Playing the voice

As a voice major in my junior year of undgraduate study, I’ve come across a number of issues I’d like to mention partly for the completion of a course requirement, partly to perhaps spark discussion or at the very least, develop my own thinking on the matter, and party for the sake of my own catharsis. It is to be expected that any music major will quickly find plenty of stumbling blocks throughout their private study despite their concentration. It is also likely that they will develop a list of issues unique to their instrument that “no on else has to deal with.” While many of these claims may carry some level of legitimacy, it is clear that voice study is completely different than playing an instrument. While hard work, determination, and hours upon hours of practice and repetition can yield significant improvements, there are certain unique qualities as well as limitations to the voice that God blessed you with that one simply cannot change. Some elementary school children have the most gorgeous tone quality and sing with nearly flawless intonation. On the other hand, about 1 in 5 high school boys enrolled in chorus struggle with matching pitch. I made that statistic up but it’s probably not far from the truth.

Another obvious dimension and focus in voice study is language. The problems posed for vocalists singing in 3 or 4 differerent languages in a single semester can be overwhelming. Not only memorizing the tendencies for vowels and consonants in each language, but putting in the extra time and having the presence of mind to convey the text through one’s interpretation of the piece, while still keeping in mind tone color, intonation, breathing, posture, etc., is an undeniably unique challenge for vocalists. Not to mention memorization of text. (see Dr. Misra’s site highlighted on my blogroll) The life of a vocalist is no walk in the park as is rumored by many instrumentalists.