Developing a Better Ear

One of the primary goals for all my students is to develop a better ear - helping them differentiate between a bright vs. dark sound, a clear vs. breathy sound etc...

There are numerous reasons to develop a singer's ear.  First, it makes singers more critical in their listening.  Singers can explain why other singers sound different and why they like one singer over another in an objective way.  Second, if you can hear different styles of singing, you can start to reproduce and incorporate their stylistic ideas into your own musicianship.  And most importantly, a strong ear allows you to hear your voice critically, and allows you to make informed decisions on how to work on a certain technique, high note, etc....

To start developing your ear, pick a genre of music you like.  Then pick several singers from that genre and start listing the qualities of their sound.  Is it clear, raspy, breathy, strident, nasal, bright, dark?  The list goes on and on.  Then see how each singer's list differs from the others.  By doing this, you start to build a critical ear that will help your own vocal studies.

DWS