Mary wrote:
"there seems to be a misnomer, or myth, about singing technique and styles. Once one learns how to use their voice correctly, they do not need to stick to one musical style to use it. It is with great sadness that I watch the academia insist that singers learn to use their voices by exclusively learning the classical style. Occasionally, do I hear of colleges also adding musical theatre into the curricula, and if they are really forward thinking they may have a great jazz program going. However, I've not heard of a college that helps one learn how to sing pop, rock, R&B, or gospel. To me, this is preposterous, technique can be learned outside of any musical style and then applied to any style of music that one wishes to sing. The trick, is learning how to sing the style correctly without harming ones voice. My frustration led me to search for a technique that allowed me to use my voice correctly no matter what the style of music I chose. THe technique I found was Speech Level Singing, founded by Seth Riggs of LA. He has had phenomenal results within Opera, musical theatre, and contemporary styles of music. 4 National Metropolitan Opera winners and over 100 Grammy winners to date. I would strongly encourage you to look into this technique as you continue studying."
Mary, I know SLS and think it's very interesting. I've been in contact with some SLS teachers ( Rocio, Sandy Cressman, a guy from Canada... ) and I'm really enthusiastic about it in terms of healthy singing, and have been using Seth Rigg's book too ( with adaptations by my teacher ). However, there are things people do, mostly in pop/rock singing, that would be considered a big mistake by SLSers, although you see people with solid careers doing that for decades. For example, take Dio, ex- Black Sabbath, or Bruce Dickinson ( Iron Maiden ) or the guy who sings in Blind Guardian ( a German heavy metal band singing in English ), or even Sebastian Bach ( ex-Skid Row ) and Whitesnake's David Coverdale. Can you say they respect the SLS rules of healthy singing? Dio is now 55 and he has never canceled a gig for voice problems ( or a cold, as they call it:-) ) or Bruce Dickinson, who is, according to Pavarotti ( so did I hear say ), the best male pop voice. And what to say about Alanis Morissetti?
My teacher says it's unhealthy, and that she can't even do many things they do. She says I have to sing 'inside the mouth', and my former teacher, the rock singer I mentioned before, says she's completely lost: you must learn to sing both ways, in the mask and 'inside'. He says an inside 'AH' is not a pure 'AH', it's a nasal 'AH', and he sings both without any problem. He says pop/rock singing demands that ( just listen to the people mentioned above and also Mariah Carrey, Celine Dion, etc ) and he sometimes does what sounds like belting. According to what I read, SLSers are completely against belting, while some people on this list have already said that it's possible to belt safely, and cited Jo Estill's work as a reference.
In Brazil our contemporary country music ( like in the US, we have a pop country music too ) singers sing VERY high. One of them has his veins almost blowing up out of his neck. He's 40-something, has concerts twice or 3 times week, is on TV almost everyday singing LIVE, and has been singing since he was a kid without much formal training. He's been singing against all odds all these years! According to my present teacher, Broadway singers are, according to scientific statistics, doomed to have a short career due to belting and other things they do, but some 'survive'. How can we say who will survive, and how can we say most of them wouldn't 'survive' if they did these 'wrong' things in the 'right' way?
My former teacher does a lot of distortion ( singing 'rough' ) in his voice, just like Bon Jovi or Coverdale. He says there's a technique for doing that safely, without putting too much stress on your larynx, balancing the amount of air going up and the resistance in the larynx, but 99% of the teachers I know say it's just WRONG, UNHEALTHY. But the point is that his voice is better than their voices all piled up! The fact that they can't do it doesn't mean it's wrong! It seems ( in fact, it 'sounds' ) to me that different musical styles demand different singing styles and techniques. I can't imagine a rock singer singing like Al Jarreau, an SLSer, or a jazz singer singing like Sebastian Bach. But if you don't follow the different singing styles in each different style, you end up 'killing' the song. You 'mis-deliver' it.
According to my speech therapist, and I have to agree with her, there's no such thing as a perfect technique, but a technique that fits you. She and another speech therapist who is also my present teacher say little is really known about singing and what effects it has on each individual singer. They say you have to look for a technique that fits your voice, not the opposite. I think they're right.
Bye,
Best regards,
Caio Rossi
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