Voice 101 page 10
learning to sing better
Vocal qualities can be breathy, clear, scratchy or nasal.
A singer with a breathy quality sounds like they sigh out their words.
A singer with a clear quality has very little or no breathy sound in their words.
A singer with a scratchy quality sounds like they need to clear their throat.
A singer with a nasal quality sounds like they 'sing through their nose' or are singing with a head cold.
While a vocalist's tone is usually confined to either being thin or rich, a vocalist can have combinations of qualities in their voices. So you might hear singers that have nasal and breathy qualities or scratchy and clear qualities to name just a few combinations.
The combination of vocal tones and qualities a singer's voice has is as unique as their fingerprints. What if you have a tone or quality to your voice that you don't like? There are exercises that can help change that a bit, but what you are born with is what you have to work with for the rest of your life. Because of that, there's two things you should know right now:
a. Different people like different vocal tones and qualities - that's why there's so many different sounding singers. So even if you don't like something about your voice you might still find someone who thinks you are the greatest vocalist ever!
b. The best vocalists will find ways to work with their vocal tones and qualities rather than try to change them. Different styles of music work well with different vocal tones and qualities. Try singing along with everything you can - you may be surprised at the varieties of musical styles your voice sounds good singing.
6. Delivery or Attitude
When we talk about a vocalist's delivery or attitude we're talking about the energy and style of their performance. Different styles of music need different deliveries or attitudes in vocalists. An opera singer sounds silly singing a rock song! Your delivery will depend a lot on what style of music you'll end up singing, but the very best vocalists can do a couple of different delivery styles.
CONCLUSION
Whether you begin working with a vocal instructor or start training your voice by yourself, you have embarked on a journey of exploration - the journey of exploring your voice as an instrument. Using your breath support system to vibrate your vocal cords and shaping the sound with your mouth, you've joined the ranks of thousands of other people working to improve their singing voices.
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