Choosing your voice type for All-Region

This post on singing lessons has been delayed several weeks due to a crazy start to the school year!  I've had a lot of new voice students sign up for voice lessons, so I had to get my schedule organized...and next thing you know, I haven't blogged in about three weeks!

I want to address a strategy used at times to help advance a student through the competitions; placing a student in a different voice category in order to make their progress easier.

I'll be honest: I find the strategy ineffective, for several reasons.  First, the reality is that most of the voice categories are essentially the same level of competitiveness.  Bass 1, Tenor 2, Alto 1, Soprano 2 and Soprano 1 are all highly competitive. The only categories that are initially easier are Bass 2, Tenor 1, and Alto 2.  And this initial advantage goes away after the Region auditions; once you get to the top 15 of every section, ALL the singers are good!

Second, any changing of the voice category has issues with range.  A move from Bass 1 to Bass 2 means that low notes are far more important, and the reality is that few young baritones will have competitive low notes to true basses.  The same situation applies to Alto 1s going to Alto 2.  The opposite happens for tenors: few Tenor 2s are going to have the high notes necessary to be competitive in the Tenor 1 section.

Finally, I find the voice type manipulation to be counterproductive to the long-term teaching of my voice students.  In singing lessons, one of the first principles I introduce is that NO ONE has your instrument; we are all born with unique voices with unique talents.  In voice lessons, I continually emphasize the importance of using your instrument in the most efficient way possible, which means you cannot imitate your competitors.  By switching voice categories, you are ontradicting all this advice.  You are implicitly saying to the student "your voice isn't good enough" to be competitive in the voice category you fit into.  That is a very destructive route to take.

DWS