larynx position.
Here is a nice video that illusstrates what happens when the larynx position is neutral, pushed too high and pulled too low. There’s only one classical singer in the video but can still be very helpfull.
Many singers tend to pull or push the larynx.
Singers who pull the larynx down often do that because it sounds better to the singer. The singer doesn’t realise that what he/she hears is not the truth. Read the article What does your voice sound like? The paradox to learn more about this.
When a singer doesn’t use the Breath support needed to produce a good sound, too much air will travel upwards and will push the larynx up.
If you tend to pull your larynx down try to to find your neutral position by swallowing before you start singing. Now when you start singing make sure that you do not pull it down when you breath!
If you tend to push your larynx up, try the old italian method of ‘inhalare la voce'; imagine you ‘breath in’ the sound while singing.
You can also use the trick with the bottle of water to decrease the pressure.
Another reason for pulling or pushing the larynx is a mental one. As soon as the singer focusses on producing beautiful tones and evaluate the beauty of the sound, too much tension will build in your throat and your breathing will become shallow.
The best thing you can do is NOT JUDGING your sound!
