Last Saturday I went to Sacramento with my wife and some friends to see a live performance of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphonie. If you don’t know Beethoven’s Ninth, it’s considered one of the major masterpieces of classical music. Beethoven composed it toward the end of his life and personally conducted the premiere when he was completely deaf! One of the revolutionary innovations in this masterpiece is the introduction of the choir and four soloists singing the famous “Ode to Joy” in the fourth movement.
We were seated in the second tier fairly high up, pretty far from the orchestra and the singers, and yet the sound was crystal clear. I was especially struck by the voices: even though the singers weren’t using a microphone, it sounded as if they were only a few feet away.
The beauty, clarity and power of these singers made me appreciate even more the value of training the voice to place the sound to be as full and loud as possible and to shape the throat and mouth to allow the sound to fully resonate. Properly produced sounds are not just loud but project, reaching the farthest row of listeners in the room.
When we hear such a powerful sound, we may be deceived into thinking that it took a lot of effort and strain to produce. Quite the opposite! It’s only when we learn to relax and let go of unnecessary tension that we’re really on our way to singing with a full, resonant sound. It’s one of many of life’s paradoxes!
In this article you will find helpful tips, including a tutorial video, on how to develop your voice to be fuller and more resonant without effort. Interesting that the two articles have almost the same title!
