I had a student audition who had a very good classically trained voice. Why she auditioned I don't know because after singing a stunningly good audition (and after I mentioned that she would have to tone down the vibrato and chest voice a bit for our choir) she said that her voice teacher back home said she shouldn't sing straight tone because that would "ruin her voice." I pointed out how it is good to be flexible, how I go back and forth between the two with no problem, and how Marilyn Horne started out singing Renaissance polyphony before she went on to become a famous opera singer - but to no avail. Her past two voice teachers said that this sort of singing would "mess up her voice," so, well, she would have to give it a year and think about it.
Fine. But, really, this is ridiculous. I know of such vocal teachers who want to lock students into a particular form of singing - the hard-toned, chest voice with the big vibrato. And then, this is all they can sing. And on the off chance that they have any sort of career in opera, let alone become famous, this is the only way they will be able to sing. So when they decide to be "diverse" and put out a "jazz album" or selection of "popular tunes" they end up sounding ridiculous with what has turned into an uncontrollable Brunhilda voice.
A straight jacket. (or iron corset?) Poor girl. She's caught in the middle of a professional rivalry between two camps: the "Early Music Straight Toners" and the "Operatic Chest Thumpers." Even though I do mostly "early music" for a living I fall more in the middle. It is a series of gradations. You need to develop chest voice AND head voice and learn how to mix them and move back and forth.
Anyway, I don't want this to happen to any of my voice students.
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3 comments:
Amen! I agree totally. I have been taking voice lessons and I can see how I developed bad vocal habits doing just straight tone singing in choir and "listening" too much; however, I also can see how you could go to the other extreme. My goal is to be able to do both, and to sing in other styles (country, for example, or even down the road mariachi!) as well.
Maybe it's just as well that the singer didn't choose to join choir, because occasionally big-voiced singers have intonation problems that really aggravate other members of the choir in their section--especially sopranos. If you are going to pick on us for going flat, don't let girls in the choir who can't sing in tune!! Selecting a chorister who, though her voice might not be as developed, can sing in tune and listen intelligently, that is much much easier than a soprano who's going to sing the way she sings and doesn't listen to the other sections of the choir to stay on pitch. If you ever notice shuffling around going on in the soprano section at sectionals, this is why: no one wants to stand next to the loud, off-key one. One of my worries now that my singing is getting stronger is that I might become one of them--please tell me if I do! :-D Sorry, I'll stop ranting now . . .
Incidentally, I remember my old voice teacher looking down her nose at a polyphony piece I brought to practice for a wedding (Viadana's "Exultate Justi")--she didn't say it would ruin my voice, but being an opera fanatic, her take was basically, "Why would you want to sing this?" However, she did agree to work on it with me and it was actually very fruitful practice. Both camps have something to learn from each other. :)
Vibrato is definitely a mixed blessing. It seems like those who have a lot of it have a very difficult time maintaining pitch. However, it does provide some interest in a strong chest voice. In my pre-Christendom voice career, I was encouraged to sound natural, above all else. I think it's crucial to being a good singer to appreciate other types of music and to be flexible. You're right - there's nothing worse than trying to shoehorn one type of voice into an incompatible type of music.
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