The Voice Revealed
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About this ebook
This book is about the craft of vocalising, with a particular reference to singing. Its aim is to give information, insight and inspiration ranging from the simple and practical through to the invisible and intangible. It is written for students delving for the first time into the craft of singing, for those who are seeking deeper and more spiritual connections and for musicians, teachers, performers, actors and anyone who wishes to know. It is so important for you as a vocalist to remember that the best that you can be is already inside you. It is unfortunately wrapped in the complexities of being ‘you’. For this reason, every emotion, perception and belief may manifest into your vocal production. The task therefore is to discover how to understand yourself to such a degree that your voice will be revealed to you as a consequence of peeling away your packaging: hence the title, “The Voice Revealed”.
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Book preview
The Voice Revealed - Ashley Kirkham
ASHLEY KIRKHAM
THE
VOICE
REVEALED
Transformation through singing
Mereo Books
Mereo Books 2nd Floor, 6-8 Dyer Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 2PF
www.mereobooks.com
THE VOICE REVEALED: 978-1-86151-948-1
Ashley Kirkham can be contacted by email vocaltutor@gmail.com Or you can see more on Facebook @specialistvocaltutor
Smashwords Edition.
Copyright ©2019
Ashley Kirkham has asserted his right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your
favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The address for Memoirs Books Ltd. can be found at www.memoirspublishing.com
Memoirs Books Ltd. Reg. No. 7834348
Typeset in 11/15pt Century Schoolbook by Wiltshire Associates Ltd.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
For Clare and Robert
Your voice is connected to everything you are, so discover who you are first, and then your voice will be revealed to you.
Ashley Kirkham
CONTENTS
Introduction
Acknowledgements
WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT
How to read this book
How the book is structured
What is singing?
Why do we sing?
Why is the voice different from all other instruments?
What then prevents us from singing?
How is it all measured?
Where do I start?
How then do we transform ourselves?
BREATH
Why do we sometimes struggle to breathe effectively?
Breath and posture
Breathing mechanics
The breath of anticipation
Perceived problems
Breath without voice
Breath with voice
Breath and mind
Breath and words
Breath perception
Mind and breath
SOUND
Register
Pitch
Passagio
Posture
Visualisation
Resonance
Open Throat
Speaking
Voice Registers
Voice Categories
-Pitch
-Weight
-Timbre
-Size
-Variations
-Imitation
WORDS
Vowels
Diphthongs
Consonants
Glottals
Pronunciation
Weighting
Words
Legato
Accent
Singing with others
THE INVISIBLE CRAFT
Thought
Control the source, not the result
Centred focus
You and it
Physical and mental sight
Confidence
Projection
PERFORMANCE
The languages of musical interpretation
Establish the song’s purpose
Allow interpretation to reveal itself
What should I sing?
Tessitura
Transfer the principles between songs
Singing with instruments
Practice
TEACHING
The natural singer and teaching
What to look for in a teacher
Beware the teacher
Postscript
About the author
INTRODUCTION
Very early in my life, I started a journey. It was a journey to find myself, although I didn’t know I was looking. I did know that I wanted to sing, so I searched and studied and practised until I met a singing teacher who showed me how to find me. From this place I watched the singing sing itself, unhindered and released from the clutches of the ego which thought it new better. Once I had found myself and the singing had come as a consequence of that, both became transformed. The process and consequences have been so transformational to me that I have since felt a very powerful desire to help others experience the same.
From an early age I had been fascinated by singers. I seemed to have a natural facility for recognising what was good in singing and what was a poor imitation. My earliest recollections were of Danny Kaye, Mario Lanza, Paul Robeson, Oliver Hardy, Richard Lewis and my own dad, who was a very accomplished natural tenor who sang both popular and classical songs. My mum also sang to me when I was a young child, and although she wasn’t the most technically proficient, she had a wonderful storytelling manner.
Because of this, I was already beginning to realise that singing took many forms, and I was also to discover over the years that followed that there was a great deal of confusion and ignorance regarding singing. Even singers who were immensely talented could often not help, because they often understood very little about what they did themselves when they sang.
Whilst studying at college, I found a lack of any consistent message from the collective vocal teachers. Every teacher had a different approach to the singing process, yet here they all were in the same place teaching from different hymn books. Of course, variety is the spice of life and it is very refreshing to have different personalities delivering a message with their own idiosyncrasies and emphasis, but this was not the case here.
At college there were many talented musicians with the sort of wealth and experience that was immeasurably invaluable to performers in that setting, many of whom I have the utmost respect for. The fact remained however, that the more I studied and listened and read and spoke to the very able singers and teachers, the more I came to realise that there was a pattern to what was happening under the surface, and I became more and more determined to unravel and define it.
The specific difficulty in teaching singing compared to all other instruments lies in the fact that the singer’s instrument is inside them and is integrally connected to who they are and how they interact with their environment and themselves. The more I observed, the more I began to grasp the fact that virtually all the singers who made it because of their singing ability were essentially natural to varying degrees, and up to a point would sing well regardless of their teacher.
When I was about twenty years old, I was working with my good accompanist friend Gwen Jones. She mentioned she could arrange a meeting for me with a friend of hers called Dan Gregory. She told me that he was a great singer who had spent much of his career singing as a cathedral soloist and that he was very knowledgeable about singing and might be able to give me some advice. I jumped at the chance, and the first of many meetings was arranged.
Dan was ninety-one years old when I first met him. He had a magnificent bass voice with a two-and-a- half octave range, and he was to turn my life upside down regarding the entire craft of singing. My reason