Vocal & Psychological Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term for a painting technique employing fiercely contrasting light and dark color. It is also commonly used to describe the perfect balance of bright and warm qualities in the singing voice that we all desire.

To achieve this, I think our actual practice of singing needs to balance the sublime with the ridiculous.

People who have never sung before often ask me “Is singing something that can actually be taught?” I respond that, barring any serious physical abnormalities, anyone can learn to sing, provided that:

1. They are committed to the process, and
2. They have a very good sense of humor.

A good sense of humor is at least as important as a serious commitment to regular study and practice, because you are probably going to hear some very bizarre and surprising noises issuing from your own mouth as you explore and train your instrument!

The vocal exercises that I teach break singing down into its simplest components in order to train very specific kinds of coordination. While they facilitate superb musicianship and beautiful sound, performing them may not even sound like singing. Experienced singers who are new to this technique initially find it a little disconcerting. But my beginners almost always laugh!

An effective vocal technique will reveal flaws and entanglements for which you've been compensating without realizing it. Most singers unconsciously manipulate the voice to mask areas of resistance, imbalance, and instability. However, this makes singing far more effortful and far less expressive and beautiful than it will be once you resolve these entanglements.

Performing vocal exercises correctly means exposing the sounds you have been working so hard to avoid, which can be very difficult to endure. If, however, you trust that the process is going to resolve the problem once and for all, you can see the humor in it and continue working with a light heart.

Developing your vocal technique is simply incompatible with an agenda to make a fabulous sound at all times. Judging your own sound prevents you from focusing on the very skills you're trying to improve. It leads to compensating for problems rather than addressing them. And you may lose the motivation to practice any time the things you need to work on don’t sound so “good”.

So trust in your own process, and greet the strange sounds that emerge along the way with a sense of humor. No matter how skillful you become, spontaneous expression always carries an element of risk anyway. As Steve Smith is so fond of reminding his students, "If you want to risk it being fabulous, you have to risk it being awful!"

Take risks. Celebrate the fabulous sounds, and laugh at the awful ones!