Principle 9: Sing to discover your true musical self.
Playing music to express ourselves is a two step process. First we discover the musical ideas that live inside us. Then, we translate those ideas through an instrument or voice and bring the music to the outer world.
Difficulty in self expression in music can usually be traced to one of two general causes. Either the inner music has not been properly discovered and understood, or there is a problem with the translation to the outside world.
Singing is a tool that helps with both of these essential steps of musicianship. Through singing we can discover what our true ideas and bridge the gap between the mind and the instrument.
Singing is particularly helpful because the technique of singing is much more natural than that of most instruments. Therefore we can use our voices to find the feeling of something we want to play much more easily than with an instrument we have not yet mastered.
Singing also exposes any deficiencies we have in our inner musical picture. If we can not clearly hear what we want to play, we will not be able to play it well on the instrument. As the old musical adage goes: “If you can’t hear it, you can’t play it.” Singing lets us “hear” what is inside us better.
Singing also helps us to understand the music we listen to. If we can listen to music and sing back accurately what we hear, it means we are understanding the incoming musical information and will be able to fit in with whoever else we are playing with.
Singing shows us all the elements of music we need for a complete musical expression. This includes dynamics, tone, emotion, phrasing and rhythm. In particularly singing is a particularly good way to discover and bring out the emotion in our music.
In these exercises we will begin to develop some basic singing skills which will help us all become more expressive, accurate and honest musicians. Don’t worry if you don’t think you have a good voice. It will improve as you practice.
Exercise 9A: Vocal tone matching.
This is a basic ear training exercise that will help you begin to connect the ear, to the voice, to the mind. Take a pitched instrument (piano is best but any pitched instrument can work) and play a note. Listen, feel the note, and then sing the same note. If your sung note does not match exactly, gradually adjust up or down until the tones match.
Work your way up and down the instrument in a chromatic scale, matching all the notes with your voice. As this becomes easier, you can start to move around at greater intervals and working faster. Finally, play random notes and match the pitches vocally. This exercise should be repeated often until you can quickly and easily match random pitches vocally played by you or someone else.
Exercise 9B: Partner vocal phrase matching.
Now get together with a partner and play a fun game where one person sings or plays a easy phrase, or “lick” and the other person repeats it. Keep the phrases simple at first and add complexity as your skills develop. It’s most important to imitate the feel at first. Of course you want to imitate the notes also but getting the feeling right should be the first priority.
Exercise 9C: Shower singing and role play.
For many people, this is the only musical activity they engage in, and it happens to be a very fun and liberating one. Choose a song you want to learn, turn up the music and sing along. Copy the feeling first, and sing with freedom. No one is listening! Role play and imagine it’s you standing on stage singing your heart out. Pick up a bar of soap or whatever is nearby for a microphone and make the most of it. The goal is to feel the freedom and joy of singing here and to see yourself as expressing yourself freely vocally.
Exercise 9D: Hear-sing-play.
In this excellent exercise we undergo the entire process of conception, translation and performance of musical ideas.
First imagine in your mind a lick you want to play. Keep it simple at first! Then once you can hear it clearly, sing it. Include all of the elements of music in your singing including the feeling, notes, tone, dynamics, articulation, etc. You may need to sing it several times before it sounds like a fully expressed musical idea. Then, pick up the instrument and find it on the instrument. Once again, strive to capture the correct feeling first before worrying too much about the notes. Keep playing it over and over capturing all of the elements of music, until the mental picture, vocal performance, and instrumental performance all match each other closely. Then go back to the beginning and repeat the process with another lick.
This is an exercise that we can do for a lifetime and on of the most valuable ones especially for improvising musicians. Make it a staple of your musical training and watch your ability to express yourself on your instrument grow.
Additional Resources
The Importance of Piano and Singing Practice and Schubert’s An Silvia