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VOCAL
TECHNIQUE AND DEVELOPMENT - Q&A
By Vocal Coach Jeannie Deva
Q.
"I'm singing professionally already. Will vocal lessons
force me to start from the beginning? Will I have to unlearn
everything I know?" - D.B.
A.
I would certainly hope not. To the degree you are achieving
success with your voice, you are already doing something right.
To throw that away would be a big mistake.
Voice
lessons
Voice lessons should assist you in understanding what you're
doing right and in knowing why it's right so you don't mistakenly
abandon valuable know-how. Additionally, lessons should provide
you with any tools and knowledge you may be lacking so that
you can increase your possibilities and expand your “vocabulary”
to express yourself vocally. Also, there may be exercises
you don’t yet know that will increase your endurance
and stamina and others that might warm-up your voice more
efficiently. A singer who understands and is certain of proper
natural technique, is always more confident and professional.
It is important to always push the envelope and continue to
grow as an artist in as many ways as possible.
Q.
"Is there a point where a vocalist could be receiving
too much technique, perhaps detracting from a more natural
and spontaneous delivery?" - A.S.
A.
Overdoing technique is not the most common problem for singers,
but it can be certainly occur. Engaging in vocal technique
for its own sake is misguided and unmusical. The purpose of
vocal technique is to give you enough facility to say what
you want and in the way you want to say it, without hurting
yourself when you perform. It is for this purpose that I researched
how the voice naturally works and discovered a way of working
with it, to obtain an expressive, spontaneous, multi-styled
voice.
Purpose
of Technique
Technique helps you acquire adequate skill so that you can
communicate to your audience. It is not an end unto itself,
but rather a means to an end. And that end is a vocal performance
that is good enough to give your audience a desired experience.
Your voice and performance touch and move them emotionally.
You need to have the skill to sing in tune, with control and
adequate range and power to deliver the goods. That will be
a different level of skill for different performance situations.
How
good is good enough?
It comes down to the philosophic question of "What is
art and how good does it have to be to be good art?"
We
could write a book trying to answer that, but let’s
keep it simple. When you perform, you want to have an emotional
effect upon your audience. You want to communicate something
to them, a feeling, an idea, whatever it is. You need to increase
your technical vocal skill up to the point where your performance
will reach your audience emotionally. There is no purpose
in going beyond that. You have achieved the goal of your performance
if you do that. If you can't do that, then it may be your
performance or your vocal technique or both that are inadequate
Consistency
Now achieving consistency where you can touch your audience,
performance after performance and not have "off nights,"
is a matter of good technique (both vocal and performance)
well practiced to a professional level of skill. Notice I
said both vocal and performance technique. There are things
to know about how to deal with audiences and what makes for
good or bad stage manners. Perhaps we can cover some to these
in future articles. If you are interested in this, send me
an email.
Natural
As long as the technique complements the way your body naturally
works to make vocal sound, it will make sense and not require
constant thought and vigilance to apply. If you are trying
to learn a technique that conflicts with your body's natural
vocal process, it actually takes more effort and it will result
in muscle manipulations and tensions that further complicate
singing. My home study course “The Contemporary Vocalist”
empowers you with the information and exercises that will
free you from restrictions while helping you develop your
vocal instrument.
Some
extra thought may be needed when you begin unlearning bad
habits. You have to familiarize and orient yourself to the
natural functioning of your body. But soon you find it much
easier and much more fun to sing!
Technique
has more to do with learning how to work with your voice and
letting it work for you, without unnatural manipulations or
gimmicks. It's a process of simplification rather than complication
that will open the doors to freedom of expression and communication
with your audience.
©
Jeannie Deva 2004. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reprinted with permission.
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