Re: Is singing well determined by the makeup of the vocal cords or mental
Area: Anatomy
Posted By: Dan Berger, Faculty Chemistry/Science, Bluffton College
Date: Fri Nov 14 10:05:03 1997
Area of science: Anatomy
ID: 876720592.An
Message:
First, a word about my qualifications: I am a trained singer (nine or ten
years of study) with a good voice. Before I realized that to succeed, you
need lots of time, money, connections and luck -- of which I had only the
first -- I considered a professional career in opera or oratorio. I have
also taken a good vocal pedagogy course which was largely concerned with
vocal anatomy.
The correct answer to your question is "yes." Yes, you must have the right
equipment (after all, you don't expect the same sound from a spinet as you
do from a Steinway grand piano), and yes, you must have the technique,
which certainly qualifies as "mental." (However, if by "mental" you mean
solely the power of positive thinking, consider that Norman Vincent Peale
never made his living as a singer.)
"Technique" includes several items, including:
- The ability to maintain pitch, and to reproduce pitches you hear
("relative pitch"). Perfect pitch, or the ability to sing a named note
("sing the E-flat above middle C"), is probably innate, although there are
some who think it can be taught.
- The ability to use your voice to produce deep, rich tones which will
carry throughout a hall and over an orchestra, with a minimum of effort.
Some of this is equipment, but most of it is technique.
- A sufficient command of technique that you need not (unlike the
Baritone in the cartoon below) be constantly thinking about how
you are singing. Interpretation demands that you be able to concentrate on
what you are singing.
There are a number of people whose instruments are so wonderful that they
need not have wonderful technique. (Peter Hofmann, the German tenor who
made such a splash as Siegmund at Bayreuth about 15 years ago, is probably
the most recent example; an American example is Richard Tucker.) But this is not
true of most singers, and in fact an outstanding technique is required for
even an outstanding voice to have a long life. Ha
ns Hotter, for example, who sang Wotan a lot and was once called "the
only man in the world who can get up on stage and convince you that he is
God," sang professionally almost until he died because he had both an
incredibly huge and sonorous instrument and a marvelous technique.
But if you don't have a voice like Hotter or Tebaldi or Nils
son, a good technique is essential!
I assume you are asking because you are an aspiring singer. If your voice
teachers (and you might want a second opinion) say that your voice is not
professional-quality, then you should not plan a career on the stage. On
the other hand, if you are interested in a career as a coach or teacher, a
top-quality voice is not required. But in both cases, you will need
technique.
I am reproducing, below, a cartoon which I love. Unfortunately I don't
know who drew it!
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