Singing with Resonance

"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