In this portfolio my aim is to reflect on my development across my first year, primarily focusing on the work I have done to improve my voice and its stylistic range. I have decided to write about this as it is the area I felt the weakest in going into this academic year – before then I had only ever sung in a more classical style and had been training under an opera teacher who could not teach in a contemporary musical theatre style. I thought that learning how to sing in this style was an important thing to focus on as a lot of my goals and aspirations for my career rely on having a strong mix belt and a more contemporary voice. For example, some of my dream shows and roles require more of a mixed belt, such as Natasha Rostova (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Cordelia (Falsettos/Falsettoland) and Glinda (Wicked) are some examples of this. Over the course of this year I have dedicated a lot of time and practise into expanding my stylistic range and repertoire and I feel as though I have made a noticeable improvement from the beginning of September to now.
At the beginning of the year I made the decision that what I really needed to focus on during my first year was my voice, mainly trying to learn how to sing with my chest voice and strengthening my mixed voice.
Currently within musical theatre people are writing shows for and casting people with a specific kind of voice. Someone with a strong belt or mix. People in the audience expect to hear this kind of voice due to a number of things. The type of singers that are popular in mainstream music tend to have big, recognisable voices like Chapell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga, all of them have very strong chest belts or mixes, this influences the writing of modern shows quite heavily as this is the type of voice audiences find most palatable. Jukebox musicals are currently quite popular, ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘& Juliet’ and ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ are some examples of these currently in the West End or touring the UK. These shows require certain voices as the songs in them are very well known and audiences want to hear their favourite songs sung in the same style as the original, an example of this is ‘Since U Been Gone’ from & Juliet, originally sung by Kelly Clarkson.
All of these are factors that influence the need for a specific type of voice and not being able to sing in this style severely limits my employability as I would only be able to be cast in a very specific niche of shows that aren’t currently as popular.
In September when I first received the repertoire list we were required to sing from this year I found that I was frightened of moving through the rep list as the categories got slowly more contemporary as the list went on, singing anything that wasn’t golden/post-golden age or more classical sounding pop opera was something I absolutely thought I couldn’t do. This was a problem as a lot of the categories on the rep list require a more contemporary vocal style, Examples of this being musical theatre pop, some pop operas, some British or new musical theatre, and the pop/rock material later on in the year. Having this fear around the rep list was both a good thing and a bad thing, I think, as it really pushed me to identify and work on the areas I struggled with and get to know my voice better but it also caused me to put a lot of pressure on myself and the idea that I couldn’t belt became a really big deal to me, impacting me and my training in a negative way.
My first time singing in our acting through song class I sang ‘Who Am I?’ from Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan. A Golden age song sung by the character Wendy, it’s a song which i took a liking to as it had a lighter sound to it and it didn’t go too high (I didn’t want a song that went to high as that was all I had shown I could do so far and I wanted to push myself). It went decently well but a lot of my feedback was exactly what I expected to hear: use more of your chest voice in certain parts of the song, be louder/you’re not projecting enough and various other notes about my acting. All of this feedback was good as it told me exactly what I needed to focus on and improve, most of it was just reaffirming what I already knew but it was nice to have those goals solidified in a way. On the other hand, this feedback really knocked my confidence down surrounding anything vocal for a while as it fed into the idea that I don’t have the right kind of voice for musical theatre – an issue that would affect a lot of my work across the year which, I think, probably hindered a lot of the progress I could’ve made during the first term.
I would then later bring the song back for my formative singing assessment in December as it was the song I had been consistently working on throughout the term in order to improve it. Looking back now I should’ve chosen a new song that would’ve pushed me further vocally and acting wise as this song really wasn’t the best choice for what I wanted to achieve in the long run. Overall, I thought that my assessment went well considering how nervous I was for it. It had been a while since I had sung something in front of anyone as I was really insecure about my voice at the time due to all of the pressure I was putting on myself to improve it. The feedback for my formative assessment was quite similar to my initial feedback from my first acting through song class in October: the opening singing was flat due to a lack of connection in the body, I was under voicing a little due to energy levels, and clarity of sounds needed to be better – mainly ‘s’ sounds and vowel shapes. This feedback, once again, did really knock me down as I just read it and thought about how little progress I had made which is the opposite of what I was trying to achieve. Looking back at this feedback now it was definitely the right thing for me to hear as it gave me a lot of motivation to improve, motivation that would really end up helping me in the long run.
The next song I started working on was ‘Think Of Me’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera, a song that would typically be within my comfort zone, but due to all of the pressure I had been putting on improving myself and my voice, I was absolutely terrified of singing it. It was recommended to me by my singing teacher as while it was a song that’s style was familiar to me, it still had moments within the song that would push me. Mainly finding more of a mix within a legit style for sections of the song that might go slightly too low to stay in my head voice. I spent some time working on this with my singing teacher, it was relatively easy to learn and improve it vocally with a few adjustments of my technique in certain areas (the only part that really tripped me up was learning the order of the lyrics as the song is rather repetitive and there is a lack of emotional attachment to lyrics within the song, as it is very much a pretty sounding, ‘stand and sing’ type of song).
Singing it in my acting through song class was absolutely terrifying as I really hadn’t sung in front of anyone since December and I had built up such a fear around singing that it seemed like the worst thing in the world. This was really tough to deal with as usually I love performing for people, especially when singing a song like this.
Overall I was very happy with my performance, I sang the song to the best of my ability, took the feedback, tried very hard to apply it to the song and then sang it again. The feedback I was given was still consistent with what I had been told in previous pieces of feedback, but there was definitely a good amount of improvement from when I last sang in the class. Some of my notes included: more work on connecting with my lower register when needed, working on certain vowel shapes, connecting more with my body/grounding myself more, and having more inner weight, increasing my volume, and to just be braver. I think I took this feedback well considering how nervous I was. It was very helpful to me as it gave me a lot of reassurance that I was improving with all of the work I was putting in, yet it also gave me a lot more to work on and some new goals to work towards.
After I had sung a couple of times in my acting through song classes, I decided I really needed to find more contrasting songs for my repertoire, mainly because I had come to the upsetting conclusion that all of my songs were basically the same, no matter how different I had previously thought they were. They all sat in the same part of my voice, showed off the same techniques, the only difference between most of them is that they were just lower or higher than others.
Throughout the second term of this year I worked with my 1-1 singing teacher on different exercises and techniques I could use to find and strengthen my mix. I also asked her for recommendations for songs in a new contrasting style as this was something I was really struggling with. Finding new songs was difficult for me as I was so used to only searching for a specific style of song and discounting anything else as I would hear a slightly more contemporary style or something sung with more of a mix and immediately think that I wouldn’t be able to sing it. So I tried to find more rep in a few different ways, I asked some of my teachers and my peers, searched through shows I already knew, went through playlists, and looked at other performers with a similar sounding voice to me. The recommendations of songs from people in particular really helped as it meant I could try singing those songs and see how they feel. If I liked them or thought that there was a good chance of me being able to sing it with enough work then I would add it onto my list of songs to sing. This resulted in me, eventually, being able to find these songs all by myself.
One song I found was ‘My New Philosophy’ from You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. An upbeat song with a strong character voice that required a good mix. This song is important as it would really help me in improving the areas I was focusing on vocally. It essentially stopped me from focusing on how I was sounding, I usually tend to worry about how my voice sounds as a lot of the songs I typically sing have a big focus on sounding pretty. This song forced me to throw all of that away as it requires such a strong character voice that I had to put all of my focus into getting the voice right. The character voice also basically forced me to learn how to mix, I really enjoy voice acting so I wanted to get the voice right and in order to do that I would need to basically speak the whole song in tune. A technique that I have been told to do many times but for some reason it only really clicked with this song, not that I’m complaining.
I am yet to perform this song in an acting through song class yet – that’s something I am currently working on doing, but I have received some feedback from the various times I have brought this song into a singing lesson. Some of the feedback includes: I have had a couple of teachers say that this is a good song choice for me, my mix has definitely improved a lot, I need to remember to speak more in certain parts of the song – I can achieve this by focusing more on my voice acting, connecting more with my body when I sing to get more volume and stronger acting choices vocally and physically.
I really like this song personally, and I am very happy with it as I can really see the improvements I have made. I’ve put in a lot of work over this last term and it has made me feel a lot better as I am definitely seeing all that work pay off.
At the moment I am still currently working on refining my mix and figuring out what else my voice can do and how I can learn to do it. I am doing this by practising the exercises I have been taught and finding new rep that will push me even further out of my comfort zone so I can keep improving. My goal currently is to be able to properly access my chest voice (belt) when singing a song that sits higher in my range as this is something I have always struggled with and would very much like to get better at.
In conclusion I am very happy with my progress across this year despite all of the challenges I have come across while trying to make said progress. I think my voice is in a good place considering where I am at in my training and the training I received before starting this year. To summarise, at the beginning of my training I wouldn’t even dream of singing a song that wasn’t in a classical style as I thought that there was absolutely no chance of me being able to sing like that as it was something I had never done. This was upsetting as most of the people around me were having the opposite problem so I didn’t have anyone who could really get what I was struggling with. They were all perfectly content with belting but weren’t very comfortable with legit. However I put in as much effort as I could across these past two terms to push myself out of my comfort zone and try and learn how to sing all of the songs I’ve always loved, but thought that I couldn’t ever sing. It was a really difficult thing to try and work towards, and I am definitely still improving and working on, but I am very happy with the progress I have made despite all of the challenges it has presented me with.
While I am happy with my progress I do definitely think there are a few things I could have done differently. I definitely would have done a different dong for my first acting through songs class as the song I chose (‘Who Am I?’ from Peter Pan) as it really didn’t push me at all and ultimately slowed down my progress as I was too focused on improving that specific song, even though it wasn’t doing anything to help my voice and the long run and it wasn’t even a song that suited me that well. I also should have sung more in acting through song and our repertoire lectures as I have barely sung in these lessons, only once every half term, this isn’t beneficial for my training at all as it means I have only had a few chances to receive proper feedback on my progress and things I can do to improve even further.
My ultimate goal for the end of the three years of my training is honestly to have my voice at a place where I am happy with it. Where I can sing a wide variety of different styles and not panic about how my voice will sound, to be able to belt more contemporary songs and still be able to sing classically like I’ve always done. I really just want to be in a place where I’m not so nervous about singing and it’s something I can do with just as much confidence as anything else in my training.
I do think I will continue working a lot on my voice but I think I will focus a bit more on my dancing, mainly working on improving flexibility and general fitness while navigating my own body and the problems presented to me with my hypermobility and joint issues.
Bibliography:
Andy Follin (2017). Belting Explained | What is Belt? | How to Belt (Singing) a Musical Theatre or Pop Song. [online] Andy Follin (Estill EMT) – Professional Vocal Coach. Available at: https://www.vocalskills.co.uk/What-is-Belt-Belting.html.
BBC Maestro (2023). What is belting in singing? | BBC Maestro. [online] www.bbcmaestro.com. Available at: https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/what-is-belting-in-singing.
Roll, C. (2016). The Evolution of the Female Broadway Belt Voice: Implications for Teachers and Singers. Journal of Voice, 30(5), pp.639.e1–639.e9. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2015.07.008.
