Resonance
Because I am a singer, I am constantly running into the word "resonance". Voice teachers always want you to be more resonant. Most of the art of singing is mental imagery, and so in order to make a more resonant tone, I have many strange images that I can draw upon to widen the spaces in my head, causing the sound to expand.
I have been told to lift the soft palate, open the back hinges of the jaw, move the air faster, put the sound above me, in front of me, all around me, shoot it out in all directions. I have also been told that my resonance is in the "wrong" place, too frontal, too nasal, too "hooty", etc. There is chest resonance and head resonance. Apparently, understanding and producing resonance is the key to all expert singing.
Despite all this work on the subject, I am not positively certain that I can identify when my voice is resonant and when it is not. All human sound resonant, after all. Non-resonant sound would not be heard - it would be the tree falling in a forest with no ground to land upon.
Then, in desperation, I turned to the dictionary. It turns out that what I am thinking refers to a quality of my sound, is instead, a relationship of my sound with other sounds created at the same time:
But perhaps that definition is taken from the realm of science, not voice. Here is another one that seems important:
And here is a much more generic definition:
For now, I'm going to think of resonance as "going with the flow".
I have been told to lift the soft palate, open the back hinges of the jaw, move the air faster, put the sound above me, in front of me, all around me, shoot it out in all directions. I have also been told that my resonance is in the "wrong" place, too frontal, too nasal, too "hooty", etc. There is chest resonance and head resonance. Apparently, understanding and producing resonance is the key to all expert singing.
Despite all this work on the subject, I am not positively certain that I can identify when my voice is resonant and when it is not. All human sound resonant, after all. Non-resonant sound would not be heard - it would be the tree falling in a forest with no ground to land upon.
Then, in desperation, I turned to the dictionary. It turns out that what I am thinking refers to a quality of my sound, is instead, a relationship of my sound with other sounds created at the same time:
A condition of "GOING WITH THE FLOW." When vibration is timed to be in synchronism and it is noted that less and less energy is required to then excite the system, resonance is said to occur. Pure resonance occurring in a system will allow a system when started vibrating to continue indefinitely.
But perhaps that definition is taken from the realm of science, not voice. Here is another one that seems important:
The tendency of an acoustic system to reinforce sounds of a certain frequency, the frequency determined by the shapes and sizes of the components of the system.
And here is a much more generic definition:
The quality imparted to voiced speech sounds by the action of the resonating chambers of the throat and mouth and nasal cavities
For now, I'm going to think of resonance as "going with the flow".
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on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 5:19 PM.
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