Voice training should be first step towards musical success

The late Bob Marley. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • To sing well, one needs to discover the voice resonating chambers that best fits one’s voice.
  • Arguably, Joseph Kamaru’s musical success was as a result of writing songs with rich messages, such as Ndari ya Mwarimu, in addition to exploitation of his voice to bring out the irony implied in the song.

The biggest worry for a Kenyan musician is how to write a great song and how to have a great voice. It is not enough to have a great message. One needs to consider his voice as the most important musical instrument.

Before one embarks on a career as a singer, one needs to find out the uniqueness of one’s voice in order to take maximum advantage of where their voice sounds best.

Different voices are suited for different music genres. For instance, the message of protest that marks reggae music was arguably a great selling point for Bob Marlay’s voice as evidenced in Redemption Song. Bob Marley achieves this by singing from the frontal sinus, the sphenoid sinus and ethmoid sinuses. Singing from these cavities gives his voice the power to communicate the seriousness with which he treats the theme of oppression. This can be confirmed in the frown lines between his eye brows in almost all his photos.

Morgan Heritage band members, unlike Bob Marley, do not sing from the frontal, rather they focus their voices on the maxillary sinuses. This creates the warm, friendly timber that defines their songs such as Don’t Haffi Dread. The soothing and romantic effect that defines Celine Dion’s voice, on the other hand, fits best the love messages that have marked most of her songs.

Most Kenyan artistes need to find out the music genre that best suits their voices and the best singing technique that suits their messages. I met Allan Aaron, for instance, back in 2004 in a studio in Nakuru. Those days he was not singing but rapping gospel songs to fit the style of the day that had been popularised by Rufftone and Daddy Owen.

We had a chart with Allan, which was later to grow into friendship. I kept insisting that he was gifted as a singer, not as a rapper. He, however, insisted on rapping. To his surprise, he only hit the charts when he released the song Wi Mutheru. In this song, Allan sings and does not rap. The transcendental effect in his voice conveys the mood of reverence.

It may not be assumed that Dolly Parton cannot sing reggae music for instance, but the timber of her voice may not bring her the same success she has had as a country music singer.

Many Kenyan artistes do not take time to develop their voices as is the case with Tanzanian artistes such as Diamond, Ali Kiba, Mavoko and Harmonize. The rain thus starts beating our artistes at the vocal level.

The human brain loves new musical experiences, especially where an artiste expresses meaning in a defamiliarised way that is poetic. It is important, therefore, to hone the uniqueness of one’s voice in order to stand out. Celebrated artistes such as Tony Nyadundo and Joseph Kamaru are two local artistes who discovered the artistic expressions that best suits their voices. Music as a cultural expression speaks to the mind, the heart and the soul. The unique manner in which an artiste uses a voice determines one’s success.  Rarely does any artiste say anything new but what captures global or national attention is the new way one expresses meaning.

To sing well, one needs to discover the voice resonating chambers that best fits one’s voice. Arguably, Joseph Kamaru’s musical success was as a result of writing songs with rich messages, such as Ndari ya Mwarimu, in addition to exploitation of his voice to bring out the irony implied in the song. In this song Kamaru sings about a teacher who has befriended one of his female students. The artiste raises the moral concerns on the issue by appropriation of irony which is intended to ridicule the immoral behaviour. The message in the song is rich in moral content but it achieves its maximum effect as a result of the artiste’s ability to sing from the sinus and the nasal cavities to express the implied ridicule, which is evidenced in the verbal nuances.

Arguably, expressing his voice from the sinus cavities as a singing technique has been the greatest secret of his great voice. This technique enables Kamaru to conflate meaning by saying one thing at lyrical level and implying something else with his voice. The same can be said of Tony Nyadundo. His music attracts audiences, including those who don’t understand Dholuo, because the listeners identify with the aesthetic features of his voice.

Different vocal exercises are suitable for different melodic contexts. To develop a commercial musical voice, an artiste needs to master how to create the emotional appeal that carries the psychological effect of the message in one’s song. Vocal exercises such as lip rolls and tongue trills can help in shaping one’s voice to have the right emotive effect. Additionally, there are different breathing techniques which influence the mood the voice creates in the listeners.

The vowel sounds carry the musical semantic underpinnings in a song. It is thus important for any artiste to discover and master the vocal effects that results from different vocal textures which results from different tongue placement. Articulation and pronunciation create aesthetic value when done correctly. One can improve on this by recording and playing back one’s voice to hear how they are sounding. This can be refined by adopting different tongue placement techniques. Advisably, it is important to master one’s correct tongue placement for the vowel sound /e/ since it creates a smooth air flow between the different resonating chambers thus giving one’s voice a musical feel.

Exercising is not enough, this is because the mechanical aspect of singing is also affected by an artiste’s psychological state. Taking water improves the mechanical aspect of vocal production. This is because the vocal production organs performs best when the body is hydrated. It is also important to bear in mind that stress has been known to be the greatest voice killer. It is therefore advisable for any artiste to safeguard oneself against stressful moments and to develop coping mechanisms. Having enough sleep is one of the best vocal healing process that is known to help great singers maintain their voices.

 

Kanyi Thiong’o teaches Literature at Egerton University