Vocalist.org archive


From:  RALUCOB@a...
Date:  Mon Sep 25, 2000  8:37 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: low palate: was vibrato


lloyd,

by singing in the western world, i assume you mean classical singing and
singing in the 'legitimate' theater. i think you'll find that nasality is
used quite a bit, in varying degrees, in most other singing styles in the
western world (pop, some approaches to jazz, r&b, country, etc.).

in speech, most people make use of a flexible resonating space without
giving it a second thought. when it comes to singing, in an attempt to
create 'a sound', these same people get stuck into a posture that they hope
will bring about the desired sound. the more foreign 'the sound' is to
their normal speaking voice, the more stuck they are likely to become.

i believe singing should be an extension of speech and that, if a singer
can negotiate the wider range of pitches and the distortion of words caused
by generally having to take longer to say them while singing than while
speaking, the same expression that the singer has used his/her entire life in
speaking will cross into singing. sometimes it's succesful sometimes not
(it's just my ideal not a prescription for a better world).

in my experience, it is the classical aethetic that requires the
greatest demands on the singer to adopt an approach most foreign to the
singer's 'native' approach (i would have to say 'heavy metal' would be second
but, it is probably tied with something else i'm overlooking). the
attempt, in comparison to other styles, of most classical vocalists to
homogenize their sounds, i believe, is responsible for frozen mouth positions
and probably a lot of other problems that seem to only afflict classical
vocalists.

mike

emusic.com