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Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. Air is expelled with the diaphragm as with ordinary breathing, and the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming. A piece of music that is sung is called a song; someone who sings is called a singer.
Most singing involves shaping the voice to form words, but types of voice instrumental music which use open sounds or nonsense syllables ("vocables") also exist, for instance scat singing or yodeling. Solfege assigns certain syllables to notes in the scale.
Nearly anyone who can speak can sing, since in many respects singing is merely sustained speech. It can be informal and just for pleasure, for example, singing in the shower; or it can be very formal, such as singing done professionally in a performance or in a recording studio.
Singing is often done in a group, such as a choir, and may be accompanied by musical instruments, a full orchestra, or a band. Singing with no instrumental accompaniment is usually called a cappella.
Show choir is a combination of singing and dancing. Many schools and colleges offer show choir groups for students to participate in. Not only must participants be able to sing well and blend with a group, but they must be able to dance at the same time. This requires endurance, flexibility, and strong vocals, which can all be acquired through practice.
In hardcore punk, hoarse shouting takes the place of singing, while in emo, some bands scream rather than sing. In metal, particularly the sub-genre of death metal, low growls called death growls are favored over standard singing.
Many people consider the ability to sing to be a learned skill. In recent years many adults who were formerly said to be unable to sing have acquired the ability while attending courses (Singing for the Tone Deaf, Can't Sing Choirs and similar).
See also
- Belting
- Rapping
- Recitative
- Sprechgesang
- Throat singing
- Vocoder
- Voice registers
Belting, Rapping, Recitative, Sprechgesang, Throat singing, Vocoder, Voice registers
Singing - External link
A Brief History of Singing
Category: Singing
Other related archivesBelting, Rapping, Recitative, Singing, Solfege, Sprechgesang, Throat singing, Vocoder, Voice registers, a cappella, breathing, choir, death growls, death metal, diaphragm, emo, hardcore punk, humming, music, musical instruments, notes, orchestra, performance, pitch, recording studio, scale, scat singing, singer, song, sounds, speech, syllables, vocal cords, voice, voice instrumental music, words, yodeling
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Singing", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
