If you want to sing Cheng Pai well, you must first correctly understand Cheng Pai, understand the characteristics of Cheng Pai's singing voice and master the singing skills of Cheng Pai singing.
Cheng Pai was founded by Mr. Cheng Yanqiu, one of the "Four Famous Dans", and has been popular in the art of Peking Opera for decades. His singing voice is "straight and beautiful, soft and rigid, rigid and soft, broken and connected, if intermittent", which is deeply loved by the majority of Cheng fans.
So why do you say to "correctly understand Cheng Pai"? Because now there are people who study the Cheng Sect and don't listen to Cheng Yanqiu, just like some people who study the Qiu Sect and don't listen to Qiu Shengrong. Some people who learn from the Cheng School wantonly exaggerate the throat sound of the Cheng Sect, just as some people who study the Ma Sect must have a big tongue. Nowadays, many people who study the Cheng School exaggerate, lengthen, aggravate, and strengthen some subtle features of Master Cheng Yanqiu's singing techniques at will, deliberately use laryngeal and cough tones, blindly seek rough sounds, so they make things up and create quirks, flaunting that this is the authentic and original taste of the Cheng School, but instead degrading Mr. Cheng's natural and smooth, vocal and emotional singing into something that is not like the Cheng School. You may like some actors or even their star-chasing families, but if you really like Cheng Pai, you must first study Cheng Yanqiu and "seek roots and sources". I don't mean to prevent you from listening to other people's songs, not to let you imitate others, but to let you correctly understand what Cheng Pai is.
In the past, the emergence of art genres was a sign of artistic prosperity, and it was also the inevitable development of Peking Opera, and the formation of genres was precisely from fine to general, from through to change and then to innovate. Genres are like this, learning genres are like this, and mastering the essentials is fundamental. Third- and fourth-rate actors who walk the rivers and lakes often exaggerate the shortcomings of the genre and sensationalize the public. For example, the tail note smashing rammer is Mei Pai, singing with a muffled voice is Cheng Pai, twisting the waist and swinging the crotch is Xun Pai, and the open arm and sleeve is Shang Pai, even if the action is exquisite, only the external form, the lack of internal creation, there is no role temperament. Therefore, schools must avoid this kind of flashy and bad style of art. Personality is a characteristic of the genre, but genre art will never be a monster, don't sing it weird.
The singing cheng school should give the most beautiful tone to the audience, rather than deliberately smothering the voice, holding the voice thick and urn breathing.
Peking Opera Cheng Pai knowledge points: Cheng Pai singing, there is a more unique vocal method, especially in the use of "cough tone", "back of the brain", the formation of Cheng Cavity deep, dignified artistic characteristics. "Cough tone" is a pronunciation of the vibrating vocal cords of the throat of the air top, which was originally rarely used in the Danjiao singing cavity.
On the basis of the old students, Mr. Cheng creatively absorbs the "cough tone" into the Danjiao singing cavity, so that the cavity rotates in the eyes of the throat, containing but not letting go, intriguing. Whether the "sound" is used properly depends on the control of qi. The qi is small, the "beeping sound" cannot come out, and after it passes, it will form a "smashing ramming".
The "ghost tone" of Cheng Pai lies in the vocal method and singing method. The so-called "ghost sound" belongs to the category of resonance, mostly used in closed accents, and the resonance position is moved backwards, which is the so-called "back of the brain". Mr. Cheng absorbed the characteristics of lao sheng's "back sound", moved the resonance position, and sang it with air, which enhanced the strength, thickness and solemnity of the singing cavity.
Mr. Cheng does not blindly sing, but uses the power of qi and the control of the pronunciation part of the combination of singing methods, so that the vocal cavity is dignified, deep, with a certain standing tone and thickness, find out the resonance position, and then appropriately suppress the rise and fall, swallow and put down, forming a unique Cheng cavity art.
The characteristics of Cheng Cavity (1) the tragic characters mourn, firmness, and entanglement; (2) the vocal method and the pronunciation of words are unique. In the Cheng Pai singing cavity, the bright tone can be used completely, but when using it, it must be noted that the bright tone must have thickness and strength, and cannot be falsely fluttering, so that the bright tone can be harmoniously unified with the deep and dignified style of the Cheng Cavity.
Cheng Pai's singing, very particular about the use of qi, that is, with Dantian qi to support singing, it is not appropriate to use the method of chest breathing, the focus point is not in the larynx, the vocal cords must remain relaxed, and the fatigue point lies in the use of qi. After singing a play, you must feel the back of your neck tingling (the back of your head resonates), your lower abdomen is empty (Dantian uses gas), and your throat does not feel how tired.
Cheng Cavity emphasizes the use of Qi, not only the high cavity should be full of energy, that is, the low cavity, especially the kind of long cavity that is as fine as a gossamer and continuous, it is completely full of Dantian Qi, although the tone is low, but the cost of qi is more than the high cavity. The lack or less use of dantian qi is often difficult to reflect the wonderful environment of the cheng cavity.
A breath can not be infinite, in the cavity must leave a breath, to breathe, steal the breath. Cheng Cavity is very particular about the air port, ventilation, stealing breath can not be obvious, to make people difficult to detect, as if a breath of endless, in order to maintain the singing cavity and emotions of integrity, fluency and beauty.
Mr. Cheng has always asked for "circle" for his own singing voice. He strives to maintain the unity of the entire vocal cavity, without edges and corners, seamless and smooth. Mr. Cheng's "circle" not only sings, but also reads, does, dances, fights, and water sleeves, etc., all require "circle" beauty. That kind of angular performance style has always been undesirable to Cheng Pai art.
To properly handle the relationship between the Cheng cavity character and the cavity, it is necessary to use the five-tone parts of the lips, teeth, throat, tongue, and teeth on the basis of the accuracy of the four sounds, bite the words accurately, and then swallow and retract them, suppress the rise and fall, and ensure that the words contain the cavity and the words in the cavity, and the two coincide and the tone is clear.
The singing of the word is divided into three parts: head, abdomen and tail. Before the word head is exported, the qi must be on the first, darkly gathering momentum, using the qi to lead the word sound, and releasing the word head. To the belly of the word, the qi is full and the sound is fully out. The end of the word is slowly raised, and the rhyme is closed. Some words, especially spout words, need to use the method of air obstruction, lift the qi up first, contain it, and to a certain extent, with the sound of the word, rush out of the mouth.