Observations of a Respectable Bass by Warren Bull

Observations of a Respectable Bass by Warren Bull

Stick out your tummy and drop your jaw. Make your mouth tall not wide. Sing through a straw.  Speak like Julia Child. Talk like a robot.

Those are just a few of the suggestions I have heard in voice lessons. Sing a scale while fluttering your lips or sounding a trilled R. Sing only the vowels in the lyrics. Pretend you are stroking a tarantula. Those are other instructions. I have decided there is nothing natural about singing. If I feel comfortable while singing, I must be doing something wrong. 

There are vowels. They don’t sound like AEIOU in singing. Pronunciation differs from location to location throughout the English-speaking world. It differs within each country and over time. If the song is a traditional English ballad you may prefer Eye-thur over EE-thur for either.  For a spiritual you may want to drop the gs from words ending in ing. There is a difference in how American and English singers pronounce Latin words. The vowels you do want extends as far as you can take them.  Rooow saaand thooorn. (Rose and Thorn) Stick those ending consonants on the start of the next word if it starts with a vowel, e.g. My hooom i zooover Jordan. My home is over Jordan.

You may see pictures of people singing. If you look closely you might notice how they are contorting their faces.

You rarely see photos of singers warming up. I believe that is because the exercises they use are downright odd. I recently sang in a concert choir. One of the warm up exercises had us buzzing. Others had us rolling our heads around our necks and singing like we were pulling a thread of light.

Apparently some people believe “natural singers” don’t need instruction. If you believe that, I can introduce you to a naturally gifted cutter. He can perform whatever operation you need bypass, biopsy, knee replacement etc. He didn’t go to medical school, but then he’s a natural, right?

Of course some singers have amazing voices to start with. Singers may get “on the job” training from other singers, family members or church choir leaders without taking formal classes or getting individual lessons. As a group, singers are supportive of each other and willing to tell others what they have learned. Apparently some singers downplay the amount of instruction they receive to maintain the appearance of naturalness.