Dear Fellow Vocalisters:
A lot of writing has gone over the dam regarding vocal style verses vocal technique. Le met put in my ideas.
There is an opportunity for all of us to find a functional technique for singing that has as its primary concern the healthy use of the voice. All styles of singing are replete with examples of singing that do not meet these requirements. These dangerous and damaging examples are in no way a condemnation of the styles of singing that they represent.
If that can be accepted as a given, there is little need to condemn any style of performance be it opera, recital, rock, country, jazz, Broadway, Muslim, Chinese, or whatever.
But, any of these musical styles is capable of inducing a singing technique that is dangerous and damaging to the voice. For this reason alone, it is necessary that we all work to discover that function of the voice that is healthy. This can only be done with a knowledge of how the voice actually does work. We do not have all of the answers but we know more now than at any time in the past.
Let us seek a technique that is based on a truly accurate analysis of vocal function. We no longer need a repetition of the the old "saws" that have been passed from generation to generation for no other reason than that it is "what I was taught". All forms of singing styles are as guilty of this "that-is-the-way-it-was approach as is opera.
Now, personally, I do find most of what has passed for singing during the last 40 years as even of interest to me but that does not mean it is not of value. I know that and so do you. But I am unwilling to assume that voices must be abused to accomplish that singing style of the last 40 years. Nor am I willing to accept that the great voices of opera which have been abused by their owners because they didn't give a damn about how to sing correctly should be a model of how we should now teach voice. Mario del Monaco is not a voice teacher's idol.
So, lets get off your defensive posture about whatever style is important to our hearts and get on with what we can learn from each other about the healthy and correct function of the human voice.
My first soapbox. It felt good.
Regards -- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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