I have something to ask you. Come here... closer... closer...
Do you secretly wonder what the HELL "proper technique" is even though you've been singing for a freaking long time?
You're not alone. I have a BFA in Musical Theatre and people trust me (for some reason) to teach THEM how to sing... and I'm not ashamed to say that even I sometimes question whether I use "proper technique..." because honestly... what's "proper" for you might not be "proper" for me or for the song I'm singing.
This video resurfaced on my newsfeed recently. You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the point.
Look at how these people clearly know exactly what is supposed to happen in every single second of this performance. Nothing is improvised because someone could literally die.
But what if we had this much control over our vocal performance, too? Why not?
Picture it.
You're sitting with your friend who is inevitably bitching about some casting choice that you don't necessarily agree with. "Ugh! She doesn't even have proper technique! She probably has nodes," she says. You do the slow laugh with that deer in the headlights kind of look. She excuses herself to go to the restroom and that's when you immediately scramble for your phone. "What... is... proper... technique...," you type as your hands shake and you keep one eye on the phone and the other on the restroom door. There's a lot at stake here and the free wifi is failing you. If your friend sees what you're doing, it will not only result in her telling all of your other friends that you don't know what proper technique is, but it would also mean the perpetual accusations of the presence of nodules every time you sneeze. You see the bathroom door open and your friend emerges as you begin to feel sweat dripping in places you didn't even know you had. "Come on, come on, come on..." you say through your teeth which have been grinding so hard they are down to nubs. Finally the page is beginning to load.
And that's when you see it. No simple definition of "proper technique."
Upon googling "proper voice technique" you will find among the first results some blogs, a few homemade websites with very little specific instruction or clinical vocabulary.... This is sad considering how much we throw this term around as if we know what we're talking about (especially on social media and in YouTube comments. Ugh).
As a last resort, you will click a Wiki page for "Singing" (so pathetic) which contains four sentences with the key phrase "proper technique." The term "proper technique" is not clickable so it does not have some kind of subpage explaining what that is.
Clearly "proper" is a buzzword we throw around a lot when referring to singing, but what does this mean when there is no explanation? Wikipedia DOES say:
All of these different concepts [resonance, vocal registration, vocal health] are a part of developing proper vocal technique. Not all vocal teachers have the same opinions within every topic of study which causes variations in pedagogical approaches and vocal technique.
Thinking about it, especially in terms of people who sing multiple styles, I've boiled proper technique down to these points:
- I know what "danger zone" feels like and I know to back off when I get near it
- I can sing for long durations without fatigue
- and I know somewhat (or I'm at least curious and willing to ask about) what I'm doing physiologically to create the sound I am striving for. There's no crossing fingers. I'm hitting my marks and I would know how to hit them again.
The rest, I believe, is STYLE or AESTHETIC and what's right FOR YOU.
Maybe singing is so mysterious because we can't see a lot of what we're doing unlike dance, but luckily we're living in the day and age when we can enlighten ourselves with technology. We have ways of knowing, finding out and/or asking scientifically and for certain what we're ACTUALLY doing, how to replicate it consciously and stop guessing what we're doing and about to do.
Let's face it, the use of the term "proper voice technique" may just be a way to silently express to the people around us that we are superior because we MUST know what that means if we're talking about it. What would happen if every time we heard that phrase in conversation we stopped the speaker and asked "Yeah, what is that anyway?" There might be some stuttering. There might even be some fighting. Hell might ACTUALLY freeze over. Who knows... but maybe that person who's stopped in his tracks when you ask that question might respond with, "Thank God... I thought I was the only one!"
