Vocal Music Advice

Voice teachers and young student singers: permit a brief—perhaps too brief—note on some of the concerns and dangers in voice classification.  As you will see, voice classification is a major concern for many people.  I have received more questions on this subject than I’ve answered on the blog and have resorted to emailing some individuals.

On the one hand, both teacher and singer are interested in the young student’s voice classification.  Am I a soprano, mezzo-soprano or alto?  Am I a tenor or baritone?  When I sing in choir, what part should I sing?  These are legitimate concerns.

On the other hand, some teachers and students approach voice classification almost as a prescription to become a mandate, a goal to be achieved, a barrier to be conquered.  Nothing could be more injurious to a student no matter how zealous he is of being told a “prescription.”  When a student singer is between the ages of 16 and 21 … and especially on the younger side of that span, identifying the future classification is not necessarily known.  I say “future classification” because at age 16, 17 or 18 the voice is in the process of developing in range, tessitura, timbre and even “lifts” (or what some teachers refer to as register breaks).  In fact, those teachers who pronounce categorically to a young male student that he is (or will be) a tenor frequently do him a disservice.  (Obviously there are exceptions.) In the teens, voice classification should be descriptive, not prescriptive.  It should indicate “current status” not “life goal.”

Sometimes it is the zealous student who will not rest until he has an “answer” and can be declared a “tenor” or some other category.  The result of BOTH scenarios has resulted in frustration for many a student and teacher.

Teachers of students under 20 should realize that the singer they have charge of is vocally in a time of development.  Range is expanding in one direction or another, or both.  Stamina and freedom is more comfortable higher for some, and lower for others.  Strength and power and flexibility are increasing.  Some boys sound like altos for a couple of years, then tenor for a while before finally settling into one of the lower categories.  Other boys seem to change vocally overnight.  Finding the “starting place” is useful and wise.  If your 17-year-old young male student sounds “tenorish” now … start there with the understanding that while now he may sing as a “tenor” he may later change as his voice develops over the next 5 years.

So, to the voice teacher and young singer I say … discover your range and with it where in your range you sing most comfortably, with greatest stamina, and find literature that fits your voice as it develops.

When, at 25 or 30 you begin entering the professional performance field, the care with which you paid attention to how your voice WAS DESCRIBED can in some measure prescribe what literature is now best suited to you (enter the German “fach” system).

So, should you be concerned about your voice classification?  Sure.  Should you be anxious or zealous about having it prescribed for you? Certainly not.

The most difficult thing for some students to do (and some teachers) is to wait to see how the student’s voice develops!  I say these things because with over 35 years of teaching I have had students who thought they were tenors, but were baritones, others who thought they were baritones who found they were tenors … with parallel situations among young ladies.  By the time a college graduate begins graduate school he or she will frequently be drawn to a teacher with a similar voice type.  Those studios are in the minority.  Those teachers who by their pedagogical wisdom (or small-college music department environment) draw all classifications of singers to them who are ages 17 to 21 will do well to heed this warning against prescriptive voice classification.  Furthermore, I would go a step further and say to any young student: be very wary of teachers or “schools” that practice “prescriptive voice classification.”  I know of numbers of singers, graduates of those schools and studios who have experienced long-term vocal frustration on account of it.  As my esteemed mentor, James C. McKinney said, (and I paraphrase) “if a man declares he is a tenor, but can’t sing the tenor literature he has only deceived himself and should identify himself truthfully.”

At another time I will expand on this subject … because it is an important one and a wide one.

Michael, a teenager in Poland asks: Hi! My name is Michael and I’m 17 years old. My voice’s range lies between F2 and C5. I actually don’t have any breaks in my voice but I hear the change in the timbre after reaching G#4 and higher. I can go even higher with falsetto reaching F5 or G5.  My timbre is light but certainly not “tenor light”. Does it make me a lyric baritone or some kind of heldentenor that can sing lower?

Answer:

It’s wonderful that you don’t experience any breaks … even though you are aware of the change in timbre at around G-sharp.

Michael, I think that it’s fair to say that at 17 you ought not “decide” what you are vocally.  It’s enough that you know your range and where you sing most comfortably.  The fact is that in the next 5 to 6 years, your voice is going to develop considerably in range, strength and flexibility (at least if you are studying voice and practicing daily).  What you seem to be at age 17 may indeed change in the next few years.

I’ve had “tenors-at-17″ demonstrate that they really were baritone by the time they are 21 … and vice-versa.  You are in a time of vocal development and discovery.  What is important at this time in your life is that you learn to sing with good habits – as freely and without unnecessary tension as possible – and accept the way your voice develops – whatever direction it takes.  For this reason I for one will not tell a 17-year-old “you are a…” and give a definite voice classification.  I may have a good idea the direction the voice is taking after I’ve heard the young singer … but it’s still unwise to make a declaration–because then that “classification” becomes a goal, rather than an observation of fact.

At 17, almost all voices are “lyric”.  It remains to be seen what you will become.  Realize this too, Michael, all I have to go on is what you’ve told me.  It would be truly foolish of me to declare a specific voice classification having never heard you.

Remember what is important (see above) and you’ll develop just fine.

Best wishes.