Vocalist.org archive


From:  richard@r...
Date:  Mon Jan 28, 2002  8:27 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] specialized ears

Speaking for myself...

Classical music represents less than half of my CD collection. The two acts
represented the most in my 400-plus discs would be the Cocteau Twins (coming in
at 20 CDs) and Soundgarden (9). You can also find the following: Pearl Jam,
Ministry, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, Gary Numan, Billie Holiday,
Ella Fitzgerald, the Chieftains, Goodness, Hammerbox, Rush, Joe Satriani, Dire
Straits, The Police, Dave Matthews Band, Oingo Boingo, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and
so on.

The issue for me is, I won't talk about the vocal techniques of almost any of
the above. It would be silly to do so, because it's neither the point nor a
convention of their music. Whether or not what some of the above artists do is
harmful to their instrument in the long run isn't an argument that they or their
fans would want to hear. (Have you heard either Eddie Vedder or Sting lately?
yikes. Geddy Lee is starting to have to transpose down, too.) The argument of
whether or not there is an empirically correct way to sing that is healthy for
the voice is, ultimately, secondary to questions of style in non-classical
settings. That being the case, there's not a lot of interest on my part in
discussing it with regard to those styles of music.

Having said that... I will say that every time I hear Chris Cornell, I think
that he could have very easily done well in classical music, given some voice
lessons early on and not having taken up smoking or the rumored heroin.

Richard

On Fri, 25 January 2002, Andrea K wrote:

>
> While we're shipping people off, perhaps we could
> ship off all those "specialized listeners" to a
> desert island for a month, where they are
> required to listen all day long to every kind of
> music except opera (no mockopera allowed either).
> Perhaps after a month (or would it take 6?) they
> would realize that it's not all "pop" music and
> could finally hear the difference between Jazz,
> Blues, Rock, Heavy Metal, Alternative and pop,
> etc.. Perhaps they could hear past the "vocal
> mistakes" to appreciate other qualities in the
> human voice and the originality of people who
> don't sing ancient
> cover songs.
>
> You want the public to distinguish real opera,
> yet lump all non-classical music together as pop.
> If you don't respect non-classical singers and he
> ears of the general public; why should the
> general public give real opera a chance?
> -Andrea
>
>
> ---Begin Included Message---
> Sometimes I wish we could take all those
> "non-specialized" listeners
> and
> ship them off to a desert island for a month with
> nothing but
> recordings
> by Bjoerling, Corelli, Caruso, Thill, etc. Then,
> when they return, we
> can
>
> __________________________________________________
> Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions!
> http://auctions.yahoo.com
>
>





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