Horse bands cover Finland from Hango to Utsjoki. The community spirit of the Hevi surprised the researcher. Horse singing can be learned and developed just like other singing.
Horse singing is taught in the same way as other singing.
By trial and error, it’s no more amazing than that. There are as many ways as there are students and teachers,” says Parviainen.
Talking about singing technique does not excite Parviai. He talks about the window of opportunity.
– The muscles of singing are inside a person, where you can’t see. That’s why mental images are of great importance. The student must be given time. When the student himself understands what is being sought, a window of time is created in which more impulses can be given. After the realization, the window closes when the student starts working on a new matter, he describes.
Towards the target height
Heviapua is sought, for example, when the desired sound cannot be found, the pitch is wrong, the sound cannot last, or the desired pitch is reached as if by luck, says Aleksi Parviainen.
In the psychophysical whole, everything is connected to everything. The sound can be blocked for either a mental or physical reason.
– Mental tension becomes a physical obstacle and a physical obstacle becomes a mental one.
People other than heavy singers find it difficult to sing high. The singer starts beeping and the sound fades to the back left.
– What if you didn’t beep and just let it go? Going high is difficult because the muscles and tissues are not used to it. It just requires training, says Parviainen.
The feeling of shame is a big obstacle to the development of a song, when you should dare to sound bad.
– The obstacle brought by the feeling must be removed by crying or laughing. Both remove tension, says Parviainen and laughs sweetly.
Heville does not lose
Hevi is the biggest export product of the Finnish music industry. The share has decreased slightly since the successful years of the 1990s, but even so, hevi’s share of music exports is still significant.
– Hevi has been very popular since the 1980s. Heavy bands cover the whole country evenly, he says.
Abroad and in the media, Finnish heavy music is often described through nature, the long dark season and gloom.
It is heavy music produced by forest people.
– The happiest nation in the world produces horses that spring from gloom. A horse is expressive, a form of self-expression, Karjalainen reflects.
Singing teacher Aleksi Parviainen sees the same atmosphere in hevi, iskelmä music and folk music.
– Molli is Finland’s major, says Parviainen.
Horse-singing cleanses
Horse music, whose sound world is far from nature, is rooted in nature and folklore through song. There is something uncontrollable about the song. It has primal power.
– The song is a balancing force that connects it to nature in a narrative way, describes Toni-Matti Karjalainen.
Many artists feel that they are part of the continuum of poetry singers, where Finnish heritage is carried forward, says Karjalainen.
Professor Toni-Matti Karjalainen ended up studying music through many twists and turns. The international research collaboration has also expanded our own image of horse music.
– Hevi is globally and internationally very communal. It is one of the absolute strengths of the over 50-year-old music style, he states.