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| unclear entry
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| This entry is concerned with the possible development
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| of Improvised Voice Instrumental Music.
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| Essentially, it involves the use of the human
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| voice to imitate musical instruments realistically but
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| at the same time producing new compositions
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| spontaneously (ie. improvised, impromptu/on the spot
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| pieces). This latter feature distinguishes it from
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| ordinary melodious, and "non-melodious" Voice
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| Instrumental Music, and is an area which can
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| be deemed as being mainly terra incognito as far as
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| "mainstream" music is concerned.
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| To many ordinary music lovers, musicians, and
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| composers the above will at first appear to be
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| outlandish. Evidence though clearly indicates though
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| that the human voice can be trained to imitate the
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| sounds of musical instruments very effectively.
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| Certain performances by a capella groups such as the
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| Swingle Singers,the House Jacks(American) and Vocal
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| Sampling (Cuban)are good examples of this. Indeed,
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| there have been some "experimental" uses of it (of
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| varying quality) via "mainstream" pop (eg. Bobby
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| McFerrin), and classical music (eg. Gorecki who used a
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| form of "chanting"in his famous Symphony No.
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| 3.).
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|
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| Infact, the voice has not only been utilised to
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| produce musical sounds effectively but also a whole
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| variety of other "noises" too. The Hollywood Film
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| Chorale Sounds Effects Choir springs to mind
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| especially their Honda advert which involved the
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| sounds of what a car can make in certain situations,
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| and climes. This ofcourse was undertaken by the human
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| voice.
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| Before going into more detail about Improvised
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| Voice Instrumental Music it is arguably necessary
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| for us to get some further insight on ordinary
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| Voice Instrumental Music itself.
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| A.Basic Answers to Objections concerning ordinary
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| Voice Instrumental Music.
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| Some people may think that effective vocalisations, or
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| improvisations of musical instruments as being
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| something "mad", or "too avant-garde". Au contraire, it
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| is "natural", and challenging but has yet to
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| attain a high degree of mainstream musical
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| respectability.
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| Others might think of the whole subject as being
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| something puerile. Again, it is not if the vocalisers
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| concerned can create mature, and interesting sounds.
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|
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| Along with good whistling (which if performed well can
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| sound just like an instrument being played)ordinary
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| melodious, and "non-melodious" Voice Instrumental Music
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| is seen by some as being something which is common,
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| and cannot be taken too seriously as a genuine art-form.
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| Ofcourse, people do hum (which can give an illusion of
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| hearing many instruments at once in a band, or an orchestra
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| even)their favourite tunes at times. This is quite
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| "common" but it is never really developed into
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| something better, and more artistic when perhaps it
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| aught.This infact requires skill, and practice, and is
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| not as easy as it might look.
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|
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| Furthermore, if most, or indeed, perhaps all the
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| sounds of all musical instruments can be imitated then
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| it raises the question of their necessity! Naturally,
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| such a claim is absurd to a certain extent. Voice Instrumental
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| Music should be seen as just another way of performing music which
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| is both entertaining, and interesting.
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| B. The Emergence of Improvised Voice Instrumental
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| Music. Basic Theory, and Practice.
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| Now, we shall have a somewhat brief look at melodious
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| Improvised Voice Instrumental Music. This goes
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| beyond Voice Instrumental Music as already indicated, and is more
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| important. It is something which could be seriously
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| developed. It could have important commercial
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| implications if a cappella performers could be trained
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| to do it successfully.
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| In many respects, it could represent a "revolutionary"
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| step in the world of music because it involves Musical
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| Intelligence, or MI to a very profound degree. It is
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| spontaneous," free-form", impromptu/on the spot
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| performances of new music which can be based on any
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| musical style (eg. pop, baroque, jazz, renaissance,
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| medieval, et al). It is a theory yet to be made
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| provable by expert performers who would appear live on
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| the public stage, on the radio, on the internet, and
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| on television. Each performance would produce new high
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| quality music by means of the human voice. It would be
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| recorded for prosperity (if it is of a high
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| professional quality), and/or even be transcribed into
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| musical score if desired by means of specially
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| programmed computers.
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| One performer could produce a simple tune be it
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| string-like (eg.lute, guitar) piano-like,
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| woodwind-like (eg. recorder, flute), and so on. The
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| aim of Improvised Voice Instrumental Music is not necessarily
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| to get an exact replication of an instrument (though purists may
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| insist!). Rather it is the desire to create greater,
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| and greater musical diversity by means of the voice.
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| Some of this may not even have any obvious comparison
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| to any known musical instrument.
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| How could the above be undertaken? As soon as one
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| performer starts the others could with expert
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| listening imitate the spontaneous melodious notes
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| using distinct different instrumental-like vocal
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| sounds in the most harmonious way possible. This for
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| an amateur would be difficult in extremis. It would
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| require some practice.
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|
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| Another approach could involve the "opening" performer
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| to stop after a few minutes, and one, or more person
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| could carry on . Yet, they would produce a new
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| "free-form" composition spontaneously. Other ideas could
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| be introduced.
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| Ofcourse, it must be said that Improvised Voice Insrumental Music is not exactly the
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| same as the Jewish Nigunin of the Kabbalah tradition,
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| Tuva Singing, Scat Singing in Jazz, Buddhist/Tibetan
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| Chanting, Puirt a Beul(or Celtic Mouth Music, or
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| "diddling"),Beatboxing,and other throat, or overtone
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| singing. These vocal expressions are fine to a point
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| but are not necessarily "melodious". Yet,
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| Improvised Voice Instrumental Music is in
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| essence more "refined", and artistic par excellence.
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| This is the point to grasp.
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|
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| Naturally enough, it can challenge orthodox musical
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| thinking, and if successfully performed could open up
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| new areas of music.It could even have esoteric, or
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| spiritual implications too. It could be used as a form
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| of creative concentration, and meditation. The scope
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| is infact vast as well as the possible introduction of
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| new spontaneous styles done in a mature manner.....
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|
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| Yet, how could one learn to do ir? The most obvious
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| way for a beginner is to listen to music in general,
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| and to instruments individually. Then, one simply
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| tries to imitate the sound, and record them at home to
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| see how realistic, and three dimensional they may
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| appear. It is necessary to be a firm task master as on
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| all this to ensure that quality sounds are produced.
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| Such sessions should be short to avoid tiring out the
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| vocal cords.
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| Onomatopeia is one method which could be used as a
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| teaching aid for melodious Improvised Voice Instrumental Music.
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| In music it can involve words that sound like the actual sound so to
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| speak! For example, "boom" of a drum acts as a
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| verbalisation of a musical sound. Another instance, is
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| the "twang" of a guitar. In other words, verbal Voice Instrumental,
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| Music and to a certain extent a non-verbal Improvised Voice Instrumental Music
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| can be created all at once.The Swingle Singers have done
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| notable examples of this but like Scat Singing seem to
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| notably use non-sense words in the process (eg Bah,
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| Bah, La, La, Na, Na, etc).In Improvour concern is the
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| spontaneous creation of non-verbal music. However,
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| verbal VIM can be used to attain this if necessary as
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| an aid for training purposes.
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| C. Possible Internet Resources .
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| There are a number of internet resources available for
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| Voice Instrumental Music (as opposed to
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| its more improvised form). They
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| demonstrate quite clearly that the human voice can
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| imitate musical instruments. For those who are
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| interested a number of useful search words are.
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| included........
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| You Tube is an obvious stopping place, and has
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| excellent resources of melodious, and arguably
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| "non-melodious" Voice Instrumental Music. Useful search words for
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| audio/visual materials are as follows i) Swingle
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| Singers (clips notably include the 1812 overture, and
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| the theme music of Mission Impossible all performed by
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| means of the mouth!).ii) Beatboxing video clips.iii)
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| House Jacks (clips notably include the theme music of
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| James Bond!}.iv) Vocal Sampling.....
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| Ofcourse, there are a number of societies, and a
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| cappella group websites that are easily traceable via
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| simple word searches. Samples of their work can
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| usually be downloaded
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| "Vocalised Dance Music is suprisingly widespread...."
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|
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| David Munrow (1942-1976).
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