BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IF you do not have a ‘golden voice’ or at least a good-singing tone, at one point or the other you have had a solo rendition or mini-concert in the shower when suddenly you become amazed at how good you sound. Has this ever happened to you?
And after being pleasantly surprised you might have wondered…”Well, how come I don’t sound like this anywhere else?”
Most of us enjoy belting out our favourite songs while taking a shower because it is fun to honour our much-loved jams in such a way. Shower singing can even be therapeutic for many people when unwinding after a long day or even a mood lifter or enhancer to start off the day.
So, back to you sounding so awesome in the shower.
Well, in some cases, it could be an initial exposure of a hidden talent but, according to the scientific breakdown of sound waves-as understood, your shower stall acts as a closed recording studio environment, thus enhancing and enriching your vocal output.
Information gleaned from www.exploratorium shares that “your shower works like a low-tech mixer to modify your voice in at least three ways, all of which seem to improve its sound”.
The three listed factors are volume, reverb and bass boast.
Read below to find out.
VOLUME
“Hard smooth surfaces-like bathroom tile-absorb very little sound. Sounds reflect back and forth between the walls of the shower before dying away. Before containing the reflected energy in a small space, your shower boosts the sound intensity which seems to give your voice more power.”
REVERB
“With many reflected sound waves bouncing around in your shower, some sound waves wind up travelling farther than more others before finally arriving at your ear. This stretches out the sound you hear, an effect called reverberation; or reverb; your voice seems to hang in the air long after each note is made.”
BASS BOAST
“Your shower, especially if it’s a boxlike stall, functions as a resonate cavity. This means that certain frequencies of sound (called the resonant frequencies) get naturally amplified inside. In an average-sized shower, the fundamental resonant frequency is 100 hertz, with some higher sounding resonance at multiples of 100 (eg. 200 hertz, 300 hertz etc.). These frequencies fall in the low end of the frequency range of the human voice (80 to 10,000 hertz; your shower’s resonant amplification of these base tones gives you a deeper fuller-sounding voice.”
Shower singing can be described as blissful. One’s shower stall becomes one’s private acoustic environment venue and one’s vocal richness is enough to give ‘self goose bumps’… So sing on!
