Am I Loud Enough!
Anne Midgette writes a pretty on-target article on the dearth of the big American voice in Sunday's NY Times.
My only thoughts regard the discrepancy in training. Marilyn Horne hits it rather on the nose when she says that "one lesson a week is not enough." Back in the old days, singers used to take lesson with their teachers every day. Read the biographies of some great singers, who often talk about going to their teacher's studio every day, not only having their own lessons, but taking in the lessons of others. Of course who can do that when a lesson costs $150/hour, but in addition who has the time? In college or music school, curriculums don't provide for more than a lesson a week (or two shorter lessons) and once out into the real world, singers have to find some source of income to let them pay for just one. This cuts into, not only lesson time, but the ability to practice. When you've worked an 8-10 hour day, one doesn't really have the time or energy to put in a good practice second.
After one of my earliest opera jobs, I returned to my church choir. After my first solo a colleague turned to me and said that several months of opera singing had me sounding great. The truth was that it was a situation where I HAD to sing and practice every day for months. I got the ability to flex my vocal muscles in a way that I never had the chance to during my weeks of working 9 to 5.
My only thoughts regard the discrepancy in training. Marilyn Horne hits it rather on the nose when she says that "one lesson a week is not enough." Back in the old days, singers used to take lesson with their teachers every day. Read the biographies of some great singers, who often talk about going to their teacher's studio every day, not only having their own lessons, but taking in the lessons of others. Of course who can do that when a lesson costs $150/hour, but in addition who has the time? In college or music school, curriculums don't provide for more than a lesson a week (or two shorter lessons) and once out into the real world, singers have to find some source of income to let them pay for just one. This cuts into, not only lesson time, but the ability to practice. When you've worked an 8-10 hour day, one doesn't really have the time or energy to put in a good practice second.
After one of my earliest opera jobs, I returned to my church choir. After my first solo a colleague turned to me and said that several months of opera singing had me sounding great. The truth was that it was a situation where I HAD to sing and practice every day for months. I got the ability to flex my vocal muscles in a way that I never had the chance to during my weeks of working 9 to 5.
posted by Rich Russell at
10:21 PM
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