I was a trained classical singer. The thing was, I didn’t want to only sing classical music. I wanted to sing Pop, Blues, Folk, Jazz, Musical Theater, and all kinds of contemporary music. So, I started singing Sarah McLauchlin, Tori Amos, Alannis Morrisette, and Fiona Apple. Yup, it was the 90’s.
As hard as I tried, I couldn’t seem to sound like them with their strong, warm lower voices and their belty middle voices. In fact, my voice would crack quite a lot, I strained on the middle-high notes, and I had NO IDEA how to fix any of it.
But, I didn’t give up. I found the right training, and I reconditioned my voice.
Turns out, now, I help a lot of singers who had classical training. Whether they started in choir, majored in classical voice, or legit musical theater.
If this is you, you can do it. You can learn how to sing in other styles. You can uncover your natural, authentic voice.
Start by learning both the mechanical and stylistic differences.
Classical vs Contemporary: Mechanical and Stylistic Differences
CHEST VOICE
In classical singing, it’s considered garish to use a heavy chest voice in the lower range. This is especially true for sopranos.
This avoidance of being too heavy can lead classical singers to have a tendency to be too light in their chest voice. In other words, they bring too much head voice down into the bottom of their range.
The production of chest voice in contemporary singing is more balanced. It doesn't have too much head voice in it, and it's very much like the speaking voice.
Tip: Try speaking the words first, and then speaking them on the pitch. This will help you find a natural sound that isn’t too different from your speaking voice.
Check out my VoiceTalk blog on chest voice to learn more on how chest voice works.
HEAD VOICE
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I often see classical singers reject their head voice when they begin learning to belt. They think that using their head voice is bad because it doesn't sound strong enough. Head voice is NOT bad. If you have a developed head voice, you’re already halfway there.
We need both chest voice and head voice to blend together to produce MIX voice! Check out my blog on Mix Voice HERE!