Singing Lessons: How to Succeed at Conservatory
Even during our crazy-covid time, students are heading back to school, including music students at Conservatory having virtual singing lessons.
Putting aside the feats of technology that must be surmounted, how does one experience success as a classical singer?
Dear Reader—It’s not what you do at school that matters: it’s what comes before.
You have to make your luck, which starts many years earlier with having parents who support your interest in music and singing. They will pay for piano or instrumental lessons when you are a kid—and as a result, you will know how to read music, understand phrasing etc, when you sit your talented ass down in your first theory class.
You may start singing as a kid, taking lessons even; and will have a teacher that will focus on technique for an extended period after your voice settles—perhaps during your last two years of high school.
Yes—at the very time when June is Busting Out All Over with musicals at school, and you are acting up a storm in the neighborhood theatre workshop, your voice teacher will be making you sing exercises and scales like a ninja. You won’t be focusing on repertoire music except for one or two carefully chosen pieces in Italian—and that’s after you’ve learned how to breathe and form pure Italian vowels—which could take awhile.
Audition repertoire will come after an extended period of foundational technical work, which will set you on the path towards latter success.
You have to understand. They are going to to throw you in the deep end of the pool at Conservatory. You are doing to be singing all kinds of repertoire from the get-go; and only the life-saver of previous technical and musical preparation will keep you from drowning.
I knew I wanted to be a singer and teacher when I was a kid. I also had a hunger to play the piano and begged for lessons; and tried to teach myself from a hymnal, and of course, got things wrong.
My mother, who could play piano, tried to teach me, but that was an utter disaster. As a result, I had to wait until college to learn what the Muse wanted me to know at the age of 8. Though I excelled at the piano at the age of 19, I would not call myself a pianist. Had I started earlier l might say something else.
Lack of musical training obtained via piano or instrumental skills is the stumbling block many singers never overcome. It’s the best thing you can do, since so much is built into the brain that contributes to later success. (Please don’t be the “dumb” singer that perpetuates the stereotype that there are “musicians and singers.”)
My parents did spring for singing lessons when I was 17—my first teachers being a husband and wife team—the husband pressing his fist into my solar plexus and telling me to “support.” I was appalled because it felt all wrong, but did as I was told, as young students do. What did I know? Nothing. What did my body tell me? Everything!
I did more waiting: going to school, getting an education degree, then teaching for a few years. Then I heard the Muse whispering in my ear again. So I found a grad school not too far from my parent’s house with an excellent reputation—and went there thinking I was finally going to obtain a clear sense of how to use my voice. What did I find instead? The person I chose as my voice teacher wasn’t a good fit. I was, however, introduced to Margaret Harshaw, who was the summer storm that swept all that came before away: soaking the earth of my mind with techniques and concepts that sprouted and grew, resulting in my singing with the New York City Opera. I kept seeing her during subsequent summers, the Muse urging me to study what I was given.
I don’t regret a thing, but do acknowledge that, having found my way, there is a better way.
Start early. Start young.
Technical work is as essential for singers as scales are for pianists.
