mike said...
david,
your comparison of walking and talking to dancing and singing is much more in keeping with reality than the claims that singing comes from a different voice.
I must not have been paying very close attention to this thread. I have not seen anyone say that singing comes from a different voice. I have read people saying that it requires a different usage. I certainly did not mean to imply that it is a different voice.
all the things you mention, the sustaining of a specific pitch despite variances in volume, the sustaining of a particular vowel as opposed to a glide, etc., are matters of management that require different decisions rather than different mechanics. and all these changes can be applied to speaking as well as singing.
I'd like to hear someone speak "rejoice". That would be funny!
by making more of what is required for singing, we make the task of singing appear to be more difficult than it need be. (maybe that's the idea, to keep it 'elite'.) i do think that anyone who can talk, and recognize one note from another, can sing. what gets in most people's way are misconceptions of how sound works (like thinking 'high' and 'low' are a matter of height instead of frequency) and a failure to identify exactly what the task is.
I tell all my students that in the back of their mind (for some of them, this has to be in the front of their mind), everything we do should help lead to a more "free" production, where efficiency is paramount. If singing bach cantatas is easy for you and your students, then I need to come over and take some lessons. If, on the other hand, you are saying that everyone should be able to sing relatively well on easy literature, I agree.
Thanks for the discussion, Mike.
Sincerely, David Grogan Marshall, Texas
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