Music and It's Influence to Our Life

We are all aware that music and “atmosphere” go together. We might put on relaxing music for a quiet romantic dinner, but listen to something livelier while doing some physical work or exercise or when out socializing in larger groups. You might have heard of farmers who increase production by playing music to their animals. Recent studies showing that listening to fast music while driving increases the rate of car accidents and the Mozart Effect claims to increase intelligence. While some claims may be exaggerated, there is no denying that music can be suggestive and affect our state of mind. But the reason for this is very mysterious. Why should organized sounds affect us to such an extent that billions are spent annually making music? The main aspects of music which influence us can be summed up as:

Tempo and rhythm

Pitch Melody and Harmony

Music suggests movement as it moves in time. Tempo and Rhythm is combined to have an immediate physical impact on our perceptions. The rhythm of an object suggest more or less frequent movement to qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat, even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed. The tempo of a piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with corresponding state or emotions that the music suggest. A high frequent of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in “beats per minute “. Most of the music based on simple observation is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats.

Anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested. 100 upwards is increasingly lively, excited or agitated and, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment, 80-120 is quite a common tempo, and even 120-160 is common in some energetic situations, since there is a strong degree of suggestion between the heartbeat and music tempo. Music moves in time and suggests movement, and we tend to associate music unconsciously with movements made by our bodies while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding, etc.

Pitch Melody and Harmony

Pitch on its own affects our perception on how we perceived sounds and music providing a basic scale from high = light, happy, carefree to low = dark, sad, ominous. As part of our evolutionary heritage we tend to find large things more threatening than smaller things. Generally bigger objects make deeper noises whether long column of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chest, large animal footsteps, or large objects banging together. Conversely smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitch noises.

Harmony is the combination of tones with different pitches, Even though some are seem to be close to the combination of notes is completely the natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating and easily demonstrated musically of brass instruments. Those “natural “(without keys) instruments such as bugle, octaves, fifths and thirds produced are a series of notes. That is so well together to make “harmonious ” sounds like major chords. String instruments can be demonstrate the lowest notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest ” harmonics” of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. All that varies in degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to make sounds their unique color or tones, is always presented by harmonic.

Harmony is that when we combine tones with different pitches, even some that that seem to be close to the combination of notes is completely the natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating and easily demonstrated musically brass instruments. Those natural (without keys) instruments such as bugle, octaves, fifths and thirds produced are a series of notes. These notes are well placed together to make harmonious sounds like major chords. String instruments can be demonstrate the lowest notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest harmonics of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. These harmonics always present to varying degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to give sounds their unique color or tone.

How To Sing High Notes Quickly

Singing high notes takes a little time to get good at but it’s definitely something that you can learn to do. Singing is a skill and singing high notes is probably the hardest part of that skill.

Most singers taking vocal lessons and doing vocal training can sing high notes initially but they wind up doing it with a lot of tension and strain. Some people when they’re learning how to sing can sing high notes right away but they need a lot of polish to get the proper control and tone.

The first set of singing tips I’m going to give you involves some very basic principles. The first and most important things that beginning singers have to learn is how to keep a low larynx.

The larynx is just a fancy name for the voice box. Whenever you’re singing, it’s absolutely critical that you learn to keep the larynx low throughout your entire singing range. This isn’t simply an issue of how to sing better but it’s an issue of how to sing freely and have a healthy voice that doesn’t tire. That’s how important this thing is.

The way to keep a neutral larynx, initially, is by yawning. If you place your hand on your throat and then you yawn, you’ll notice that your larynx sinks back and down. A vocal coach can help you figure this out but it’s something that you can probably handle on your own. Once you become familiar with the sensation of lowering your larynx, you’ll have to learn to keep it down at all times during singing. This is really hard when you’re first starting out but eventually the larynx will settle and you’ll hear a tremendous upgrade in your tone, range and pitch accuracy.

If you want to learn to sing high notes, the other important factor is learning to place the sound in the mask. The mask is the front part of your face. If you close your mouth and hum, you’ll feel a buzz in the mask. Now keep humming and slowly open your mouth. Try and keep the buzz in that same frontal location. Once you learn how to do this, you’ll find your ability to sing high notes will also increase.

Learn to sing with the sound in the mask and with a low larynx and take a few voice lessons and you’ll wind up being able to sing high notes pretty quickly.

If you want to learn to do this SUPER quickly, another thing you should do is get some voice training software such as Singing Success which is the most widely used singing course available online. Singing software is something you can use right on your computer so you can work from your home on improving your voice and not spend hundreds of dollars on voice lessons (yes, they cost that much!)

The good news about singing is that ANYONE can learn how to sing. And not just how to sing, but how to sing really well!

Singing is a skill just like playing tennis or riding a bike and it’s going to take a little bit of time and effort to get it right, but you can definitely do it.

So where do you begin if you’re brand new to singing? The best way to learn to sing quickly is to find a really excellent vocal coach and take voice lessons from him or her.

Finding a good teacher is actually harder than you might think because there are just so many bad teachers out there. If you wind up with a teacher who has no business teaching singing, the consequences are this: You’ll pay a lot of money (voice lessons are pricey!), spend a lot of your time and energy, make little progress and feel frustrated. The worst case scenario is that your teacher can have you doing things that will permanently damage your voice.

So let me tell you how to get a really kick-ass teacher right from the start. If you have a university or college close to you, and they have a music program, pop in there and ask the secretary to put you in contact with the head of the voice department. Also get the info of a couple of the voice teachers on staff there. Contact each of them and set up consultations. These shouldn’t cost you anything. If the teacher tries to charge you, do a little negotiating and say that you’re considering paying a lot of money for lessons and you just want to be sure that you’re a good fit for each other.

When you meet with each individual vocal coach, you’ll want to ask them to sing. Seriously! The voice instructor should sound nothing short of incredible. If they sound so-so or just OK, then you should definitely move on. I mean, if THEY can’t even do it, how are they supposed to teach it to you?

Now this next little trick is really crucial. Good singing requires the singer to keep the voicebox (the larynx) in a low and stationary position during singing. Ask your prospective vocal coach what their opinion is on the position of the larynx. If they give you an evasive answer or don’t know or seem indifferent to the issue, you should absolutely move on. This is the most fundamental thing that vocal students learn in prestigious vocal programs worldwide and if they don’t know or care about it, they probably won’t be able to help you in the long term.

Now assuming you don’t have the money or time to pay for voice lessons and drive to a university once a week, there’s another great option.

If you’d rather work from the comfort of home and still make excellent progress, Singing Software is a great choice. The most widely used learn to sing course in the world right now is Singing Success, which has been used by top celebrity singers like Keith Urban and Hayley Swift to improve their singing. This is truly singing for dummies and probably the cheapest option available to you as a beginner singer.

If you work hard, practice and keep growing with an open mind, you’ll find yourself singing more beautifully than you ever thought possible. I’ve seen it happen a thousand times in my voice studio. You can do it. Take action today and good luck!

The muscles controlling and surrounding the larynx represent one of the most important control system affecting the human voice. For most singers, learning to stabilize the larynx is essential for vocal health, the increase of range, and the proper blending of chest and head voice. In this article I will attempt to shed some light on larynx position and offer some exercises that can help you improve your voice by stabilizing your larynx. Keep in mind that full time voice students may spend years on this! But a little awareness goes a long way in saving your voice from the harm caused by singing on a high larynx.

The Problem of a High Larynx

Consider the larynx to be a basket floating in a complicated web of tendons and membranes inside your throat. Your goal is to not allow the larynx to rise too much as you sing from low notes to high notes. To find your larynx, put your finger on the V that you feel in the front of your throat (commonly, the adams apple: the original problem ?) If you swallow, you feel it rise. We refer to this as constriction, because you are squeezing the space around the larynx. Good for eating, bad for singing!

You can tell if you’re singing on a high larynx if you notice:

A heavy chest voice and a large break between your chest voice and head voice
Vocal cords that feel scratchy and producing a lot of mucous
Your voice feels worse the next day after singing
Your head voice feels breathy, airy, and unfocused
There are some differing views on whether or not a high larynx is harmful or not, with some techniques suggesting that it’s acceptable (even desirable!) , and others suggesting that your larynx should be as low as possible. I base my findings on eighteen years of teaching, and constant study and testing of new ideas. I believe that advanced singers can learn to sing with a high larynx, provided that they are working with a professional who knows what they’re doing. For most beginning singers, however, a larynx that is too high and surrounded by tense muscles can lead to significant problems with the voice.

Keep in mind that larynx control is only one of the five control systems I describe in my vocal method:

All of these systems function in concert, with stability of the larynx representing a long term goal of the method. The larynx houses the vocal cords, and operates in relationship with the whole voice (body, mind and Spirit), and is not in any way isolated. Each system effects the other systems in a structure of balance and coordination.
How to Stabilize your Larynx

There are a lot of techniques to help stabilize the larynx, but the first step of this long journey begins with awareness. Keep in mind that professional singers spend years getting this right! With your finger on the V of your larynx (or adams apple) sing along with a scale and notice if it is rising and falling with pitch. Notice the difference between different vowels: Sing oo (like boot), and then sing Ah (like Father). I refer to this as the kinesthetic approach: which means that you feel what’s happening with your body. Gaining awareness of the position of your larynx is the first step

Next, consider your larynx to be a basket floating in a network of attachments, some reach up into the jaw, tongue,and head, and some reach down into the chest, sternum and lower body. We want to relax the neck, jaw, and muscles around the larynx, so we can avoid the unconscious reflex that pull up on the larynx when we sing high. As you sing your scales, place your hands on the back of your neck and notice if there’s tension. Next, place your hands on your jaw, and check to see if your jaw is clenching at all. The more release you have in these muscles, the easier it will be to stabilize your larynx.

Proper breath support is also important in order to stabilize your larynx. The basics of this are

1.Breathe in without motion in your neck, shoulders, or face
2.As you inhale, feel your stomach inflate
3.As you sing a scale or song, keep some gentle pressure out against your abdominal wall
4.As you’re singing, try not to let your stomach contract suddenly

If you have any questions about the larynx, or singing generally, feel free to contact me at john@jdsvoice.com

Can Anyone Become a Great Singer? Or Are We Just Born That Way

Can anyone become a great singer or is it true that you are either born with the gift or not? This is one of the most common questions that I hear as a professional vocal coach, and there seems to be a lot of confusion about it. Is it true that with training and practice you can fulfill your dream of being a great singer or do you just have to limit yourself to your concerts in the shower? If you are dying to know the answer to this, read on and discover the truth about developing a great singing voice.

To begin with, being a great singer has more to do with having a good ear than having a good voice. True, a great voice helps and the voice you are born with is the voice that you are born with, for better or worse. However, even if you have a beautiful sound, you still have to be able to hear when you are signing off key and adjust to hit the right tone and color.

The good news is that you can easily develop the skill of being a good listener; you just have to know the right steps to take.

Now a lot of people hear this and say: “Well, I think that I am hopeless then, because I am pretty much tone deaf.” Believe it or not, being tone deaf is rarer than most people think, and if you were tone deaf it would show up in your speech. You would speak in a monotone and would have little or no voiceinflection because you were unable to hear it and duplicate it.

Believe it or not, it is possible to go from not being able to tell when an instrument is completely out of tune to being able to transcribe orchestra scores by ear. Again, all it takes is the right kind of practice.

So if you are convinced that you are not tone deaf, you may be wondering: “What are some of the fundamentals to being a good singer?” The first one is being aware of what is actually happening in your body when you are producing certain sounds, and being able to duplicate that feeling or position.

Your voice is dramatically affected by the way you breathe, your posture, the shape and position of your mouth and many other details most people are unaware of. Becoming aware of these things is the first step to controlling them.

The second fundamental has to do with your ability to listen to yourself and to adjust your voice in order to correct the things that you are doing wrong. This is not always so easy and this is the primary reason why you need to have a good voice coach if you are going to be a singer. You cannot improve what you cannot measure, and the way you measure your voice is by listening.

The problem is that your voice is going to sound different to you, than it does to someone who is not living in your body. It is also important that the person who is listening is trained to know what to listen for.

So you can absolutely become a great singer just by practicing these fundamentals. But like any other development of your body, the human voice and the muscles involved in creating it are not going todevelop overnight.

Perseverance, the ability to act on constructive feedback and even to take somenegative feedback are going to be your greatest tools in your journey to fulfilling your dream of becoming a great singer. So if you are ready to make it happen, go ahead and get started today.

Why Do I Need Professional Singing Voice Lessons?

Picture This:

It’s your birthday. It’s late afternoon and the sun is on its way down. Nothing is happening at the moment because you’re sitting down in the company of friends trying to entertain yourself hoping someone would make a suggestion like, “Hey, let’s do something!” Just as you’ve had enough of doing nothing, a group of friends surprise you from the rear, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” What a treata.you hug each onea then out the blue, one of them decides to sing a special song just for you on your special daya.

Your eyes and everyone else’s eyes are looking at each other questioning, “Why is this person with this unattractive voice singing NOW or EVER in his life?! We were nice. We survived it. Nobody died but, boy, it would have been nicer if that person could have sung that special rendition two days earlier before anyone could have had the chance to hear it.

Do you think you would continue to sing if you knew everyone else did not think as highly favorable of your singing voice as you do?

The “everyone else” category includes:

1.) Empathic persons – those people who will want to give support of your singing just because you’re just another human being

2.) Relatives – they like the thought of someone in the family who not only sings but also becomes famous by their singing [so they can borrow money from you when you become rich ] “and it might just happen if we cheer him on strong enough…”

3.) Friends – those acquaintances that will give an opinion of your singing voice that you would hopefully flatter you; even if it were not fully the truth. They want your friendship.

4.) Associates – those whom you have some sort of business relation and will not express any negative feelings concerning your singing voice so that they won’t jeopardize any personal future benefit you might offer them

5.) Church members – wonderful people but their spirituality may interfere with their honest judgment concerning your singing voice

6.) Nice, unknowing people – they may or may not speak the truth to you about your singing voice since they have no investment in you not to mention that they may not know what they’re talking about.

So who or what can you trust?

Answer: Unbiased, vocal music professional instruction. Someone who’s had the training and experience. A professional voice teacher with solid teaching experience. You want to entrust your singing voice, your time, your financial resources to a learned, well trained singing voice teacher that can explain step-by-step how you can maximize your singing voice ability without hurting it.

When you find the rightvoice lessons, you and others will hear and become impressed with the consistent improvement of your singing voice.

To try to teach yourself how to sing and be successful is tricky and usually frustrating. It can be very discouraging to fail to make the strides with your singing voice you knew you could if you had the proper singing voice instructor.

Sing to Feel Good About Yourself

Sing to Feel Love From Your fans

Sing and Hear Their applause!

To Your Singing Success,

Houston Simmons

4 Simple Steps to Singing

The mystery of the human singing voice

As a practicing otolaryngologist for more than a quarter of a century, I have been exposed and overexposed tobooks, pamphlets, scientific and pseudo-scientific articles on the vocal mechanism and the technique for radicallyaltering the speaking and singing voice.Each new modification had its own coterie of devotees, teachers and students who waxenthusiastic only later tofind disappointment and often heartache in the time consuming and expensive search for the ephemeral”miracle” vocal technique.When Alan Greene first embarked on teaching the method incorporated in THE NEW VOICE the foundation technique that establihes SPEECH LEVEL SINGING he did notintend to radically depart from other previous concepts. Rather did he, with modesty, collate the knownscientific truths and with his greater understanding of the physical and emotional implications of vocalcommunication, create THE NEW VOICE. The result eradicates confusion and conflicts in teaching speech andsinging communication.

THE NEW VOICE is a most valuable contribution to laryngeal knowledge. The book presents a conciseprofile of anatomy of the larynx, the housing area for the delicate vocal cords that determine all speech andsinging. In addition, Alan Greene, with practical wisdom, presents the relationship between the psyche (mind) andthe soma (body) a” that valuable unity that is so essential to more exact speech andSPEECH LEVEL SINGING.LesterL.Coleman, M.D.Attending Surgeon Department of Otolaryngology,Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat HospitalAttending Surgeon, Department of Otolaryngology,New York Hospital, Cornell Medical CenterClinical Professor of Otolaryngology,Albert Einstein School of Medicine

The voice is truly a unique instrument. It is the only instrument:awhose quality of sound and the name of the instrument are both identified by the samewordathat must be built by its ownerawhose structure is mostly hidden in the human bodyathat contains within itself not one, but three separate mechanismsathat is constructed of muscle, cartilage and boneawhose component parts perform many different functions that are unrelated to singingathat can produce wordsathat is capable of developing either good or bad habitsawhose muscular components react to their environmentathat is directly connected to a brainathat is naturally imitative a” in the sense that, with the aid of hearing, the voice willrespond culturally in a recognizable fashionathat must not make a sound while it is learning to make soundsathat has two hornsaThe voice is the only instrument that is identified by the same word used to describe itssound.When someone is singing it is quite acceptable to say, “That vocalist has a beautiful voice.” When a violinist isplaying it would sound strange to hear someone say, “That violinist has a beautiful violin.” Voice is commonly used toidentify both the sounds produced by the act of singing and the instrument producing the sounds; violin identifies only theinstrument.The Oxford Universal Dictionary defines instrument as: “A contrivance for producing musical sounds.” According tothat definition the voice is certainly an instrument. However, the same dictionary defines voice as: “Sound, or the wholebody of sounds, made or produced by the vocal organs of man or animals; formed in or emitted from the human larynx,. . .concretely, the organs by which it is produced.” Re-read what I have italicized and you will find that just one word isused to describe the physical characteristics of the instrument a” “concretely, the organs by which it is produced” a” andthe result of the activation of the physical characteristics a” “sound.”

For our purposes we must avoid this ambiguity. The distinction between cause a” activating the vocal organs a” andeffect a” sound a” must be definitely established in the student’s mind in order to clearly understand all that is to follow.When the terms “voice” or “vocal equipment” or “vocal instrument” are used in this book they will mean the physical parts ofthe instrument. The result of the activation of the physical parts will be identified as “tone,” “sound,” “vocal quality” or “tonequality.”a The voice is the only instrument that must be built by its owner.I would like to give my personal definition of the word singer: The instrument-maker and player of the voice. Inmy opinion the definition must be broken down into these two independent elements a” instrument-maker andplayer. We cannot assume that the physical vocal instrument a” the instrument that can sing well a” already exists.If this were true, everyone would sound good naturally. Only the parts (the organs) out of which the instrumentis structured are naturally present. Everyone does not sound good naturally because not everyone is using theparts correctly. The first thing the student of the voice must learn is to structure the vocal instrument. That is whymy definition of singer begins with “the instrument-maker.” Only after the instrument is structured can you begin toplay it.We are dealing with an instrument a” the voice a” which exists quite apart from and independent of the soundsit can or cannot produce. The voice a” the physical contrivance- is the cause. The sound a” the result of activating this physical contrivance a” is the effect.a

The voice is the only instrument whose structure is mostly hidden in the human body.All musical instruments except the voice can be seen in toto. They are foreign bodies and when in use are simplyextensions of the player. Wind instruments become extensions of the player’s lips and fingers. The piano becomes anextension of the pianist’s hands, and one foota”for sustained pedalling. The only parts of the voice that can be seenon the outside are the Adam’s apple protruding from the throat, the jaw, the teeth, and part of the tongue.
Why is it important to mention this characteristic of the voice? Because an instrument that is a foreign bodydoes not involve the student’s ego during the developmental process. The student of the piano, for instance, can see,directly, his precise level of development. The voice student, on the other hand, usually relies mainly on hishearing to assess his developmenta”either he sounds better, and so feels better, or he sounds worse and feels worse.In the exercise section of this book I have tried to take the voice, as much as possible, “out” of the body and thusallow the student the opportunity to “see” the voice as if it too were a foreign body, consequently avoiding egoinvolvement.

Many of us dream of being able to sing onstage to thousands of adoring fans, but the real truth is that we just can’t hit those high notes and the low notes are next to impossible to reach and those middle notes can be a bit tricky too. You know you have the potential for a great voice, but you just don’t know where to start or who to turn to. Private Singing Lessons are a great way to hone the latent talent that you have and really bring out the strength and power of your voice, eliminating any flat sounds so that your voice truly shines.

Singers today are under enormous pressure to stand out in a market that’s not only competitive but growing tougher and tougher, so you need a voice coach that’s going to be able to teach you what you need to learn in order to get noticed. With Private Singing Lessons from an experienced instructor, you can learn reality-based techniques that will free up your voice and help you hit those difficult high notes while sounding natural. A true voice coach doesn’t teach people how to sing, but instead they remove the obstacles preventing you from singing the way you should.

When you’ve decided that the time has come for Private Singing Lessons, look for an instructor that will not make you sign any contracts or ask you to pay up front for any lessons. You should only pay for the lessons you take and typically you can work with an instructor for weeks, months or even years. Your instructor will also give you techniques and voice exercises to do while you are at home, to better help you strengthen your voice and keep you from causing any injury.

Hiring an instructor to give you private singing lessons is an excellent first step in achieving the dream of becoming a singer, or even achieving the next level in your performance if you are already a singer. There are a great many options available to you and you can do quite a bit of research by going online and looking for different coaches and instructors. Depending on the kind of work you want to do and what you want to achieve, you will be able to find one that best fits your ultimate needs.

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