The Art of Singing (for tenors) Part 3

Aria #3 - Nessun Dorma

We ended yesterday's post with some Lithuanian talent, and unfortunately that leads us to our last aria - let's see if his technique improved as he sings one of the most famed tenor arias of all time in the Semifinal round of Lithuania's Got Talent.  You may want to take your dogs outside now, so they don't howl for 3 minutes straight!



Yes, you saw that correctly.  He got a standing ovation. And, in case you have said "well that didn't sound too bad", let's get some things straight.

Besides the fact that there are thousands of tenors that can sing Nessun Dorma better than that, you probably are considering many other criteria and attributing them to being a "singer". For example, Susan Boyle is an average singer - technically that is - but some believe she is a great singer because of her personal story and that emotion comes across in her performance. It's ok to say that you enjoy her singing because you feel so inspired, but you are likely not separating her technical ability from things that have nothing to do with her voice.  This is really common in pop music - an average singer may be a very gifted performer - and with the help of techno beats and auto-tune, they are a multimillionaire.

Well, tenors, most Americans, as hard as they try, will have difficulty separating singing and performing.  So it is important to be proficient at both!  Some are so bad at determining a great singer that they will insist that Susan Boyle has the best voice ever given to a mortal.  However, from past experience, they are likely just trying to make you mad.  If that's the case, you should ignore them - or if they're family, a nice religious or political jab should do.

By the way, I am completely terrified to hear what Lithuanians actually listen to.  In the end our guy eventually lost to an accordion.  I give him credit for trying, but that just doesn't cut it, except in Lithuanian pop culture obviously.



So what does a tenor do in a world that doesn't know any better?  Well, Pavarotti made this aria a pop culture phenomenon because of his charisma and power and unfortunately many pop stars have tried their luck at it.  People will appreciate music for many reasons, just perhaps not technique - which is a strange thing since people throw around the word "talent" all the time.  In the end, tenors, if you capture someone's emotion beyond their reach of their own capabilities, that's the end game.  Being the best is one thing - being appreciated is another.

If you're not a musician, please take the time to consider technique, before you are "drugged" by the performance.  However, if you are a singer, make sure to always be accepting of peoples' appreciation.  Even though American's aren't the smartest when it comes to art music, they are very generous and have little contempt in their praise.  It can be depressing and lonely when no one appreciates your music like it was intended, but always remember that your performance can touch the inner self of every person out there.  That is the magic and beauty of art.

In the end, being a tenor takes great technique in proper resonance and in breathing, but it also takes a great mind and a performer's mentality to really effect people.  For most, it takes years of tireless practice to come close to being proficient in these things, however there certainly are exceptions.  Some people with little education develop great instruments - still very raw though - here's the story of one such tenor...

The Art of Singing (for tenors) Part 2

Aria #2 - Pour mon ame


So, this trio wouldn't be complete without Pour mon ame - famed for its 9 high C's.  Here is a clip of one of the most famous singers in the world today, Juan Diego Florez...it's a short aria; you should listen to it all.



Besides the obvious high notes, this is a great show of technique.  There is actually a large community of opera fans that do not care for Juan Diego's voice.  He lacks depth and is considered to have somewhat of a small voice compared to most tenors.  But I would argue that he has probably the greatest technique of most any singer alive today.

There's not much we can do to change our voice.  We can cover and mask it with muscles in our mouth and throat and change its timbre (how it sounds), but that all causes tension and stress.  And to sing 9 high C's, you cannot have much tension.  Actually, to sing 9 high C's well, you cannot have much tension.  The less tension/physical stress you make, the better your vocal health is, and most importantly, the better you are at maximizing the potential of your voice.

There have been great singers however that use a lot of tension - most any pop singer you can think of.  That is what makes it sound like pop music and the same thing goes with all the other styles of singing.  However, that is not how we approach the highest art of the voice.  Anyone can sing with tension and bad habits; it is mightily impressive when someone can take that away and sing free.  But with that said, let's see how others fare.



Andrea Bocelli - He certainly has potential in his voice, however he has significant trouble with this aria.  The biggest reason for this has little to do with his high notes, but rather his vowels fall way back (not resonant) as he is manipulating his sound to appear more mature - he ends up pumping his way through and probably was a little hoarse after singing it.  That's never a good thing.  Also, he always covers his neck, but I bet if we could see it, the veins would be popping out and you would be able to tell that he stretches his chin out, literally stretching his vocal chords to make a high sound.  That's quite a lot of tension.



Rockwell Blake - This recording will make most opera singers throw up.  A good kind of throw up.  No one can argue that this is a very impressive example of this aria.  Blake is known for his power and perhaps that got the best of him in his career.  It ended sooner than most, probably because of the years of powering through things like this.  He will say in his masterclasses that most of his power came from his abs, pumping the air through his very gifted vocal instrument.  He kept the throat relaxed and used his air to support the sound. This technique is called appoggio - and most of the greatest tenors practiced it.

Appoggio literally means "to lean" in Italian - to me, I think of it as if someone's fist is pushing my gut in.  I resist their fist when I inhale as my body fills with air from the bottom of my rib cage.  An easy way to think about it is when you see a bunch of dancers finish a routine and you see them in their final pose smiling with jazz hands, but their chest is radically moving up and down because they're out of breath - this is a bad example of appoggio breathing.  Instead, it is the idea that most will find when you lay on your back on your bed and watch your belly move up and down as you breathe.  It is not necessary to force your belly out like your pregnant with a food baby, it should be more natural than that.

If you can get that down, you will have a great chance at letting yourself sing with significantly less stress - and don't forget the proper resonance either - and you will surely be on your way to being a great tenor!

If you are in the mood to watch a Normal Joe have his luck at this aria, let's hear what Lithuania's Got Talent, has to offer...



That's not all...this brings us to the last aria.  More to come tomorrow...

The Art of Singing (for tenors) Part 1

Last week was incredibly exciting on many levels: I sang the Canadian National Anthem at the Sporting KC game (video to come), I was able to go to the Populous Architecture Firm and see the designing of several stadiums including the Houston Dynamo's new stadium and the 2014 Olympic Skating Center; and besides playing tennis and golf a few times, yet another exciting thing has happened as well.  I won't say the name of the person to protect their privacy, but at the Kansas City Vocal Institute - the school of voice studios that I started here in Kansas City - a very special person has applied for lessons with one of our studios.

Now contrary to the many responses I get about these kinds of things, KCVI does provide legitimate professional music education for professional singers and performers.  I started KCVI with the idea to provide the most affordable music lessons in the area and helped to raise scholarship money for children living in poverty to take lessons with our teachers.  It also provides our teachers, all of whom have received a Master's or Doctorate degree in music, with a livelihood all during such a tough economic time.

Anyway, I can't really say much about the "special person" other than that they are an Emmy Award winner and they were in a movie that was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Picture in 2010.  Good luck guessing!

I have been memorizing like mad for my Chicago trip.  But in the meantime, and to keep my promise from last week, I would like to dive into the Art of Singing - for tenors that is.

I posted this video last week:

The obvious "good singer" is Alfredo Kraus and I have no idea who the bad one is, however this was kind of mean for Kraus to do to him.  They are singing the very end of "Celeste Aida", one of the most famous arias from Verdi's opera Aida.  Of course this singer has no shot of singing this well - because he has a lot of technical issues to work out first - but let's use this to bring up some problematic issues that effect tenors all around the world.

Being a Tenor in Three Arias


Aria #1 - Celeste Aida

This is one of the greatest recordings of this aria - if you love music, you MUST listen to the entire thing.  Even for Pavarotti it is an incredibly difficult aria.  It is so difficult that one of the greatest singers of today, Roberto Alagna, had trouble with it at La Scala (one of the world's most famous opera houses).  The audience actually booed and he "flipped them the bird" and walked off stage.  Shortly thereafter, the understudy came on to finish the role.  Watch the Italian news coverage below of the incident.



What can we learn from this?  Audiences LOVE to cheer for the singers, just like a sporting event.  Opera audiences know what the hardest arias are going into an opera and wait anxiously for them to see how their favorite singers will perform.  However, it certainly gives classical music a bad reputation when an audience boos.  That was very unfortunate and thankfully, you will almost never see that kind of reaction in America.

However, the tenor must perform the hardest arias well, or of course, they will probably not be hired to perform it again.  When tenors try to sing this aria, they must be very conscious about the placement of their resonance.  This is what Alfredo Kraus was showing in the Masterclass when he pretended with his hand to pull an imaginary string from between the singers eyes.  By focusing the resonance up high in the face, it will make it easier for the singer to sing.

Resonance in laymen's terms refers to the rattle that you feel when the air that you use in making a sound vibrates in your pharynx, mouth, nose, and sinuses (you can especially feel it when you have a cold or sinus congestion).  If you talk like a ghost, you are not maximizing your resonance - however if you imitate the sound of your alarm clock going off, you are likely resonating well.

For tenors (and classical singers), they need to effectively resonate, because it actually makes it easier to sing, and easier to hear as it cuts through an entire orchestra.  You don't have to woof out a sound, like what a basset hound would make, instead it is a much smaller but poignant sound - kind of like a duck's quack.  All of this exaggerates the feeling of course.

Difficult? Well, just wait...we don't want to sound nasal either; instead it should have depth (some space in the mouth to give it a more mature sound).  If you have the "quack" thing down, combine that with the voice of an umpire calling a "strike", and you're close to feeling what it is like to be a tenor.  Opera singers rely heavily on how their singing feels, not on how it sounds.  We're too dang loud to hear ourselves anyway!

So how do you make it easy so you don't get red in the face and run the risk of pooping yourself?...come back tomorrow for more...

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

July 21-August 7 - Sugar Creek Opera - Daughter of the Regiment - August 4, 5, 7 - Watseka, IL (near Chicago)

August 8 - Audition - Kansas City Symphony Chorus

much, much more to come!...soon, I promise!