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A question I receive from many young voice students is "What is vibrato, and is it a good thing?"
First, the technical answer: Vibrato is simply the oscillation of pitch in a human voice. Even though you may be singing a certain pitch, all voices make slight pulsations above and below the target pitch. Is vibrato desirable? The answer: most of the time. First, while vibrato is a naturally occurring phenomenon in the human voice, the rate of vibrato determines how 'attractive' we find the vibrato. The desired rate of vibrato is somewhere between 5-7 'beats' per second. Anything slower than that tends to sound like a wobble, with wide variations in pitch that distract from the beauty of the sound. A much rarer form of vibrato is a very fast rate, and has the same undesirable effects. Should vibrato be consciously produced? Not initially. Vibrato begins mostly in high school students, when the voice has matured enough to produce vibrato. Even after that, vibrato should never be the focus, as a well-supported, free voice will naturally produce an even vibrato on its own. Only on occasions will addressing vibrato directly be necessary. Vibrato does vary depending on the musical genre, though all choral, musical, and classical singers should strive for a clean, even vibrato. DWS The central theme of most of these posts is to discuss vocal technique and how the voice 'works'. However, there are times when thinking about the mechanics of vocal production actually inhibit good vocal production. I find this occurs most often with advanced students, who already know and understand the basics but start to 'overfix' little technical issues. By overdoing the fix, they start to feel tension in other parts of their body and may find it more difficult to sing well.
When this occurs, I use several different teaching tools to increase the student's vocal ability without addressing the actual mechanics of the voice. The most effective is focusing on the 'acting' or 'emotions' of the piece. Acting creates another focus for the student and allows their body to 'relax' by not concentrating so hard on their vocal mechanism that the student introduces tension to their voice. It also has the enormous side benefit of increasing the student's musicality and acting technique, as the most successful singers are often strong, effective actors. Another teaching tool is the use of imagery, placement, and physical gestures to create a sound. Many of these teaching tools do not have an actual 'scientific' explanation behind their use, but through years of teaching and my own personal experience as a student, I find are as useful to teaching as knowing the actual mechanics behind strong singing. Knowing when to use which tool is the job of a voice teacher. DWS IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet. It is essentially a way to learn how to pronounce any sound in any language, using only the IPA letters. Most of the alphabet is self-evident; a 't' sounds like a [t] in English, for instance, but IPA becomes extremely helpful for sounds in foreign languages that we just do not have in English.
Of even more benefit then learning how to pronounce foreign languages is that IPA can become a quick way to discuss modification of vowels for high notes. In a previous blog, I discussed how vowels have to be modified in order to project high notes, and to be more specific, MOST people benefit from thinking of a more 'closed' vowel for high notes. IPA provides a lexicon on the difference and progression of 'open' to 'closed' vowels. As an example, the [E] in bed is an open vowel; try to sing that vowel sound on a high note, however, and you most likely will end with a weak or unintelligible vowel sound. By simply going to a more closed vowel, the [e] in cake, those high notes become far easier to produce. DWS When I was progressing through my undergrad, I was very skeptical that my music theory courses - learning how to analyze and understand how music works through harmony, chord progressions, larger musical forms etc - was necessary.
While I still rely on my own imagination and hearing to decide on how the character feels, I have learned that music theory is a wonderful tool to understand the composer's intentions and give guidance to your acting choices. Point in case: Richard Rogers' "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music is a simple, yet brilliant work in which the composition itself determines your acting choice. It starts in E minor (minor keys sound sad to our ears). However, all the tell-tale signs of a minor key do not show up until halfway through the first page. At the end of the third page, Rogers starts the transition to a major key, G Major. However, he does this so gradually that we do not 'hear' the switch until late at the end. By doing so, Rodgers is essentially telling the actor that Maria is struggling to overcome her sadness for most of the piece, and only achieves success until the end of her song. By his own composition, Rodgers informs the actor how she should proceed emotionally through the piece. DWS If you have been wondering why I have not posted for such a long time...I have been without Internet in my home for a week! Long story short, AT&T dug a big hole in the backyard, but we are good to go now! I wanted to let everyone know that I am the lead role in an upcoming musical, The Man Who Studied Fear, presented by Lone Star Lyric Theater this upcoming weekend, Friday June 24th and Sunday June 26th. The story is based on a Grimm's fairy tale, and is completely appropriate for children. We are playing along with two other shows on the same night. In addition, two different shows are presented on Saturday, June 25th and Monday, June 27th, that are also great. All the necessary information is below, and you can visit www.lonestarlyric.org or click the picture below to purchase tickets, look at the shows and cast list, past seasons, and so forth. All the pieces presented are NEW WORKS. I promise it will be a great night! DWS  "The Core" was a disaster movie release a few years ago, starring Aaron Eckhart. While it was not a must-see movie, the solution to Earth's demise provides a great visual explanation on how and what resonance is.
In "The Core", a crew has to set off a nuclear explosion in the Earth's core to 'restart' Earth's spinning, thereby saving the planet (a bit unbelievable, but most disaster movies are). Of course, once the crew arrives at Earth's core, they discover their calculations were off and they do not have enough bomb to restart the Earth. The solution they arrive upon is based on resonance: instead of one big explosion, they will carefully time several explosions to go over. Like ripples in the water, the bombs' blasts reinforce each other and create a larger effect. Vocal resonance is essentially the same as the nuclear blasts in "The Core". As we produce sound, the vibrations travel through our vocal tract, and by shaping the tract, we reinforce the vibrations to create a large, resonant sound. This is part of how singers can project over an orchestra (I will explain the other reason in another post). So yes, you can tell your friends - my voice teacher uses a bad disaster movie to explain singing! DWS A often quoted survey states that far more people list "speaking in public" as their number one fear, even beating "fear of dying!"
As singing and speaking are almost the same thing, it is no wonder so many people are terrified to sing in front of their peers, judges etc... While I have addressed ways to calm your nerves in a previous blog post, I wanted to write about an extraordinary experience just this week. At Clear Creek Intermediate, approximately 20 6th to 8th grade students sang a song, memorized, with piano, in front of their parents and fellow students. As any performer will tell you, the hardest group to sing for is family, as we want to excel for them and do not want them to judge us harshly, as we see them on a daily basis. Not only did every SINGLE student perform their songs well, most were able to do so without showing the slightest hint of nerves. Those that did show some anxiety still made it through their whole song without stopping. I was truly astonished by the courage of these kids, who showed self-confidence and composure beyond their years. DWS PS To all the teachers and students -congratulations! Summer is here! First, a thanks to my Dad for inspiring this topic. My Dad, a chiropractor in the Dallas area, is also is involved with the Garland Summer Musicals. He isn't a professional singer/actor; he simply loves good theater and wanted to get involved.
This summer, he is singing in the barbershop quartet of the musical, The Music Man. A few days ago, I got a call from Dad, asking for some advice on how to sing the high notes. While there is some general advice I could give him, I had to tell him that as a voice teacher, I really need to hear someone sing in person to give tailored and specific advice to address any technical issue. Just as one goes through several diagnostic tests at a doctor's office before the root of the problem is discovered, a good voice teacher has a series of vocal exercises to help discover the root of one's singing troubles. Once the cause is uncovered, a voice teacher can design exercises and new ways of singing to address and eliminate the technical difficulty. DWS Dear students,
Please note that my business line has changed to 832-499-3078. I will be posting more regularly now that most of the recitals have been completed. Congratulations to all my voice students who sang so beautifully in their respective recitals. It takes a lot of courage to sing in public and I am so proud of everyone! DWS Due to several student recitals (tonight, next Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then another on the following Tuesday!), my own teaching schedule, and a musical I need to prepare for in June, I will be posting erratically for the next few weeks.
Break a leg to all my students, and I hope everyone comings to the new musical, The Man Who Studied Fear, in June. The musical is based on a Grimm's fairy tale, so it is very cool! DWS |
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