kerubiino wrote:
> This may look like a frivolous question but it is not.
> I have been wondering for a while what would be the ideal mental
> constitution for a singer. I seem to have recurring difficulties
> because I am a 'full throttle' kind of person and it affects my
> attack (too heavy), my fortes (too loud) and my ego (sensitive to
> criticism). I know these are areas that I should work at, but some of
> it seems to be in my nature.
No offense, but I think that's silly. When you've got your
vocal technique in hand, and you will if you stick with it,
you'll be able to manage your voice to express yourself in
song the way only YOU can. You'll also be less "sensitive
to criticism" when you have a better sense of your value as
a singer. What you have to offer, which nobody else has,
because there's only one YOU. This will come with time,
good teaching/learning, and perseverence (which is not the
same as patience).
Is patience a virtue? It certainly can be. Or it can lead
to complacency. I once took one of these management
training courses, and in one self-assessment exercise this
idea stuck with me, and I think it's SO true. Our strengths
are also our weaknesses. In other words, what we're each
individually best at can be our worst trait when taken too
far.
And I believe vice versa. Renee Fleming was in an Opera
News interview with the great Broadway and cabaret singer
Barbara Cook, and RF commented that her great facility in
learning music has led her to take on too many roles too
quickly, and she valued the way BC's lack of music "skills"
forced her to work music as demanding as that written for
Cunegonde in Candide into her voice by learning it note by
note with painstaking repetition.
(And to hear Barbara Cook sing live at the KC, as I did last
month, I could believe it. Barbara Cook is age 73 or
something, but looks at least 10 years younger, and sang an
hour-plus one-woman show, no intermission, with not a HINT
of a wobble in her voice, no matter how low in her voice she
sang, how soft or loud, or how high - a sustained high B
Flat in one song 2/3 the way through the program was
amazing. The audience went wild, and she commented - that
was a good note, wasn't it? When I was young, they used to
pop them right out. But now I have to think about it. AND
she can communicate song text like no other singer in
English can today, classical or pop, in my opinion.)
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
|
|
|  |
