Singing is becoming a worldwide phenomenon (well…it always kind of was!) But if you’ve watched shows like American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent and any of the other zillions of shows like them, you’ve probably realized that we humans love the sound of the singing voice! The act of singing is liberating, exciting and frees us from the boredom of our daily routines for brief and magical moments where we can express ourselves with our entire bodies culminating in the sounds of our voices.
But, how exactly do you sing, anyway? Perhaps you’re interested in singing pop music, rock or classical music? Would you do the same things and learn the same things as a jazz singer would? There are countless categories in music that all have their own particular requirements for the singing voice.
Is there a “universal” vocal technique that applies to all genres of music? The truth is that a lot of the nuances of a given style of music depend on the voice functioning a certain way. If you’re a runner, for example, you can’t be expected to lift heavy weights like a weight lifter and he can’t be expected to run a marathon! The same kind of parallel exists in singing.
Even so, some rules of singing transcend genre and constitute good singing regardless of style. Of course, each person has to play around with the intricacies of their voice to discover the most effective ways to use it to give them the kinds of sounds they want and the freedom to function without restrictions.
In my many years of singing, teaching and performing, I’ve discovered that the top singers in every genre usually had classical (operatic) voice lessons at some point in their lives. This classical training usually consists of learning and performing opera arias and art songs with a professionally trained opera teacher. Just as doing resistance exercise will help competitors in ANY sport, learning the fundamentals of classical technique will help a singer in ANY genre by building a solid technical foundation.
That’s simply because classical vocal training has been evolving for hundreds of years and is rooted in extensive vocal research, performance and teaching experience. The point of classical operatic voice isn’t to turn everybody into an operatic singer, but rather to instill the fundamentals of vocal freedom and proper function in a singer. That way, any style they sing in the future will come from a solid technical position.
Probably the most important task that a newcomer to classical vocal training undertakes is to drop the larynx and keep it low while he/she sings. The larynx, also known as the voice box or adam’s apple is the little bump on the front of your throat (women have these too…although they’re smaller!) Too many singers overlook this all important rule. If you put your hand on your throat and yawn, you’ll feel the larynx drop. Now your job is to keep it down in this low and stationary position throughout the duration of your sung notes. You can allow it to return to a neutral position in between phrases. This sounds easy but it can take up to a year to “tame” the larynx, especially if you’ve developed bad vocal habits in the past.
If you can handle the larynx position issue, you’ll be way ahead of the game than most singers. In fact, you’ll begin observing some very noticeable changes in your voice. You’ll sing louder, more in tune, with more warmth, more balance and more control. The reason for this is because the muscles of the voice were built to function in this manner and it’s our job to reset these muscles after a lifetime of bad vocal habits. Once you’re doing this regularly, you’ll probably be pretty surprised at the sound of your voice and how far you’ve come. And you’ll also appreciate how difficult opera singing is, even if you never do it yourself!
If you’re interested in finding out more about opera singing, check out this site on how to sing opera.
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