Since "It's You" seems to be missing from your playlist, listen to the following tracks:
- Vocal Timbre (probably track 3)
- Babbling (probably track 4)
- Articulation (probably track 5)
- Sirening (probably track 6)
Write a comment with at least 4 short paragraphs, responding to each track.
I think Julie made an interesting point in "Vocal Timbre" when she said that "ah" is the most natural vowel to make. I never thought about that before and it is so true. Every time we breathe our mouths are in the shape of an "ah" and I think for me, thinking about that when I sing could help me find space.
ReplyDeleteBabbling would be a great way to warm up. I've babbled, but not as fast as the first example they played. It'd be a fun way to warm up with someone in choir or before a show. It's almost like having a conversation because of the different pitches.
Articulation is so important for any instrument. It can make a song that you've been playing/singing for a year feel completely new. Julie says that articulation brings more possibility to our instrument and I agree with that.
I think it's awesome that they say that no one is tone deaf because everyone can hear the siren. I can't even imagine how life would be if I went through it thinking I was tone deaf! Music surrounds us everyday and I just think that would be extremely depressing, believing that you could never sing along with a song. It's great how Music for People is helping non-musical people find out that they are, in fact, musical.
Well, I think in MfP we prefer to say we help people who mistakenly believe they are non-musical to discover their own natural musical abilities.
DeleteThe analysis on what timbres of vocal sounds are more natural is fascinating. Although I'd never consciously considered it before, I do agree that ohh and ahh are more natural than other vowel forms. Julie's idea of making intervals and hearing overtones with her electric toothbrush while brushing her teeth was awesome; I wish I had an electric toothbrush so I could try it!
ReplyDelete"The more you're a fool in front of people, the more they begin to trust you." This wasn't the central idea of the track, but I found it to be an interesting concept, particularly since I can see times in my own life where that has applied! The idea that the quality and sound basis of babbling can be taken from a foreign lanugage also intrigued me. Even though the babbling is made of nonsense syllables, it can still borrow a specific overall sound quality from a spoken language.
I really liked the notion that articulation can be used as a lanugage to express a meaning. Although that's always been true in my musical training, I'd never realized it consciously until I listened to this track. Articulation can speak a message of its own regardless of the notes being played in a piece. I also really enjoyed the concept of spiral learning, where the same topics are repeated over and over through a lifetime, but improved upon and done differently each time. It gives a sense of the continuous chance for improvement.
Sirening brought up the strongest emotional response for me. I loved the initial sirens between the voices. It seemed so other-worldly, and yet it made sense in a nonsensical way. I didn't like the sound of the siren against a drone as much. The constant pitch basis of the drone let my mindset go too much toward perceiving the siren as sharp or flat instead of the loose, freeing sensation of the interlocking sirens. The concept that no one is tone-deaf and proving it through the use of sirens is wonderful. That should be much more widely spread.
I was able to make a lot of connections while listening to "Vocal Timbre." When Julie changed the vowel sound as she sang, I couldn't hear the 5ths and octaves to which she was referring to at all. However Randy, my applied lessons professor, gave me a warm-up during our very first lesson that is aimed at hearing those overtones. Maybe in time those sounds will become more apparent to me. In the beginning, when David was taking about "the roundness of a sound" I was sent back to my high school years when we would spend 10 minutes playing our tuning note or the final chord of a piece trying to perfect this quality. Also, as they discussed how different vowels produce different timbres I thought about how changing my embouchure can improve or kill the quality of my sound. It can even change the pitch.
ReplyDelete"Babbling" was very interesting to listen to, however I feel it wouldn't be very helpful to me as a clarinetist as we use basically the same motion for every kind of articulation (unless you're a total beast and know how to double tongue). I got really excited when David briefly mentioned scat-singing. I grew up listening to jazz and am very familiar with it. My earliest memory of scat-singing is listening to Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" with my dad in the car on the way to the pool. About halfway through the track, an excerpt of a piece completely made up of babbling was played. It reminded me of when I witnessed a game of "Emotional Symphony" at an improv comedy performance in high school. Each player in this game gets an emotion to act out then there is a conductor who directs "the band." The conductor during this game plays the same role that we do when we step into the center of a drum circle and direct people to keep playing or stop to do call-and-response. Although I've heard of babbling before, I mostly know about it as a psychology term. It was really interesting to hear about how it works in music.
The performance I saw was way better, but here is a video of "Emotional Symphony." Skip ahead to 1:55 if you don't want to deal with the intros and getting the game set up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq8rDKPWRV8&feature=related
I loved the intro music on "Articulation!" I feel this track related to wind instrumentalists whereas "Babbling" was more for vocalists. When the example was played of the flute with the tongue that moves faster Michael Flatley's legs, I was reminded of Project Trio. Greg Pattillo's ability to play flute and beat box at the same time is incredible and I feel that he is a perfect example of everything talked about in this track with all the different forms of articulation. I'm really excited to see this in person at their concert on Wednesday!
"Sirening" is one of the more eccentric concepts I've heard of so far. Once again, I found it difficult to hear the overtones at first. However, during Julie's example, as the pitch got higher, they were easier to pick up on. This track reminded of tornado sirens, which we often hear in St. Louis. It might just be my imagination but I do remember noticing thirds, fifths and octaves as the siren blared over the city. Also, I never thought of it before, but sirening was a way that my brother and I used to play with our dog (before she lost her hearing). He and I would both pick a notes and sing them together with an "ooh" sound. The dissonance and siren noise would make her ears perk up and it drove her nuts. She wouldn't howl but she would swat at her ears trying to get the sound to stop or bury her face in the couch. It was ADORABLE!
I really enjoyed the "Emotional Symphony." Good example of using rhythmic figures to create a piece.
Delete"The more we are the fool in front of people, the more they begin to trust us, in a sort of way."
ReplyDeleteAll musicians must consider the same - pitch, timbre, melody, harmony - but we are still divided amongst our various instrumental groups and amongst our vocal classifications. Yet there is one thing that all musicians must know how to do and do very well - we must be comfortable in front of an audience. If we allow our nerves and our thoughts to take away from our performance, we are unable to connect with an audience. This quotation from "Babbling" helped me realize that my own insecurities have no place in my performance. If I am to become the best artist that I can be, I - we - need to learn how to let go of our embarrassment. It is one thing to try to remember the techniques and the ideals that one must apply to a song, but it is another thing entirely to think, "I can't do this... I just messed up...Oh no! That high note is coming!" Before we can convince the audience that we are connected with our music, we have to convince ourselves that we are able to do so.
I believe that the ideas that both David and Julie provided in "Babbling" are, at first, bizarre but true. They say that babbbling is "a very natural way of getting people warmed up." Indeed, to someone who is not a musician it is ridiculous to do lip trills before singing; furthermore, I am sure that there are warm-ups that instrumentalists do that, to non-musicians, are comical. Yet aren't these warm-ups merely ways of becoming comfortable with our voices and with our instruments? Aren't these warm-ups ways of releasing tension, becoming one with our music? I am grateful for David and Julie's wisdom; it is hard to remember that embarrassment is not always a bad thing.
Daba, did you listen to the "Articulation" and "Sirening" tracks, too?
DeleteIn the vocal timbre track, the two talked about making different sounds with their mouths. To open your mouth in different ways to produce different types of sounds. This, as well as speaking different vowels, makes an entirely different sound. Such as saying: O, instead of a. They also talked about hearing overtones, as you went through the serious of vowels. Especially when Julie got to what I thought was u. It was very interesting. Reminds me a little of throat singing.
ReplyDeleteWith "babbling," they bring up the idea of freeform a lot. It's literally nonsense. But it's musical nonsense. They say conductors use it, pop musicians, jazz musicians; anyone who needs to articulate something. It helps with finding out how something works. It's really cool. And not all babbling needs to be fast, some people can't move their tungs fast enough to do fast babbling, so just making random sounds, not matter how long you hold them out, is babbling.
In the talk about articulation, Julie brings up learning both articulation and playing quickly at the same time; instead of learning the notes first, then articulating: like a trumpet. It is also brought up how many people use articulation just to explain something. I often try to articulate things to myself when I'm just sitting around, or walking to lunch. I'll clap the beat of a passage I'm having trouble with and try and vocalize the rhythm. I basically babble out triplets and such. Articulation is really a very important aspect of music, and expressing ideas (beat patterns).
I found "Sirening" to be the most interesting of all the things I listened to so far. The idea is so simple, but so amazing. On my viola, playing with a drone is similar. Hearing when you hit the perfect pitch and you can just hear everything ringing, it's wonderful. I think it should be part of musical curriculum, as they mentioned.
The “Vocal Timbre” track seems to be discussing vowel shape in a unique way. It discusses vowels in relation to “One Quality Sound.” I like that it describes the various vowels as different “flavors.” It seemed to me that the rounder more open vowels actually tuned to each other better, but that may have been purposeful so that the “Oh” and the “Ah” sound more beautiful, to prove the point. I would like to try some of the exercises from this track.
ReplyDelete“Babbling” is a funny concept, but I like it. I, too, liked to make noises when I was young and so I understand the “natural” aspect of it. Loosening the body and articulators in this way is a great warm-up tool. In some of my favorite theatre games, one can only talk in gibberish, in order to learn how to express ideas and emotions through movement, inflection, and the like. This is similar, but adds musical pitches. In addition, I have also always wanted to get better at scatting so I will be trying this out!
I love that in “Articulation” they talk about using the body, moving the fingers for example, to help articulate. I use my body a lot when I am practicing to achieve legato lines, find the direction in which my sound is moving, and more, but I have never though to use it for articulation. I am planning to try it. However, I must admit that, as a vocalist and a former horn player, I do not understand how making babbling-type noises would help players of instruments that do not use the mouth (strings, for example). I wish I could comprehend that.
I actually have done Sirening over a Drone before at a music camp at Oberlin University. We did it specifically to find a perfect unison and started on what we thought was the same pitch as the drone, then moved sharp and flat (sometimes by a few degrees, sometimes by a few notes) until we could return to a unison that was absolutely the same note, not just close like we were before. It was a really great experience. The ways in which Music for People use sirens to help tone-deaf people or to warm up are really great!
In the talk regarding vocal timbre, "ah" and "oo" are both mentioned as better quality sounds since they are both relaxed and opened. What really strike me is that "ah" relates to "amazement and satisfaction". I was surprised because, personally, both "ee" and "oo" are my natural sounds.
ReplyDeleteI cracked up while I was listening to the "Babbling". It reminded me this video I watched on Youtube. There are these two babies dah-dah-ing to each other. The one big question in my mind is, "How babbling could turn into understandable languages to us?" It seems, to me, babbling is an alien language. It is also interesting to know that babbling could be applied in many other aspects such as discovering natural sounds and music learning.
Oh by the way, here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lih0Z2IbIUQ
I really enjoyed the track of "articulation". I like how Julie describe articulation as "pinpointing", as well as how could be a great musical learning technique. I was intrigued by the fact that we "end our lives with babbling". I pictured a bell-curve of how frequent articulation is used throughout the entire, which is very fascinating.
At the beginning of the "Sirening" track, I listened to the music which gave a very Hindu-ish sense. That brings my thought to why sirening is important in terms of finding pitch. My very best friend once told me about "perfect pitch" and "relative pitch". I understand that it is common among musically talented people, but is it possible to train in order to achieve that?
That babies video is a great one, and, not surprisingly, one that MfP people enjoy quite a bit!
DeleteA very strong statement that I heard and believed very much was that the quality of roundness develops over time. Nobody is going to nail it right away. The ee vowel sounded really nasal when they were doing it, and that sound is sometimes a good thing when a singer is tryig to make a more forward sound. I never really though of the ah vowel in relation to amazement, wonder and satisfaction. The oo vowel however I use quite often and I wonder why that vowel would not work for a quality sound.
ReplyDeleteI remember babbling a lot when I was a kid, and now my grandma back home is in a nursing home. I hear her babble all the time and sometimes it scares me. Now I have to remember that we all have babbled at one point in our lives. How else would we have communicated as babies? I normally would only babble in front of people I trusted, but I feel like it brings us even closer as a group overall. It helps us develop into our natural articulation.
The more we practice our articulation with more of our individual senses, each time we go pick up and play our primary instrument, we will have a different view on the energy and how we play our instrument. Some words say what they sound like. Babbling now a days is overlooked because people may look at us like we are crazy. Just have to remember that we all did it at one point. Why not hve some fun?
I remember sirening all of the time in childrens choir. I would pretend that I was a firetruck. I forgot how fun that was because I never did much of it in high school. The first time I heard a tornado siren was on a Friday on campus. After readi ng this and thinking back on it, I wish I could have done the exercise that they did in the recording. I really believe it could help me with my intervals. I want to start doing this in my voice lessons.Everyone should do what works for them in their own way and have fun at the same time.
I really enjoy how they talked about the round quality to the voice and trying to create a unified vowel. Dr. Ristow talks about this all the time in Chamber singers, making sure we all have vowels that are pure and sound like the same tambour. They talk a lot about vowel placement and where they are in the voice. I think overtones are more for droning and less for solo singing.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that babbling is a humorous thing, it warms up your voice and the articulators, but it is hysterical when people come up to you babbling. I found it interesting that they relate babbling to the origin of language when we are young. It definitely helps with your speech to babble when it comes to articulation of words and audience comprehension of a singers words.
I really like how they talked about how articulation isn't just something that involves your words and communication, but your body. Ive always believed that most of language is communicated through your body and you gestures and how you emote. I like the "freeness" they speak of, just being released and not forcing anything in babbling.
Sirening is a technique that my teachers have used in my voice lessons for a while. When in a choir sometimes you can't just sing the note, you have to siren around it a bit to actually tune with the whole choir, so its not always about perfect pitch, but "getting that buzz when you are in unison with someone" and really feeling in tune with everyone in the whole choir. It's such a great experience and I'm really glad I listened to this track about Sirening
I'm sorry Dr. Edberg for not responding until now, i didn't realize it required response.
DeleteThe vocal timbre track was interesting because it discussed vowels and the sounds associated with the shapes of a individual's mouth. I sort of disagree that "ah" is the easiest vowel sound to make, however I do hear babies say "ah" quite a bit so it makes sense. Vowels are important to singers and are way more complex than I would have thought previously.
ReplyDeleteBabbling is fun however I find myself getting self conscious while doing it! It's impressive how quickly some people can babble, like the recording. I feel as though babbling can be a form of communication, in terms of mood and expressing emotions.
Articulation is interesting to me because it is produced so differently by different instruments or vocals. I agree that body movement is an important aspect of articulation, especially as a string player.
Sirening is a wonderful exercise for intonation! This track and drum circle have introduced me to this technique and I am thankful for that. I find that a siren or drone can be very effective when learning an etude or playing arpeggios.
I, like Annie, did not know this was a required post! I apologize.
The first recording reminds me a lot of what we are learning in our English Diction class about vowel roundness and placement. Personally, I have always found vowel placement to be rather difficult so it was interesting to hear the dramatic difference when the people talking said them. They talk about overtones in this recording as well, which I find really fascinating. I have never been able to hear the thirds when a note is played, but I have been able to hear the octaves and the fifths in a cord or in a single note.
ReplyDeleteI do babbling to get my face loose when I am getting ready to sing a fast song. I really helps when you babble because it releases the quick twitch mussels in your face which helps you sing and/or produce words faster. I feel like babbling would be a great way to express emotion when you are doing the drum circles or scatting in jazz. I thought it was really funny when he started talking about teachers using babble to describe how music is phrased because I had a teacher who never real words to describe a song, but we always understood exactly what he was saying.
I like the fact that they want people to lean articulation while learning the music at the same time, and not do the articulation after learning the song. I have learned songs both way, I have learned songs just note by note and then adding articulation and I have learned songs combinding articuations and notes at the same time. I have found through experience that adding the atriculations while learning the song actually make learning the song a lot easier. I have to say I was a little confused why they went back to babbling in the middle of the recording. That seemed kind of like a random tangent. But all together I liked this recording of articulation adnt their views on adding articulation while learning the music.
I really liked the sirening, it sounded very surreal to me. I really like when they siren over a drone because it keeps a sort of tonic throughout the whole piece. I feel like the drone keeps it organized and together throughout the whole song. Even though sirens tend to be improved the drone makes it sound more like one whole unit. I liked their experment that they did with people who say they are tone deaf and proved that no one is truly tone deaf.