‘Make your own kind of music,’ Cass Elliot exhorted us in her joyful ode to being true to yourself, and it could easily serve as the motto for Lauren Elkin’s new book, Vocal Break. Although we think of singing as the natural expression of our true personalities, it is in fact nothing of the sort. Especially, it turns out, if we happen to be women. 

The vocal break is what happens when the voice changes register, from chest voice to head voice. There is a hitch, a scratchy, raspy non-sound. The passaggio, as it’s also known, is what interests Elkin. It is a strange in-between place, out of control of the singer; ‘this sort of crying place,’ she calls it. 

In the classical tradition, the idea is simply to do away with it as much as possible. When Elkin trained as a young soprano, aiming for a career in musical theatre, she was taught that, with the right breathing, the right technique, it would be possible to smooth the passaggio