A song is "an emotion put into words and music." That definition is from "Singing with Your Own Voice" by Orlanda Cook.
I am becoming increasingly fascinated and intrigued by the idea of the Human Primal Voice (as named and described by Oren L. Brown in his book, "Discover Your Voice"). Orlanda Cook refers to that Natural Human Voice as "Primitive Vocal Energy".
According to these people, both of whom have been brilliant voice teachers in their own way, we cannot really truly learn to sing until our Natural Voice is first freed. In "Discover Your Voice", Mr. Brown makes a comment that what we here in the Western World consider "good" singing is not really natural to the Human Voice. Obviously the voice can be trained to sing with proper pitch and timing and vibrato and all of the things that make for a beautiful, powerful voice and beautiful song. And with the right kind of training -- as you probably know by now, I'm convinced that Speech Level Singing is the absolute best kind of vocal training -- the vocal cords will be properly developed in a way that supports and strengthens the whole vocal apparatus. Clearly any kind of vocal training or vocal technique calls primarily on the upper brain or the thinking part of our brain in order for us to get it "right" -- in terms of learning or perfecting pitch, timing, proper bridging, vibrato, understanding the mechanics of the song etc.
But what about the fact that, according to the definition above, a song is an emotion. Aside from all of the technical aspects of learning a song (upper brain function), where does the emotion come from? Well, according to "Discover Your Voice" it is the lower brain (also known as the Reptilian Brain) that releases emotion. It is also that lower brain that releases automatic vocal responses. When we are startled or frightened, we don't stop to think about what sound to make. It comes out automatically without our conscious help. When something really tickles our funny bone, we don't think about laughing, we just laugh. If we win the Lotto, we don't think about screaming for joy or how we can make that scream "sound right" -- we just do it. That's our natural sound, our natural voice, our authentic vocal response that just happens simultaneously with the experience of the emotion
Babies are Masters of Natural Emotional/Vocal Expression. They feel an emotion, a desire, a need and simultaneously with feeling the emotion, they vocalize it. And even though there are no words in a baby's vocalizing, it is usually pretty clear if that baby is happy or distressed or hungry or content or amused.
Children too will naturally and freely vocalize, sing, or in some way express in sound what they are feeling -- until the adult world or the cultural expectations, start to impose limits and beliefs about which sounds are appropriate and which are not. At that point, the natural emotional/vocal expression from the Reptilian brain begins to shut down. The thinking brain then has to take over and it begins to monitor and judge what emotions and sounds are acceptable and appropriate (according to what we have been taught) and which are not. For many of us, that shutdown begins to happen at a very early age.
So.......how do we effectively sing a song, which is an expression of emotion, if we are, to whatever extent, emotionally and vocally shut down?
That is the exact question or reflection I have been focusing on as I think about preparing for the next Vocal/Singalong evening that is coming up on Sept. 9.
One of the reasons I feel that a good thorough vocal warm up is essential before we sing songs is to properly energize and prepare the vocal cords and to be certain that our breath and our voices are coming from a deep and connected place. Otherwise, if we just push the voice to sing before it is properly warmed up, we may stress and strain our vocal cords. Without a proper warm up, we may also stress ourselves emotionally if we try to push ourselves to sing before we feel emotionally ready to allow our voices to be "out there". A warm up gives us the chance to feel out and explore what the voice feels ready to do and what we feel ready for in terms of letting the voice out.
The other reason I like to offer a warm up is that it does give us an opportunity to just allow the voice to move and play and explore. Before we begin to impose certain pitches and melodies and other structures onto the voice, it is really good to allow the voice to find its own "free form dance". This is a way that we can begin to re-connect with our natural voice in a way that we each feel ready to do.
In our upcoming Sing a Long, we are going to play a little with the idea of re-connecting the voice with emotion. Hopefully this may help us free up some of the restrictions that have been imposed on the lower brain. The ideal is to find that equal balance between lower or Reptilian brain and upper or Thinking brain.
In the meantime, one very simple way to begin to re-connect with the natural voice is to take in a big breath through the mouth and allow a big Y-A-W-N to emerge. With the release of that yawn, allow a big loud sigh or AHHHHH... to flow out. Imagine that sound traveling down through your whole body as you drop your head and relax and release all the muscles in your body.On your next Inhalation, straighten up and repeat at least three times.This is also a great way to release tension after a challenging day or to relax before snuggling into bed.
Happy Yawning and Sweet Dreams!
Barbara
