Singing: Working With Nature and Not Against It.
Singing is such a vulnerable Art.
It is capable of touching us profoundly, perhaps more than any other art form. But exactly because it is based on physiological balance and therefore requires fine-tuning and sensitivity, singing is in jeopardy of being easily distorted and eventually destroyed by that same vulnerability.
This is what has happened over the past fifty years and now the situation is practically out of control.
There are hundreds of “singing methods”, and most, if not all, are haphazzard and incorrect, not to mention harmful.
Singers are struggling, and sometimes — too often — they are hurting their throats.
Careers, even the most “successful” ones (we will leave that for another discussion), are often cut short.
Many children’s voices are being ruined, sometimes for life.
If we don’t say anything, then what good are we, as educators?
We are active in our work with singers, and now, we now have a very small YouTube channel.
Only four films so far, but it’s a start.
It is our hope that our little channel will help us to stimulate and continue active discussions about singing and vocal culture.
On our channel, there is a little documentary about our work.
Then, there are three videos.
The videos are entitled, “Let’s Discuss How Singing Has Changed”.
A tiny contribution at the moment, but there will be more.
Here is Part 1: https://youtu.be/ktAbM4qMlgs
Comments have been coming in. We are delighted to read them, even the negative ones. We want to start talking!
Not surprisingly, some singers came to our channel in order to get “quick fix” tricks for their voices, because, sadly, that is what they are used to, now.
Those people expressed disappointment and sometimes even anger at discovering that , having dedicated most of our lives to researching the physiology of the voice and to lovingly teaching singing and repairing voices, we don’t supply quick fixes and tricks on a five-minute video so that a singer can then “miraculously” achieve that extra high note or sound effect or volume.
That’s nonsense.
In fact, it could even be called criminal, but we will leave that for another discussion, too.
A recent question about our videos interested us enough that we thought we’d write about it here:
“…chatting with friends last night about this. We love singing karaoke so it isn’t formal but we sing a lot! I was never trained until this past year after vocal damage (tiny nodes, fun). And the journey is worth it, as I learn how to sing strain free. The question we asked was: what do you do with genres like metal music, death metal, etc.? (we sing mostly pop, rock, rnb, musicals, etc. But Metallica sometimes makes an entrance in our karaoke stints) I say the music would have to change. It isn’t a terrible thing. It just creates a different structure.”
That is not a bad question.
We thought it might be a conversation starter, so let’s start with this:
Singing is natural, but it does require coordination.
As we point out in video Part 3, healthy newborn babies are perfectly equipped with the proper coordination for singing.
https://youtu.be/V6FdnahgZo0
SOME people are able to retain this coordination naturally into adulthood and sing without stress.
This depends on a number of factors.
We can like the music we like, for whatever reason.
But we can’t “choose” what is healthy for the voice.
We have to understand and discuss a few things:
One, that every organism of the body, including the vocal instrument, has physical limitations, dictated by nature.
Two, that there are many “sound-styles” today that have become popular and therefore many people want to sing that way, but they are actually based on imbalance from the get-go.
Three, that we can like the music we like, for whatever reason.
But we can’t “choose” what is healthy for the voice.
We have worked with many, many singers and actors, helping them to approach a myriad of vocal styles and vocal characters when necessary, including how to change the voice radically for a part, how to rant, yell and so on. There are ways, but we are all subject to certain basic physiological laws, which must be thoroughly understood and deeply respected.
We occasionally read or hear comments about how an instrumentalist “looks passionate” if they seem to be sweating and bending over their instruments, but in singing today, it really seems that visible physical “effort” is considered a good thing, as if the singer were demonstrating just how hard they are working for the public.
The problem is, all of that visible effort is demonstrating what is going on inside, and what is going on is struggle and tension, which, it goes without saying, gets in the way of coordination and balance. The singer will notice this in many ways, sometimes muscular tensions and discomfort will show up even in a lack of physical coordination — walking and singing, being able to turn the head freely while singing, or just (gasp!) standing still and relaxed and singing — not to mention when dealing with (for example) easy, clear words, intonation, various pitches, and so on…
If singers make the mistake of believing that throwing themselves into the music will magically compensate for the lack of balance, the reality is another: the larynx and vocal folds and muscles simply cannot manage everything.
The human body is amazing: our muscles and nerves can often find new ways to cope with imbalance, sort of like a person who learns to tie a ribbon in a bow using only two fingers, if that’s all they’ve got. It’s not impossible but it’s a little more complex, and it requires other muscles to learn new functions and stand in for the missing parts, and it can be exhausting.
This is exactly what happens in the voice when it is off-balance: help is needed, so tension pops up all over the place.
An unbalanced approach to the voice, “in the moment”, accompanied by other performance skills, might “feel okay” to the singer and get a reaction from the audience and therefore be gratifying to the ego of the performer, blinding them to the true risk involved.
When it gets bad enough the audience might notice as well, but there may be some people, most likely with a less-discerning musical ear, who will be convinced that everything is just fine if the performer is able to somehow — through forcing or manipulating the voice — “get the notes”, or has acting skills or has charisma or a strong presence, or is particularly good looking, or…even worse, that same public may be impressed when the struggle becomes the act and those defects become a “style”, to be imitated by others.
and therefore many people want to sing that way,
but they are actually based on imbalance.
And that’s where the question, above, comes in: when is it too much?
We welcome your contributions, thoughts and comments.
newvoicestudiobrillapaglin©
