#learning to sing

At the trans event I went to there was a nonbinary person who gave an introspective workshop, and their voice was just so unique and beautiful, resonant and clear and perfectly understandable in a crowd without them raising it, and they could switch effortlessly between male and female registers. And all I could think was "Holy SHIT I want that for me."

They were a former professional opera singer, so I'm guessing there are limits to how much of their vocal control is teachable (as opposed to being talent and genetic luck). But I still want to try.

Anyone have experience doing vocal training, tips, things to focus on, videos to recommend, qualities to look for in a coach?

Happy 24th Bday 🥳 🎉 🎂 🎁 Gorgeous boy

However, if you can’t get a vocal coach, it’s possible to learn through observation. This gets a bit tricky since it’s very easy to fall into mimicking other people’s voices, which isn’t healthy/sustainable for most singing purposes. Ideally, you want to mimic the technique, not the voice. Now, a good thing to do when you want to learn new techniques is to find singers who have voices similar to yours and see what they do.

If they have a similar voice to yours, the vocal maneuvers that are healthy for them have a better chance of translating over to you.

You can track them to find more fun songs to sing.

When looking for these singers, match your voice types, vocal timbres, and preferred music genre.

Voice types are: Soprano (High Female), Mezzo Soprano (Middle Female), Alto (Low Female), Tenor (High Male), Baritone (Middle Male), Bass (Low Male)

Some things that describe vocal timbres are: “Bright” (Sounds higher, more youthful. Think 1937 Snow White for high female voices, 1997 Anastasia for lower female voices. The closer it sounds to Spongebob or a Wicked Witch, the brighter it is), “Warm” or “Dark” (Sounds like it has depth, a little more mature. Think 1959 Sleeping Beauty for soprano voices, 1950 Cinderella for Mezzo or Alto Voices. The closer it sounds to a Femme Fatale character or to Patrick Warburton, the darker it is), and there are more but I don’t know the technical terms. If a voice type is a range, then a timbre is the way a voice sounds within that range.

I haven’t heard a song that wasn’t from a musical since 2016, so all my examples of singers are broadway or movie musical stars. I have blind spots. You can find more people using your ears, a recording of your own singing, and a radio/music streaming service.

Soprano or Mezzo - Bright: Laura Osnes (Bandstand, Bonnie & Clyde, 2013 Cinderella), Lauren Worsham (Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Lisa O’Hare (Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked, Candide, Descendants, and so much more), Kristin Stokes (Percy Jackson Musical), Kara Lindsay (Newsies, also Wicked), Caroline Innerbichler (Frozen Tour), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Movie Last Five Years, Movie Into the Woods, etc.), Sutton Foster (Little Women, Shrek the Musical, Anything Goes, Drowsy Chaperone, etc.), Liz Callaway (Film Anastasia, Lion King II, etc.), Jessica Vosk (Wicked, Dreamland, more than that), Annaleigh Ashford (Legally Blonde, Sweeney Todd Revival, Wicked, etc), Jessie Mueller (Six, Beautiful the Carole King musical, definitely more), Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde, probably more than that), Sherie Renee Scott (Broadway Last Five Years, definitely more)

Soprano or Mezzo - Dark/Warm: Kelli O’Hara (Light in the Piazza, 2012 Brigadoon, Bridges of Madison County, Days of Wine and Roses, etc), Patti Murin (Frozen Broadway), Barbara Streisand (Funny Girl, Hello Dolly!, many more), Kate Baldwin (Big Fish Broadway Musical), Barbara Cook (Original Music Man, She Loves Me), Laura Benanti (She Loves Me revival), Sierra Boggess (Phantom of the Opera, The Little Mermaid Broadway, etc.), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton, 2022 Into the Woods, 2023 Camelot, Amelie, etc), Christy Altomare (Anastasia the Musical), Idina Menzel (Wicked, Rent, Disney’s Disenchanted, etc), Julie Andrews (Sound of Music, Original Camelot, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, etc), Denee Benton (Great Comet, I know she has been in other things, but I don’t know what they are), Emily Rohm (Ride the Cyclone), Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls broadway, The Theory of Relativity, almost definitely more), Gelsey Bell (Great Comet, Ghost Quartet, probably more Dave Malloy things)

Mezzo/Alto - Bright: Caroline O’Connor (Anastasia Broadway), Patina Miller (2022 Into the Woods), Capathia Jenkins (Newsies, might not be an alto), Faith Prince (Original Broadway Guys and Dolls), Ciara Renee (Big Fish the musical, might not be an alto), Susan Egan (Beauty and the Beast broadway, Movie Hercules, etc), Barret Wilbert Weed (Mean Girls, Heathers, probably much more), Eva Noblezada (Hadestown, The Great Gatsby, definitely more), Amber Gray (Great Comet, Hadestown, I’ll bet there’s more)

Mezzo/Alto - Warm/Dark: Brittain Ashford (Great Comet, Ghost Quartet, more Dave Malloy things, etc.), Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz film, Meet Me in St. Louis film, etc), Mary Beth Peil (Anastasia Broadway), Sara Bareilles (Waitress, 2022 Into the Woods), Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia film, Into the Woods film, etc), Jill Paice (American in Paris Broadway Musical), Stephanie J. Block (2012 Brigadoon, she has many other credits but I don’t know them), Marla Schaffel (Jane Eyre the Musical), Molly Gordon (Alice by Heart, probably more)

Tenor - Bright: Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Bonnie & Clyde, The Great Gatsby, Movie Last Five Years, etc), Rory O’Malley (Book of Mormon, I don’t know his other credits, but I bet they exist), Robert Fairchild (American in Paris), Johnathan Groff (Movie Frozen, Little Shop, 2024 Merrily We Roll Along, Hamilton, etc), Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights, anything he has written), Ben Fankhauser (Newsies, The Mad Ones, etc. Kind of in the middle with the bright/dark tones), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies, Tuck Everlasting), Michael Crawford (Original Phantom of the Opera, Movie Hello Dolly, etc), Chris McCarrell (Percy Jackson Musical, One of the Les Mis casts, etc), George Salazar (Percy Jackson Musical, Be More Chill, etc), Johnathan Raviv (Percy Jackson Musical), Sam Primack (Dreamland, probably more than that), Nirvaan Pal (Dreamland, probably more than that), Corey Cott (Bandstand, Newsies, almost definitely more than that), Colton Ryan (Alice by Heart, probably more)

Tenor - Warm/Dark: Derek Klena (Anastasia broadway musical, Pretty sure he was in Moulin Rouge, but I don’t know if he was the cast recording cast, etc.), Aaron Tveit (Movie Les Mis, another Moulin Rouge person that I don’t know about cast recording status), Hugh Jackman (Movie Les Mis, Greatest Showman, etc), Norbert Leo Butz (Wicked, Big Fish, etc), Bryce Pinkham (Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Gavin Creel (2022 Into the Woods, I’ll bet there are more), Santino Fontana (2013 Cinderella, there are more), Ramin Karimloo (Anastasia broadway, Phantom of the Opera, Funny Girl Revival, he’s either a tenor or a baritone with RANGE), Bobby Steggert (Big Fish Musical), Ross Lekites (2012 Brigadoon, probably more), Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen, definitely more than that)

Baritone - Bright: Christian Borle (Little Shop, Something Rotten, definitely more than that. Either he’s a high baritone or a tenor), Jefferson Mays (Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Tom Alan Robbins (Little Shop - same cast as Johnathan Groff, probably more), Zachary Levi (Tangled, She Loves Me Revival), Chris Pine (Movie Into the Woods, Wish. Either a high baritone or a tenor), Robert Preston (Original Music Man, Movie Music Man,

Baritone - Warm/Dark: Josh Groban (Great Comet, Sweeney Todd Revival, etc), John Bolton (Anastasia broadway cast), Constantine Germanacos (Anastasia broadway, probably more), Brian D’arcy James (2022 Into the Woods, Days of Wine and Roses, Shrek the Musical, etc), John Dosset (Newsies, probably more), Peter Gallagher (Original Broadway Guys and Dolls), Brandon Uranowitz (American in Paris broadway musical, probably more), Patrick Wilson (Movie Phantom of the Opera, 2012 Brigadoon, probably more), Michael Ball (2020 Les Mis)

Instructor: Practice your breathing

Me: *has anxiety that increases when I focus on my breathing*

Instructor: Now try the lip roll (if you’re having trouble try practicing rolling your rs)

Me: *was in speech therapy for four years before I became understandable and the last thing I learned was how to do a single r*

The thing is that when you first start learning to sing is that you have no idea what you sound like. Also you have so little control over your voice.

I had been playing guitar since I was 17. I am now over 50. I started trying to sing out of simple frustration several years ago. In a matter of weeks I had managed to learn to play and sing words at the same time. The first song was Springsteen's "Nebraska", and for a short time it was the only song.

I emphasise that I was playing guitar (reasonably competently), and singing (incompetently). I say singing, but I had no idea what I sounded like.

For months I would be singing with no idea how I sounded.

One day I was singing, and I thought, "That sounds pretty bad." So I played the vocal melody and tried to copy it... and failed badly.

My singing was bad, and I could hear it. I listened to the recordings of my singing I made from time to time. Of course my singing sounded just as bad the second time around.

It was months of singing and hearing how terrible it was before I realised this fundamental and subtle change...

My singing was not improving, but I could hear that it was bad.

I could hear that I was singing badly.