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Some of the next few posts are going to directly address the region and state competitions for high school singers. Our region, which compromises Friendswood, Pearland, Clear Lake, and Texas City, is one of the top 5 MOST competitive regions in the state. Just getting past District-level auditions is an honor. Many singers who fail to make Region choir in this area would be shoo-ins for other regions in Texas. The singers in this area are THAT competitive.
Singing for the Region auditions is very similar to sports in the Olympics, in that judges grade you in two broad categories: Accuracy and Artistry. Accuracy pertains to ensuring that all pitches, rhythms, and notated dynamics are performed correctly. It is a very objective measure that is easy to grade. The more subjective measure is artistry/musicality. Some singers just have IT, whatever IT is. When you hear them, you can hear the emotion and drama of a song, even if it is in a foreign language. Most singers have to learn musicality, and believe me, it CAN be learned. My personal belief is that great musicality can and should triumph over accuracy, else we are just well-produced machines. And I hate to say it, but music technology has come so far that a machine is far more accurate than the most proficient singer. What makes a singer great is not their technical aptitude, but their ability to COMMUNICATE through song. I said musicality can be learned; well, I will tell you some ideas on the next post! ;) DWS The 2012 school year has just began, and I am extremely excited to start teaching my high school students again! I have a lot of returning students who did well in competition last year, so I am very hopeful for great results this year. And almost all the schools' choir programs have increased in number, which means lots of new faces and happy choir directors!
If you can't tell, I love teaching high school, and if I hadn't gone the music route, I might have ended up teaching history at the high school level. Partly because I am a huge history nerd (not ashamed to admit it), but mostly because I really enjoy working with high school students. I get to work with some of the most responsible, intelligent high school kids in the area, and it can't help make me feel optimistic about the future. DWS Once you've decided on your top 5 music schools, the next step is to start contacting voice teachers for a lesson/interview. This is extremely important for two reasons: one, your voice teacher is the most crucial component to a successful music career in college and beyond, and two, if the voice teacher likes you a lot, they will fight for your admission.
There is a very simple etiquette to contacting voice teachers at college. Here are the steps. 1) Figure out who you want to have a lesson with. 2) Call or email the teachers. State that you will be auditioning in the near future and would like to have a trial lesson. Ask how much they charge for a half-hour or hour lesson (they may do it for free, but it is polite to ask and not expect a free lesson) and if they have any availability before the audition. 3) Give the voice teacher a week to respond. If they do not respond in a week, try again by email or phone (whatever method you did not use at first) and repeat step #2. 4) When you have your lesson, dress professionally and be warmed up BEFORE the lesson starts. First impressions are critical. This is a job interview for all intents and purposes. Hopefully, the teachers will respond promptly and you will find a great teacher for your college. If they do not respond, do not be disheartened. They may simply not have the time or offer trial lessons to incoming freshmen. Try some other teachers and see if anyone else suits your learning style. DWS On August 17th, 7 PM, at Clear Lake United Methodist Church, I will be presenting an hour long concert of hit Broadway tunes from the "Golden Age" of musicals. I will be accompanied by piano and drums. It should be a great night, and tickets are free. Donations will be accepted to help reimburse expenses with the concert.
I will be back to blogging soon...I have been working on some very "EXCITING" home projects (regrouting a shower, lawn care etc...) and have been too tired to talk about music. DWS Singing is essentially an exercise in managing ariflow: how we use the air we breath in to make certain pitches, sounds, and colors. The body, when singing, is actually a large wind instrument. No wonder that any voice lesson is almost always centered on how to use one's airflow to make a more powerful, free sound.
Trying to describe proper use of airflow in singing (known as breath support or management) is hard to describe online. Breath support has a LOT of components to it, but the basics boil down to this: is your voice balanced sufficiently supported to make a pitch without it sounding 'forced', 'strained', or 'pinched?' I personally believe this is the most important responsibility of a voice teacher because good breath support not only makes a nice sound, it makes singing an enjoyable physical activity. Once a voice is freed up with proper support, singers often feel real physical release and pleasure from a well-supported sound. Singing should never FEEL hard. It may require lots of concentration, but a well-supported sound feels physically easy to produce. DWS Singing is unlike all other musical disciplines in that our instrument is our own body. This has tremendous ramifications for how singers must take care of their body, or else they cannot sing to their full potential. Stories abound of professional singers avoiding dairy products, communicating only by text messages and emails in order to avoid talking, and wrapping themselves in warm scarfs to protect their vocal folds from the cold, dry air.
I do not suggest to my voice students that they take these extraordinary steps; BUT there are a few things every singers must do. 1) Get adequate sleep - 6 to 8 hours a day. It is almost impossible to sound excellent if your body is tired, let alone act well with lots of energy. 2) Figure out what foods and drinks that dry you out or make you produce excess mucus that would inhibit you from singing well. Many singers avoid dairy products because their bodies produce too much mucus and make it difficult to sing. For me personally, milk products are not a problem but I have to stay away from caffeinated drinks and orange juice. 3) Don't scream/yell. If you have to scream, use proper support that you learned in lessons! 4) Don't eat heavily before singing, as it inhibits breathing deeply. DWS Many have remarked on how critical a film's soundtrack is to a movie's success. It would be impossible to make a scary movie without sudden shocks and bangs, a romantic film without beautiful strings, or a comedy without a zany, light orchestral score. Nothing better illustrates this than the last Academy Award winner for best movie, The Artist.
I saw The Artist last weekend, and while it is a tad highbrow, it is a GREAT movie. For most of the film, the movie is a silent film like those movies before 'talkies' came out in the late 1920s. I thought I would be bored, but I was shocked by how engaging the film was WITHOUT a single line of dialogue. While credit must be given to the actors, the real reason for the movie's success is the incredible film score. The music literally becomes the driver of the plot, and you simply do not need a word to be spoken - the music fills that role perfectly. When people worry about going to an opera in a foreign language, The Artist is a great example of how music can tell the audience what is going and how the actor's are feeling. If the acting is excellent and the music well-written, you simply do not need dialogue to create a film, or for that matter, musical or opera. DWS The title to this post is paraphrasing my old opera director, Buck Ross, and how he viewed theater critics. It is fun to read about yourself in the paper, but you should take every review you read with a grain of salt. If you start to believe in the good press, then you have to be prepared to take the bad. In the end, a good theater review is a nice bit of publicity but you should always remember that critics are extremely subjective.
This came to the forefront of my life with two reviews of the musical I am involved with, On the Twentieth Century. We were fortunate to receive not one, but two reviews by theater critics (very nice for a young company). However, after reading them, you may feel like that the two critics saw different shows, even though they came ON THE SAME NIGHT. One review is extremely flattering, and the other is more critical. I was very happy to receive positive comments from both critics. Do I put a lot of weight on either review? Not really. The fact is that I am extremely proud of this production and everyone I invited loved the show. So rule of thumb: don't take reviews to heart. Don't let your critics define your work. Do your own thing. DWS P.S. I did receive nice comments from both reviewers...I've attached both reviews to this blog. Houston Chronicle's Buzz Bellmont: Click Here Houston Chronicle's Everett Evans: Click Here This post is completely unrelated to either the teaching of singing or performing, but I did want to let everyone know that Rachel (my wife) and I celebrated our 4th year of marriage last week. The best decision I made in my life was to marry such a beautiful and kind woman. She brings out the best in me and I am so thankful that we found each other. I'm still not sure why she chose to hang around me in college, but I thank my lucky stars she did.
DWS One of the habits I notice from female singers who have previous voice lesson experience is that they have a tendency to avoid their chest voice (low pitch register). The chest voice enables both men and women to produce strong low notes, as well as creating a powerful and colorful middle section in the voice. While the chest voice can quickly turn into a scream if used inproperly, it is almost as debilitating to not use the chest voice at all. There are simple rules to observe when singing with a voice teacher that can clue you in to whether you are using your chest voice properly.
Rule #1 - Do my low notes resonate? Or are they weak? Rule #2 - As you ascend in pitch, do you lose flexibility in the voice, or perhaps feel strain beyond a certain pitch? This could be a sign of carrying your chest voice too high. If you find that your low notes are projecting well and you do not feel strain as you ascend in pitch, you are probably using your chest voice efficiently. With a voice teacher, you should be able to use your chest voice in a healthy manner that gives you additional power without sacrificing flexibility or vocal range. DWS |
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