Introduction to Singing

 

INTRODUCTION TO SINGING

Before starting, I'd like to make a brief explanation about the use of the voice as a communication instrument. The voice is the most significative device that the human being possesses to express himself, and, because it is inside the body, any factor affecting our personality and way of being, our physic and psychic, will influence our instrument. That’s why it is very different to make music with the voice than making it with any other object external to our body (even with all the studies that try to make the instruments an “elongation” or projection of the body members). Singing is utilising the voice in a musical or artistic way, I mean: using the voice exploring new sonorities to express something. There are many people who make notes with their voices, but singing not only means possessing a spectacular technique or having the ability to tune precisely all the existing notes; fundamentally singing implies an inner sensitivity that not everybody has developed: not only the technique makes the artist, but only his/her capacity of feeling and transmitting. You can always learn the technique, but there are many factors that intervene in the education of a good singer: the daily life, social relations, anxieties, worries, dreams, way of speaking, food and nutrition, loneliness, suffering, emotions, passions... in short, the musicality.

As a piece of advice for the learning singer, I’d like to highlight a couple of points that you must have in mind. It appears strange at the beginning to have the awareness of what is inside of us since we exist, something that we never pay attention to; it seems like another world to check how different sensations are waking up inside ourselves, those same sensations we usually don’t give notice to. When I had my first singing lesson at the age of 13, my teacher used to tell me “you have to feel in this or that other way the sensation of the air in the lungs”, it was like if I was in a class of ancient Sanskrit, but at the same time it was the birth of something new for me. It is beautiful to discover little by little that you can do whatever you want with your body, increasing its awareness and possibilities as far as you let your mind go. That’s why I encourage everybody not to be shy and experiment, because this level of risk is gonna enrich you professionally and personally. It is also very important do not expect things to happen in a certain way, because thus we’re imposing something into our body and giving it pre-judgements. The voice has to flow naturally, it’s better slowly and taking time than “wanting-to” notice quickly results you can’t get without previous work.

Concluding, learning how to dominate our voice is a matter of time, dedication, letting go and a lot of love. It is worth it.

Filed Under: Singing Basics Singing Music