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| one tracked mind |
The Voice!
Why? Ok, let's see:
I always loved music. Well, I guess most people do. Music has always been associated with invoking certain emotions in us. There's something about music which just speaks to us more than speech. Researchers showed that 15 minutes after participants listened to their favourite song, their brains flooded with dopamine.
But why sing? What's so special about the voice?
It is pretty obvious that singing has a special attraction. Choral singing is the most popular of all arts-related participatory activities. Regular people all over the globe are addicted to karaoke singing. And many of those people can't even carry a tune. Bars use it to draw customers on slow nights: People will come if they can sing for a crowd.
Bathroom singing is a widespread phenomenon. Many people sing in the bathroom because the hard wall surfaces and lack of soft furnishings, create an aurally pleasing acoustic environment. The multiple reflections from walls enrich the sound of one's voice and produce various kinds of standing waves, reverberation and echoes, giving the voice "fullness and depth".
People will watch others sing for a crowd, too – "reality" competitions like "American Idol", "X Factor," and "The Voice" BBC One’s search for the nation’s next top vocal talent.
"Good evening everyone, and welcome to what’s almost certainly going to be the highlight of your entire life. That’s right, The Voice is back! They said it was boring. They said it was pointless. […] And yet, miraculously, The Voice is back. It’s back and it’s as identical as ever."
[Stuart Heritage, theguardian.com, Saturday 11 January 2014: The Voice 2014 live blog: week one]
"[…] Tonight’s second and final Battle round picked up where last week’s left off, with a dizzying parade of singers, punctuated by carefully choreographed standing ovations […]."
[By Gabriel Tate, telegraph.co.uk, 08 Mar 2014, The Voice: episode 9, review]
So what's the draw to belt out a tune? Why the huge interest in karaoke? Why all the singing in the shower, in the car, in the chorus? Does singing make people happy?
Our language has words and expressions such as "to be in tune with someone", "intonation", "to face the music" or "to find/ or loose one's voice", to voice one's feelings", "to make one's voice heard", "to change the tone of one's voice", "to listen to one's inner voice", "to obey the voice of one's heart" and so on. Even our language clearly shows our emotional connection to our voice. Or think of "to howl with something", "to howl someone down ", "to howl at someone or something".
Why do wolves howl? Do they howl at the moon? I love Wolves! Wolves are extremely social animals. Wolves howl for a variety of reasons. Communication is the main motivator. Wolves pipe up more often during the night because they're nocturnal (just like me). The purposes include relaying location (between rival packs as well as within their own), warning each other of impending danger, and, in the case of the infamous “chorus” howls, fibbing to rivals about the size of their pack. A small group of wolves howling together can sound like a large group, keeping rival packs in the dark about their true size.
Why are howl nights like the one at the UKWCT so popular?
Apparently singing really does make people happy. The physiological effects of singing are fairly well-documented. We can observe them in animals. When male songbirds sing to female songbirds, it activates the pleasure center of the male's brain. The effect of singing on the birds' brains is similar to the effect of addictive drugs on human brains.
Singing helps to release endorphins, also known as the 'happy hormone'. That's why we get really carried away when we sing. We feel as if our whole soul is flying in the air, with the music. Singing has brought joy since ancient times and is a great way to let loose and relax. People love to sing because it is a light hearted activity that releases tension and stress. People love to create and singing is just another way to do that. Even if you didn't write the song you are still projecting sounds. It's soothing and also a great way to express feelings, and tell stories, or join with others.
Singing in front of a crowd, a la karaoke, naturally builds confidence, which has broad and long-lasting effects on general well-being. Singing can have some of the same effects as exercise, which give the singer an overall "lifted" feeling and are associated with stress reduction. It's also an aerobic activity, meaning it gets more oxygen into the blood for better circulation, which tends to promote a good mood. And singing necessitates deep breathing, another anxiety reducer. Deep breathing is a key to meditation and other relaxation techniques, and you can't sing well without it.
The voice it seems is a window to our soul. When we speak, we transmit not only word content. Unconsciously, we give off a lot of additional information about us, just by the sound of our voice. Anyone can decrypt these hidden messages immediately. Even if they don't see us, a conversation partner gets an image of us this way. We recognize the mood of friends and loved ones from the voice even over the phone. Our brain can process the voices of people in a split second. It needs 140 milliseconds to classify the voice of a person. We're trained to recognize beforehand what kind of a person we're dealing with from the voice.
Don't we all know the experience of a soothing voice, the voice of a dear person? A gentle voice is reassuring whereas a shrill voice feels uncomfortable and might put us on alert, a high voice sounds less confident as a deep voice.
I was always impressed how my voice teacher could always tell how I was feeling that day, when I was having a lesson with him. No matter what I tried to hide my emotions, to keep my everyday business outside, the minute I started singing he knew what mood I was in. I can't really tell you, why I picked singing as a profession, especially since the worst thing I could imagine then was to get up in front of a crowed and sing, but I did it! And with all the ups and downs I never regretted it. It's a well of pleasure for me. The meaning of life. I sometimes feel like I didn't even have a choice.
In any case, singing daily for at least ten minutes reduces stress, clears sinuses, improves posture and can even help you live longer. So, keep singing! Humans are born to sing... it's native to all of us. Keep enjoying the adventure of a lifetime! Never forget you have a VOICE!
Wolfram B Meyer, the singingwolf
- Richard
Strauss
- D. H.
Lawrence
