On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, Isabelle Bracamonte wrote:
> Ideally, yes, you would find a teacher, study every
> day, and concentrate only on technique until your
> voice was ready. In the real world, I still maintain
> that you're better off saving your conservatory money
> and training your instrument privately, and/or finding
> a job and splitting your time between money-making and
> vocal training.
Just out of curiousity, have you yourself tried this?
Training your instrument privately is a good option, however you also
lose a lot of the opportunities to perform that students at the Con
may have. Performing in a conservatorium/university context is less likely
to be "do or die". The expense is high whether training privately or
attending a conservatorium, but the TIME factor for study is a major
problem when working full time. The opportunities for study grants and
scholarships are also greater at a tertiary institution due to bequests
etc, as opposed to the eisteddfod circuit.
BTW, yes I do study privately, and have
done so for over 6 years, as well as working full time and completing my
degree in a field unrelating to singing.
> I also maintain that singers should get non-singing
> jobs while they are still training, for the same
> reason that I don't think lieder should be sung at an
> early age -- by going out and singing before you are
> technically prepared, you are only learning bad
> habits, how to cheat (technically speaking), and
> taking time and energy away from your real practicing
> and training.
>
<snip>
> sing anything correctly -- hence, a large portion of
> your job-singing is going to be imperfect. If you get
> a job doing something else, you have those 2-3 hours
> to spend perfecting your instrument instead.
Yes and you are also exhausted either physically or mentally
from working all day. You do need the time to wind down before
intitiating a practice session, however if you are also attending
a lesson/coaching every evening, the time to really *study* the
works in depth is spent on the weekends and the most important
of all is the mental preparation. Your technique must be there
before opening your mouth and burbling away b/c you *are* tired
and therefore more likely to make mistakes/haev laspses
in your technique.
>
> Similarly, if young singers spend an hour each day
> singing through lieder songs (which were, it's true,
> written for the untrained voice and are easy to sing
> incorrectly but pleasantly -- and bloody difficult to
> sing with perfect technique), that's an hour they
> could have been spending doing their take-home
> vocalises to strengthen that G, or smooth out the
> passaggio, or any other concept that the singer's
> teacher happens to be working on at the moment. And
> if the lesson time is spent singing incorrectly but
> pleasantly through the easier lieder instead of
> concentrating on technique -- that's a waste of a
> teacher, in my opinion.
>
Surely, that is part and parcel of the student's preparation time
*and* the teacher's obligation to find pieces that teach whichever
area the teacher feels needs to be worked upon.
The teacher should be providing pieces that work the weaker areas of
the students technique, as well as building upon what the student has
already learned - regardless of whether it is lieder, oratorio or operatic
arias. If any lesson time is fully taken up by the student singing
incorrectly, then the teacher and student have serious problems, b/c
presumably the pieces learned should be strengthening and utlizing
the student's technique and extending the student bot h technically and
musically.
> And to sing lieder CORRECTLY -- that is, again in my
> opinion, more difficult than opera. It's harder to
> sing musical theater "correctly" (in operatic terms)
> than it is to sing opera, simply because opera doesn't
> give you a choice. If you don't sing the A's and B's
> correctly in Caro nome, you'll never make it to the
> high E -- survival through correctness. You won't be
> able to sing straight through the aria for x number of
> months, as you practice and are corrected and guided
> at every note, but you'll always be on the path to
> technical correctness.
Really? Good technique is good technique and the student should be
applying those principles learned regardless of whether they are
singing artsong or arias.
Lieder and lighter rep make it
> too easy to "slum" and slip into bad habits -- you can
> spend two hours veering down an easy but technically
> off-base vocal path, which is not only a waste of time
> (think of those two steps down the original path you
> could have taken in that time), but often you have to
> spend extra time finding your way back.
Again, the teacher should be guiding the student and the student
should use their brain, body and ears to be aware of what it is they are
doing, how does it feel and discussing that with their teacher.
How can lied lead to heading down "an easy but technically off base vocal
path"? Any pieces sung badly are just that - sung badly. The student
has to take some responsibility for their actions and beating them
about the head over technique will do *nothing* unless the student
is willing to apply what is taught to all of their music.
<snip>
> Plus, the nature of lieder is that the text is the
> most important thing to communicate, whereas in opera
> it is the vocal line.
Is it? I think an audience can be bored by incomprehensibility in any
musical form. Think of lied like Auch kleine Dinge by Wolf. It is simple
beautiful and so dreadfully exposed. A perfect vocal line is an absolute
must in music like this. Mutteranderlei by Strauss is coloratura lied
that, to my mind, would place similar demands on the singer as singing
"Qui la voce". Regardless of what the music is, line, support and
technique are essential for singing that music.
Since, in training, the vocal
> line has to come first (according to my
> technique-then-polish theory), it is easier for young
> singers to concentrate on the voice (and ONLY the
> voice) with Mozart and Bellini than with Schubert and
> Brahms. The forms demand different priorities.
See above.
> Someone please tell me when I stop clarifying my
> position and begin ranting... I don't want to go on
> and on about this, but I think it's important, and is
> the reason why the conservatory/university system
> turns out so many bland, mediocre voices.
*grin*
I have no answer for that one b/c i've never been in the US university
system for music.
> Actually, this is great, since it forces me to
> verbalize my thoughts to myself, and clarify my own
> position.
>
Certainly leads to some interesting points of view :)
Kylie
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