Here’s a slightly controversial blog post, and one where I’ll be honest about things I used to think that now I don’t… which means… *gasp* I got stuff wrong!
None of these are straight-forward, so do read the explanation of each to understand the principles I’m talking about.
1. You don’t have to have a great voice to be a great coach
The lines are a little blurrier on this one, but when I first started, I had a LOT of knowledge and could elicit great results through my teaching as a result, but my voice needed more work in and of itself. When I discussed it with other coaches, they too agreed that it was more important that we knew the relevant stuff and could explain it (think great football coaches who aren’t top flight footballers themselves)… I now really do NOT agree with this. Whilst I think you don’t (or may even not have the capacity to be) a premier singer/performer, as a coach, the better your voice is put together and progressing, the more infinitely capable you are of both a) eliciting the necessary response from students, and b) demonstrating the target at each stage of teaching.
Our voices as coaches are our greatest assets, and I realise now I was being too lenient on my understanding and ability in this regard. Please understand that I do not just mean “sounds great when singing”, as many have gifted voice that sound fabulous off-the-bat, but we are talking about a voice that can demonstrate within the range and keys of the student, and navigate through the difficult parts to enable a student to do the same. This is more than just sounding good in and of yourself. And I realise now how wrong I was to think that then.
2. Great singers can’t teach you to sing
For the most part, great singers do NOT equal great coaches. There are many ‘doers’ who do not understand how it is they do what they do, and so cannot elicit that response from those who might wish to follow in their footsteps.
HOWEVER! That is not true in all cases. Many have, through a combination of guided tutelage and self exploration, found a methodology for what they do that can be taught or at least interpreted by others around them. Pavarotti, for example, was excellent at his articulation of what the bridges/passaggi felt like and what was necessary to navigate them, as well as his understanding of tone and vowels. His understanding was not always completely scientific or fully-fledged in it’s own right, but he was not merely a great singer. While I think to call him a coach would be a little bit of a stretch, his explanations and articulations are undoubtedly accurate in many regards, and so can help singers improve and develop.
Still further, with more research I have found that many great singers who have the vocal robustness (and have figured out their voices well, often after periods of vocal issues) to continue well into their 40s/50s would be able to provide great insight into how to enable great feats of vocalism, but instead they keep singing rather than explain how they do what they do to others to pass it on – this is an oft-lamented issue in the vocal world.
As such, while I do still consider that able singers rarely become great coaches, it is not a completely true statement to say that great singers cannot teach you to sing. They may have their limitations in cases, but I realise now I was being far too harsh and making sweeping generalisations here.
3. Range is the key determining factor of skill and ability
So I knew that range was not the ONLY factor, but from day-one, I always harboured the view that RANGE was how we determined ability. The higher you could sing, the more technical you were. I realise now that this was a fruitless and ultimately purely quantitative measure, i.e. you can measure range. Whereas great singing is not a quantitative effort, but a QUALITATIVE one, i.e. how GOOD does someone sound? Range and climaxes come into this, certainly, but to reduce the equation for vocal quality to be determined in the main but how HIGH someone would sing is madness. More often than not people seek high notes at the expense of vocal quality, robbing themselves of quality, instead of giving themselves more through enhanced range (as my incorrect original thoughts would indicate it should).
“Half the range, double the quality” is a phrase said to me by more than one coach, and I now truly take this to heart. We listen to great singers who sound good… THAT is the only factor that matters. Many things go into this, but ultimately we will happily listen to a singer who sings with half the range of another but with double the quality. We may come away impressed in an Olympic sense with a crazy high note, but it’s the album of the quality singer we buy, and the gig we go to of the singer who focuses on quality over their range.
What’s even better than this, is that when you focus on quality in the building of the voice, range is a wonderful by-product, but the range should NEVER be at the expense of vocal quality. I got this wrong (Oh man, did I get this wrong…)
4. You can learn to sing from audio lessons
Right, confession, before I was a voice coach, I went and bought a certain online singing course by a well-known online voice coach. Honestly? It caused more harm than good. I honestly thought I could save on not having to pay for regular lessons by buying pre-recorded audio sessions from an online coach.
What I realise now (in light of the above), that if quality is our ultimate end, then we NEED that feedback and guidance from a skilled coach in person… this is a non-negotiable factor. We NEED this, all of us, if we want to improve.
On paper, all the tools look the same. From lip bubbles, to long scales, five tone scales, etc, but the issue is – we need the sound to be just so on each exercise, otherwise it does NOTHING beneficial. We MAY be making the right sound, but there’s no way to know. Think of it like trying to go to the gym and do the exercises with perfect form, but blindfolded. How could you tell? You can’t see inside your throat or your voice, so how can you know you’re getting it right? The answer is, you can’t.
I now realise how hopelessly naive I was thinking that an audio lesson (hundreds of them as well!) could help me piece together my voice. It was nothing (in my opinion) but a marketing tool. So please, do yourself a favour, don’t buy any more online lessons – it’s not worth it.
5. Anyone can become a great singer/we all have what it takes
OK, let me clarify – I think anyone can become an AMAZING singer in their own right. Music is NOT a competition, and therefore it’s about quality (which we are all unique in). That said, when I say I now don’t believe that just anyone can become a great singer, I mean this is the more competitive/comparative element of it – e.g. Pavarotti is held up as the gold standard for opera singers in the last 100 years, Beyonce is held up as the gold standard for contemporary female RnB vocals in the last 20 years, Bruno Mars is held up as the gold standard for contemporary male RnB vocals in the last 10 years, etc.
But in each of their cases, lies a fascinating story, both in their innate physical attributes that enabled great singing, and in terms of their familial background that enabled rigorous training from a very young age to enable such peak performance.
As such, someone with lesser physical attributes (I mean in terms of how well their instrument is set up from birth) coming to learning singing at (say) 40, cannot possibly outshine someone like the abovementioned in this regard. It just isn’t possible. Sure, some people have great instruments hidden away from the world til a little later in life, but they will almost always have this kind of story attached to them.
What I mean to say is that we can all excel and be better versions of ourselves, but if we’re looking to occupy a place in history as a model of excellence with our voices, not everyone has what it takes… and that’s OK. If Bob Dylan or Tom Petty had compared themselves to Pavarotti and said ‘nah, I won’t bother’, the world would be a poorer place. I realise now I got this wrong, but I think it’s a beautiful point to be made off the back of this one.
That’s it for now folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed my mini-confession. Any questions or comments please do leave them below.