Unwrapping the voice

I often get asked what genre I teach in singing and I usually say classical and music theatre. I now think this is a limited and loaded question! People, naturally, make decisions on my response, yet what I teach is much more useful. I teach how to make a voice function. I teach the mechanics of vocal operation so that the singer is empowered to make a choice as to which genre they wish to pursue.

There is nothing more powerful than knowing how to make a sound that is stable and secure; knowing that when you open your mouth, that sound is available to you. 

The setting up of a voice is the longest and most complex element in voicing.

 

Understanding the subtleties of muscular and cellular interchange to create the widest palate of sounds you can find. More importantly, gaining control so that the emerging sound is smooth and clear and at your command. That involves practising across the whole of the vocal range of which you are capable and understanding that this will alter on any given day depending on your mood, health, emotional conditions, the weather! Despite all the determining factors, being able to produce consistent vocalisation is key to success as a singer.

We get sidetracked into working on the different genres. Classical vowel shape as opposed to music theatre vowel shaping for example; breathing patterns; scientific discoveries about the amazing ways the voice works. These are all interesting and we can experiment away, but if your voice is not stable with tone production, you will quickly need to start repairing this and that and may well develop inconsistencies. 

I work with singers to help them understand how their particular voice responds and what they need to focus on to get this mastery of the voice. What I do find is that using a mix of classical pieces and music theatre styles seems to cover a good percentage of what is required to sustain that control and feel technically secure: from belting to bel canto.

What is technique? How long is a piece of string?! For me, technique is being able to sing a note and to develop it without the tone either tightening or becoming wayward, maintaining a beautiful quality that invites people to stay listening. When that happens, the singer can make artistic choices and take risks. 

A well used voice is not always necessarily beautiful, yet it is a thing of beauty because the owner has the confidence in the mechanism to be work at their whim.

Beyond the vocal set up and use of voice comes the engagement with text and communicating this to any audience. Emotional connection to the words can take the voice out of kilter so beyond gaining control over the instrument is the technique of showcasing an emotion without being immersed in it and letting it affect your voice production. here lies the anomaly between risk and certainty and that is what a great singer has to wrestle with, but one can only do that when there is an assurance that the vocal mechanism can take it. This applies qually across all genres. It is my job to help you find that.