My Theory of Resonation

I have this theory that I call Resonation.  I studied opera for about 4 years. To be honest, I never quite got it. I loved the music, but I couldn’t quite grasp the abstract concept of getting the sounds to resonate in your head in “the right way”. You see, that’s the whole key to an operatic style of singing. You have to get this certain resonation within your head. I could mimic the sounds that I heard other opera singers do, but my vocal coaches would always tell me that I wasn’t resonating the sounds within my head consistently.

If you notice from singing in general, everyone has a different tonality to their voice. Listen to Vern Gosdin and compare his voice to Johnny Bush or Lefty Frizzell or Willie Nelson or Patsy Cline or George Jones. These are all examples of very distinctive voices – sounds that resonate quite differently in these people’s heads. It would be physically impossible for them to sound alike - based on their head shapes, sinus cavities, vocal cords and lung capacity. They were designed to sound the way that they did/do.

My theory is that the listener hears things differently as well. Different voices resonate differently within our heads – making one artist ring true for us and another ring/sound bad.  It’s why someone listens to Bill Monroe and thinks it sounds awful and another person thinks it’s just about the coolest sound they’ve ever heard. Or why someone likes to hear tenors like Vince Gill or Ricky Skaggs and not baritones like Keith Whitley or basses like Randy Travis.

And my theory extends beyond resonation within an individual’s head space. I believe that we hear things differently based on the times that we live in. Jimmie Rodgers wouldn’t stand a chance now. He’d be really hard pressed to find anyone that would get his voice. But at the time, his voice was very consistent with the sounds of other singers.

I was talking the other day with some fellow musicians and we talked about the dominance of having to sing on perfect pitch nowadays and how that contrasts with the days before autotuning live performances. A lot of times your favorite singer would be an emotional singer that could deliver a song in a real way – but maybe they didn’t have the perfect pitch voice of a diva. We've become used to hearing vocals delivered in a certain way and aren't used to the sounds that were acceptable or even popular in decades past.

And then you have lyrics. Lyrics resonate, or ring true, in our hearts.  If you are twenty-something in Texas, you might just spend a lot of your summer on the Guadalupe river, drinking and floating. You’re more inclined to the lyrics of Randy Rogers or Deryl Dodd or Kevin Fowler. You’re not going to be as enticed by lyrics that are deep, powerful expressions of love lost or trying to find your way back to who you really are. You’re twenty – you’re just at the beginning of that journey!

I have friends that are music writers and they bemoan the shallowness of mainstream writing but fail to see that its popularity must have something to do with a resonation within its audience. “I Look Better Online” and “Chicken Fried” say something (well to someone anyway). Do they really think that a modern day Willie or Waylon can resonate with mainstream audiences when you take a glance at Billboard’s Top 40?

Look for my next blog called “Troubadours”. They are living among us and not just in the “Crazy Heart” movie. They play the music that resonates within the heart of the Everyman/Everywoman like you and me.

Comments

[Ricky Davis]

Gosh that is so well thought out and delivered, Leslie.
I totally agree; as when I say to myself: "Oh my gosh; that guy/gal just sucks; that is the worst thing I've ever heard"....but then; why are there a million folks buying and re-buying their stuff?? That; you said, answers that question. It certainly DOES resonate in different ways to somebody....Just NOT ME. So be it. Accept it for what it is to yourself; but you certainly can't tell someone what they should or should not listen to; or like or not like(as long as they are not just blindly following and doing what others do/say, blindly....ha...we certainly have that going on in our society).
I've thought about this for a long long time; and you have nailed it in this explaination.
Ricky