In this brief post, we will look over the two kinds of intonations used in the voice you use when you speak in several situations, and those you use when you sing. If you compare the two, you’ll find that they are very different. Take this, for instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr9JQ-oF3jQ what do you notice in this example? The fundamental frequencies range from180-300 HZ, with very high resonance, with chronological age of eleven years, as measured by our calendar system for the speaking voice. In some countries, we do not celebrate birthdays or chronological ages at all.
The singing voice, however, is far more different. The fundamental frequencies not only follow the notes corresponding to the tuning system given to the singer, but the resonance is altered to give it an etherial hypnotic effect. Let’s try a quick test. If you say the sound “ah” in your normal voice, for males, the resonance will be deeper than that of females and children. Likewise, if a male were to apply the singing voice to the “ah”, then his resonance would be even deeper. This means that the correlation with the speaking and singing voice vary directly because the voice of the female will also deepen in resonance when she applies her singing voice. This is not to say that it is directly related to facial and laryngeal structures in different sexes, as they can vary widely.
Have a look at another type of therapeutic approach, called Music Intonation, used to rehabilitate people whose left hemisphere of the brain has become damaged.
Here’s some information regarding The Music Instinct.
So, how does one achieve this goal, and why do many not know about it? The first thing to understand is that sound is simply a wave. A pure tone is a sound that sounds like a hum, without any extra tones above or below it. These extra notes are called harmonics. We calculate the harmonics based on the integer that can be multiplied by 2X. Noise is an irregular sound vibration, another concept to keep in mind. Children have nearly the same vocal range before going through puberty, but some learn to talk the way they should according to their gender assignment. Males tend to speak with a dark, sinister sound while females usually speak with a brighter, more cheerful tone. In singing, we often use the term bright and dark vowels, which is in reference to chiaroscuro. Of course, if you were to be among lots of children, and you were blindfolded, your only cues are to figure out who is who based on these characteristics. Also note that there may be overlaps, which makes us misgender a person if we can’t see them, or if they are using a communication device or facilitated communication. A perfect example of this can be found here.
Why do Gay Men Talk Differently? If you’ve watched any of the episodes in Glee, you can hear Kurt (Chris Colfer) sound like a stereotypical feminine gay guy.
The BBC has released some documentaries on trying to uncover the mysteries of the castrato voice. You can check them out here. https://trakt.tv/shows/bbc-documentaries/seasons/2007/episodes/1 There are many more male sopranist interviews that it would be difficult to list them all, but hopefully these will give you a place to start.
To begin with, many people get used to hearing what their own voices sound like when it vibrates inside their head via bone conduction, which is why they don’t like to hear how they sound in a recording. People with perfect pitch can make adjustments to their voices in a matter of seconds, and they learn to memorise just how much work is needed to apply that effect. That’s why some say, “It came from God”. It’s up to you to believe it or not, but in reality, they just listened to what something sounded like and started imitating it until they achieved the quality they wanted. They kept on doing this subconsciously until they had the memory wired into their brain. Deaf people do not have auditory awareness. As an example, crank up your music to full volume until you can no longer hear your voice through your earbuds. Then try saying a few sentences whilst recording, and then play it back. Did you mispronounce anything? It may be the reason why some adults may sing with a childlike singsong, but more likely it is probably due to their mental capacity.
You must have some basic knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as physics, to understand how the body’s resonant chambers work, and what you can do to manipulate them with your cerebrum and cerebellum. One unique characteristic about opera singers is that their vibrato measures approximately around six to seven beats per second, but in some old phonograph records, people had a faster vibrato of eight to nine beats per second. This is caused by totally relaxed muscles slowly contracting and relaxing again. This causes the fundamental frequency of the voice to go up and down in pitch in rapid succession. The same can be done for overtone (harmonics)), but it would need the work of moving the tongue up and down. Now, how we make our resonance chamber bigger is by opening up the throat, as if we were yawning. This forces your vocal tract to expand, the glottis to be half-open to make the voice have a breathy quality, and the tone emitted by the vocal folds have lower harmonics.
There are several kinds of terms that describe the specific techniques used in singing. Legato means that you slowly link the vowels and consonants to each other and you give them a nice, easy flow. In some operas, the singer has to staccato to describe tention, and again, vibrato is a very important aspect of singing. In some pieces, there are spoken words called Sprechstimme and Sprechgesang. Legato falls under the category of rubato or adlib, where you play freely.
The reason many people are ignorant about why our voices sound so much different when we sing, such as what you witnessed in this example is because they cannot make this distinction clearly, even singers have trouble understanding this concept because all they learn is how to do this, without getting in depth. They do it without knowing that there are ways of describing it. Anyone can achieve this goal, even youngsters, as long as they have the motivation to learn this skill to pursue a career in the arts. What you would need to decide is whether you should self-teach and get no immediate feedback, or work with someone who has experience so you can be finely-tuned.