Dear Listers
I wanted to respond to the young lady who asked the question about
singing pop music over classical music. Let me first start by saying,
yes, I am a professor but I am NOT a professor of voice or music. I
have studied for nearly two decades and I do sing professionally from
time to time but my opinion is my opinion.
Like the young lady who asked the question, I started out singing a lot
of gospel, pop and rhythm and blues as a teenager. And, no I did not
have a very good technique at the time. I was often hoarse and would
have trouble speaking after a concert. But I studied classical music at
the same time and I began to improve my technique in both classical and
pop/R&B over time. However, once I began to sing with the technique I
learned from my voice teachers at DePaul and New England Conversatory,
my gospel/pop singing changed. It changed in such a way that when I was
singing gospel people would often ask "Do you study classical music?"
In gospel or R&B, this is NOT a good thing. I chose to continue
studying classical music as a youth and at this point, I am focusing
solely on my classical singing and I am happy with that.
The experience taught me a valuable lesson. It may not be a good idea
to try to do too many things at one time. While I agree that healthy
singing is healthy singing, I do believe that an effective (and this is
the operative word here) pop or gospel artist has to use the voice in
particular ways to convey certain emotions and much of the time that
has very little to do with technique. I think an effective opera
singer has to do the same thing but it has EVERYTHING to do with one's
technique.
I say sing what makes you happy and try to do it in a way that feels
right but don't double-dip. I think, in the end, you'll end up not
being very good at anything. That's my two cents.
Marvin
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