I totally agree with you!!!
Greypins@a... wrote:molly,
i agree with you on eilleen farrell. she is the only female opera
singer, besides julia migenes, that i have ever heard sing in another style
succesfully. most still sound like opera singers acquiring new rep from
other styles. a good male example is rene kollo who, i think sounds much
better, vocally, singing 'pretty woman' than he ever did singing wagner.
going from singing operatically to singing pop/jazz/folk/etc. styles,
is potentially more difficult for the female classical singer than for the
male. most pop/etc. singing is done using the voice in a similar manner as
it is used in speech. simply put, most of the singing uses 'chest voice' as
it's base. in the case of the female classical singer, the base for most of
her singing is 'head voice' which, is not the same 'head voice' used by men
(except for counter-tenors) or, female belters.
where i would think you should begin is by using your 'speaking voice'
to sing with, using it as if it were the same as speaking only adding
specific pitches (similar to singing stupid songs in the car on a painfully
long and boring family outing). where you are likely to have trouble is in
extending the range of this 'voice' past the Bb above middle C. the key to
getting past this hump are roughly the same as a male singer would use in
getting past those notes near the E just above middle C.
musically, there are far more textures available to the belter than to
the opera singer. where the opera singer tends towards singing everything
with the same vibrato rate, 'all over' legato and, out of necessity, the same
volume, the belter (if amplified) is not limited to these few elements.
also, there is far less distortion of words in belting than in opera singing.
i believe this is due not only to vocal use but, also to the idea that most
other forms of singing can be seen as an extension of speech, more or less.
i like seth riggs' 'singing for the stars' as an approach to singing
anything but, i think you might find it particularly more applicable to non
classical singing than any of your previous vocal training.
mike
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