The key to better singing – short post!

Try this, pick your favorite song that you feel you are comfortable singing. Now, instead of singing the lyrics, sing the entire song as “Aaa”. Notice anything different? Is it easier? or difficult?

If you are anything like me, you would have noticed how it immediately changes the song. By that, I mean it changes not just in terms of lyrics vs no lyrics, but it also makes you do different things to sing the same tune.

In traditional Indian classical music, singing in “Aaa” is called Aakar or Aakaram and it is a critical part of vocal music practice. For some fantastic reason, a song overall becomes significantly more difficult to sing when you try singing it in Aakar. I personally have noticed that breathe control is easier in Aakar but everything else is more difficult than the lyrical version and that is why I like to term it as the key to better singing.

Now, I tried looking up research papers online but as expected, I haven’t found anything so far. While I still keep looking for something to explain this, here is my theory:

Any activity is easy when it offers flexibility. With regular singing, the variety in syllables that we sing as part of lyrics adds that flexibility. Since there is variety, you are able to feel the lyrics and the emotion behind the composition and I even feel some syllables offer a nice starting point that enables you to differentiate between the notes.

Whereas when we try to sing it in Aakar, there is a huge constraint imposed on us. Lyrics add to the feel of the song and with them gone, you have to try harder to come as close as possible to the original feel of the song, and with no syllables to guide you, your mouth is continuously in an open “Aa” position and that makes it harder to differentiate between the notes. Perhaps that is the reason many singers do a “Ta -na -re” during alaaps.

This is intriguing. Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comments. Share if you come across any interesting content related to this.

I like experimenting with music and so, here is me experimenting with some Carnatic Fusion Pop music.