The Trouble with Singing
By: Brett Manning
Throughout the last decade and a half, I have found a new hobby. This hobby has nearly driven me mad at times. It is not golf, fly fishing or songwriting. I've done a little of all three and found that they are difficult, but not impossible. But singing has got to be one of the biggest mysteries known to mankind! Please allow me to defend my position. Music is about the one thing besides food, clothing and shelter that we can't as a society, live without. Music is everywhere and inescapable. So what happens when you get a hold of the only musical instrument that is clothed in flesh, has a nervous system and is a direct reflection of the soul of it's owner? What happens when you get a hold of the least visible, least predictable, most flexible, most stubborn, yet the most distinct and unique of all musical instruments.
The trouble with singing is that there are 6 billion opinions on the approach to singing and few are taking into account that each voice is distinctive, though the mechanism is basically the same for all voices. Taken into account that we've only been looking at the cords for the last hundred years, (most of this time through a dental mirror placed at the back of the throat) we've only just begun to understand how the voice works. But observing how Tiger woods swings the golf club and understanding how to teach his golf swing are two totally different things. In my pursuit of vocal excellence, I have to acknowledge that God has given me the gift to simply see what is going on inside the throat and then prescribe the exercise to accomplish the desired vocal coordinations. This method has increased my range from 2 octaves to 5 octaves of vocal range. I now sing up into Mariah Carey notes and down into the low bass range. I never dreamed this would ever be possible. Now I know that sounds a little too incredible, but even more incredible is to be teaching people over the phone in my Nashville studio to students from one city of the U.S. to the other, students throughout Canada, Europe, Australia, Singapore, Puerto Rico and a bunch of other countries I can hardly keep up with. To be working by phone and getting many of these people to add a full octave to their vocal range in such a short time, is the most incredible experience for me. The one thing they all had in common was misconceptions that singing is rocket science.
Many singers think that it takes 4 years of college to extend the range just a few notes. The key is not in the force, but in the finding of the flow. It's mind over muscle. It's a decreasing of vibrating vocal cord (mass) until the vocal cords eventually begin to dampen (zip up), decreasing the vibrating (surface) of the cords. This is the simple secret to singing higher, easier, longer and with a tone quality that melts in your mouth and not it not in your throat. The key is in training the musculature to obey the artistic desires of the mind. Doing this, without the assistance of a qualified and gifted instructor is "the trouble with singing"!
By: Brett Manning
Throughout the last decade and a half, I have found a new hobby. This hobby has nearly driven me mad at times. It is not golf, fly fishing or songwriting. I've done a little of all three and found that they are difficult, but not impossible. But singing has got to be one of the biggest mysteries known to mankind! Please allow me to defend my position. Music is about the one thing besides food, clothing and shelter that we can't as a society, live without. Music is everywhere and inescapable. So what happens when you get a hold of the only musical instrument that is clothed in flesh, has a nervous system and is a direct reflection of the soul of it's owner? What happens when you get a hold of the least visible, least predictable, most flexible, most stubborn, yet the most distinct and unique of all musical instruments.
The trouble with singing is that there are 6 billion opinions on the approach to singing and few are taking into account that each voice is distinctive, though the mechanism is basically the same for all voices. Taken into account that we've only been looking at the cords for the last hundred years, (most of this time through a dental mirror placed at the back of the throat) we've only just begun to understand how the voice works. But observing how Tiger woods swings the golf club and understanding how to teach his golf swing are two totally different things. In my pursuit of vocal excellence, I have to acknowledge that God has given me the gift to simply see what is going on inside the throat and then prescribe the exercise to accomplish the desired vocal coordinations. This method has increased my range from 2 octaves to 5 octaves of vocal range. I now sing up into Mariah Carey notes and down into the low bass range. I never dreamed this would ever be possible. Now I know that sounds a little too incredible, but even more incredible is to be teaching people over the phone in my Nashville studio to students from one city of the U.S. to the other, students throughout Canada, Europe, Australia, Singapore, Puerto Rico and a bunch of other countries I can hardly keep up with. To be working by phone and getting many of these people to add a full octave to their vocal range in such a short time, is the most incredible experience for me. The one thing they all had in common was misconceptions that singing is rocket science.
Many singers think that it takes 4 years of college to extend the range just a few notes. The key is not in the force, but in the finding of the flow. It's mind over muscle. It's a decreasing of vibrating vocal cord (mass) until the vocal cords eventually begin to dampen (zip up), decreasing the vibrating (surface) of the cords. This is the simple secret to singing higher, easier, longer and with a tone quality that melts in your mouth and not it not in your throat. The key is in training the musculature to obey the artistic desires of the mind. Doing this, without the assistance of a qualified and gifted instructor is "the trouble with singing"!