worth a closer look

Written By Shannon Coates

On 12th February 2019

The fundamental difference between all forms of (for lack of a better term) “Classical Singing” and almost all forms of (again with the lack-of-a-better-termness) “CCM” (and Jazz, and every other genre that doesn’t want to fall under the ‘contemporary commercial music’ label (which: FAIR. #youdoyou)) and Music Theatre is that classical singers are not amplified and (almost! (do not send me letters about this – I KNOW YOU CAN’T MAKE A SWEEPING GENERALIZATION ABOUT ALL THE THINGS … AND YET? I AM ABOUT TO. #Iamanenigma)) every other singer IS amplified.

In the voice studio, this necessity to create a sound that “carries” without amplification means that singers who are working on singing in classical styles are always working to maximize efficiency of production in order to create a sound that can be heard un-amplified and can “cut” through the sound of other instruments and/or singers, no matter which time period, style, or composer they are singing. (wow. now THAT’s a sentence you can really get lost in, isn’t it? #yourewelcome)

OF COURSE there are other things at play BUT consider that this may be where some of the issues with classically-trained voice teachers arise; we tend to conflate the things we were taught to do that help a sound to “carry” in a hall with “healthy” sound production.

Examine your bias … #isallImsayin

#teachyourfaceoff

2 Comments

  1. Brian Lee

    Thank you for that last sentence!

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