<p>I've always wanted to study Musical Theatre, but lately I feel as a Bass singer, studying Opera might be a good choice. Since a classical foundation is needed for any style, would majoring in Vocal Performance be a bad idea? I could take dance classes for electives, plus Opera Theatre classes are technically acting classes. Any opinions?</p>
<p>Head on over to the Music Majors section for these answers!</p>
<p>Classical training will never hurt you, but to be honest, if you are still in HS, chances are excellent that your fach will change, so go an explore the baritone rep!
I’m active in the Music Majors Forum, so feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>It is a myth that “classical foundation is good for any style”. I say that with deep conviction and confidence as someone who has had an operatic career and teaches contemporary styles with a non-classical technical approach. Several thoughts:</p>
<p>1) Basses in high school often turn into higher voice types with age and training. For instance, I started off with a high note of a middle C and a LOW Bb when I began undergrad, by 27 I had a lyric baritone voice with a high (tenor) C and a low A (the one a 7th above what I had in high school).</p>
<p>2) Operatic training prepares a different set of muscles than contemporary singing styles. Operatic singing requires a low laryngeal position. Scientific research has shown that the larynx must be free floating and able to rise and fall in non-classical styles. Classical singing requires a great deal of attention to breath since increased volume (liters) in the lungs increases airflow across the vocal folds and therefore increases volume. </p>
<p>Contemporary singers are not concerned with volume (as in amplitude) and in many cases need to sing at a conversational level (for instance opera singers can approach 115dB while conversational singing is around 75dB). That type of singing requires less air in the lungs, otherwise singers tend to squeeze their throat muscles (called the constrictor muscles) to constrict the throat and reduce the volume. That is one of the main ways contemporary singers get vocal damage - using operatic breathing for a contemporary sound.</p>
<p>3) Operatic singers train for music that requires an efficient resonant use of the voice to project into a concert hall over an orchestra without amplification. Contemporary styles use a microphone within inches of the mouth to make the voice heard. If you try to sing on a mic with operatic resonance, it will not sound good. </p>
<p>4) Operatic acting is geared towards operatic roles, most of which were written before Stanislavsky’s work (and thus the work of other modern acting teachers). Most operatic acting training is not in line with what is required for modern musical theatre. There are exceptions out there, I was lucky to work with one of the exceptions in my undergrad training, but they are VERY few and far between. You also have to be careful with “Opera Theatre” classes. In graduate school, what were labeled as “opera theatre” classes were used to stage the opera, not for learning to act. The little acting work that did take place was completely wrong for musical theatre.</p>
<p>5) Certain operatic/classical techniques can do more harm than good for someone interested in singing contemporary music. There are some techniques that advocate allowing the tongue to pull back in the bass voice. That is actually a tension issue and can be damaging if too much volume is applied to the voice. There are also some techniques that advocate lifting excessively in the back, in the soft palate. There is a muscle called the “palatoglossus or glossopalatinus” that is part of the lifting mechanism of the soft palate. If over used, this muscle can cause tension in the side of the tongue which affects the singer’s ability to produce clear speech like sounds. Since musical theatre is based on clear speech like sounds, this can be an issue for MT singers. Women are a little different than men. Women require a certain opening in the back of the throat or the voice will not work. If they do not discover that space, the sound is usually airy and weak. But for the male voice, that space will usually cause the singer to create an over darkened sound that just isn’t right for MT.</p>
<p>There are classical teachers out there who understand the difference between the two styles and know how to train singers for both using a “classical foundation”, but they are also few and far between. The best are at schools that offer both opera and MT training with the same teachers. If you ended up at one of those schools, you would be fine. </p>
<p>BUT I still would say if you want to be an MT, major in MT. Vocal performance degrees are for those who want to have an operatic or classical career. They are not alternative degrees for students who want to sing MT or other contemporary styles. In the 1980’s classical training was ok since many of the British import shows were using classical vocal sounds. But with today’s rock explosion, they are two completely different worlds.</p>
<p>There are always exceptions to the rule, but you’re better off not trying to be that exception if you don’t have to.</p>
<p>VT</p>
<p>@VoiceTeacher- everything in moderation. If a singer excessively lifts their soft palate, they’ll sound bad, if they don’t lift enough, they’ll sound bad. Young singers tend to overdo everything, technique comes with age and experience.
Please don’t confuse “classical training” with “operatic training”- the latter should be held off even for undergrad VP majors since they should be concentrating on art song and learning Bel Canto singing and solid technique. At the very least, learn proper breathing, placement, how to sing on pitch- and be all the better for it.In fact, many MT schools do require one classical piece for auditions and will require that one recital be made up of classical music as opposed to straight. Do I think that kids who aspire to the MT stage should all rush out and get VP degrees? Certainly not, but the training included won’t hurt them.
Learning how to project never hurt anyone and those mikes sitting so close to the mouth are not used as often as those positioned up near the hairline; good sound men/women will do all they can to make things sound perfect.</p>
<p>As far as performers kids on this board will know, Rebecca Luker, Kristen Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara and Aaron Lazar were all trained in classical as well as MT singing. And Audra McDonald has a voice degree from Julliard. Hasn’t hurt any of them!</p>
<p>With all due respect the singers mentioned as having classical singing training are the exceptions, not the rule. And they are working in the minority of shows, not the majority. I just looked at the listings on [Broadway</a> Tickets | Broadway Shows | Theater Tickets | Broadway.com](<a href=“http://www.broadway.com/]Broadway”>http://www.broadway.com/) </p>
<p>Right now the Broadway and off-Broadway shows consist of:</p>
<p>12 Contemporary musicals (pop influenced or otherwise speech driven)
19 Pop/Rock based musicals
2 Classical Shows (Porgy and Bess, Voca People)
8 Legit Shows (two of which are questionably legit: “Rebecca” which is really more of a contemporary musical with elements of legit singing and “Mary Poppins” which has a lot of new songs in it written by a team that is rather pop driven)</p>
<p>31 of the 41 musicals listed are non-classical thats 76%. And its not just NYC. I’m in the middle of a research project right now looking at regional theatre productions and preliminary data shows that at least 65% of the musicals performed in regional theatre were written after 1970. Shows after that time period are in most cases not classically based and the acting is definitely not stand and sing.</p>
<p>I totally agree that they should “learn proper breathing, placement, how to sing on pitch” but that can be done with musical theatre repertoire while training to be a musical theatre performer and if that is what you want to be, that is what you should study. </p>
<p>Singing in a foreign language is of absolutely no benefit to musical theatre majors. The Italian, German, and French vowels are completely different than conversational English vowels the vowels a student needs to perfect for his/her career. Any voice teacher who is truly an excellent technician can easily teach a student to sing using legit musical theatre repertoire. In a case where a student has very bad habits due to their regional accent, singing in Italian can be useful in breaking them out of the habits, but 99% of the time its unnecessary and a waste of the students time. Most MT schools do not require foreign language songs anymore, they used to, but most have changed that requirement in the last five years. In fact, many MT programs are separating from the voice department and hiring their own voice faculty because of the classical training debate. I do not endorse that approach of complete separation to resolve those issues, but the reality is that its happening and the MT focused voice teachers they hire are not looking for classical sounds in the audition room.</p>
<p>That is the reality of the business right now. It may change and if it does students and teachers will need to adapt to whatever the new music calls for. And these are all reasons why I have to disagree with the blanket statement that in regards to classical voice “the training included won’t hurt them”. With an excellent classical teacher it won’t, but even the operatic community is noticing that there is a severe lack of excellent teachers right now. There are many theories as to why, but the classical singer forums right now are full of singers discussing how they managed to make it through 4-6 years of school and still not learn how to sing until they got to NYC. Its a real problem. </p>
<p>Research out of Cincinnati Conservatory has shown that 33% of musical theatre singers have some sort of vocal health issue, BUT 33% of their classical singers ALSO have vocal problems. Its shocking, but I’ve seen the videos, its real. You don’t always hear it in either group, but the damage is there. What the research shows is that singing full out musical theatre is no more dangerous than singing full out classical. So if classical singing training is not any safer than musical theatre vocal training, why waste the MT students’ time teaching them to sing classically? </p>
<p>The foreign language rep stifles their study of acting because they don’t actually speak the language. The students spend time in the practice room learning to sing in a language they will never earn a living singing when they could be practicing other aspects of their craft. While learning those languages they learn tongue, jaw, lip, and mouth positions that do not coincide with conversational singing. Italian vowels help singers find the “singer’s formant”, but that is useless to a MT who sings on a mic. Research shows professional MT singers have a ring in the 5,000-10,000 Hz range of their voice while classical singers have a peak usually around the 3,000 Hz range. These frequencies are boosted by the shape of the vocal tract. So if you spend time training for that vocal quality, you are building muscle memory that is not useful to your MT singing. Yes, those vowel shapes can help with some legit musical theatre repertoire, but even the tastes for those roles has begun to change and the singers have to make the lyrics intelligible if they want to be hired. Teachers who understand the extreme demands placed on MT singers know how to teach performers those differences. But even singers who see themselves as legit need to know how to sing contemporary styles in todays market or else they are isolating themselves to the 24% of NY shows and the 35% of regional shows. If they learn how to sing all styles they open themselves up to the entire market. And you have to remember, this is a youth oriented industry. These students are expected to be hirable by the end of undergrad. Many of them will start being hired the summer of their sophomore year.</p>
<p>The other big muscle memory problem is that many if not most classical teachers teach from the top down which emphasizes use of the head voice (cricothyroid) muscle while largely and many times completely neglecting the chest voice (thyroarytenoid) muscle. The chest voice muscle is essential in modern MT singing and needs to be trained in a healthy way from the beginning of vocal study. Otherwise, especially in females, the vocal folds never strengthen enough to fully come together against the force of the air flow and what results is airy singing. Even worse, if they arent taught how to belt correctly in their voice lessons, they try to teach themselves off of YouTube and get hurt. If the registers are never balanced, all the singer can do to get a solid sound is manipulate their throat through tension causing more harm than good. I agree that too much and too little soft palate lift can contribute to problems, but a lot of those problems in both directions can be avoided if the singer has a solid balance of their registers. The best classical voice teachers know how to teach this, but unfortunately many more teachers do not which is why I am very hesitant to send a student down the classical path without being very specific about teachers.</p>
<p>With Jeanette LoVetri’s Somatic Voicework, Lisa Popeil’s Voiceworks, Mary Saunder’s Bel Canto can Belto, and with training programs such as Estill and Speech Level Singing, there is no reason why students need to go through classical vocal training to learn how to sing musical theatre or pop/rock. Lovetri, Popeil, Estill, and Robert Edwin have all worked with the medical and research communities to make sure their work protects the voice in non-classical styles. They all also teach some form of registration balance and they all pay attention to vocal health.</p>
<p>All of this is why I would rather see young MTs learn how to act and dance while learning with a voice teacher focused on MT rep with MT technique vs. having them go to a mediocre vocal performance program and not learn how to sing, not learn how to dance, and not learn how to act. If they can get in with one of the very few but very excellent classical voice teachers out there who know how to teach a free sound, then I am ok with it vocally, although I still think the lack of dance and acting training will put them behind not to mention the lack of attention to career oriented repertoire. </p>
<p>Julliard is obviously the best of the best, so of course Audra McDonald received great classical training. Aaron Lazar trained at CCM - one of the best for opera and MT. Kristen Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara both studied with Florence Birdwell, one of the best voice teachers in the United States who teaches balanced registers and a non-manufactured approach to vowels and resonance. Luker’s teacher had a strong musical theatre background at a small school - she got lucky. CCM, Julliard, and Florence Birdwell are top teachers at top schools - they know how to get results. </p>
<p>But in the case of a student who wants to sing musical theatre for a living, I think they should absolutely study musical theatre performance unless it is absolutely impossible for them to do so. Then as a back-up plan vocal performance could work, but I personally think they are better off majoring in acting and finding a musical theatre voice teacher on the side.</p>
<p>I have no doubt the other posters want the best for the student asking the question, but things are changing quickly and its important to talk about these things in real terms before a student goes down the wrong path and ends up regretting it down the road.</p>
<p>VT</p>