Singing Techniques

I am in my final year of my BA Hons Applied Performing Arts and for my dissertation I am focusing on singing techniques in musical theatre.

My Dissertation title/question is: Is Classical singing technique relevant for the modern day actor in musical theatre training?

I would like to hear people's view on this and any methods that they have found usefull in approaching singing for the theatre.

Thanks

Hey I've been learning the guitar for a couple of years and I love singing but I'm to nervous to go to singing lessons because I hate singing infront of people. So do you have any tips of how to sing well?
jeddah.

i have been doing classical singing for over 5 yrs and in the last 2 yrs i have really focused on musical theatre. I found out that i was quite natural at it, as all the techniques needed for classical were essentiual and required for musical theatre. While contemporary singing is more popular, esp. with shows such as popstars and australian idol, classical singing provides the perfect foundation for learning all the basic singing techniques. Im currently studying yr 12 voice and in the sylabus, musical theatre is in the classical voice section. Hope this helps you!

Yes, it is relevant as breath control is still important. Particularly when you consider the certainty of dancing while you are singing. You don't want to be gasping for breath while you're twirling and leaping around, and not being able to finish your phrases. So, it's about sustaining the sound despite what the rest of your body is doing. I was always impressed with Julie Andrews singing while she was running up and down mountains!

You need to learn how to breath deep into your diaphragm (could that word get any harder to spell at midnight?), and around your chest and back; to get resonance in your chest, neck, lips, cheeks, nose and head. Otherwise you'd have a really flat, monotonous tone. [Was watching Sara Macliver singing Mozart tonight, and you can see her sides and back filling up and storing air. Concert was mint, shame I missed Ian Grandage's world premiere piece.]

Having said all that, I'd rate myself average at accomplishing them, but it's all a practise thing. I think that the fitter you are, the easier it is to do.

Sandy, don't know if this is what you're looking for, but that's my experience/knowledge. Hope you can find some good stuff.

Jess

I'm gonna try this insult button - everyone knows you have to push the button!! (ooh, that was fun. Don't know what it means - Grant, where did you find this stuff??? In Shakespeare or something?)

Thou gorbellied fat-kidneyed pumpion!

Sandy,

I am a singer who completed TEE music in classical voice and am now studying music theatre. I believe that in order to be an accomplished music theatre singer you have to have the basic classical background/skills behind you. Classical training sets your technique correctly and to be good at music theatre you have to have a technically solid voice before you can begin to bring emotion/acting skills to your performances. I think a classical singing technique is not only relevant but necessary to the music theatre artist, classical singing teaches correct breath control, diction, intonation, pitch, posture etc. etc. all of which is considered the necessary basics when performing music theatre.

I don't know if this has helped you at all and it is just an amatuer student's opinion but all the same...

cheers
kat

Hey Sandy,
As a musical theater performer with very little classical voice training I would have to disagree that it is "necassary" to have classical triaing to be an accomplished musical theatre performer. If you train in voice you learn all the correct BASIC techniques whether you are learning jazz, pop, classical or musical theatre such as breath support, diction, intonation, posture etc.
In my experience I have dealt with a few classically trained singers who were wishing to try their hand at music theatre, the one problem that I have found common is the difficulty they find with keeping the sound forward, that is to say resonating through their nasal passages, keeping the sound pingy (hopefully you can understand what I am trying to convey). A lot of classical voices are very used to going back into their head voice (getting that real operetic quality) and find it hard to make the transition to such a forward and more nasal sound. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying this happens to every classically trained singer, but it is what I have found to be true in my experience in music theatre.
Laura

Hey Sandy!

Thou lumpish full-gorged flax-wench!
(hehehe that insult is WICKED!)

I'm speaking from a rather uneducated stance, compared to many of the people commenting here.

However, I'm studying theatre at university, and participated at my (all gilrs) school in the musicals that were put on every year. I tended to be cast in male roles, which meant I sang in my chest voice, but I can safely say that I was probably the loudest singer (good when you're given an important sing to sing such as "Kids!" from "Bye Bye Birdie"). More and more recently I've been playing around with singing songs from other musicals (not very much though) and I've found I can still do the whole projection thing.

What I've discovered through my random amblings through the world of singing, is that there are (obviously) different types of singing for different situations. For example, I wouldn't dream of singing like I would in a musical in church... And I have an inability to sing pop (I feel something to do with singing Alto range and thus my chest voice is lower and more towards tenor and sounds kinda manly at times). I sometimes have fun doing psudo-operatic... It's just a matter of vocal placement and the like... generally playing around with your voice.

I think (my this is a long post) all that is really neccessary to sing well for musical theatre (highly experienced person that I am!) is, as someone has already mentioned, the ability to inhale and exhale air appropriately. I learnt this from playing the clarinet, not singing, though I was able to bring it across. In my opinion, that is all that is needed. That, and playing around with your voice until it sounds right.

And in terms of whether classical training helps or hinders the musical theatre student... I like to think of what my highschool drama teacher said; she had a student auditioning to play the part of Juliet. She was wonderful... from a "Speech" point of view. She had to let go of what she had been taught was the right way to deliver this speech, and deliver it as the character, from a performance perspective. It's similar for classical vs musical theatre. The same basica principles are used, but different qualities are saught after.

My goodness that was long. I'm shutting up now! Hope I helped!

Yes there is a really good book called the singer and the actor by Gillyanne Keynes (think thats the name) I don't know if you can get it in Australia but the method she teaches is the Estill method wihich is based on the reseearch by Jo Estill. If you look on the net and type in Estill you will get a web site called EVTS and there is a page for Australia. I found the book really helpful and this is what I'm basing my dissertation on. You could also try doing a part time course in singing.
Hope that helps , cheers

Yes get a book called the singer and the actor by Gillyanne Keynes (think thats her name) This book is based upon the Estill Method by Jo Estill. There is a group called EVTS if you search for them you will find that they run courses in Australia. I have found this method really helpful as you can apply it to different styles of singing. As for going to singing lessons I believe that if you can pluck up the courage to go I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think. Everyone gets nervous singing in front of people I've been studying for 3 years and I still get nervous. The book teaches you how to deal with nerves. And if you have a voice then other people should hear it because it's a gift and you knever know where it could lead you to. For singing any song the main area is breath support and telling the story (getting the emotions across).

Hope that helped

Thanks for you input and I hope you can move forward to becoming a confident performer.

Sandy

Hi all, If you're in the West on April 18th, the answer to singing technique is at the Sun Room Community theatre when Eugene '"hideaway' Bridges holds a one day workshop on singing and music. Although he's a Soul/Blues man, the workshop focus on your musical need for being there, advice for your voice or musical style. Technique is applied to all genres of music. To be honest, I think opera technique may not be covered in this workshop!! This is not a plug, this is the answer to tapping into your technique with a man renown for his voice that's close to an incarnation of Soul legend, Sam Cooke..."Baby you send me.." Take plane, take a train, get to the workshop.. students and groups of 4 or more $75 / normally $110, includes free lunch and performance by Hideaway and Bob Patient (Dave Hole Band) on piano. See ya there.
Sue

Very interesting information there Sandy. I really appreciate it as I am having a hard time generating the proper head voice for myself.