I had an interesting online conversation with an old high school student of
mine last night; it reinforced my perceptions that most university musical
theater programs are for the birds.
Her new teacher (an opera singer) told her she was belting and had no head
voice, which is a polite way of saying she pulled chest all the way up.
First of all this was not true, she came out of an extended chest register,
got into a mix (which could vary from light to hard) and connected into a
head voice produced via a damped cord.
To this opera based teacher this was belting. She told the student she'd
lose her voice if she kept doing this and that they needed to separate the
register and work on head voice exclusively.
This student who sounded like a young Streisand is going to come out of that
program with a sound that is not sellable in the market she wishes to enter.
Obviously by this, and Barry and my conversation, it points out that
pop/musical theater production is not well understood. The way my student
sang would probably not be considered belt by Barry, but to this teacher it
was and was deemed as all chest.
I don't like the idea of a heightened larynx and wide mouth position, it's
ugly and the medial compression is excessive but at least those teachers are
trying to get a sound that will sell out of their students. The opera based
teacher who has no idea of what the extended chest voice with a higher mix
sounds like will in turn create a function that is aesthetically
inappropriate and harms the student's chances for success. Why are musical
theater programs using the same faculty for their singers that are also
teaching the opera singers, when it's obvious they don't know how to
coordinate both voice types with methods that are appropriate?
Randy Buescher
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