Vocalist.org archive


From:  Cindi Waters <musicteachky@y...>
Date:  Sat Mar 1, 2003  6:59 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] General Question ....


Ed, and Vocalisters,
Regarding training of classical vs. pop method - the classical training is
geared towards singing classical (operatic and recital) music. Therefore, the
elocution of it is primarily geared for the singer in a different vocal
direction than the pop singer, no matter how fine an instrument either may have
and no matter how wonderful the training may be. I am sure there are pop singers
out there, I can name a few but I think I will date myself, who are simply
mah-velous, truly terrific with voices I envy. I would not dare to think they
would be, or should be, singing opera, yet their voices are wonderful for the
genre of music they indulge in. Similarly, I have heard terrific operatic
singers attempt to sing pop music and find it very ugly indeed. There have been
some singers who could manage a type of crossover (I go back to Eileen Farrell,
but again, she was limited in her pop singing, marvelous as it was), but the
transference is never complete, she sounded like a wonderful operatic singer
singing Cole Porter very pleasantly. Ed, if your teacher is training you
correctly, he/she will have her own area of expertise. If you like opera, go to
an operatically styled and trained voice teacher. If you like pop, get the best
pop teacher you can find. I do not think the two are transferable, and I would
as soon sit down with an evening of Tony Bennett as I would most opera singers.
<g> this is not to say that the physical care of the vocal apparatus is
different, both approaches must seek to take very good care of the body. Take
care, and enjoy your lessons with who is hopefully a very good teacher for the
style of music you desire to sing. In NYC, for instance, again ... there is the
Phoebe Snow School of Music. She specializes in the pop sound. I'm not sure if
it's still there, but her training is designed for the pop singer, and there is
a difference of approach. Both can be anatomically correct, but the style and
the production of sound will be different. Cindi from Kentucky, teaching little
kids to sing well one folk song at a time.
"Michael <chosdad@y... wrote: Dear List and Michael:

--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, "edsmed969
<michael.gum@d...>" <michael.gum@d...> wrote:
> Ok, so what your saying is .. that since I sing and sang 'popular'
> music and not 'operatic' music when I was originally trained ..
that
> I was not trained classically ???

Again, this is kind of tricky without hearing you sing. It is
possible I think to sing "popular" music and have a well trained
voice - frankly I have no idea really what popular music means,
though. I think it's not so much the music as how you sing the
music - I'm kind of out of touch with whatever is "popular" these
days, but it is possible to sing "Beatles" or "Simon and Garfunkel"
somewhat classically - such music has nice melodies and sustained
notes. Was the emphasis in your training on the classical ideals -
sustained singing, pure vowels, resonance, smoothly connected
registers, etc? If so, then I guess you could be classically trained
without singing "classical" music.

In general, though, I would be very skeptical of someone who has
never trained to sing operatically and wants to step on stage and
sing in an opera or perform oratorios. For example, I was in Borders
the other day and saw a CD by "Russell Watson" - I guess he is some
sort of pop tenor singer. He's a talented guy, and I would say that
compared to joe on the street he has a trained voice, but it's not
trained to perform opera. I took a quick listen to his attempt at
singing classical arias and I didn't like it at all!! In fact, no
offense to him - I couldn't do any better myself, but I really
couldn't stand his singing of the classical material and would never
buy his CD. Now maybe his pop singing, on the other hand, is pretty
good. I would further add that most famous opera tenors haven't a
clue at singing non-opera stuff, and I wouldn't buy their pop albums.

Although most of my singing has been in classical choirs, and my
teachers classically oriented, I also like vocal jazz and barbershop.
In my opinion, the best of the singers in these non-classical genres
are pretty close in their technique to classical singers, especially
the men. But that doesn't mean they are ready to have careers in
opera or classical music without further training...

The "pop" singers of an earlier era sang with very much the same
technique, in my opinion, as classical singers, perhaps with some
adjustments for style and resonance. I have an older recording of
say Tony Bennett, and while I don't know how well his voice would
have projected on the operatic stage, the technique to me is
essentially the same as that of a classical singer.

That's my opinion. Just curious - why do you care whether we think
you were "classically" trained?

Cheers,

Michael Gordon







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