Confused about vocal terminology? Here’s a simple guide to common singing terms to help you teach with confidence.

When it comes to discussing and analysing the voice, singers, teachers and voice scientists agree on one thing.

Singing terminology can be confusing, especially if you’re new to studying the voice. 

This is because over the years, academics, vocal coaches and performers have developed different ways to talk about singing.

As a result, there are several different words to describe any one aspect of the voice.

For example, there are more than 100 names to identify different registers.

But even though vocal terminology can be overwhelming, BAST Training’s Line Hilton encourages singing teachers to do their best to get to grips with it.

The benefits of understanding vocal terminology

“It’s about being adaptable and flexible and understanding the voice at different levels,” Line says on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast.

“If you’re talking to students, you might stick to lay or descriptive terms, which might be more appropriate.

“A singer might feel vibration in their chest when they sing, so calling it chest voice makes more sense than saying Mechanism 1.

“But if you’re talking to an ENT or voice therapist or reading research papers, it’s helpful to understand some of the other terms.”

Consider the context

While it’s good to have as much voice knowledge as possible, you don’t have to share it with everyone all the time.

“I always ask the question: Is it useful? For example, while I understand the mechanism system [which categorises the voice into four registers from M0 to M3] it’s not that useful when I teach.

“And I’m not sure a student needs to know all the anatomical terminology unless it’s something they’ve expressed an interest in.

“But when it comes to things like different types of belt, someone in musical theatre might need to know because they could be asked to perform many of these things.”

Most Common Singing Terms

Now, it’s time to test your knowledge. Here’s a guide to some of the most common singing terms used to describe the different vocal registers. How many do you know?

Fry, Mechanism 0, M0, pulse, creak, slack fold.

Chest voice, Mechanism 1, M1, low register, thick fold, speech, TA dominant, modal, heavy mechanism, muscle layer dominant vibration.

Head voice, Mechanism 2, M2, upper register, CT dominant, thin fold, falsetto, adducted falsetto, ligament layer dominant vibration.

Flute, whistle tone, falsetto.

Learn more

Listen to the full podcast interview with Line, where she also discusses:

• • Tips on understanding vocal anatomy.

• • Why falsetto is a confusing term (you’ll notice that it appears twice on the list of singing terms above, why? Tune in to find out).

Study with BAST Training

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