Humans have this incredible privilege that is our voice. If no pathology prevents it, this body of ours can generate sounds thanks to breathing and vocal cords, and can also amplify it using the so-called body resonators.
We also have this brain capable of gradually enriching a language with which to create stories, laments, adorations that will be sung by that incredibly flexible and rich voice.
The sung voice and the spoken voice
The spoken voice already has, by itself, an enormous power. A speech can ignite crowds, it can cause personal illuminations or plunge us into misery, it can break through the greatest defenses.
But, if we also enhance the musical element in a verbal construction and simply, we start to sing, ahh, friends, that is a different experience, it is a higher state. We have all felt it in our flesh, in our interiors, that is a song doing justice.
The act of singing can be viewed from many angles, but each and every one of them inevitably includes that special rush of emotion and often meaning as well.
Who can sing?
Many people think that they cannot sing, that they do not have the voice for it, that they are not comfortable in that position of letting themselves be carried away by the sensations of the moment and playing with their vocal instrument, expressing their ideas or feelings with the enormous variety of nuances that a voice can articulate, however limited it may be.
Sometimes, the aspirations that one or one has, the references that one sets, will make this action, as natural as singing, impossible. Let’s look at the boys and girls. Most of them have no idea of ​​tuning, of breathing applied to singing, or rhythm or much else besides enthusiasm and joy. They don’t care about all that stuff about interpretive quality, about perfect tuning, about academic correctness,… they don’t care exactly the same about all that adult stuff.
Boys and girls have a lot to learn, without a doubt, no matter how smart they think they are, but on the subject of singing they are absolutely right.
The most important thing is the very fact of singing, how beneficial it is for us and everything else that may come after it cannot, or should not, cancel or condition in any way this first intuition, this original truth, the indisputable fact that singing does us good.
Listening is the key
But, of course, we are human. We like challenges, difficulties, to improve and to be recognized as good, at least, and if possible, great, extraordinary.
And, well, to achieve this status, in addition to a beautiful voice and if it can be powerful or angelic, well, we must also practice. Maybe go to a school or get private lessons and so on.
But, as often happens, in the process of calculating our progress, or comparing ourselves to that singer who dazzles us, or singing scales like a meaningless, repetitive machine, we forget the key of the song, which, if we put paying enough attention to it will make us sing better and also understand our voice better.
Put like that, it may sound absurd or exaggerated, but let’s think about it for a moment. Is there something more crucial to listen to when singing? Whether we want to imitate our favorite artists or explore new territories with our voice, listening is what will give us the clarity to assess and choose one option or another, to develop our personal taste and to explore the physiological possibilities of our device. phonator.
And yes, there is a possibility that you have enormous difficulty listening and, therefore, hearing yourself and knowing what and how you are singing but, honestly, the probability that you are one of those people is very low.
What is more common is that we lack practice in listening, in the quality of our way of listening, and not so much in our potential singing abilities.
Knowing music, being able to hold a certain tempo, articulating a good swing, causing the audience to fall at our feet for the superhuman quality of our interpretation, all of this is secondary. It’s less important than singing. It is something that, for it to happen, we have to have started singing many times before.
And without ever becoming a good or a good singer, we can and should enjoy this capacity that we all have. And if we have musical ideas, if we like to write songs, for example, that imperfect song will calmly serve us to compose our songs, to sing them ourselves and that others and others can sing them with, perhaps, a more prepared voice or, directly , privileged.
Even the concept of singing well is constantly being reviewed and admits different approaches and evaluations.
Who sings better? Elvis Priestley or Dolores O’riordan? Freddie Mercury or Beyoncé? Diamanda Gallas, perhaps? It depends. It depends on the musical style, the specific song, the purpose of the performance, who you ask,… It depends.
The craft of singing
And if you want to sing seriously, professionally, learn and practice singing, then go ahead. You’re going to have to listen, you’re going to have to sing, and study some things, and take care of your voice, and listen and sing again.
And you don’t need to be Maria Callas or Pavarotti. Not being a musical genius or writing unforgettable lyrics. In the world of music there is room for singers of all kinds. Virtuous, competent and, shall we say, different. Bob Dylan, Sid Vicius and many more singers have practiced their trade without a good voice or exquisite vocal technique. You can say that they are bad singers, that you don’t like anything about their voices, that you hate their vocal work. Whatever you want, but what you can’t say is that they are singers or that they contributed their grain of sand to Western music and singing, so to speak.
Up to this point it is shown that singing is something valuable in itself, without going into the qualities or abilities of this or that performer.
Conclusion
Singing badly, being able to tune more or less, or phrases with little rhythmic sense, for example, are direct consequences of listening with little attention or practice.
Even if we reach a worldwide agreement on what is singing badly and what is good, I am sure that singing badly is not bad, but we don’t necessarily have to stay there either. Improving our auditory education will improve our tuning. Singing more often will make it more likely that we will detect those musical aspects that we could improve. Listening to melodies with more attention and imitating them will improve our ability to sing songs with meaning and to create our own.
Singing is something personal, like writing songs, and to do it well, to express ourselves, excite and excite us, we don’t need a privileged voice, but attention and intention.
In the end, anyone’s personal goal with regard to singing could easily be to feel good and perhaps be able to express themselves with a handful of basic vocal resources, without anything very complex or extraordinary.
To finish I will just say one more thing: sing, let’s sing, it’s free, it’s almost impossible to hurt anyone by singing and, probably, we will feel better immediately.
And by singing and listening, we will learn to sing more and better, we will find what is called our voice, our particular way of singing, that personal path towards consolation and joy.
