Date sent: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 16:25:17 -0800
From: "Dale Gillespie"
Subject: Re:survivor of change (longish)
Organization: Angelfire (http://email.angelfire.com:80)
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Dear Carol and John,

I am a survivor of a Fach change. But I wouldn't exactly say it was a Fach change. It was more that I was finally diagnosed correctly by a voice teacher and started working my correct Fach.

I started out singing as a Bass/Baritone. I sang as that for years and years with no training. When I finally did get a voice teacher he continued to train me as a Bass/Baritone. I could sing the notes - well, most of them - but I never felt I sounded the same as the other Bass/Baritones. In 1993
I auditioned for a childrens musical that needed classically trained voices. I chose an aria from Don Giovanni to sing. I did my audition and the Musical Director jumped up and proclaimed that I was not a Baritone but a Tenor. He said I attacked the aria like a Tenor. He started training me for
free during rehersals of the show. Some time after the show closed I was able to afford a voice teacher again and went to see a man by the name of Luigi Wood in Vancouver. I auditioned for him and he confirmed that I was a Tenor, he then sent me to Audition for a Vocal Coach by the name of Bliss
Johnston who also confirmed that I was a Tenor. My current voice teacher, that I have had for four o!
r five years now, also confirmed it. So I have been training as a Tenor since 1993 with no traumatics involved in the change. It was a smooth transition in learning Technique. My first teacher really didn't teach me any technique, I guess he just wanted to leave well enough alone.

So as you can see from all the responses that it is different for each one. I suppose for some people it was traumatic - especially if they were working professionally. When I made the change I was not working professionally and am still not. The only bad thing for me about it was that there was
nothing left for me to do in Broadway style shows. Most of the good male roles are Baritone and not Tenor - that is not to say that there are no good Tenor Broadway roles, I am just too old for them. At first I would not even consider doing a Baritone Broadway role again - which left me nothing
to do. I am now secure enough in my Tenor that I will consider a Baritone Broadway role if it is a good one.

You have to go at it at your own pace and do what you feel is neccessary. But above all make sure that the Fach you are changing to is really what you should be doing and not just a whim, that it would be nice to be something else. I know that there are people singing out there, and some of them
very good, who are singing in a different Fach than they actually are. I don't know about Sops and Mezzos, but I do know that there are some "Jumped up Tenors", as Ben Heppner calls them, out there, but alot of them are doing quite well for themselves and some are even very famous. I am not rying
to say anything derogatory about these people so please do not flame me anyone. One of them is my favorite Tenor.
All I am saying is, that if you know what you are doing (and your teacher too) and have proper training and coaching to bring you along in your "NEW VOICE" you can achieve almost anything.

Good luck in you Fach change and Happy Singing in 2000.

---
Dale Gillespie - Tenor
bigtenordale-at-angelfire.com
Coquitlam, BC
Canada

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! HAPPY 2000!!!!







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