Resonance Lesson for Singers
Resonance is all around us. It is as much a part of life as gravity, or friction. And as many things in life are, resonance is so simple that we don’t usually notice it yet when we examine its existence we see simplicity become infinite complexity. There are many different types of resonance found in nature that lies outside the world of sound. There is orbital resonance for instance.
But what about for voice? Well, Resonance as is it is applied to sound is simply defined as sound layering over itself. Not a big deal right? Well not until we realize that there are three types of resonance’s found within the act of singing and all three needs to be in place and working well together to enhance our vocal tones. And notice please that I said enhance our tone. Resonance is not exactly tone itself. It is a thickener of our existing tone. That’s all. In fact, Webster’s defines resonance as the intensification and enriching of a musical tone by supplementary vibration.
Lets look at resonance as it is used in the world of audio recording which is where (in my opinion) tone is understood and applied in the most demanding manner. Any recording studio or computer based recording programs such as “protools or cubase” will have applied on the different recorded instruments an equalizer (which is meant to shape the tone) and then an echo effect known as reverb. This effect is usually placed on instruments such as guitars, drums, piano and of course voice. Again, we have the tone shaper which is eq than the tone enhancer which is reverb. Both are two separate ideas working as one.
The misunderstanding of tone vs. resonance is understandable. The echo itself will be enhancing or thickening certain frequencies more so than others and in the natural world tone is shaped through external vibrations as well. The fact is both concepts of shaping and enhancing are very closely related but again, are not the same. Now…what we want to ultimately achieve as singers is to shape our tone and enhance them naturally first before we alter them artificially in a recording studio or pa. system.
Find out more about resonance for singing shock with online singing lessons at VirtualVoiceLessons.Net.
