On June 15, 2003, Mr. Sun Qingji, Dean of the Department of Music of Soochow University and Chairman of Taiwan Choirs Association, invited by Singing Hearts Children’s Choir in Shanghai, gave a fantastic seminar on voice production.

Mr. Sun’s lecture was systematic, thorough, and easy to understand. He began by explaining the structure of vocal chords and vocal principles, and talked about how relaxing our bones can help transmit sounds better. By simultaneously using vocal chords, the resonance from the spinal chord in the back of neck, and the mouth, we can produce beautiful sounds.

When we sing, we must learn to open up the mouth wide in order to generate good voice. Mr. Sun introduced three mouth exercises: pressing our hands up against our jaws, holding our fists next to our jaws, or lifting the corners of our mouths with our hands.

In addition, we need to stand with our legs apart, and use our upper abdominal and lumbar strength. Mr. Sun showed us how to effectively build abdominal strength and practice abdominal breathing by wrapping our arms around the knees while jumping and breathing with the abdomen.

Mr. Sun has his unique method of mastering high notes and low notes. First, imitate the toad by opening the mouth wide and make the vocal chord vibrate with aspiration. After feeling the vocal point and relaxing it, we can use epigastria strength to sing high notes. When singing low notes, we should put our hand on our right chest. Only when the right chest vibrates can we produce sounds correctly. Be it high or low notes, the voice is produced the same way from the same vocal point. One way to practice is to bend forward to sing through our head.

Mr. Sun taught us a lot from his many years of experience; he combined theories with practical methods to make learning interesting. The following day, the students received individual guidance from Mr. Sun. Many students are gifted with a good voice but don’t know how to express it propoerly to bring it to the optimal level.  They tensed up when they sang and failed to use abdominal breathing, causing their voice to become stuck. Mr. Sun told them to stand with legs apart, one foot diagnally in front of the other, and pressed his hands against their abdomen for them to push back to practice abdominal strength. He also taught the students to bounce their back against a wall while practicing singing to sense what it’s like to use the strength from their back.

We are very grateful to Mr. Sun for giving us such an important lesson. His experience and effective teaching method enlightened us and pointed us in a direction where our students’ singing experience will be more fulfilling and more fruitful.