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The human voice which is also regarded as a musical instrument happens to be one of the most (if not the most) common musical instruments in the world. The human voice has always served as a model to both instrumentalists and builders of musical instruments (especially wind instruments) who seek to duplicate its expressive abilities. In some cases where there are no musical instruments, the human voice is always the instrument which the music teacher and music student falls back to for the purpose of music education. It is always the handiest musical instrument because everybody has it. Because of how vital and essential the human voice is, it is very essential for music students to acquire knowledge about the best approach to good and proper singing.

Voice Mechanism

The mechanism for generating the human voice is subdivided into three parts and these are the lungs, the vocal folds (voice box), and the articulations. The lung which is often times regarded as the “pump” provides the needed amount of air flow and pressure to vibrate the vocal folds. The vocal folds which are also called the vocal cords vibrate using airflow from the lungs to create loud enough pulses and clicks that form the laryngeal sound source. Two major things differentiate the human voice from other musical instruments and these are:

1. The human voice is totally and completely under the influence of the singer while the rest of the instruments are not.

2. The voice, unlike other musical instruments, can properly reflect the emotional and psychological state of the singer.

Vocal Range and Voice Quality

Western music categorizes the voice ranges as basically Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. Operatic voices are further divided into:

Coloratura soprano

Very high range sopranos that can glide through scales and thrills rapidly. Check out this video for the most amazing coloratura sopranos of all time:

Lyric soprano

Light Soprano voices with a warm quality and bright, full timbre. The range of this soprano is usually from middle C to high D.

Dramatic soprano

This type of operatic soprano has a powerful, rich and emotive voice that can sing through a full orchestra. Take a listen to this:

Lyric tenors

The lyric tenor is strong, graceful and warm, but not heavy tenor voice type with a full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. Take a listen to a lyric tenor here:

Dramatic tenors

This type of tenor is also called "tenore di forza" or "robust", the dramatic tenor possesses an emotive, and very powerful, heroic tenor sound. The approximate range of the dramatic tenor is from B2 (one octave below middle C) to B4 (one octave above middle C).

You can also conduct a simple google search on Basso buffo and Basso profundo.

Approach to Voice Training

Basic knowledge of the piano keyboard is a must-have for any voice tutor or vocal coach because the piano aids better in pitch recognition exercises which is also an important aspect of voice training. The best and most effective approach to voice training is the “individual coaching” method which means that the voice coach gives individual students some minutes or even hours of private lessons. Also, it is not advisable to allocate a single voice piece or song across the board to all students disregarding individual capabilities and vocal range. Students should be accessed individually and given pieces or songs that will best suit them.

Vocal Exercises

Just like in sports and everyday life, vocal exercise strengthens the voice through the vocal muscles. Amidst the various vocal exercises developed and used by various vocal coaches and singers, the most important one remains “warm up”. Warm up is very essential because without proper vocal warm up before any vocal performance or even exercise, the vocal cords can easily be strained or damaged. Humming is always the most preferred exercise for warm up. Various vocal exercises like lip rolls, thrills, and legato scale singing are also very often used by voice coaches to achieve specific goals.

This was just a basic knowledge post about the human voice. For more detailed information, you should conduct a deeper research. I really hope this made sense or maybe entertained someone.

Thanks for reading this far.