mike said...
'tricky'? when we speak, we use pitch. when we sing, we specify
those pitches and, we specify these pitches for a specific duration.
usually, this means it takes us longer to say the words while we are singing
than while we are talking. additionally, we often have to use a wider
range
of pitches when we sing. accommodating these differences is a matter of
degree not a matter of complete change, as in whistling and chewing. in
fact, i would go so far as to say that there is more difference between
consonants and vowels than there is between talking and singing.
mike
David here...
Mike,
The mechanism for speaking and singing are the same. However, the ways in
which it is used in singing require much more facility, otherwise everyone
would be a singer, right? Some of the ways in which singing is different
than speaking:
When you are speak, you don't have to worry about which pitch you are on.
When you increase volume (by adding sub-glottic pressure) in speaking, the
pitch will generally increase, unless effort is made to keep the pitch the
same. In singing, we have to crescendo and decrescendo as the music
dictates (or as feeling dictates) without concurrent pitch change. Many new
students to singing have a great deal of difficulty with this.
Also, in speaking, we generally glide our vowels, and do not stay on a pure
form of the vowel, as we do in (classical) singing.
I can't think of a time in speaking when you would have to have the agility
you need when singing melismas (as in Bach, perhaps). Nor can I imagine
having to have the endurance in speaking you might need when singing
Rossini's Largo. In addition to "purer" vowels, you also need the singer's
formant, or ring, in (classical) singing, which most speakers do not employ.
So, while there is not a different mechanism used for singing, it is used in
unique ways that differentiate it from speaking. Kind of like the
difference in walking and dancing, or treading water and swimming.
FWIW,
David Grogan
Marshall, Texas
|
