Vocal Balance and Performing

When I am vocalizing a rock singer and the technique is sounding very balanced, the question often arises, "how am I supposed to sing a rock song like this?" That is a valid question. Very few styles (including opera by the way) sing with perfect technique.  Good singers of all styles must move away at least somewhat from perfect balance in order to give the appropriate sound necessary to the song or aria they are singing.  

Let's think of singing as a clock.  Perfect balance we will call 12:00. Perhaps some church soloists and oratorio soloists might sing at 12:00.  A singer who is singing a Mozart aria might sing at 11:00, or 1:00, whereas a singer in a Vagnerian opera might sing at 10:00 or 2:00.  A musical theater singer who is singing "legit" may sing at 11:00, while a "belter" may be at 9:00. An R&B singer may sing at 8:00, while a heavy metal singer may sing all the way at 6:00. Singing a hard core rock style at 12:00 would sound ridiculous.

All that being said, if I were to walk in on a voice lesson and hear a singer vocalizing, ultimately I shouldn't be able to tell what style of music they sing; all I should hear is perfect balance.  The job of a voice teacher is to assist the singer in getting back to 12:00 (perfect balance) and vocalize them through their range using a perfect balance of air flow and cord closure with the larynx at a stable speech-level posture.

Sometimes a good voice teacher can feel like a chiropractor.  The student goes out and performs well, but in an unbalanced manner; when they come into the studio for a lesson we have to get them back in balance.  Also, we have to make sure that they are able to sing in their style in a believable manner using as much balance as possible.

The important thing to understand here is that the first step is building the voice in a balanced manner.  If you don't have a decent "12:00" then finding style is only going to cause poor singing habits and inhibit the building of good technique.  If the voice hasn't been built properly it is difficult at best to maintain vocal health while maintaining a professional performance schedule.  Start building technique now, so you have versatility and stamina in the future.

Until next time,

Keep singing!

Guy

Voice Lessons