Recognizing Different Voice Timbres

🕐 10 min - Voice map

• Divide students in small groups (each containing around 5 students).
• Each group should have a sheet of paper (A3 or bigger) and a pen or pencil.
• In the form of mind map, create a 'Voice Map': write down words that can be used to describe vocal qualities. (Some keywords: soft, loud, high, low, thick, thin, breathy, grating, gravelly, gruff, hoarse, coarse, husky, monotonous, nasal, orotund, raucous, ringing, rough, shrill, small, big, smoky, strident, throaty, tight, wobbly, mellow...)
• Ask students to think about such questions:
  • How would you describe your voice? What about the voices of your friends or your teacher?
  • How would you describe the voice of your favourite singer?
  • What kind of voices you don't like?
  • Try using objective descriptive adjectives instead of subjective evaluations (for example, soft instead of beautiful) - focus on perception, not evaluation.
  • What do different voices remind you of?
  • How does singing feel to you?
  • What other things can you do with your voice? (Talk, whisper, scream, roar, rap, breathe, beatbox…)
• Each group shortly presents their 'Voice Map'.
• Discuss the similarities and differences between the 'Voice Maps' of the class.

🕐 20 min - Theory

• Shortly explain what timbre is. (A term describing the tonal quality of a sound. Timbre is a more complex attribute than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high–low for pitch, loud–soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors. - Grove Music Online)
• You can mention that timbre is a unique set of characteristics that makes the voice distinctive. The timbre can be described, using adjectives from students' 'Voice Maps'.
• Talk about the pitch. Female voices are usually higher than male voices. Both can be high-pitched or low-pitched.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • Can they identify the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • High female voice: 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis (Bridge)
    • Low female voice: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse)
    • High male voice: 'Feel It Still' by Portugal. The Man (Chorus 1)
    • Low male voice: 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Chorus 1)
• Shortly explain what range is. (The extent of an instrument or voice, from the lowest to the highest note; the interval between those notes. - Grove Music Online) The vocal range can be wide/big or narrow/small.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • What's the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • An example of small range is 'One-Note-Melody', often used in pop music: 'Bad Liar' by Selena Gomez (Chorus 1)
    • Big range: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse 1 - low, Pre-Chorus 1 - high)
• Shortly talk about vocal characteristics of different musical styles or genres. For example, vocals in rock music can sound 'crunchy', 'forced' etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • How would you describe the pitch and the range of this voice?
  • What other adjectives would you use to describe this voice?
    • 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses (Chorus 3)
• Besides singing, other vocal techniques and effects can be used in songs, for example, indeterminate pitch, rapping, speech, screams, grunts etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • Explain that the cross-shaped notes represent lyrics that must be spoken rather than sung, retaining the marked rhythm but having indeterminate pitch.
    • 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Intro)

🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - Radio-analyze

• Play students 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons (Intro, Verse 1, Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1).
• Ask students to listen, follow the notation and analyze the vocal part of the song.
• They can focus on these questions and write down their answers:
  • Is it a man or a woman singing?
  • Is there just one person singing or more?
  • Is the voice high or low?
  • What's the highest and the lowest note sung?
  • How would you describe the range of the melody?
  • Are there any other vocal effects used besides singing?
  • What is the style of this song?
  • What adjectives would you use to describe the vocal part?
  • What did you like about singing in this song? What did you not like?
  • Students practice for 30 seconds. (Optional)

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - Radio-active!

• Play the song once again.
• Ask students to sing along. (Optional)
• They should try to imitate the singing style of the song.

🕐 5 min - Discussion

• What new things have students learned about voice?
• What sort of voices do they like to listen to?
• What other interesting vocal effects do they know?

• Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
  • Exploring different song categories and trying to imitate different voice timbres.

🕐 10 min - Voice map

• Divide students in small groups (each containing around 5 students).
• Each group should have a sheet of paper (A3 or bigger) and a pen or pencil.
• In the form of mind map, create a 'Voice Map': write down words that can be used to describe vocal qualities. (Some keywords: soft, loud, high, low, thick, thin, breathy, grating, gravelly, gruff, hoarse, coarse, husky, monotonous, nasal, orotund, raucous, ringing, rough, shrill, small, big, smoky, strident, throaty, tight, wobbly, mellow...)
• Ask students to think about such questions:
  • How would you describe your voice? What about the voices of your friends or your teacher?
  • How would you describe the voice of your favourite singer?
  • What kind of voices you don't like?
  • Try using objective descriptive adjectives instead of subjective evaluations (for example, soft instead of beautiful) - focus on perception, not evaluation.
  • What do different voices remind you of?
  • How does singing feel to you?
  • What other things can you do with your voice? (Talk, whisper, scream, roar, rap, breathe, beatbox…)
• Each group shortly presents their 'Voice Map'.
• Discuss the similarities and differences between the 'Voice Maps' of the class.

🕐 20 min - Theory

• Shortly explain what timbre is. (A term describing the tonal quality of a sound. Timbre is a more complex attribute than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high–low for pitch, loud–soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors. - Grove Music Online)
• You can mention that timbre is a unique set of characteristics that makes the voice distinctive. The timbre can be described, using adjectives from students' 'Voice Maps'.
• Talk about the pitch. Female voices are usually higher than male voices. Both can be high-pitched or low-pitched.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • Can they identify the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • High female voice: 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis (Bridge)
    • Low female voice: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse)
    • High male voice: 'Feel It Still' by Portugal. The Man (Chorus 1)
    • Low male voice: 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Chorus 1)
• Shortly explain what range is. (The extent of an instrument or voice, from the lowest to the highest note; the interval between those notes. - Grove Music Online) The vocal range can be wide/big or narrow/small.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • What's the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • An example of small range is 'One-Note-Melody', often used in pop music: 'Bad Liar' by Selena Gomez (Chorus 1)
    • Big range: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse 1 - low, Pre-Chorus 1 - high)
• Shortly talk about vocal characteristics of different musical styles or genres. For example, vocals in rock music can sound 'crunchy', 'forced' etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • How would you describe the pitch and the range of this voice?
  • What other adjectives would you use to describe this voice?
    • 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses (Chorus 3)
• Besides singing, other vocal techniques and effects can be used in songs, for example, indeterminate pitch, rapping, speech, screams, grunts etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • Explain that the cross-shaped notes represent lyrics that must be spoken rather than sung, retaining the marked rhythm but having indeterminate pitch.
    • 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Intro)

🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - Radio-analyze

• Play students 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons (Intro, Verse 1, Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1).
• Ask students to listen, follow the notation and analyze the vocal part of the song.
• They can focus on these questions and write down their answers:
  • Is it a man or a woman singing?
  • Is there just one person singing or more?
  • Is the voice high or low?
  • What's the highest and the lowest note sung?
  • How would you describe the range of the melody?
  • Are there any other vocal effects used besides singing?
  • What is the style of this song?
  • What adjectives would you use to describe the vocal part?
  • What did you like about singing in this song? What did you not like?
  • Students practice for 30 seconds. (Optional)

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - Radio-active!

• Play the song once again.
• Ask students to sing along. (Optional)
• They should try to imitate the singing style of the song.

🕐 5 min - Discussion

• What new things have students learned about voice?
• What sort of voices do they like to listen to?
• What other interesting vocal effects do they know?

• Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
  • Exploring different song categories and trying to imitate different voice timbres.

🕐 10 min - Voice map

• Divide students in small groups (each containing around 5 students).
• Each group should have a sheet of paper (A3 or bigger) and a pen or pencil.
• In the form of mind map, create a 'Voice Map': write down words that can be used to describe vocal qualities. (Some keywords: soft, loud, high, low, thick, thin, breathy, grating, gravelly, gruff, hoarse, coarse, husky, monotonous, nasal, orotund, raucous, ringing, rough, shrill, small, big, smoky, strident, throaty, tight, wobbly, mellow...)
• Ask students to think about such questions:
  • How would you describe your voice? What about the voices of your friends or your teacher?
  • How would you describe the voice of your favourite singer?
  • What kind of voices you don't like?
  • Try using objective descriptive adjectives instead of subjective evaluations (for example, soft instead of beautiful) - focus on perception, not evaluation.
  • What do different voices remind you of?
  • How does singing feel to you?
  • What other things can you do with your voice? (Talk, whisper, scream, roar, rap, breathe, beatbox…)
• Each group shortly presents their 'Voice Map'.
• Discuss the similarities and differences between the 'Voice Maps' of the class.

🕐 20 min - Theory

• Shortly explain what timbre is. (A term describing the tonal quality of a sound. Timbre is a more complex attribute than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high–low for pitch, loud–soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors. - Grove Music Online)
• You can mention that timbre is a unique set of characteristics that makes the voice distinctive. The timbre can be described, using adjectives from students' 'Voice Maps'.
• Talk about the pitch. Female voices are usually higher than male voices. Both can be high-pitched or low-pitched.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • Can they identify the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • High female voice: 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis (Bridge)
    • Low female voice: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse)
    • High male voice: 'Feel It Still' by Portugal. The Man (Chorus 1)
    • Low male voice: 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Chorus 1)
• Shortly explain what range is. (The extent of an instrument or voice, from the lowest to the highest note; the interval between those notes. - Grove Music Online) The vocal range can be wide/big or narrow/small.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpts.
  • What's the highest note sung?
  • What's the lowest note sung?
  • Can they sing those notes? (Optional)
    • An example of small range is 'One-Note-Melody', often used in pop music: 'Bad Liar' by Selena Gomez (Chorus 1)
    • Big range: 'No Money' by Galantis (Verse 1 - low, Pre-Chorus 1 - high)
• Shortly talk about vocal characteristics of different musical styles or genres. For example, vocals in rock music can sound 'crunchy', 'forced' etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • How would you describe the pitch and the range of this voice?
  • What other adjectives would you use to describe this voice?
    • 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses (Chorus 3)
• Besides singing, other vocal techniques and effects can be used in songs, for example, indeterminate pitch, rapping, speech, screams, grunts etc.
• Ask students to follow the notation of the song excerpt.
  • Explain that the cross-shaped notes represent lyrics that must be spoken rather than sung, retaining the marked rhythm but having indeterminate pitch.
    • 'The Git Up' by Blanco Brown (Intro)

🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - Radio-analyze

• Play students 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons (Intro, Verse 1, Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1).
• Ask students to listen, follow the notation and analyze the vocal part of the song.
• They can focus on these questions and write down their answers:
  • Is it a man or a woman singing?
  • Is there just one person singing or more?
  • Is the voice high or low?
  • What's the highest and the lowest note sung?
  • How would you describe the range of the melody?
  • Are there any other vocal effects used besides singing?
  • What is the style of this song?
  • What adjectives would you use to describe the vocal part?
  • What did you like about singing in this song? What did you not like?
  • Students practice for 30 seconds. (Optional)

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - Radio-active!

• Play the song once again.
• Ask students to sing along. (Optional)
• They should try to imitate the singing style of the song.

🕐 5 min - Discussion

• What new things have students learned about voice?
• What sort of voices do they like to listen to?
• What other interesting vocal effects do they know?

• Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
  • Exploring different song categories and trying to imitate different voice timbres.