Vocals/voice n the vocabulary I use to teach singing, a well-balanced technique means a balance of phonation and airflow, supported by good alignment and skillfulbreath management. The best and most comfortable way to create a straight tone involves emphasizing phonation and breath management while de-emphasizing airflow. It's a decidedly unbalanced application of your technique. But this is only a problem if you haven't established a well-balanced technique as your default or fail to vocalize in a balanced way while preparing to sing in an unbalanced way. However, there are any number of other ways to produce a straight tone that compromise overall vocal quality, intonation, range and flexibility. Most involve deliberately adducting or abducting the vocal folds so that they do not proximate and vibrate entirely freely. Adduction will produce an exaggeratedly heavy sound that will only work within a fairly limited, low range and result in a feeling of strain. Abduction will yield a weak, breathy tone and make sustaining long notes and phrases nearly impossible. Singing with either of these approaches puts you at eventual risk for developing nodules or cysts on your vocal folds. f you want to become the best singer you can be, mastering vocal technique is only part of the job. You must build your instrument while learning how to play it. Some parts of your instrument will be built almost entirely in the practice room and studio. For example, vocal exercises all but suffice to strengthen, stretch and coordinate the parts of your anatomy responsible for articulation and resonance. However, many other components can only be developed through a fitness regimen aimed at creating and optimizing them. These components include alignment, stamina, and crucial aspects of breath management. Optimal physical health and coordination. Singing requires a combination of strength, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, excellent alignment, fluid movement, and freedom from chronic muscular tension. Heightened kinesthetic awareness. The major components and mechanisms comprising the singing voice are internal and very difficult to see or sense. Effectively training breath coordination, phonation, articulation and resonance demands keen awareness of subtle internal movements and processes. Heightened mental focus. The voice responds to your intention to communicate and your spontaneous creative impulses. Strong powers of concentration are essential for keeping your focus on the process of creation and communication and away from internal distractions (e.g. desire to assess your own work) and external distractions (the audition panel, audience, unexpected things happening elsewhere on stage, etc.). Seamless mind/body integration. Singing is an all-encompassing endeavor of mind, heart, spirit and body. The most moving performances occur when the singer is able to channel feelings and ideas through their physical instrument with effortless immediacy and vulnerability. A progressive, highly structured technique. Developing a voice of professional quality, wide range, power, stamina, agility and beauty requires a comprehensive method, with exercises designed to target individual aspects of technique and coordinate them together. There should be a basic hierarchy of skills that build one upon the other, as well as strategies for addressing specific areas of weakness or poor coordination. An objective means of assessing progress. At all stages of development, students should work towards well-defined goals and benchmarks and understand how the processes they're engaging in will lead to the results they want.