Barbershop Craft

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="043b85a3.jpg"> <div> <B><U><IMG SRC="170f0540.jpg" border=0 width="240" height="84" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="044d2b83.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Harmony A Plenty"><B>Home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Come and Sing with Us">Come and Sing with Us</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Barbershop History">Barbershop History</A></div> <div> <B>Barbershop Craft</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Album">Photo Album</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Downloads">Downloads</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sing Outs">Sing 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Craft">4.  Vowels and Consonants – Tall Vowel Sounds - Sing-able Consonants</A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#5___pitch___accuracy_of_notes" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">5.  Pitch – Accuracy of notes – Hearing Frequencies</A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#6___chest_voice___head_voice" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">6.  Chest Voice – Head Voice</A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#7___exercises___develop_range_and_pitch" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">7.  Exercises – Develop Range and Pitch Accuracy</A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#8___harmony_" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">8.  Harmony – Holding a pitch in a chord</A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#9___smooth_singing" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">9.  Smooth Singing – No Lumps</A></div> <div> <A HREF="#10___keep_practicing" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">10.  KEEP PRACTICING</A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="1___stance"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>1.  STANCE</B></div> <bR> <div> You should always feel tall or lifted when you sing.</div> <div> You chest should be raised and expanded so your breathing apparatus can work freely.</div> <bR> <div> Feet should be shoulder width apart, upper body slightly forward to allow the knees to unlock.</div> <div> Freedom of movement should be felt throughout the body.</div> <bR> <div> No tension in any muscle, especially the neck area, should be felt.</div> <div> Relax the jaw and lips.</div> <div> Now, do you FEEL LIKE A SINGER?</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="2___breathing"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>2.  BREATHING</B></div> <bR> <div> There are many exercises to help you breathe correctly but any exercise that causes tension is incorrect.</div> <bR> <div> With the correct stance, breathe naturally.</div> <div> Try and feel the air filling your lungs from your beltline.</div> <div> Never lift your shoulders when inhaling.</div> <bR> <div> You can practice this by slowly sucking through an imaginary straw</div> <div> and place your hands on your lower stomach.</div> <div> Can you feel the air pushing against your hands first?</div> <bR> <div> The Diaphragm is a flap of muscle that controls the inward airflow.</div> <div> The abdomen muscle is used to control and support the outward airflow.</div> <div> A Singer’s posture will result in the best breathing technique so get the Stance right first.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="3___sustained_speech___natural_voice__"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>3.  Sustained Speech – Natural Voice – Relaxed Easy Singing</B></div> <bR> <div> Most people can speak.  All singing is, is speaking with a sustained pitch.</div> <div> If you find you are manipulating your speaking voice, in any way, to sing,</div> <div> then you will probably find you will be restricting range or tone and in time may cause damage to vocal apparatus.</div> <bR> <div> Relaxed easy singing using a natural tone will develop and strengthen your voice in the correct way.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="4___vowels_and_consonants"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>4.  Vowels and Consonants – Tall Vowel Sounds - Sing-able Consonants</B></div> <bR> <div> We sustain VOWEL sounds when we sing.  i.e. A,E,I,O,U.</div> <div> Vowels make up the longest sound that is contained in a word.</div> <div> Singing with a “TALL” feeling inside the mouth will round out and unify all the vowel sounds.</div> <div> Sing with a relaxed and open throat, jaw and lips.</div> <bR> <div> Consonants are letters that are not vowels.</div> <div> “Sing-able consonants” can be sung with pitch.  i.e. M’s and N’s</div> <div> Can you find some more sing-able consonants?</div> <bR> <div> What about a “Y”?  This consonant has an “ee” sound that can be tuned to the pitch of the following vowel sound.</div> <div> An “W” has an “oo” sound.</div> <bR> <div> You may wonder when you have two or three vowels sounds in a word, what these are called.</div> <div> A word like “My” can be broken up like this:</div> <bR> <div>         M = Sing-able consonant</div> <div>         Ah = Longest or target vowel</div> <div>         Ee = Called the diphthong (the second vowel in this case)</div> <bR> <div> A word containing three vowels has a Target Vowel, a Diphthong and a “triphthong”.  Can you think of one?</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="5___pitch___accuracy_of_notes"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>5.  Pitch – Accuracy of notes – Hearing Pitch Frequencies</B></div> <bR> <div> When singing a note, all we are doing is creating a frequency of sound.  This is called PITCH.</div> <bR> <div> You may have heard people singing and it doesn’t sound good.  They may be singing “OFF PITCH”.</div> <div> This is called singing “Flat” or “Sharp”.  Flat, meaning below the pitch and Sharp meaning above.</div> <bR> <div> We have to train our ears to be able to tell our brain to raise or lower our pitch to sustain the correct pitch.</div> <bR> <div> Some people can hear the correct pitch naturally and find it more difficult to sing “OUT OF TUNE” (flat or sharp).  </div> <bR> <div> Others take time to train their ears and others find it so difficult to hear pitch, they cannot find frequency of a note.</div> <div> These people are classified as “TONE DEAF”.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="6___chest_voice___head_voice"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>6.  Chest Voice – Head Voice</B></div> <bR> <div> When we speak we usually use our Chest Voice or Chest Tone.</div> <div> This is our natural voice which we use for singing within our given range.</div> <bR> <div> Head Voice or Head Tone is what we will slip into when the note we have to sing</div> <div> is “Out of Range” or above the range of our Chest Tone.</div> <div> This may sound thin and squeaky and be totally different from our chest tone quality.</div> <bR> <div> Some people find they have no “BREAK” between these voices and can sing low notes to high notes</div> <div> using both voices and listeners cannot hear where they have changed voice.</div> <bR> <div> The “Break” is the note you sing up to where you find you have to switch voices to get any higher.</div> <bR> <div> Trained Singers, like in Opera, exercise their voices to enable them to use both voices with no audible “Break”.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="7___exercises___develop_range_and_pitch"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>7.  Exercises – Develop Range and Pitch Accuracy</B></div> <bR> <div> There are many scales and arpeggio exercises that will increase your range in both voices.</div> <bR> <div> What we need to identify is where your break is and work around this area to strengthen the head-voice</div> <div> in a lower range to allow us to smoothly switch between voices. </div> <bR> <div> This will almost seem like a third type of voice or “The in-between voice” that will allow you to sing almost any song.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="8___harmony_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>8.  Harmony – Holding a pitch in a chord</B></div> <bR> <div> Most people find it difficult to hold their note against some else singing a different pitch (Two notes together = INTERVAL).</div> <div> This just takes practice.</div> <div> Identifying your note and sticking to it and hearing the relationship with the other note(s) can be very rewarding.</div> <bR> <div> Some people will find this easy and almost a natural thing to do.</div> <div> Many people are natural harmonisers and find it just as easy to hamonise (sing a different pitch or note in the CHORD).</div> <bR> <div> A Chord is more than two notes.  There are many different types of Chords.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="9___smooth_singing"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><B>9.  SMOOTH SINGING – NO LUMPS</B></div> <bR> <div> As we develop singing techniques, it becomes obvious what sounds better to an audience.</div> <div> Imagine yourself as an audience member and what would you like to hear?</div> <div> If we have all the basics right with tuning, tone quality, long and shaped vowel sounds etc., what’s next?</div> <div>  </div> <div>    a.     No sudden dynamic changes:</div> <div>     There should be a flow in dynamics except for certain effects.</div> <bR> <div>    b.     No hard edges.</div> <div>            Hard edges occur usually after a breath. We have more diaphragmatic support</div> <div>            at the beginning only to fade by the end of a phrase.  A phrase should be</div> <div>            supported throughout and follow a dynamic plan.  i.e. no phrase should be a</div> <div>            static dynamic and no phrase should die at the end.</div> <bR> <div>    c.     No hard or overemphasized consonants.</div> <div>            Some choirs overemphasize consonants i.e. t’s, s’s which bare no</div> <div>            resemblance of how you would normally speak a word with these consonants.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="10___keep_practicing"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B> </B><B>10.  KEEP PRACTICING</B></div> <bR> <div> Having a good singing voice requires practice.</div> <div> Even gifted singers like Celene Dion admit to practicing for years to develop the sound they are happy with.</div> <bR> <div> Search for your “true voice” . . .  practice hearing and matching pitches.</div> <div> Stand, breath, act and feel like a singer!</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id60_m.htm" TITLE="Barbershop Craft">Top of Page</A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>