<p>Ok, so here's the thing. I'm not a voice or musical theater major in college now, but plan to pursue either CAP21 or a MT grad program, or just study it on my own time. I'm working on a degree in advertising right now. I'm looking at voice teachers, and a vocal grad student last year who left to pursue a career recommended a friend of hers in the area who is a very accomplished opera singer and wonderful, although difficult, teacher. I KNOW I need to develop my legit voice as well as belt. However, I asked her if he will teach MT/belt style, and she said while he'll work on MT material with me if I have an audition, his focus is classical and he doesn't really teach belt.</p>
<p>I would have the opportunity to study with some upcoming grad students at my college who are in the vocal performance program, many of who teach legit and belt, but 1) they're only there for 2 years usually so I won't have the same teacher during my time at college and 2) they won't give quite as good instruction as the opera singer. Also, I doubt that a professor from either my school's music department or musical theater department would take me as a student, as they mostly only take majors. </p>
<p>So, what should I do? Should I go with the opera singer, who's more expensive and will give me great instruction in legit but doesn't know much about MT? Or should I go with a grad student? Should I go to the MT faculty and explain my situation or ask for a recommendation? Help is very much appreciated!</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s a tough question. My teachers have been classically trained, but know some musical theatre–which sounds kind of like your first option. I think it’s really important to have a good foundation in classical voice technique, because it is healthy for your voice, as far as I know. I feel like it’s too easy to go awry with just belting? I don’t know. So my main instructors are more classically based, but then I’m taking a musical theatre auditioning class through a local theatre company over the summer that obviously focuses more on the MT side of things. I’m not really a belter, more of a mixer, so I’m fine with sticking to more of the golden age stuff that my main voice teachers help me pick out, but then I can try the newer MT stuff as well with them or in my auditioning class (and that teacher has never had any kind of voice lesson ever, and is quite accomplished in the MT world).</p>
<p>My main teacher at school is a grad (doctoral, I’m pretty sure) student and she’s fantastic. She definitely doesn’t teach belt, more operatic style, but I still get a good MT sound from her tutelage. I do take class through my school with her, and was assigned her by the music school, but I know there are other grad students who also teach MT though they themselves are studying opera. But I don’t think anyone in Thornton teaches belting. I could be wrong about that, though.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if this doesn’t make any sense… :/</p>
<p>In general, modern musical theatre singing is very different from classical singing. Classical training is not a foundation for all other types of singing. That’s the equivalent of saying ballet prepares you to break dance or do hip-hop. Or to say that Golf, being one of the oldest sports, prepares you to play football. Some classical teachers are very good and can give the students the skills necessary to sing musical theatre repertoire appropriately and with the proper vocal quality. I know several who fall into this category, and I respect them greatly. However, I hear students from many, many more studios who don’t make the appropriate sounds after years of classical training. In fact many of them sound like they’ve never had a lesson. </p>
<p>Science has disproved the myths that convinced many people that contemporary singing was harmful to the voice. There are many voice teachers out there who have studied contemporary vocal methods such as Somatic Voicework™, Estill, Speech Level Singing, Voiceworks™, who can help you learn to sing in the style you prefer without hurting yourself. These methods teach the voice teachers how to hear the proper sounds, how the body works to make those sounds, and the exercises that will get the student to make those sounds. Classical training tends to approach voice from a “this is what worked for me, it will work for you too” mentality. This is a broad generalization, but its still way more common than it should be. Hopefully, you won’t run into teachers like that, but if you do, I suggest you look around.</p>
<p>You do need to sing legit though to be marketable in MT and it takes much longer to hone that vocal quality than belting. So if you are dying to belt, go find a belt teacher first so you don’t hurt yourself. Then go find a classical teacher and work on your legit technique. If you feel the belting can wait, then classical could be a good way to start, just make sure you are studying with someone who likes a clear, unmanufactured sound. Renee Fleming has many fans in the classical world, but her tone quality and vocal technique is completely wrong for musical theatre. A teacher inclined to take their students in that direction is a bad choice for an MT. Also make sure you are adding acting to any style of singing that you pursue. Singing without acting is also death to an MT.</p>
<p>Some great points, VoiceTeacher. However, it’s not always true that it takes much longer to hone legit vocal quality than belt. It depends on the students’ natural facility and listening contexts. </p>
<p>Often the very hardest thing for a young female singer to hone is a strong mix, which depending on how you define legit, falls in between belt and legit categories. I define a strong mix as part of a strong legit AND a strong belt, but I want to make sure our young readers are clear on the presence of MIX in legit singing and not just perceiving legit as the high notes above the passagio, which is actually pretty easy phonation for many young women. It’s those pesky notes between E4 and E-F5 that pose the biggest problem for many developing female singers. Make SURE if you are working with someone who trains “legit” singing that they teach you how to MIX in that range and don’t insist on bringing your head voice quality down that low with no chest ever mixed in. This more than anything sets you up for a weak vocal quality in the area where almost all MT songs, BOTH belt and legit, live primarily.</p>
<p>I agree with CoachC. VT - I think a strong core and great balance can improve every dancer - so ballet would benefit any dancer - ballroom to breaker. Do you need ballet to do either - no - but the benefit of ballet can improve every dancer, and further, ballet can improve every athlete. Of course you can be very good at various physical activities without ballet. So I think you could be very good at MT singing without classical training - but classical training is still beneficial. I think the real answer lies in the teacher - a classical voice teacher that is unfamiliar with, or dismissive of MT stylings would do little to help a student as late in the game as Carmello. Carmello - if they are qualified and could recognize if you were hurting your vocal cords or not - I would go with your grad student at least initially.</p>
<p>Agreed! I say it takes longer because of the mixing issue, but there definitely are some for whom that sound comes very naturally. I do think though that for many young singers adjusting vowel qualities to keep a smooth consistent legato line can take some extra time. But then again we could get into a discussion about how legit is too legit for musical theatre and are expectations in NYC different than regional theatre. Which is why I tend to advocate for going with someone who has MT teaching experience. Its really a different animal now. In the 90s with Les Mis, Saigon, Phantom, and others, I feel like classical training was fine, but things are much different now and some voice teachers are either unaware or don’t want to accept it. </p>
<p>Another good point of discussion is the fact that belting is not screaming and just as you said, belters do spend a fair amount of time in mix. In my opinion, sometimes they are taught to stay there too often and use nasality to add power instead of learning how to add TA adduction to increase vocal fold closure and get a more authentic belt sound. This gets tricky though too because you really have to look at each individual voice and type, some throats are not meant to carry chest that high. WHICH goes back to my original point that you should really study with someone who knows MT. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I’m sure Renee Fleming would be surprised to read that she can’t sing musical theatre because in concert she sings a good bid of it. In her younger days she sang quite a bit of jazz. I look forward to the days when great songs are written for great sopranos in musical theatre again. In the meantime I attend concerts whenever I can, especially Renee Fleming and although musical theatre is not her mainstay, she is very capable of bringing down the house in whatever genre she chooses.</p>
<p>I’m glad you enjoy Renee and I agree that it would be nice to hear more songs written for soprano. But right now that’s not what’s happening. I just listened to Renee singing “I could have danced all night” and I’m sorry, but that would only be hired at a handful of regional musical theatre venues. Sure she can do it in concert for fans, but its not what is getting hired right now in most theatre’s. If a young person wants to learn to sing musical theatre, they should not be learning to sing with a sound like Renee’s. Its not marketable. Maybe it will be in another year or two, then those of us teaching this style will help students find those sounds, but thats not it right now.</p>
<p>Good points everyone - thanks! It is true that mixing isn’t something I have a clue about - will probably end up with the grad student OR one of our musical theater faculty has said she takes a few non-major students. It’s somewhat a matter of cost, as this opera singer is quite pricey, but also I don’t want to go on “guessing” at what is a good belt/mix technique. Many of the grad students do know a bit about MT so will probably go with that.</p>