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YOUR
REAL VOICE - the vocal ezine for real people
October
17,
2006 #32
FEATURE EDITORIAL
Full
vs. Pretty, Part 2
Let's pick
up where we left off last time on the answer to the question:
"Is it better to start out singing subdued and pretty and then over
time add more and more volume to the voice? Or is it better
to learn to sing out (full-voiced) and trust that over time the
controlled, pretty tone will come? I know people who sound
beautiful and have sung for years, yet their voices are so faint.
Others have taken lessons and say they started out rough and then
gained control over time. Their voices are beautiful and can
be heard even without a microphone."
Here the reminder of the "ground rules" from last time:
1) Everything I am writing in this article is based solely on my
experience.
2) That experience is both as a voice student for twenty years
and a voice teacher for twelve.
3) What another voice teacher says about this topic may differ
wildly from what I have to say. That's fine. We all would
have our own reasons and explanations for why we have these opinions,
and they would all be valid, though different.
4) What works in one voice doesn't always work, or work quite the
same, in another voice.
I will start off with the topic of "big voice vs. little voice" that I
started last time, but here is a new direction that I have never
written about here in YRV. Genetics and the physical factors that
make up your body and make you unique actually have a LOT to do with
the "size" of your voice, and in ways that you may not have
considered. There are particular body sizes and shapes that
generally have the same kinds of voices. Think guitar strings
here. The longer, thicker strings make heavier and lower
sounds. Same with the voice. A man who's 6' 2" tall and
weighs 200 pounds will have a much lower and more resonant voice than a
little girl. There resonators and lungs are a completely
different size. Their larynx is also in a different growth
phase. Where this tends to frustrate people is that they may
think a big body means "big loud high notes." Nope! Not
unless the voice has been developed a lot. A large body,
especially with a big barrel chest usually means a somewhat lower
voice. These are generalizations, but there is a pattern to body
size and type and predictable vocal range.
Another thing to consider in the genetics area is that some people have
great resonating capacity on the INSIDE, where you can't see.
They have terrific body coordination in their head and placement and
need very little work on their voices to have great sound. (Those
people all drove me nuts when I was studying voice and knocking myself
out to get decent sound. They just rolled out of bed with an
already-great voice. So UNFAIR!) The coordination of
breathing and placement and relaxation can vary greatly from person to
person. Some people have an easier time relaxing than
others. Some have an easier time relaxing into making sound and
their throat is open. All these things factor into how a voice
responds to learning technique. How generally relaxed a person is
has a lot to do with how their voices operate. Really tense
students have more trouble singing well than really relaxed
students. This also factors into the "trying hard"
phenomenon. The harder they "try" to relax, the more it doesn't
work. That all has a big effect on tone, resonance and how free
the voice is.
When I read this part of the question: "is it better to learn to
sing out (full-voiced) and trust that over time the controlled, pretty
tone will come?" I am wondering if she is asking "should I just sing
and not care about volume at first." I say YES, and there's a
reason that may seem very different than some of the things I've
written in the past, but there's a very specific reason for that.
I always START from "be relaxed and notice how it FEELS to sing."
In other words, don't listen to yourself! Let yourself feel your
voice working at its best and its happiest! Feel what it feels
like to sing FREELY before getting concerned about trying to alter
anything. Let that voice OUT and let it run free first, and enjoy
THAT for a while!
Singing "full-voiced" and pushing to sing loud, or over-singing, are
VERY different. As a teacher, I am always on the look out for
those. Singing full out, so that the body is relaxed, the throat
is open and the tone is free usually will produce a very beautiful
tone. It will be more volume than a really practiced pianissimo,
but I'm a little worried about trying to produce a "controlled, pretty"
tone before technique is REALLY learned. Let the tone be free
first! That's the most important thing. Singing in a very
quiet and controlled tone comes from better breath support and is a
pretty advanced technique, so I don't expect someone to be able to do
great soft singing until they have really learned how to do louder
stuff. It takes way more breath support to sing correctly in a
quiet tone than it does to sing in a loud tone.
I definitely want you to email me if you have any questions or comments
about this article, as this can be a sticky and controversial
topic. Send any comments or questions to
info@sing-in-tune.com and I will be happy to respond.
YOUR
REAL VOICE is the best vocal e-zine for real people! It is a
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Contact Athena by e-mail at info@sing-in-tune.com
or learn how to sing
perfectly in tune at her web site at www.Sing-In-Tune.com
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