Singing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry Belafonte singing, photograph by C. van Vechten

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, which is often contrasted with speech. Air is expelled with the diaphragm as with ordinary breathing, and the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming. A piece of music with a singing part, either a cappella or accompanied, is called a song; someone who sings is called a singer.

Most singing involves shaping the voice to form words, but types of voice instrumental music which use open sounds or nonsense syllables ("vocalizes") also exist, for instance, scat singing and yodeling. Solfege assigns certain syllables to notes in the scale.

Nearly anyone who can speak can sing, since in many respects singing is merely sustained speech. It can be informal and just for pleasure, for example, singing in the shower; or it can be very formal, such as singing done professionally as a performance or in a recording studio. Singing at a high amateur or professional level usually requires a great deal of regular practice, and/or instruction. Top-quality singers will have instruction and training from coaches throughout their career.

According to Alfred Alexander (formally an ENT consultant to the home office), "a singer is a person of adequate musicality, who is gifted with a voice of such power and beauty that competent judges can recommend singing as a career". Alexander believes that 1 in 50,000 in the UK possess such gifts, which means in England (800,000 births a year average) 16 people are born with such a voice a year, making 500 "first class voices" active in any particular generation (taken as 30 years) at any one time.^[1]

Singing is often done in a group, such as a choir, and may be accompanied by musical instruments, a full orchestra, or a band. Singing with no instrumental accompaniment is called a cappella.

At the highest professional level it is imperative that singers continuously practice with drills, voice exercises and strengthening activities and that without constant practice, a singer's range can be significantly decreased, requiring extra rehearsal to regain the voice's previous capability, much in the same way as any professional level musician must practice constantly with their instrument. However singing is a very natural activity and this kind of intensive practice is not usually necessary for most singers especially outside the field of classical music and where amplification is available, or for semi-professional singers.

1 Techniques
2 Footnotes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Techniques

See also Vocal technique.

Human voice is usually considered to have at least three voice registers; ranging from lowest to highest, they are the: chest register, head register, and falsetto. (The whistle register, comprising the highest notes that a human voice can reach, is also often considered a proper register, although individuals who are able to use it well are fairly rare.) Some singers choose to remain in a single range (usually the chest register) throughout a piece, but many will switch between these different ranges in order to produce a wide range of pitches, or even simply for effect. Yodelling is a technique that requires rapidly switching between at least two different registers many times in the same phrase, producing a distinct high-low-high-low sound.

Vibrato is a technique used by singers (and many instrumentalists. For instance, string instruments that are played with a bow can produce vibrato tones) in which a sustained note actually wavers very quickly and consistently between a very slightly higher and a lower pitch, giving the note a slight quaver. Vibrato is the pulse or wave in a sustained tone.

Vibrato adds richness to the tone. Vibrato is the result of proper breath support. Some singers use vibrato as a means of expression. Many successful artists have built a career on deep, rich vibrato ability.

A melisma occurs when a singer switches pitch while singing the same syllable. It is used heavily in baroque vocal music, as well as to a somewhat lesser extent in popular music.

A vocal warm-up is usually required before the vocal chords are expected to perform at its full potential. Proper breathing technique is also a key factor in singing correctly.