Singing as a Hobby

Singing – we all do it, don’t we?  In the shower, the car, when no one is listening, we sing.  But take it up a notch and singing can be a fun and rewarding hobby.  In essence, singing is using the human voice as a musical instrument, and a very flexible instrument at that.  It’s the only form of music where there are words to give specific meaning, augmented by the melodies, tones, and rhythms used by other instruments.  Singing ranges from songs around a campfire to High Mass in a cathedral, and everywhere in between.  It is often accompanied by other vocalists (singers) or instruments.  Pretty much everyone can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ or “Row, Row, Row, your boat’, but singing as a hobby implies performing in public, and without a bit of basic knowledge extended singing can lead to issues from a simple sore throat to nodes on your vocal chords that may require surgery.  This article attempts to cover the basics of singing, including styles, techniques, health tips, and some general ideas on getting started in your new hobby.

Getting Started

While the basics of singing transcend musical genres, having a goal in mind can help kick start your hobby.  Keeping in mind both the type of music you like and the where you’d like to sing, choose a simple goal.  “I’d like to join my church/community choir” or “I’d like to enter a karaoke contest.  Joining a band and winning a Grammy can come later.

Find a class or a teacher, either in person or online.  You’ll want to have your goal in mind when selecting a class or teacher, if you want to sing country music an opera voice teacher will just frustrate you both.  The instructor will help prevent incorrect techniques that can ruin your singing voice. Investing in an experienced voice teacher is well worth the money. If your voice is weak, know that this is usually caused by under-developed muscles or improper use of the resonators (the pharynx, the mouth, and the nasal cavity). Muscles can be strengthened and with training you can learn how to use your resonators to project a powerful voice. Church and community choirs will often provide some basic level of instruction as well.  Even if you long term goal doesn’t include choral singing, the skills learned in a choir and the support of your fellow singers can be invaluable.  It’s often a great way to ease into public performance as well. The first lesson or two will typically include determining your vocal range and avoiding vocal injury.  A caveat here - almost anyone can learn to sing, but a small minority of people are tone deaf.  Tone deaf people cannot correctly match pitches by ear, even though they may enjoy listening to music played by others.  Even this isn’t necessarily a show stopper; it may just require additional time and effort to learn to pitch match.  This doesn’t affect the ability to play most instruments.  In fact, playing guitar or piano is a good way of working on pitch matching. Your vocal teacher (or choir leader) will probably start by teaching you vocal warm ups.  Vocal warm ups are essential, like any muscle in your body, your vocal chords need to stretch to avoid injury when you sing.  These warm ups often consist of scales or vocal drills, often rotating vowel sounds.

Breathing

Yes, you’ve been breathing your whole life, but to sing well you need proper breath control.  Eighty percent of proper singing begins and ends with proper breathing.  When breathing in, try to fill your lungs from the bottom up, let your stomach extend before your chest expands.  Breathing out, the stomach should contract first, then the chest.  This is breathing from your diaphragm, the muscle wall at the bottom of your chest.  The diaphragm is more powerful and controllable than the muscles that expand and contract your chest.

Natural breathing has three stages:  a breathing-in period, a breathing out period, and a resting or recovery period.  These stages are not usually consciously controlled. Within singing there are four stages of breathing:  breathing-in period (inhalation), a setting up controls period (suspension), a controlled exhalation period (phonation), and a recovery period. These stages must be under conscious control by the singer until they become conditioned reflexes. Many singers abandon conscious controls before their reflexes are fully conditioned, which ultimately leads to chronic vocal problems.

Posture

Stand tall with one foot slightly in front of the other one, feet shoulder width apart. This allows you to breathe easily and to allow maximum lung capacity to allow better notes and phrases. Stand up straight, shoulders back and down, floating over your torso. Make sure that your chest is high to give room for your lungs to expand and contract. Relax your jaw and your face. The singing process functions best when certain physical conditions of the body exist. The ability to move air in and out of the body freely and to obtain the needed quantity of air can be seriously affected by the posture of the various parts of the breathing mechanism. A sunken chest position will limit the capacity of the lungs, and a tense abdominal wall will inhibit the downward travel of the diaphragm. Good posture allows the breathing mechanism to fulfill its basic function efficiently without any undue expenditure of energy. Good posture also makes it easier to initiate sound and pitch because proper alignment prevents unnecessary tension in the body. Vocal pedagogists have also noted that when singers assume good posture it often provides them with a greater sense of self assurance and poise while performing. Audiences also tend to respond better to singers with good posture. Habitual good posture also ultimately improves the overall health of the body by enabling better blood circulation and preventing fatigue and stress on the body.

Components of good singing posture:

·         Head forward

·         Shoulders back

·         Back straight

·         Chest out

·         Feet slightly apart

If sitting, stick with this as much as feasible.  Sitting limits the ability to breathe deeply.

Enunciation

Words are truly nothing but a constant succession of vowels with consonants dropped in occasionally to create meaning. Keep in mind that you can’t hold most consonants or if you can they typically sound unpleasant (holding an “s” is effectively hissing).  If you are holding a word, make sure you’re holding the vowel sound and saving the consonant for last. In English there are very few pure vowels. Normally, we will encounter diphthongs which are two or more vowel sounds elided together. In classical singing, the singer will sustain the note on the first vowel and then say the second on the way to the final consonant. In country-style music, singers like to slide through the first vowel and elongate the second vowel on the sustained note. For example, whereas: a classical signer would sing "Am[aaaaaaai]zing Gr[aaaaaai]ce" and a country singer would sing "Am[aiiiiiii]zing Gr[aiiiiii]ce.” If you can, always sing the first vowel for as long as you can before letting the second vowel in.

Here are some pure vowels to practice with: AH as in "father", EE as in "eat", IH as in "pin", EH as in "pet", OO as in "food", UH as in "under", EU as in "could", OH as in "home." Try singing all of these vowels while maintaining your core sound, which is the resonance in the mask of the face. You can do this in many ways. Some examples of singing exercises that use vowels are just singing "mee may maw mow moo" and fluctuating the voice as you go. This warms your voice up and gives you practice with singing vowels.

Vibrato

Vibrato is used by singers and many instrumentalists (for instance, string instruments that are played with a bow usually employ vibrato).  It is created when a sustained note wavers very quickly and consistently between a higher and a lower pitch, giving the note a slight quaver. Vibrato is the pulse or wave in a sustained tone. Vibrato sometimes occurs naturally as the result of proper breath support and a relaxed vocal apparatus. For others, vibrato is learned and can be achieved through different methods. Some singers use vibrato as a means of expression for particular passages or certain notes. There are a range of types of vibrato, including a delicate, shallow vibrato and a deep, rich vibrato.

Projection

Voice projection is the strength of speaking or singing whereby the voice is used loudly and clearly. It is a technique which can be employed to demand respect and attention, such as when a teacher is talking to the class, or simply to be heard clearly, as an actor in a theatre. Breath technique is essential for proper voice projection. Whereas in normal talking one may use air from the top of the lungs, a properly projected voice uses air properly flowing from the expansion of the diaphragm. In good vocal technique, well-balanced respiration is especially important to maintaining vocal projection. The goal is to isolate and relax the muscles controlling the vocal folds, so that they are unimpaired by tension. The external intercostal muscles are used only to enlarge the chest cavity, while the counterplay between the diaphragm and abdominal muscles is trained to control airflow.

Stance, again, is also important, and it is recommended that you stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart and your upstage foot (right foot if right-handed,etc.) slightly forward. This improves your balance and your breathing. In singing, voice projection is often equated with resonance, the concentrated pressure through which one produces a focused sound. True resonance will produce the greatest amount of projection available to a voice by utilizing all the key resonators found in the vocal cavity. As the sound being produced and these resonators find the same overtones, the sound will begin to spin as it reaches the ideal singer's formant at about 2800 Hz. The size, shape, and hardness of the resonators all factor into the production of these overtones and ultimately determine the projective capacities of the voice.

Voices and Style

Keep in mind that vocal training is for all styles, not just for opera types.  Artists including Jennifer Lopez, Seal, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Axl Rose, and even Ozzy Osbourne have had voice training.  Voice training is there to help make your voice stronger, not necessarily to make you sound like Andrea Bocelli.

Singing without accompaniment is called ‘a cappella’, either solo (alone) or with other singers.  Most singing, though, is accompanied by other instruments.  This can range from accompanying oneself by playing the guitar while singing, to singing in a choir with dozens of other singers while accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

Voice Classifications

In European classical music and opera, voices are treated like musical instruments. Composers who write vocal music must have an understanding of the skills, talents, and vocal properties of singers. Voice classification is the process by which human singing voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types. These qualities include but are not limited to vocal range, vocal weight, vocal tessitura, vocal timbre, and vocal transition points such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal registration. The science behind voice classification developed within European classical music and has been slow in adapting to more modern forms of singing. Voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. There are currently several different systems in use within classical music including: the German Fach system and the choral music system, among many others. No system is universally applied or accepted.

Most classical musical systems, however, acknowledge seven different major voice categories. Women are typically divided into three groups: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. Men are usually divided into four groups: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. When considering voices of pre-pubescent children an eighth term, treble, can be applied. Within each of these major categories there are several sub-categories that identify specific vocal qualities like coloratura facility and vocal weight to differentiate between voices. It should be noted that within choral music, singer’s voices are divided solely on the basis of vocal range. Choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex (SATB, or soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). As a result, the typical choral situation affords many opportunities for misclassification to occur.  Since most people have medium voices, they must be assigned to a part that is either too high or too low for them; the mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and the baritone must sing tenor or bass. Either option can present problems for the singer, but for most singers there are fewer dangers in singing too low than in singing too high. In practice, if you join a choir or other group the group leader will check the range of your voice and assign you to the appropriate section.  If you are not part of larger group, it is still helpful to understand your range and be able to articulate it to your accompanists.  Accompanists can often adjust their playing to accommodate your vocal range.

Registers

A register in the human voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, and possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular arrange of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds.  The term "register" can be somewhat confusing ,as it encompasses several aspects of the human voice. The term register can be used to refer to any of the following:

·         A particular part of the vocal range such as the upper, middle, or lower registers

·         A resonance area, such as chest voice or head voice

·         A phonatory process (phonation is the process of producing vocal sound by the vibration of the vocal folds that is in turn modified by the resonance of the vocal tract)

·         A certain vocal timbre or vocal "colour"

·         A region of the voice which is defined or delimited by vocal breaks

Chest voice and head voice are the most common terms used to describe registers in singing.  In popular music, singers rarely produce sound for the head voice since it is harder to sound like you are speaking in your head voice. Popular singers do not like to venture much from the speaking voice. The chest voice actually feels like it is coming from the chest. You can feel the registers change if you sing up a scale from your lowest note to your highest note. Your head voice is what you will be using primarily in classical singing. Even though there may be breaks between your registers, you can train and practice to eliminate those breaks. An advanced singer can continually move from chest to head voice and back again without any vocal disturbance.

Popular and Classical

In modern musical groups, a lead singer performs the primary vocals or melody of a song, as opposed to a backing singer who sings backup vocals or the harmony of a song. Backing vocalists sing some, but usually not all, parts of the song often singing only in a song's refrain or humming in the background.  Some artists may sing both the lead and backing vocals on audio recordings by overlapping recorded vocal tracks. In popular music, a microphone and PA system (amplifier and speakers) are used in almost all performance venues, even small coffee houses. The use of microphones has several impacts on the singer.  It facilitated the development of intimate, expressive singing styles such as "crooning", whispering, and humming which would not have enough projection and volume if done without a microphone.  Some performers even use the microphone's response patterns to create effects, such as bringing the mic very close to the mouth to get an enhanced bass response, or, in the case of hip-hop beatboxers, doing explosive "p" and "b" sounds into the mic to create percussive effects.

Classical performers, on the other hand typically sing without microphones.  If amplification is necessary, area microphones (as opposed to individual mics) are typically used.  This helps pick up the resonance from the room while allowing the singer(s) to ignore the mics.

Popular music is often considered to include not just “pop,” but rock, country, hip hop, and jazz.  Hip-hop uses rapping, the rhythmic delivery of rhymes in a rhythmic speech over a beat or without accompaniment.  Some types of rapping consist mostly or entirely of speech and chanting, like the Jamaican "toasting."  In some types of rapping, the performers may interpolate short sung or half-sung passages.  Blues singing is based on the use of the blue notes–notes sung at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes.  In heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres, vocal styles can include techniques such as screams, shouts, and unusual sounds such as the "death growl."

Folk and Ethnic

Ethnic styles range from the simple to the intricate.  If you are interested in something outside of the mainstream, ethnic or folk singing might be a good fit.  Most communities have groups or individuals teaching one or more forms of ethnic singing.  This list is just a small sample of ethnic singing styles and techniques.

Isicathamiya (with the 'c' pronounced as a dental click) is a singing style that originated from the South African Zulus. The word itself does not have a literal translation; it is derived from the Zulu verb -cathama, which means walking softly, or tread carefully. Isicathamiya contrasts with an earlier name for Zulu a cappella singing, mbube, meaning "lion". The change in name marks a transition in the style of the music: traditionally, music described as Mbube is sung loudly and powerfully, while isicathamiya focuses more on achieving a harmonious blend between the voices. The name also refers to the style's tightly-choreographed dance moves that keep the singers on their toes.

South African singing groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo demonstrate this style.  Isicathamiya choirs are traditionally all male. Its roots reach back before the turn of the 20th century, when numerous men left the homelands in order to search for work in the cities. As many of the tribesmen became urbanized, the style was forgotten through much of the 20th century.

Sean-nós is a highly ornamented style of unaccompanied Irish folk singing.  Ornamentations include:

·         Placing the voice near the top of the range

·         Nasalization (especially in Ulster)

·         A second form of nasalization, used in the south, produces an "m", "n" or "ng" sound at the end of a phrase

·         Different notes can be stressed for a particular effect, or a note can be held over several beats. One syllable in a word can be sung to several notes and the notes can be varied from verse to verse. Brief pauses initiated by glottal stops, "slides" or glissandi (predominantly when sung by women)

·         Very long extended phrases achieved through highly developed breathing control

·         A tendency to draw breath after a conjunction or linking words rather than at the end of a line

·         The ending of some songs by speaking the finishing line instead of singing it

·         Varying the melody of every verse (particularly challenging)

 

Lilting is a form of traditional Celtic singing common in the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland and Scotland. It goes under many names, and is sometimes referred to as "mouth music", diddling, jigging, chin music or cheek music), puirt a beul in Scottish Gaelic, Canterach, or portaireacht bhéil (port a'bhéil) in Irish Gaelic. It in some ways resembles scat singing.

Ganga is a type of singing from rural Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is characterized by a lone singer singing one line of lyrics and then others joining in for what can be best described as a wail. It is a very passionate form of singing, which is one of the reasons it has been limited in popularity to small towns. However, several popular Croatian musicians have incorporated some ganga into their work. Only recently has ganga begun to address political issues, frequently adopting overtly nationalistic overtones and incorporating themes from the Croatian Homeland War. Although both men and women regularly perform ganga, it is extremely unusual for them to perform songs together. In the past, it was not unusual for both Catholic and Muslim men to perform ganga together. Ganga is a dissonant form of singing, using two clashing notes to project the sound over long distances. For example, if one person is singing a "C" note, another person will join either a half-step above or below ("B" or "C#"). Ganga is traditionally sung by sheepherders across stretches of valleys, for long-distance communication with each other.

Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register (or "chest voice") to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound. This vocal technique is used in many cultures throughout the world. In Alpine folk music, it was probably developed in the Swiss Alps and Austrian Alps as a method of communication between alpine mountaineers or between alpine villages, with this non-musical multi-pitched "yelling" later becoming part of the region's traditional lore and musical expression. In Persian classical music, singers frequently use tahrir, a yodeling technique that oscillates on neighbor tones. In Georgian traditional music, yodelling takes the form of krimanchuli technique, and is used as a top part in three/four part polyphony. In Central Africa, Pygmy singers use yodels within their elaborate polyphonic singing, and the Shona people of Zimbabwe sometimes yodel while playing the mbira. Yodeling is often used in American bluegrass and country music. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln (originally Bavarian) meaning "to utter the syllable jo."

Gospel music is written to express personal, spiritual, or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. Like other forms of Christian music the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. However, a common theme of most gospel music is praise, worship or thanks to God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit.

Shape note singing is typically associated with gospel, but is also used in secular groups.  Shape notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational and community singing. Shape-note singing began in the late 1700's as a teaching device in American singing schools in the Northeastern United States. Shapes were added to the note heads in written music to help singers find pitches within major and minor scales without the use of more complex information found in key signatures on the staff. Shape notes of various kinds have been used for over two centuries in a variety of music traditions, mostly sacred but also secular, originating in New England, practiced primarily in the Southern region of the United States for many years, and now experiencing a renaissance, primarily on the East Coast.

Tuvan throat singing is one particular variant of overtone singing practiced by the Tuva people of southern Siberia.  The art of Tuvan throat singing is a style in which two or more pitches sound simultaneously over a fundamental pitch, producing a mesmerizing, even entrancing sound.  The history of Tuvan throat singing reaches very far back. Many of the male herders can throat sing, and women are beginning to practice the technique as well. The popularity of throat singing among Tuvans seems to have arisen as a result of geographic location and culture. The open landscape of Tuva allows for the sounds to carry a great distance.  Often, singers will travel far into the countryside looking for the right river, or will go up to the steppes of the mountainside to create the proper environment for throat-singing.

Xm or Hát xm (Xm singing) is a type of Vietnamese folk music which was popular in the Northern region of Vietnam but is considered nowadays an endangered form of traditional music in Vietnam. In the dynastic time, xm was generally performed by blind artists who wandered from town to town and earned their living by singing in common place. Xm artists often play đàn bu or đàn nh to accompany the songs themselves, sometimes they form a band with one singer and others who play traditional instruments such as drum or phách. The melodies of xm are borrowed from different types of Vietnamese folk music such as trng quân or quan h while its themes are generally The Tale of Kieu, Luc Van Tien and other popular Vietnamese stories.

Islamic music is Muslim religious music, as sung or played in public services or private devotions. The classic heartland of Islam is the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, Central Asia, and South Asia. Because Islam is a multi-ethnic religion, the musical expression of its adherents is diverse. The indigenous musical styles of these areas have shaped the devotional music enjoyed by contemporary Muslims.

Makwayera is an African style of choral singing that native Zimbabweans developed by combining elements of their traditional vocal music with the western four-part harmony brought to the region by missionaries. It includes elements of call and response and a strong vocal leader.