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Types Of Singing In Depth

R&B:

Although not as popular as it was in the ’90s, the R&B singing style is just like any other singing style with a mix of soul, pop and even funk.

Pop:

Pop music is the face of the music industry currently, with thousands of new artists trying to grab a piece of the pie every year and very few succeeding. While the ’80s has been dominated by disco music and rock, our preference has started to change in the late ’90s and thus pop music has become a norm. If you are a 90’s child back when MTV actually had music playing and not reality shows you probably remember that there were a lot of different styles of music playing, some have become more successful than others.

Country:

Country music was very popular in the ’70s and ’80s, but for some reason, it started to fade out. Most country singers have been born into this singing style, often having singer parents which lead them onto this path. Most country singers which started singing as children once they grew up trying to switch singing styles, either due to personal preference or due to chancing the trend, some have successfully switched to singing pop, while others are extremely successful in country music as there is fairly small competition in that singing style.

Gospel:

Gospel singing is not as popular as it once was, mostly as people go less and less to the church thus fewer children can experience the choir singing. Most beginner singers also want to have some individuality and this is not possible in a choir. There are a lot of R&B singers which have started singing at an early age in a choir, although the ones that had become famous switched singing styles but they all tend to follow closely the rules which the choir taught them.

Rock:

Singing rock is a lot more difficult than it sounds, the singer has to be able to growl and scream while singing and oftentimes beginner singers go overboard with either growling or singing. The rock singing style is fairly popular even this day, although it is mostly dominated by just a handful of artists which can successfully pull off singing rock. Simply put for beginners singing hard is fairly hard without simply screaming out of your lungs as some rock singers tend to do.

Opera:

Opera or classical singing style is an extremely old singing style, hundreds of years ago opera singers were as popular as rock stars in our modern times. The main reason why there are not so many opera singers is that the singer has to be able to sing live in front of an audience, as opera singing is not that popular in TV or Radios. Singing opera gives the singer a lot of freedom on how to convey their emotion, although generally speaking most opera songs are sad and dramatic, which isn’t the best considering today’s trends with upbeat songs.

Hip Hop:

Hip Hop emerged somewhere in New York some time ago, it has catchy lyrics and it is often accompanied by beatboxing and rapping. Hip Hop has been extremely popular in starting in the late ’80s and even in the early 2000s. Hip Hop gives a lot of flexibility to singers, and there are a lot of beginner singers who have started their career with either hip hop or a mix of hip hop and rapping.

Blues:

Blues singing style originated from the deep south, sometime during the late 1800s, during that time blues was the today’s pop or rock. During the past couple of decades singing blues has somewhat gone out of fashion, most singers rather than singing blues tend to either stick with singing R&B or Jazz. Although blues singers do still have massive followings they are not as mainstream as the other more popular singing types.

Jazz:

Most people put Jazz and Blues in the same singing styles, however, there are some major differences between the two of them. While both of them do rely heavily on the use of instruments, Blues has also a lot more singing incorporated in the songs than Jazz does.

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Types Of Singing

The types of singing styles are:

R&B

Pop

Country

Gospel

Rock

Opera

Hip Hop

Blues

Jazz

Funk

Disco

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Singing Technique

When people sing they use the air in the lungs. The pressure of the air that comes out of the lungs can be controlled with several respiratory muscles, including the muscle called the diaphragm which goes across the front of the body below the ribs. People who have singing lessons spend a lot of time practising “breath control”. The air comes through the throat where the larynx is like a reed on a clarinet: it vibrates, controlling the passage of air, and this makes the note higher or lower depending on how it is controlled

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Examples of Musicians with Different Voice Types

Bass: 

The Bass is the lowest male voice type with a tessitura of around E2-E4. Barry White.

Baritone: 

The Baritone is a pretty common male voice type with a tessitura of A2-A4. John Legend.

Tenor:

The Tenor is also a very common male voice type with a tessitura of C3-C5 and a lighter vocal weight than the basses and baritones. Sam Smith.

Countertenor: 

The Countertenor, like the Bass, is a very rare voice type. The countertenor has a tessitura of E3-E5 and the lightest vocal weight of all the male singers. Bruno Mars.

Contralto:

The Contralto is the lowest female singing voice and like the Basses and Countertenors, they’re quite rare. The Contralto has a tessitura of around an E3-E5 and a good amount of vocal weight. Nina Simone.

Alto: 

The Alto is the second lowest female voice type and has a tessitura of F3-F5.Amy Winehouse.

Mezzo Soprano:

The Mezzo Soprano has some of the most interesting vocal sounds available to her. Like her male equivalent, the Baritone, the mezzo falls in the middle of the female voice types. Lady Gaga.

Soprano:

The Soprano is the highest female voice type with a tessitura of C4-C6 and the lightest vocal weight of them all. Beyoncé.

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Tessitura And Voice Type

Tessitura is the range of your singing voice that is comfortable for you.

And the high note in the last example was not the Bass’ tessitura.

But wait, how is that different from range?

Range is the measure of the lowest and highest note that a singer can possibly sing.

Tessitura is the range of notes where the voice is comfortable and at rest.

Tessitura is a much more important factor than range when you’re deciding what song to sing

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Factors

Vocal Weight – the heaviness or lightness of your specific voice

Tessitura – the range of your voice where you sing most comfortably

Bridge Location– the place where your voice transitions between vocal registers

Range – the lowest note and highest notes you can sing

Timbre – the texture of the voice

Vocal registers – how large or small your different registers are

Speaking Voice – how high or low you speak

Anatomy – the length of your vocal tract (glottis to lips), size of vocal folds, body size.

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The 8 Voice Types

The vast majority of voices fall into one of eight different vocal categories.

I’ve included several listening examples below, but for now here is the bare bones list.

The male voice types from lowest to highest are:

Bass

Baritone

Tenor

Countertenor

The female voice types from lowest to highest are:

Contralto

Alto

Mezzo Soprano

Soprano

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Voice Type

voice range: mezzo/soprano

voice classification: B4-F4

prime voice: a comfortable

Voiced sound: The basic sound produced by vocal fold vibration is called “voiced sound.” This is frequently described as a “buzzy” sound. Voiced sound for singing differs significantly from voiced sound for speech.

Resonance: Voice sound is amplified and modified by the vocal tract resonators (the throat, mouth cavity, and nasal passages). The resonators produce a person’s recognizable voice.

Articulation: The vocal tract articulators (the tongue, soft palate, and lips) modify the voiced sound. The articulators produce recognizable words.

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Ways I improved my posture:

While singing, vocalists should pay close attention to the position of their feet, knees, hips, abdomen, chest, shoulders,  arms, hands, and head.  Correct positioning of these makes it easier for sound to be produced.  The examples that follow show  correct positioning for all of these.    

The chin should be about parallel to the floor. Shoulders should be held back and down, with chest held high,  but not in a strained position. Abdomen should be flat and firm, held in an expandable position. Hands should be relaxed and still at the sides.  Knees should be flexibly loose, and never locked.    Feet should be slightly apart, one slightly in front of the other. The weight of the body is slightly forward.

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Vocal chords:

One of two small bands of muscle within the larynx. These muscles vibrate to produce the voice. The vocal cords form a "V" inside the larynx, a 2-inch-long, tube-shaped organ in the neck. Vocal cords, also called vocal folds, are two triangular bands of tissue that sit at the top of your windpipe. They’re open while you’re breathing, and when you speak or sing, they close, pulling tighter for higher notes, remaining loose for lower notes. You want your vocal cords soft, smooth, flexible and free of inflammation.

The larynx, also known as the voice box, sits at the top of the windpipe. It is responsible for sound production and the passing of air during breathing. It is used when you talk, breathe and swallow. The inner larynx in particular is in charge of closing up the vocal cords. Air is what opens the vocal cords. The larynx is very important as it controls the air pressure.

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Listening and pitching

I have become better at listening and pitching, I improved by listening to different singers over and over again; singing with them. My singing teacher told me to do this; she said that it would help me as I would pick up the correct pitch by listening to others. 

The quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone.

Absolute, or perfect, pitch is the ability to identify by ear any note at some standard pitch or to sing a specified note, say G♯, at will. Fully developed absolute pitch is rare. It appears early in childhood and is apparently an acute form of memory of sounds of a particular instrument, such as the home piano. 

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Articulation

Pronunciation

I have always had fairly good pronunciation, therefore this isn’t really something that needs to improve, however to keep good pronunciation I will do vocal warm-ups such as :

§  Tongue twisters, e.g. ‘she sells sea shells’  

§  Study phonetics, for this exercise, take a look at the song you’re currently working on, and break down each word in the lyrics. Break apart the vowels, consonants, and diphthongs.

Practice Vowels. Take some time focusing on each of the vowels: ah, ay, ee, oh, and oo. Add a consonant at the beginning (such as “mah, may, me…”) and sing through the list, making sure each one is clear

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Notes

Treble clef: A treble clef symbol tells you that the second line from the bottom (the line that the symbol curls around) is "G".

Sharps and flats: A sharp raises a note, while a flat lowers a note.

Ties and slurs: A tie connects two notes of the same pitch (on the same line or space of the staff). A slur applies to two or more different notes and means the two different notes should be played legato.

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Music Notes

I am now able to name the types of notes:

·         Whole note/ semi breve

·         Half a note/minim

·         Quarter of a note/ crotchet

·         Sixteenth note/ semi quaver

·         Eight note/ quaver

·         Treble clef

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Circle Of Life

In our group song we decide to perform ‘circle of life’ from lion king. I was given a role to play of an antelope and I had  the opportunity to have my very own solo, where I had to come in with my ‘talaa talaas’ and then I had to interact and  have conversation with the other antelopes, whilst dancing and swaying from left to right.

To add, in order for me to play and perform my role successfully, prior to the exam as a class we went to watch the play lion king in the Lyceum theatre, I found this very beneficial because I was able to hear and see how the actor portrayed an antelope. I made sure that I took on the role properly seeing as lion king is my favourite West end show and Disney film.

During the performance I strongly feel like I was on pitch. However coming to the end of the performance I felt a bit faint because I was dehydrated and I didn’t warm up my body properly.

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Warm Up

This warm up breathing in for 4, 6 and 8 counts (hold for these counts and release for these counts helps to work on my breath control too.

Warm ups such as scales and breathing activates that included me to hold my breath for certain period of time really benefited me.

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Breathing From Diaphragm

To improve my breathing I had to ensure that I had an upright body posture, that my shoulders were not raising up when I in haled and that the breath came from the lower part of my diaphragm, I also had to make sure that from head to toe I was fully relaxed and my stomach was expanding and contracting each time I in haled and exhaled.