Why I Don't Teach Belting
2013; Routledge; Volume: 70; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Musicians’ Health and Performance
ResumoI DON'T TEACH PEOPLE HOW to belt, nor do I attempt to teach experienced belters how to improve their technique. I'll get to the specific reason I have made this pedagogic choice shortly. But first, a few words about things that were not a factor. For example, I do not believe that:* belting is necessarily damaging to the voice;* belting or music genres that employ belting are somehow inferior;* belting is a natural gift that does not require training.Given the large numbers of students (and colleagues) I've known who have suffered voice injuries while singing opera, I find the concern for the vocal health of belters-an opinion expressed by many traditional singing teachers-to be disingenuous. Any kind of singing can lead to voice damage if done recklessly or without healthy technique. And, yes, I believe that belting and other forms of singing from the music of popular culture, now commonly called CCM, call for different vocal techniques than does much of the opera or art song repertoire.My recreational listening habits run almost exclusively to classical music. Curiously, I rarely listen for pleasure to music that is (or was) appropriate for me to sing. In my prime, I was a lyric tenor whose voice was well suited to oratorios, the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Gounod, and songs of the nineteenth century masters. But my current vocal idols are both heldentenors: James King and Rudolf Windgassen. Perhaps in my next life I'll be able to sing Siegmund or Siegfried. (How many of you share my passion for riding a bicycle or mowing the lawn to the accompaniment of Gotterdammerung?)This is not to say that I never listen to commercial music. I'm a sucker for the singing competition shows on television, especially The Voice. Quite frankly, I marvel at the things these young singers are able to accomplish. Their flexible vocalism allows them to sing a wide range of contemporary styles with truly exciting impact. At times, they move me emotionally nearly as much as Birgit Nilsson singing Isolde's Liebestod. And watching them grow as singers and musicians under the tutelage of their mentors speaks volumes for the benefits of training.I have tremendous admiration for teachers, coaches, and therapists who successfully work with singers from multiple disciplines. There are colleagues among us who are vocal chameleons, able to jump instantly among disparate genres with absolute stylistic integrity. When a new genre is encountered, it is rapidly assimilated at a high level. Perhaps this skill is akin to acquiring new languages. In the 1990s, I briefly toured with a Bulgarian opera company in Europe. After two months, I could barely say good morning in their tongue, but one of my fellow cast members mastered the language well enough to be interviewed on live radio-in Bulgarian-after just ten days. I'll bet she is able to sing and teach just about anything.I don't have that skill. Jumping between Mozart and Verdi, Bach and Stravinsky, or Schubert and Debussy poses no problems-I've become fluent in their musical languages. But I'm also aware of how much I don't know about music in my chosen area of specialization. There must be at least three hundred scores and anthologies on my teaching bookshelf, representing thousands of individual selections, 80-90% of which are not yet known to me. My preference is to continue discovering new things in my areas of strength, rather than branching out into unknown territory.There is another significant reason-that I've only recently been able to verbalize-that I've avoided venturing beyond classical repertoire. …
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