VOICE, THE ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT

Before there were any instruments made by the hands of humans, there was the original instrument, our voice. Our voice is possibly the most emotional of all the instruments. To be more specific, I think the voice has the greatest ability to stir emotions within the listener. We can all immediately identify with a voice, rather than a man-made instrument. Plus, the voice can actually make words that have meaning. This is just my humble opinion. Some people say that music that is played without words is the best stirrer of emotions, due to the fact that the man-made instrumental sounds can express things beyond words. I can understand that point of view too. Here is one of my favorite singers, Jeff Buckley. Let's see if this song strikes a certain chord with your emotions...it does for me.

To develop a good singing voice, here are some things to consider. These are techniques that most vocal instructors will work on: Vocal exercises - Vocal exercises have several purposes, including warming up the voice; extending the vocal range; "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically; and acquiring vocal techniques such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals comfortably, singing trills, singing melismas and correcting vocal faults.

The voice is an amazingly adaptable instrument. One thing that cannot be said about most man-made instruments is that they can play in any genre. The voice can sing in any genre of music, although there are different techniques to be learned depending on the style you want to pursue.

To learn more about singing, take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music.

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz