Living with Songs

by Julia Yazykova

Cry like a baby and you will be healthy, dexterous and clever in politics!

When listening to a person with professionally trained voice one is always charmed by his speech. The effect is similar to that described in the myth about sirens: even under the threat of unavoidable death travelers could not stop listening to the sweet voices of the cannibals.

Also recall the concerts where Shalyapin sang - listeners waited in long lines for several days in severe winter with the only intention to please themselves with the voice of the great singer. These two examples are used by Mr. Vladimir Bagrunov to illustrate the role which can be played by our voice. The only task left is to learn to sing as Shalyapin did. But, in the sight of this scientist, any person with the smallest potential can master this mechanism.

"Usually we have no idea of the treasure which we possess. And we do not know how to use it. It was noticed that a moan of a wounded person was heard at a distance of several kilometers. A yell of a cat is also very loud. And a child's cry can penetrate through walls. The point is that the power of voice is not at all determined by the vocal chords. Assume that somebody inflicted pain to you. In your brain core an impulse is generated which controls your chords so that you produce a cry. The cry is fairly loud even if you didn't have time to breath in. This example testifies that the power of sound and its tone are not conditioned by the power of the air flow."

Years ago Mr. Bagrunov fell victim of adherents to the traditional school of singing - being a student of the Conservatory he spoiled his voice. But it was at that time that he began to investigate Shalyapin's voice. He has found out that the great Russian singer did not strain his outer muscles in order to gain support from his diaphragm and to force his vocal cords work. On the contrary, he relaxed himself to the maximum extent giving the vocal cords the opportunity to vibrate under the guidance of nervous pulses. This explains the phenomenal capacity of Shalyapin's voice which combined bass, baritone and tenor.

"It may seem strange, but Fedor Ivanovich Shalyapin created himself as a singer while acting in a drama theatre. He polished his voice in those two or three phrases he used to say at a performance. His phrases were loud, distinct and melodious. So he perfected his unique voice producing speech signals. Being asked about the sensation which he usually felt while singing, he answered: "I sing by my heels". Here we get the answer to the question about the source of the vocal power."

But why is there only a small number of people capable of singing? The reason for that lies within ourselves, more exactly, in the specificity of our psyche. The point is that already in early childhood a wrong physical model of loudness of sound is formed in our psyche. When a baby is born the cross-striated muscles are not active and there are no obstructions to the sound; this is why a newly born baby can produce very loud sounds. In the course of his growth a child develops a habit to correlate results with efforts - if you clap your hands stronger, the resulting sound is louder. This projection of the physical phenomenon to the realm of psyche worsens all parameters of our voice. And vice versa - removal of these strains makes it possible for our voice to acquire such qualities which we could never imagine.

"I have trained a lot of people including 30 candidates to the State Duma. The comparison of tape recordings shows that already after five or six lessons a trainee can speak like a professional presenter. And there were no cases of failure. Quite recently we have suddenly revealed an outstanding vocal capacity of a school director, who developed a very pleasant baritone. He had never sung before but he managed to record a Russian classical romance at a professional recording studio."

Mr. Bagrunov sees links between voice and success in practically all walks of human life. For example, he maintains that vibrations which are generated when we use our voices properly provide therapeutic effect. Long lives of numerous outstanding singers testify for that. A prominent professional opera singer Sergey Lemeshev had only one lung but he lived for 76 years. In modern psychophysiology it was shown experimentally that in the course of singing a human organism generates endorfins - efficient stimulating substances which produce favorable influence on all systems of the organism.

"This is not the whole story because we can make a weapon out of our voice. This is particularly important for those who practice all kinds of single combat. A combat-cry is used as a means of psychical suppression of enemies from the time immemorial. Using his voice one can both suppress and charm other people. It is also advisable that the new leaders of our country pay due attention to such a "trifle" as their voices because a better voice would certainly bring more votes to them during elections."

Vocal methods for sportsmen comprise a special topic for Mr. Bagrunov. He recommend singing to all of them - from football-players to chess-players. The point is that singing is the most accessible and efficient method of coping with stresses. Many prominent sportsmen were fond of music and singing. For example, Pele, Gullit, Maradona and some stars of professional basketball produced records with their singing. Surab Sotkilava, a soloist of the Bolshoy Theatre, used to be a wonderful football-player. Mr. Valery Salov, chess grand-master and the winner of a tournament in Linares (Spain) was instructed by Mr. Bagrunov in singing and playing guitar just before the tournament.

"Recently I have elaborated a special methodology for pregnant women. The soothing influence of mother's singing on a child is very well known. Mothers-to-be would be interested to know that during the first two years after birth their children will ideally demonstrate the natural setting of voice. If a mother wants to succeed in perfecting her own voice she should follow her baby in generation of sounds and later, when the child will start losing this natural ability, she should train him to use the same approach to generation of sound. In such a case her child would grow to become a healthy, strong and self-confident human being."

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