[Vocal and First-Year Students] 17. An Extension of Vocal Practice: Everyday Voice

*This content was translated by AI.

The movie "Michael" has sparked strong divided opinions and has become a topic of discussion due to various issues. In any case, this prompted me to revisit Michael Jackson's performance videos, which led to a question.

"Have you ever heard the story that Michael Jackson's voice gave out, preventing him from speaking or performing?"

He was a performer who danced and sang simultaneously, pouring immense energy into every stage, yet strangely, the image of his "voice giving out" does not easily come to mind. Of course, as a human, he likely experienced physical discomfort and fatigue, but at least to the public, he is always remembered as a stable performer.

Seth Riggs, known as Michael Jackson's vocal trainer, is famous for the vocal technique called SLS (Speech Level Singing). As the name suggests, it is the concept of "singing as if speaking." Speech and song.

While conducting vocal lessons, I often think that everyday voice is just as important as vocal practice. Vocal practice may last only a few hours a day at most, but speech can be used for over ten hours depending on the situation. Ultimately, the vocal cords become more habituated through speech than through singing.

In the field, it is often heard that "the voice gets strained more when alternating between speaking and singing than when doing only one or the other." This suggests that the situation of repeatedly switching between speaking and singing puts more strain on the vocal cords. While it is difficult to explain with clear evidence, hearing that rappers frequently visit ENT clinics suggests there may be some correlation.

At first, I thought it was simply a matter of usage volume. Or I thought it might be because the mechanisms of speaking and singing are different. However, as time passed, other questions arose. Could it be that the way speaking and singing are used is too disconnected? Eventually, I came to think that the key might be the work of connecting the mechanisms of speaking and singing to some extent.

If one speaks weakly, low, and breathily in daily life, but suddenly uses strong pressure and loud volume the moment singing begins, it means the vocal cords are constantly switching between two systems with different usage points. The greater the gap between speaking and singing, the faster the voice will tire.

I recalled a scene from a past broadcast where singer Lee Hyori received vocal coaching. The coach pointed out that her everyday voice was being produced at a pitch that was too low compared to her natural sound. In a similar vein, an ENT director once explained the importance of developing the habit of producing sound with appropriate pressure while keeping the vocal cords properly engaged. Speaking weakly, low, and vaguely in daily life can actually weaken the vocal cord usage sense itself. This is especially true for those who tend to speak more breathily when their voice is not in good condition.

However, it is said that during such times, it is necessary to speak slowly, at a leisurely pace, while appropriately engaging the vocal cords. In a way, the habit of speaking to express "my voice is not good right now" can actually worsen the condition of the voice.

In fact, changing only the everyday voice often leads to much faster improvement in singing voice. Upon closely observing a student with excessive nasality and a flat tone, I found that their everyday voice itself also had excessive nasality. It was a habit they had chosen to compensate for their small vocal volume in their own way. However, after tuning the sound in the direction that vocal volume is not resolved by nasal resonance alone but is also connected to the balance of breath pressure and vocal cord usage, the sound became much more stable.

Habits such as maintaining abdominal pressure, maintaining a natural pitch that is not too low, maintaining an appropriate distance from the other person, and speaking at a pace that is not too rushed are not merely issues of speech style. Ultimately, all of these are connected to "habits of sound."

Singing is not created only in the practice room. The everyday speech habits we unconsciously repeat eventually become part of the singing voice. Good vocalization begins not with special techniques, but with the delicate effort of consistently reflecting on how we use the sounds of daily life.

<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>

*This content was translated by AI.