Mary wrote:
"there seems to
be a misnomer, or myth, about singing technique and styles. Once one learns
how to use their voice correctly, they do not need to stick to one musical
style to use it.
It is with great sadness that I watch the academia insist that singers
learn to use their voices by exclusively learning the classical style.
Occasionally, do I hear of colleges also adding musical theatre into the
curricula, and if they are really forward thinking they may have a great
jazz
program going. However, I've not heard of a college that helps one learn
how
to sing pop, rock, R&B, or gospel. To me, this is preposterous, technique
can
be learned outside of any musical style and then applied to any style of
music that one wishes to sing. The trick, is learning how to sing the style
correctly without harming ones voice.
My frustration led me to search for a technique that allowed me to use
my voice correctly no matter what the style of music I chose. THe technique
I
found was Speech Level Singing, founded by Seth Riggs of LA. He has had
phenomenal results within Opera, musical theatre, and contemporary styles of
music. 4 National Metropolitan Opera winners and over 100 Grammy winners to
date. I would strongly encourage you to look into this technique as you
continue studying."
Mary, I know SLS and think it's very interesting. I've been in contact with
some SLS teachers ( Rocio, Sandy Cressman, a guy from Canada... ) and I'm
really enthusiastic about it in terms of healthy singing, and have been
using Seth Rigg's book too ( with adaptations by my teacher ). However,
there are things people do, mostly in pop/rock singing, that would be
considered a big mistake by SLSers, although you see people with solid
careers doing that for decades.
For example, take Dio, ex- Black Sabbath, or Bruce Dickinson ( Iron Maiden )
or the guy who sings in Blind Guardian ( a German heavy metal band singing
in English ), or even Sebastian Bach ( ex-Skid Row ) and Whitesnake's David
Coverdale. Can you say they respect the SLS rules of healthy singing? Dio is
now 55 and he has never canceled a gig for voice problems ( or a cold, as
they call it:-) ) or Bruce Dickinson, who is, according to Pavarotti ( so
did I hear say ), the best male pop voice. And what to say about Alanis
Morissetti?
My teacher says it's unhealthy, and that she can't even do many things they
do. She says I have to sing 'inside the mouth', and my former teacher, the
rock singer I mentioned before, says she's completely lost: you must learn
to sing both ways, in the mask and 'inside'. He says an inside 'AH' is not a
pure 'AH', it's a nasal 'AH', and he sings both without any problem. He says
pop/rock singing demands that ( just listen to the people mentioned above
and also Mariah Carrey, Celine Dion, etc ) and he sometimes does what
sounds like belting. According to what I read, SLSers are completely against
belting, while some people on this list have already said that it's possible
to belt safely, and cited Jo Estill's work as a reference.
In Brazil our contemporary country music ( like in the US, we have a pop
country music too ) singers sing VERY high. One of them has his veins almost
blowing up out of his neck. He's 40-something, has concerts twice or 3 times
week, is on TV almost everyday singing LIVE, and has been singing since he
was a kid without much formal training. He's been singing against all odds
all these years! According to my present teacher, Broadway singers are,
according to scientific statistics, doomed to have a short career due to
belting and other things they do, but some 'survive'. How can we say who
will survive, and how can we say most of them wouldn't 'survive' if they did
these 'wrong' things in the 'right' way?
My former teacher does a lot of distortion ( singing 'rough' ) in his voice,
just like Bon Jovi or Coverdale. He says there's a technique for doing that
safely, without putting too much stress on your larynx, balancing the amount
of air going up and the resistance in the larynx, but 99% of the teachers I
know say it's just WRONG, UNHEALTHY. But the point is that his voice is
better than their voices all piled up! The fact that they can't do it
doesn't mean it's wrong!
It seems ( in fact, it 'sounds' ) to me that different musical styles demand
different singing styles and techniques. I can't imagine a rock singer
singing like Al Jarreau, an SLSer, or a jazz singer singing like Sebastian
Bach. But if you don't follow the different singing styles in each different
style, you end up 'killing' the song. You 'mis-deliver' it.
According to my speech therapist, and I have to agree with her, there's no
such thing as a perfect technique, but a technique that fits you. She and
another speech therapist who is also my present teacher say little is really
known about singing and what effects it has on each individual singer. They
say you have to look for a technique that fits your voice, not the opposite.
I think they're right.
Bye,
Best regards,
Caio Rossi
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