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I figured I’d go straight to writing an article about buzz and air flow (its best friend), since the chances of me talking about it over and over again on the blog are as high as the chances of me finishing the cake if you leave it on the table.
Let’s begin with... the beginning!
In the body, before the magical production of sound by your voice, there is silence (or almost; we do not count the sound of your breath, the rumbling of the belly, and all the other incredible sounds that the body produces by itself).
To express itself using the voice, the body uses some folds located in the throat, behind your Adam’s apple (everyone has an "Adam’s apple", even if it is more prominent in men). It’s the vocal folds!
Below, you can see them in action: they are the two moving white strips.
When the person is breathing, they move away from each other so that the air can make its way to the lungs, and when the person sings a note, you see the vocal cords vibrating and rippling over each other.
As soon as there is vibration and closure of the vocal folds, there is voice! The vocal folds vibrate because they move into a position of resistance to the air that comes out of your lungs and out of your body. When they do not resist air, it is a simple exhalation phase, without sound, without voice.
If they resist, they will vibrate and close.
The vibration of the vocal folds during the production of the sound (the phonation) is the buzz.
The air that escapes from your lungs by encountering at least one resistance (for example, your vocal folds or your lips when you make the sound "FFFFFFFFF"), is the airflow.
The buzz is impossible without airflow, and the airflow, if we stick to a vocal definition, would have no meaning without buzz (it would just be breath escaping from your mouth).
Now, to experience a free and healthy singing, we need to balance these two entities, such as a YIN and a YANG of vocal balance!
