Djarts Voice Coaching ~ www.djarts.com.au
© Daniel K. Robinson - 2010
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WhoAmI...WhatAmI?
By Daniel K. Robinson(April 2009)
Who Am I...What Am I? These two questions are ever present for the developing
artist...and great artists are always developing. Simply, the question of identity
is ever present in the life and psyche of the artist. If we are truly honest, these
two questions come with a great deal of insecurity and the need to obtain
significance from both within ourselves and from others.
“Can I call myself a singer?”, “Do people actually like my singing?”& “Am I
wasting my time with this singing thing?” are all regular questions in the singing
teacher’s studio and they all find themselves birthed out of a sense of needing to
know where the individual is placed within their community. Another prevalent
question I am often asked by beginner students is, “What is my vocal range?”
This question often has the sub-text of, “...can I sing higher than the next guy or
gal?” In a world that trains us to build comparisons with each other during our
primary school years, such a comparison is not unusual, but it is rarely helpful to
the developing singer.
Firstly, singers should never be rated according to their ‘highest singable note’.
Hopefully a singer will utilise 30+ notes as a part of their voice. Focusing on
‘high notes’ rarely produces great singers...it’s just produces ‘high notes’.
Secondly, what your voice does today, may not be what it performs tomorrow.
There are so many factors that influence the voice, all of which have the ability
to add or subtract to your overall performance. Leon Thurman in “Bodymind &
Voice” (2000) writes,
“Suppose a young person auditions for a choir when they are just ending
a cold or flu during which they coughed a lot. Suppose another young
singer has been smoking for one to two years, and another frequently
drinks caffeinated beverages and rarely drinks water. And another was
yelling recently for a sports team...these [singers] will have swollen
and/or stiffened vocal folds, and their singing pitch range capabilities will
be limited. In other words, they will not be able to sing as high as they
are capable of singing, but they are likely to be able to sing lower than
their actual anatomical dimensions would enable them to sing.”
This leads us back to one of the previous questions, “What is my vocal range?”
Some students arrive in my studio with a preconceived vocal identity which is
meant to ‘label’ or ‘classify’ their voice. Many of us are familiar with the
traditional choral groupings of singers into Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass
(SATB). Whilst this traditional classification has proved helpful in grouping
singers, it has not always lead to healthy outcomes for those singers. Again,
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