MOHD SAIFUDDIN

1. What is singing?

Singing is an art and it is the act of producing musical sounds with the voices. A person who is singing usually called as a singer or some might call it vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can either be sung a capella (singing without musicians and instruments) or accompanied by musicians and instruments. Singing is often done in a group, such as a choir or even done alone. Almost anyone who can speak can sing, since in many respects singing is merely a form of sustained speech. It can be informal and just for pleasure, for example, singing in the shower or in a small karaoke box. It can also be very formal, such as singing professionally as a performance or in a recording studio. Singing at a high amateur or professional level usually requires amount of innate talent and a great deal of regular practice. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre and undergo voices training, provided by a voice teacher or coach throughout a career.

2. What are component that should know in singing?

There are two component in singing, such as vocal registration dan vocal resonation. Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the human voice. A register in the human voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, and possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range or pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds.Vocal resonation is the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre and/or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air. Various terms related to the resonation process include amplification, enrichment, enlargement, improvement, intensification, and prolongation, although in strictly scientific usage acoustic authorities would question most of them. The main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the end result of resonation is, or should be, to make a better sound.

3. How to classify the singing voices?

Voice classification is the process by which human singing voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voices types. These qualities include but are not limited to vocal range, vocal weight, vocal tessitura, vocal timbre dan vocal transition points such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics; speech level, scientific testing, and vocal registration. The science behind voice classification developed within European classical music and has been slow in adapting to more modern forms of singing. Voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. There are currently several different systems in use within classical music including he German Fachs system and the choral music system among many others. No system is universally applied or accepted.

4. When did the chiset voices and head voices been discovered?

The first recorded mention of the terms chest voice and head voice was around the 13th century, when it was distinguished from the "throat voice" (pectoris, guttoris, capitis — at this time it is likely that head voice referred to the falsetto register) by the writers Johannes de Garlandia and Jerome of Moravia. The terms were later adopted within bel canto, the Italian opera singing method, where chest voice was identified as the lowest and head voice the highest of three vocal registers: the chest, passagio and head registers.This approach is still taught by some vocal pedagogists today. Another current popular approach that is based on the bel canto model is to divide both men and women's voices into three registers. Men's voices are divided into "chest register", "head register", and "falsetto register" and woman's voices into "chest register", "middle register", and "head register". Such pedagogists teach that the head register is a vocal technique used in singing to describe the resonance felt in the singer's head.

5. What is the advantage in singing?

Singing is considered by some to have positive effects on peoples' health. A preliminary study based on self-reported data from a survey of students participating in choral singing found perceived physical benefits including increased lung capacity, improved mood, stress reduction, as well as perceived social and spiritual benefits . However, one much older study of lung capacity compared those with professional vocal training to those without, and failed to back up the claims of increased lung capacity.Singing may positively influences immune system through the reduction of stress.One study found that both singing and listening to choral music reduces the level of stress hormones and increases immune function.

6. How to be a good singer?

Steps
1. Find a vocal coach. Incorrectly performed techniques can ruin your singing voice. Investing in an experienced vocal coach is well worth the money. If your voice is weak, know that this is usually caused by under-developed muscles or improper use of the resonators (the pharynx, the hard palate, and the nasal cavity). Muscles can be strengthened and with training you can learn how to use your resonators to project a powerful voice. If you cannot afford or do not want the dedication that comes with hiring a professional voice coach, consider joining a local choir.

2. Learn your vocal range. This is essential, as singing pieces written for the wrong range may strain your voice The tone of your voice is much more important than range. People will love or hate your voice based on its sound character, not how many notes you can hit. Never sacrifice tone for range (stay inside your range). Your range can change over time and with maturity and training but vocal chords can not learn to physically change.

3. Correct your posture. Stand tall with one foot slightly in front of the other one, feet shoulder width apart. This allows you to breathe easily and to allow maximum lung capacity to allow better notes and phrases. Stand up straight, shoulders back and down, floating over your torso. Make sure that your chest is high to give room for your lungs to expand and contract, Relax your jaw, relax your face.

4. Get to know your singing tools so that you are more familiar with how everything is supposed to move and feel.

o Touch the top of your collar bone. About a half of an inch below your finger is the top of your lungs.
o Find your nipple line. This is the place where your lungs expand the largest.
o Find your ribs. Your ribs move like bucket handles attached to your spine and your sternum. When you breath in, they move upward and make your chest expand, when you breath out, they move downward and your chest decreases.
o Find the place right below your sternum where your rib cages meet. This is the bottom of your lungs and the housing of your diaphragm. The reason your stomach may pooch out when you breath deeply is because your diaphragm is pushing down on everything below your rib cage, not because your lungs are in your stomach.

5. Always warm up before you begin singing or doing practice exercises. You should always warm your voice up in this pattern: middle range, low range, then high range, then back to middle. You should spend at least 10 minutes on each range and do not stress your voice if you're frustrated and cannot hit a note. Warm back down or up to your comfortable range and then try again, carefully. Other things to practice:
o dynamics - Sing a comfortable pitch and start very softly, crescendo to loud then decrescendo back to soft. Do this with many different vowels and pitches. Dynamics are variations the intensity of your resonance (volume, but don't think about it that way). Even the simplest use of dynamics will make your songs come alive, and the more you practice, the louder and softer you'll be able to sing healthily. When reading music, from quietest to loudest, dynamics marks are as follows: pp (pianissimo, very quiet), p (piano, quiet), mp (mezzo piano, medium quiet), mf (mezzo forte, medium loud), f (forte, loud), ff (fortissimo, very loud). When you start out you will probably only be able to sing from mp to mf, but your range will increase with practice.

o agility - Try singing from do to sol to do really fast back and forth, trying to hit all of the notes. Do this in increments of half steps on different syllables. This will help your voice become more flexible.

6. Pronounce your vowels correctly. Words are truly nothing but a constant succession of vowels with consonants dropped in occasionally to create meaning. So practice all your vowels at every pitch (high, low and in between). In English there are very few pure vowels. Normally, we will encounter diphthongs which are two or more vowel sounds elided together. In classical singing, the singer will sustain the note on the first vowel and then say the second on the way to the final consonant. In country, singers like to slide through the first vowel and elongate the second vowel on the sustained note. Where as: a classical signer would sing "Am[aaaaaaai]zing Gr[aaaaaai]ce" and a country singer would sing "Am[aiiiiiii]zing Gr[aiiiiii]ce". If you can, always sing the first vowel for as long as you can before letting the second vowel in. Here are some pure vowels to practice with: AH as in "father", EE as in "eat", IH as in "pin", EH as in "pet", OO as in "food", UH as in "under", EU as in "could", OH as in "home". Try singing all of these vowels while maintaining your core sound which is the resonance in the mask of the face.

7. Practice scales. You need to do this often if you have pitch problems. Most coaches will recommend 20-30 minutes a day when starting out. Practicing scales will also strengthen the muscles used for singing and give you better control. To practice scales, identify your range (tenor, baritone, soprano, etc...) and know how to find the notes that cover your range on a keyboard or piano. Then practice the major scale in every key moving up and down using the vowel sounds. At some point you can start working in minor scales as well. Solfege (Do,Re,Mi,...) is also an effective tool for improving pitch problems.

8. Be reasonable with your self-expectations, regardless of where you are coming from, if you can devote 20 minutes or more a day to practicing scales and songs you can expect measurable improvement within four weeks. Most pitch problems can be corrected within 3-4 months. Understand that your progress is linked to your ability to practice daily (as with most training). If you only do 15 minutes a day, a few days a week, you could spend a year or more. If you devote yourself you could completely transform your voice in three months. Everyone is different.


7. Who is the most popular singer in Malaysia?



In my opinion,the most popular singer in Malaysia is Siti Nurhaliza. She was born in Kampung Awah , Temerloh, Pahang on 11 January 1979. Siti is the fifth child in the family of eight siblings. She comes from a musically inclined family. Her grandfather was a famous violinist, and her mother was a famous local traditional singer.
From the age of 5, she followed her uncle to invitational shows like wedding ceremonies and dinner parties to give her exposure performing live, where she was well received by the local community. During her childhood she was involved in various school activities, including sports and class speeches.
Siti Nurhaliza attended pre-school at the Sekolah Tabika Perkep, Balai Polis Kampung Awah, Temerloh. Here she showed her early singing talent at the age of six when she sang "Sirih Pinang", a Malay traditional song, at her kindergarten's end of year event. She attended primary school at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Clifford and followed up her secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Clifford, Kuala Lipis, Pahang.
She was an athlete in school and this showed when at the opening ceremony of the Fiesta Media Idola 2006 in Kuantan she was a torch bearer to light the games of the Fiesta, together with actress Fasha Sanda. Siti had also won a singing contest when she was twelve years old. She sang the patriotic song "Bahtera Merdeka" at a Kuala Lipis Carnival in conjunction with the "Nyanyian Bulan Kemerdekaan" (Independence Month Singing Contest).
After the release of her first album, Siti became a well-known figure in Malay pop culture. She continued to have numerous hits, her songs spanning a broad range of genres, such as Pop, R& B and traditional Malay. Her voice and lyrics proved to be popular among teenagers as well as adults throughout Malaysia, Brunei,and Indonesia.Siti was the first non-Chinese artiste to be invited to perform at the Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan,2004. Apart from performing solo, she also sang a duet with Lee Hom Wang in a song called 月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart).
Throughout her career, Siti Nurhaliza's songs have been covered by other artistes, including the famous song Cindai which was re-recorded in Chinese version by Chien Bai Hui. Also, her first hit song, Aku Cinta Padamu was covered by North, an Australian boy band. Siti held a successful solo concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, April 2005. Although the majority of the audiences were Malaysians living in the UK and Malaysians who had travelled just to see the concert. British press called her 'Asia's Celine Dion' due to her powerful vocal and outstanding performances. To date, she has the most number one singles than any other artiste in Malaysia.With success in her singing career, Siti then got herself involved in business. She set up her own company - Siti Nurhaliza Productions (M) Sdn. Bhd. - with activities generally in the entertainment scene. She has two subsidiary companies, CT Collections and Siti Nurhaliza Marketing Sdn. Bhd. Siti sells her own "Ctea", brand of Malaysian tea, from tea cultivated on the Sabah .This "Ctea" brand comes in two flavors, Geranium Special and Pandan and now besides having her own products, she receives substantial income through commissions and royalties for her endorsements and as ambassador of products.