In a message dated 11/15/2002 11:16:47 PM Pacific Standard Time,
deanmacy@a... writes:
> buzzcen@a... wrote:
>
> >Sadly, most voice teachers suck ... they don't
> >realize that legit singing involves some chest on the bottom and produce
> >women with no mixture at all at the bottom, just a weak voice that mirrors
> >male falsetto, involves a lot of air passing over the folds and produces
> >unproductive muscular relationships between adductors and abductors.
> >
> Agreed. Amen to that!
>
> Dr Dean
>
Interesting story to add to this one...........a few months ago a student and
I attended a cabaret dinner featuring the "best" of what the Portland area
had to offer. I have heard ad nauseum about these particular singers, had
listened to a few files online, and was curious and excited to hear what they
had to offer.
Also, because some of my students had been auditioning for cabaret-like, and
theatre roles in the area, I had become familiar with the sound that many of
the directors and conductors had been choosing.
Unfortunately, the performers that night were quite abysmal. The song choice
was wonderful, but after the first few selections the pattern of pitch
problems, out of control vibrato and unpredictable vocal transitions, was
overly distracting. And this sort of performance, from a "seasoned
professional" performer AND voice teacher, on her way to make her much
publicized New York debut. These singers had only added an open chest voice
to their "legit" head voice. There was not a smooth transition from one to
the other, and they literally sounded as if they were singing with two
different voices, with all the accompanying pitch problems etc., that ensued.
Those that had smoother transitions did it by singing at a lower volume, and
lacked voices that had any interesting depth or color.
After the show, my student and I talked about the misunderstanding of vocal
function, and the acceptance of a sound that really had no marketable value
outside of regional arenas. I could tell she was a little bewildered by what
I meant until she recently returned from New York after attending quite a few
Broadway musicals and stated, "The professional singers being chosen here for
the symphony and theatre sound like high-schoolers in comparison to what I
heard in New York."
Without going into all the potential issues of how many on Broadway may be
singing unhealthily as well, these comments attest to the misunderstanding
and lack of knowledge in the voice teaching arena to the marketability as
well as functioning of the singing voice.
Mary Beth Felker
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