From: Steve Fosdick
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Bad Singing
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Sun, Jan 16, 2000 at 06:43:38PM +0100, Judith wrote:

> Now my question is: why don't they realize that they're not up to
> what they're doing? Especially the music teacher!

Before I started taking voice lessons I used to think I sang pretty
well - certainly the sound I heard as I sang seemed pretty good. Then
I heard a recording of me singing and found that what everyone else
was hearing when I sang wasn't what I heard but a sound not nearly as
good. It was that experience that persuaded me to take lessons.

Maybe the singer you heard hasn't actually heard herself properly -
maybe she has only heard herself as she sings and doesn't realise that
other people aren't hearing that same sound.

> Has my voice training made me too hard to please?

I wouldn't necessarily say it has made you "too" hard to please, but
it has probably made you harder to please.

Since starting voice lessons I have started to hear an increasing
number of faults in other singers, particularly pop singers, and
including pop singers who currently have a sucessful career. At the
same time there are other singers who continue to impress me as much
as they always have.

During the time that I have been taking lessons my subjective
impression of my own singing hasn't changed that much, but if I listen
to a recording of me singing when I first started lessons and a
recording of me singing now there has been a big improvement.

My conclusion is that my ear and voice are both being trained
together, but that the ear is always slightly ahead of the voice.