The 3 Most Important Essentials for Singing

This may shock you but the three most important essentials for singing are sleep, water, and air.  Let's look at those. 
  1. Sleep - Interestingly, the older we get, the less sleep we generally need.  According to the National Sleep Foundation (https://sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need), when we enter the world we need between fourteen and seventeen hours a sleep a night.  However, by the time you're around eighteen, you only need seven to ten hours a night, and even else when you become elderly.  My son can sleep longer than any human I've ever known, even at the ripe old age of twenty-three but he can also stay awake for days on end, as evidenced by his stint in the US Marine Corps.  The human body is a miraculous but unique machine but pretty consistently, a school-aged child still needs between eleven and fourteen hours of sleep, and a teenager, upwards of ten hours a night.  One of my favorite sayings is, "God does His best work while we're asleep because we're not awake to try to help Him out!"
  2. Water - According to the United States Geological Society, (yes, Geological Society), approximately 60% of an adult human body is water.  According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%, (http://water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html).  Why is water so important for singing specifically?  It is essential for singing because it hydrates, washes, and invigorates all of the vocal tract area.  Here's a crucial secret about the human body's vocal "cords" or folds:  their primary purpose is NOT vocal production.  Wow, right?  The Vocal Folds act as a sphincter type of muscle, rather like the anus (sorry).  These muscles create a seal, which keeps air IN the lungs, food IN the stomach; air OUT of the stomach and food OUT of the lungs.  Have you ever "choked" when food "went down the wrong way"?  This only happens when we're talking while swallowing, causing food to go into the trachea rather than the esophagus.  Usually, a few "coughs" straighten the situation out and get the food headed on the correct path.  All of this is to say that water serves as a super-agent for keeping all the workings of the vocal folds and larynx working efficiently and cleanly, as well as feeding our cells, beautifying our skin, hydrating our skin, and all kinds of other, wonderful things.
  3. Air - Your car won't run without gas; your body won't live without food or water; and your voice cannot perform without sufficient air.  If you suffer from pitch problems, you need more support (and possibly some more ear training).  If you suffer from poor control, you need better breath support.  This goes on and on.  When you see a singer with veins popping out on their neck, looking as though their head is about to explode, that singer is attempting to produce his or her voice using neck muscles created to hold up the head, rather than providing the crucial component of air/fuel to produce vocal music correctly.  Unfortunately, these singers sentence themselves to a short career and almost certain vocal troubles in the near future.  The Vocal Folds must open and close, vibrate in order to produce sound.  Just as holding a rubber band and pulling it apart between your two hands cannot produce a sound until you apply necessary "wind" to force its vibration, the human Vocal Folds cannot properly vibrate without that same ingredient.  I live in Southern California and we have a LOT of wind.  I can testify to the fact that wind is very powerful.  Anyone living in the path of tornadoes or even hurricanes, can attest to this same reality.  Wind can devastate and destroy.  However, if you've ever watched a live birth, you also know that "wind" brings life.  Obviously, air, more expressly Oxygen, is required for the function and growth of the human body but it is also indispensable for singing.  The Diaphragm contracts down, sucking air INTO the lungs, and once the Oxygen has been separated out of that air, the Diaphragm then EXPELS the Carbon Dioxide out of the lungs.  As it is exhaled, air sets the Vocal Folds to vibrating.  The higher the pitch, the more vibrations required to produce it.  This also works similarly for longer phrases and necessarily controlled, elongated pitches.  The "Golden Ticket" for great singing is great breathing, particularly great exhalation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Basic Music Theory - 1st Post - Notes, Rests, and Note Particulars

Image
          It is really important for a singer, even an amazingly gifted singer, to understand basic Music Theory.    That doesn’t mean you have to be any kind of virtuoso or study music theory for dozens of years but it does mean you need to study some fundamental or elemental aspects of theoretical concepts.   Your first “basic” lesson is below.   Stay tuned for more “installments” in the future.   Here goes: •             NOTES AND RESTS - Melodies in music are represented through patterns of “Notes” and “Rests”.   Here is a chart of the most common types of Notes and Rests: The Quarter Note is, by far, the most common type of Note and Rest but each of these notes and rests are important, universal, and frequently-occurring.   You DO need to know, however, that the values you see here CAN change, depending on the Time Signature (s...
Read more

Vocal Quirks - Why do I Sometimes Yawn, Hiccup, Burp, or Crack?

When we begin singing, sometimes the very strangest things can happen. You may start yawning or burping or getting the hiccups or even hear your voice crack.   Why do these things happen, especially when you first begin singing?   Let’s explore some ideas…             Why Would Singing Make Me Yawn?   So, it’s true confession time.   I have always been told and believed that we yawn because our brains tell our lungs we need more Oxygen and so, initiate a deeper inhalation.   The yawn DOES cause a deeper breath and it IS a great way to practice deeper, voluntary breathing.   However, evidently the REAL reason we yawn is still for the brain but it is actually a “thermoregulating device”, which is to say the swift intake of air acts to normalize the temperature of your brain in the same way you might use a fan to automatically come on in your garage, if the temperature reaches a cer...
Read more

Basic Music Theory - #3 - Rhythms and Putting it All Together

Image
So, here is the last installment in this beginning set of Music Theory posts.   I know I’ve covered an awful lot in these last 3 posts but I promise you, if you’ll devote a little consistent time to learning it, the benefits you’ll receive will far outweigh your small time investment.   These key components of Music Theory make up the essential underpinnings of composed music.   The next set of Music Theory posts will cover different types of Chords, Scales, and Chord Progressions but until then, enjoy these amazing pillars of Music Theory and send me any questions you still have once you’re done.   Here you go: •             RHYTHMS AND TEMPOS - I try to explain the “Beat” of music or the “Rhythm” like our own heartbeat.   It is a regular, constant “pulse” (literally).   Most of the time this “Beat” or “Pulse” is what you dance to, tap your foot to, or clap along with. ...
Read more