To Infinity and Beyond: The Vocal Ceiling… and How There Isn't One

I pride myself on how rarely people have NBD's (nervous breakdowns) when they visit me for a lesson but of course there will be the occasional teary moment or two because we're all artists and we're emotional people.  It's to be expected… but often times when this brief half-meltdown occurs it's because people are way too hard on themselves.  When I ask what's wrong the response usually starts with, "Sorry, I'm just frustrated with myself because I just can't …"
Think of this video the next time you feel like you'll never be good enough.   I clicked it in the first place so I could have the same "feel good moment" everybody else on social media was having…and then I laughed my ass off at the end and shook my head, "Wow!"

The video shows a mom teaching her baby her first word which was "Happy."  They both laugh hysterically and celebrate the new milestone together…. for all of 1 minute and 31 seconds.  And then do you hear what happens in the last 2 seconds? Just the last 2 seconds.  Hilarious (though I secretly feel as if I have to talk to a therapist about it immediately lol).

None of us will ever be COOKED as singers and I implore you to realize this as we see this poor kid about to meet the harsh reality that "Happy" is not the only word she'd have to learn to get more of that fleeting response.  We're always working on something … whether it's some difficult concept like anchoring or mixing or vibrato; or whether we're trying to get to Broadway, have been on Broadway 10 times or have won a Grammy.  When we hit singing milestones we should celebrate for more than just 1 minute and 31 seconds and take the time to give ourselves the well-deserved pat on the back because we're never going to "graduate singing."  There's always more to learn and more to work on.  Just as there are about 600,000 words in the English dictionary (according to Siri whose only skill is giving consistently incorrect information so don't quote me) , there are probably 600,000 things you can do with your voice as a singer, as well.  Know you're not the only one overwhelmed by the thought of having to keep up with the ever-changing expectations of casting directors, coaches and …yes…sometimes even your mom….  and nobody including your teachers or vocal idols will ever touch the vocal ceiling.  Ever.  So just be happy while you try!


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SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME …TO LET ME KNOW MY EXPECTATIONS ARE WAY TOO HIGH: Idina's Live Performance of Let It Go

This song is such a hot topic in the MT world right now I couldn't really resist doing another post about this particular performance.

We see funny BuzzFeed pages popping up on our news feeds all the time about how Disney Princesses have been setting us up for disappointment since their incarnation (22 Lies Disney Princesses Told You About Hair, Did Disney Princesses set us up to Fail in our Relationships?  15 Terrible Love Lessons We Learned From Disney Princesses) but let's talk for a second about how Disney's sound editing room gave us unreasonably high expectations for tonight but set us up for major success in the decades to come.  Here's what I mean:

Idina Menzel (otherwise known to John Travolta as Adela Dazeem? WTF)  had to perform "Let It Go" tonight on the Oscars.  Now, we all know she's unbelievably talented and I think anybody in the Musical Theatre community recognizes that this was a really difficult task at hand even without all of the modifications made for TV land.  It's also just common sense that Frozen was a film and, unlike live theatre, voices can be edited to the point that they are basically inhuman.  This is great if you never have to perform the song ever again because the world would hear your most ON performance ever and assume that's how you always sound, but like we just saw a few moments ago, the song was nominated for an award and had to be performed live.  The version we were bound to hear had no chance of surpassing what was done on the retouched recording.  With all factors considered:

• it was faster than usual 
• there were cuts in the music 
• it was probably a track she was singing to? 
• she was using a hand-held mic 
• she said in a few interviews that she was really nervous 
• she had just flown there so she could have been dehydrated 
• the climate was different from NY
• she was wearing an insane outfit and heels
• Meryl Streep was sitting in front of her,

 I would say she did a nice job!  Most of us know what she usually sounds like because we've seen her live before… and we realize how hard that song is to begin with.  That being said, there will still be some A-holes who say it wasn't like the movie so it wasn't good.  Disney gave those people unrealistic expectations because they made the movie version of the song TOO perfect to even come close to live.


Now, as we know, an announcement was made that Frozen will have a Broadway run within the next few years.  Someone is going to have to perform this song live 8 times a week.  The possibility of them needing to lower the song a step or two for consistency sake is quite strong (a la Astonishing for Sutton Foster) but let's think about how this whole auto-tune situation could actually be a good thing in the long run:

Growing up, we listened to and learned to imitate what was available to us.  We painstakingly learned to sing "Take Me or Leave Me," "On My Own," and "Someone Like You," and those were considered the tough songs. Now in 2014, the expectations are even higher than those placed on the people who graced the Broadway stages of the 1980's and 90's, so the "high notes" aren't C's or even E flats anymore; they're F's and G's.  Idina Menzel didn't really have other Idina's to try to copy when she was a little kid.  I know Bernadette Peters sure wasn't belting that high. The only thing that really ever touched those notes in that quality back then was Evita and it's just not exactly the same. Therefore, she's figuring it out for herself as an adult and taking a lot of flack for it while the kids of the future will reap the benefits of having had an imperfect performance to try to perfect.


In my mind, Frozen is (and I can't believe I'm saying this) pretty much God's gift to the next 2 decades of Musical Theatre performance because every child in the universe is now aiming for (and coming pretty damn close to) high E's when they attempt "Let It Go."  Remember my little student Amelia?  We've been working a lot on "mixing" which she's conceptually really digging and she brought the sheet music in… AND she can totally do it! And so can a few of my other pre-teens because they've been listening and trying to imitate like crazy! It's pretty wild!

Now that there is such a superhuman example of vocal work in the style of Musical Theatre out there and accessible to kids, we're going to be hearing some pretty sick vocals in the years to come, and the high notes written into the musicals of the future are going to be in the stratosphere because those kids who practiced "Let It Go" in 2014 will be crazy singers in 2030 and composers will recognize that!

So while Disney gave Idina Menzel an almost impossible task tonight, her courageous performance (seriously now... admit you'd be having a major IBS episode if that were you) is pioneering a movement of Musical Theatre that will be unreal once it happens in like…10 years.  She teaches us to remember to appreciate live performances and reminds us that if we DON'T sound like the recording that we shouldn't be too, too hard on ourselves.  It's something to strive for but it's not something that's exactly realistic.  It's quite literally immortal, so Let It Go!

I leave you with this video of a segment from Good Morning America that was aired this week!  It's kind of magical that this many kids are inspired to sing!  (But whoever raised the song a step or two is evil!!!!)  If you liked my post, check out my previous posts and sign up to get updates delivered directly to your inbox!