Nasality

Dear Ms Lang,
I am a lyric tenor. At agency auditions I got the feedback that I sing very nasally. My professor (a former baritone) says that tenors always have to have a nasal part. Could you please explain to me what nasality is all about.
Thank you very much!
H.D.*

Dear Mr. D.,
there are some singing teachers who let sing nasal. I also know colleagues, and not only in the tenor field, who, for example, start a few notes nasal for the passaggio and then sing oral again. This procedure takes the pressure off the singing apparatus.
I would like to clarify the terms:
I do not want to consider pathological terms such as open, closed or mixed nasality here, since your question is clearly about conscious vocal sound management.
Nasal means that the sound goes through the nose. In oral singing, the sound flows through the mouth. This can easily be verified by manually closing the nose with the hands.
- Say or sing n, m or ng and hold your nose. The sound will stop. You sing/speak nasal.
- Say or sing /gii/, /ba/, /ku/ and hold your nose. The sound should continue to sound as these syllables are formed oral.
The switch is made by the velum. In a way, it functions like a door that opens or closes access from the pharynx to the nasal cavity. In the case of French nasals (i.e. vowels in combination with an /n/, for example), it is more or less open. ("Un bon vin blanc.")
The narrow nasal passages, equipped with cilia, act as a mute. The sound becomes quieter. This allows the singer to use the lowering of the soft palate to create a decrescendo. The easiest way to do this is with an /ng/ at the end of the decrescendo. Conversely, a crescendo can be achieved by raising the soft palate. This is one way to create a messa di voce.

The function of the velopharyngeal sphincter, which closes the passage to the posterior pharyngeal wall with a soft palate and uvula during the swallowing process, is a protective function of the autonomic nervous system to prevent food or liquids from entering the nose. During the swallowing process, access to the lungs is also closed to prevent food or fluids from interfering with vital breathing. The epiglottis lowers, the pocket folds constrict and the vocal folds close tightly. A fourfold closure to protect the airways: soft palate, epiglottis, pouch folds and vocal folds.
It is important to "overcome" this protective reflex when singing and to learn that there is no danger whatsoever from any penetrating objects. The autonomic nervous system must recognise that there is no danger in singing and that the velum closes the nasopharynx in order to produce the personal, individual sound. In addition, the False Vocal Folds must be kept wide so that the True Vocal Folds can vibrate optimally, the aryepiglottic space must be narrowed in an adapted manner to enable the carrying capacity through Squillo necessary for classical singing, and the laryngeal height must be adjusted according to the pitch and the desired darker sound. This requires an effort if only to overcome reflexes of the autonomic nervous system.
Once again, the lowering of the velum is associated with the widening of the False Vocal Folds, i.e. the pressure is taken out of the singing apparatus. This can be absolutely useful for practising or in stressful situations when it is necessary to protect the True Vocal Folds and vocal production. I.e. one practices a phrase e.g. on /ng/ to remember a high seat and then tries to sing the phrase with this "high seat" with raised velum. This will allow for an individual, sustaining vocal sound.
Bass singers often protect themselves with nasality. Due to the long Vocal tract, the larynx position is already relatively low. If the tongue is now used to lower the larynx, the velum is slightly lowered by the muscular connection of tongue and soft palate, which provokes a loss of sound through the nose. Here it is necessary to exercise the muscles that lift the soft palate in order to activate the velopharnygeal sphincter.  This stretching of muscles involves some effort and is therefore often avoided: with the aforementioned tonal results and loss of carrying capacity.
In summary, this means: A nasal sound is a muffled sound that deprives the singer of carrying capacity. Training the velum is important for singers to use consciously. My old teacher Ingrid Bjoner quoted her teacher Paul Lohmann who said "that one should sing with the nose but not in the nose".
Sincerely
Yours
Petra Lang