Ear Laterality and Perception of Tone

The inequality between the right and left ear in regard to the active processing of sound was the subject of my last post. This post will focus on the perceptual difference between the ears as experienced by the singer and listener.

I use the word "active" in the paragraph above for a specific reason: there is a great difference between passive hearing and active listening. The singer, violinist and pianist, doesn't just sit back and judge their performance after it comes forth. Something much more interesting and complex takes place. For singers, this means listening to the tone before it comes out of the mouth. A young student recently said something which illustrates the  point.

"I realized something since my last lesson: I have to hear what I am doing before I do it!

What did I have him do that resulted in this realization? Work on specific vowel exercises and scales, his listening ability became refined over time—just as the ear does when learning a foreign language.

This is where the agency of the ears becomes involved in terms of laterality.

Singing that is regulated by the right ear feels very different than singing that is regulated by the left. The more the right ear leads under the influence of [i], the more the tone seems to surround the body in a nimbus of tone and have a higher placement.

The more the left ear leads under the influence of [u], the closer it seems to the body and placed at the level of the mouth.

Broadcasters often use the left ear to regulate their voices as do some male operatic singers, use of the left ear giving the speaking and singer the impression of warmth and fullness. However, singers who exhibit a left leading ear never sound as present as those who use the right ear to lead the voice.

Of key important: It is useless to tell the student to "get the voice out there," or "put it forward!" There is no direct, mechanical way of making this perception come about.

What must the singer or speaking do instead?

To put matters simply: The student must work on their vowels, taking every vowel from very forward /i/.

This is what the Old School taught. This is what awakens the right ear, which, according to Tomatis, processes higher frequencies faster than the left ear.

Photo of the Stirriup within the middle ear which is connected to the tiniest muscle in the body—the Stapedius, which is neurologically connected to the facial muscles and the thin muscle covering the throat—the platysma. See “The Ear and the Voice” for detailed information.