View source for Http://www.p2pfounation.net/Improvised Voice Instrumental Music

This entry is concerned with the possible development
of Improvised Voice Instrumental Music. 
Essentially, it involves the use of the human
voice to imitate musical instruments realistically but
at the same time producing new compositions
spontaneously (ie. improvised, impromptu/on the spot
pieces). This latter feature distinguishes it from
ordinary melodious, and "non-melodious" Voice
Instrumental Music, and is an area which can
be deemed as being mainly terra incognito as far as
"mainstream" music is concerned. 

To many ordinary music lovers, musicians, and
composers the above will at first appear to be 
outlandish. Evidence though clearly indicates though
that the human voice can be trained to imitate the
sounds of musical instruments very effectively.
Certain performances by a capella groups such as the
Swingle Singers,the House Jacks(American) and Vocal
Sampling (Cuban)are good examples of this. Indeed,
there have been some "experimental" uses of it (of
varying quality) via "mainstream" pop (eg. Bobby
McFerrin), and classical music (eg. Gorecki who used a
form of "chanting"in his famous Symphony No.
3.).

Infact, the voice has not only been utilised  to
produce musical sounds effectively  but also a  whole
variety of other "noises" too. The Hollywood Film
Chorale Sounds Effects Choir springs to mind
especially their Honda advert which involved the
sounds of what a car can make in certain situations,
and climes. This ofcourse was undertaken by the human
voice.

Before going into more detail about Improvised 
Voice Instrumental Music it is arguably necessary 
for us to get some further insight on ordinary 
Voice Instrumental Music itself.


A.Basic Answers to Objections concerning ordinary
Voice Instrumental Music.


Some people may think that effective vocalisations, or
improvisations of musical instruments as being
something "mad", or "too avant-garde". Au contraire, it 
is "natural", and challenging but has yet to
attain a high degree of mainstream musical
respectability. 

Others might think of the whole subject as being
something puerile. Again, it is not if the vocalisers
concerned can create mature, and interesting sounds.

Along with good whistling (which if performed well can
sound just like an instrument being played)ordinary 
melodious, and "non-melodious" Voice Instrumental Music
is seen by some as being something which is common, 
and cannot be taken too seriously as a genuine art-form. 
Ofcourse, people do hum (which can give an illusion of
hearing many instruments at once in a band, or an  orchestra
even)their favourite tunes at times. This is quite
"common" but it is never really developed into
something better, and more artistic when perhaps it
aught.This infact requires skill, and practice, and is
not as easy as it might look.

Furthermore, if most, or indeed, perhaps all the
sounds of all musical instruments can be imitated then
it raises the question of their necessity! Naturally,
such a claim is absurd to a certain extent. Voice Instrumental 
Music should be seen as just another way of performing music which
is both entertaining, and interesting.


B. The Emergence of Improvised Voice Instrumental
Music. Basic Theory, and Practice.


Now, we shall have a somewhat brief look at melodious
Improvised  Voice Instrumental Music. This goes
beyond Voice Instrumental Music  as already indicated, and is more
important. It is something which could be seriously
developed. It could have important commercial
implications if a cappella performers could be trained
to do it successfully. 

In many respects, it could represent a "revolutionary"
step in the world of music because it involves Musical
Intelligence, or MI to a very profound degree. It is
spontaneous," free-form", impromptu/on the spot
performances of new music which can be based on any
musical style (eg. pop, baroque, jazz, renaissance,
medieval, et al). It is a theory yet to be made
provable by expert performers who would appear live on
the public stage, on the radio, on the internet, and
on television. Each performance would produce new high
quality music by means of the human voice. It would be
recorded for prosperity (if it is of a high
professional quality), and/or even be transcribed into
musical score if desired by means of specially
programmed computers. 

One performer could produce a simple tune be it
string-like (eg.lute, guitar) piano-like,
woodwind-like (eg. recorder, flute), and so on. The
aim of Improvised Voice Instrumental Music is not necessarily 
to get an exact replication of an instrument (though purists may
insist!). Rather it is the desire to create greater,
and greater musical diversity by means of the voice.
Some of this may not even have any obvious comparison
to any known musical instrument.

How could the above be undertaken? As soon as one
performer starts the others could with expert
listening imitate the spontaneous melodious notes
using distinct different instrumental-like vocal
sounds in the most harmonious way possible. This for
an amateur would be difficult in extremis. It would
require some practice. 

Another approach could involve the "opening" performer
to stop after a few minutes, and one, or more person
could carry on . Yet, they would produce a new
"free-form" composition spontaneously. Other ideas could
be introduced.

Ofcourse, it must be said that Improvised Voice Insrumental Music is not exactly the
same as the Jewish Nigunin of the Kabbalah tradition,
Tuva Singing, Scat Singing in Jazz, Buddhist/Tibetan
Chanting, Puirt a Beul(or Celtic Mouth Music, or
"diddling"),Beatboxing,and other throat, or overtone
singing. These vocal expressions are fine to a point
but are not necessarily "melodious". Yet, 
Improvised Voice Instrumental Music is in
essence more "refined", and artistic par excellence.
This is the point to grasp.

Naturally enough, it can challenge orthodox musical
thinking, and if successfully performed could open up
new areas of music.It could even have esoteric, or
spiritual implications too. It could be used as a form
of creative concentration, and meditation. The scope
is infact vast as well as the possible introduction of
new spontaneous styles done in a mature manner.....

Yet, how could one learn to do ir? The most obvious
way for a beginner is to listen to music in general,
and to instruments individually. Then, one simply
tries to imitate the sound, and record them at home to
see how realistic, and three dimensional they may
appear. It is necessary to be a firm task master as on
all this to ensure that quality sounds are produced.
Such sessions should be short to avoid tiring out the
vocal cords.

Onomatopeia is one method which could be used as a
teaching aid for melodious Improvised Voice Instrumental Music. 
In music it can involve words that sound like the actual sound so to
speak! For example, "boom" of a drum  acts as a
verbalisation of a musical sound. Another instance, is
the "twang" of a guitar. In other words, verbal Voice Instrumental,
Music and to a certain extent a non-verbal Improvised Voice Instrumental Music 
can be created all at once.The Swingle Singers have done
notable examples of this but like Scat Singing seem to
notably use non-sense words in the process (eg Bah,
Bah, La, La, Na, Na, etc).In Improvour concern is the
spontaneous creation of non-verbal music. However,
verbal VIM can be used to attain this if necessary as
an aid for training purposes.




C. Possible Internet Resources .

There are a number of internet resources available for
Voice Instrumental Music (as opposed to
its more improvised form). They
demonstrate quite clearly that the human voice can
imitate musical instruments. For those who are
interested a number of useful search words are.
included........

You Tube is an obvious stopping place, and  has
excellent resources of melodious, and arguably
"non-melodious" Voice Instrumental Music. Useful search words for
audio/visual materials are as follows i) Swingle
Singers (clips notably include the 1812 overture, and
the theme music of Mission Impossible all performed by
means of the mouth!).ii) Beatboxing video clips.iii)
House Jacks (clips notably include the theme music of
James Bond!}.iv) Vocal Sampling..... 

Ofcourse, there are a number of societies, and a
cappella group websites that are easily traceable via
simple word searches. Samples of their work can 
usually be downloaded


"Vocalised Dance Music is suprisingly widespread...."

David Munrow (1942-1976).