The Challenge of Musical Theatre - Part 2

ELSA the BELTER

So, as a Dad of 2 young girls I’m well aware now of the hit movie movie Frozen and the chart busting tune ‘Let it Go.’  Most of us are aware in some way of Idina Menzel, the singing voice being the song (and also made famous when introduced at the Academy Awards by John Travolta as ‘Adele Dazeem’) I’ve heard the song capture the imagination of my children - and the children I teach in a school singing group - to the point of …….insanity. 

In fact, it was what I witnessed at a vocal workshop in London recently that really got me baffled. I was observing a master teacher tackle the voice of an undergraduate at one of London’s Musical academies, and when asked by the master instructor what her goals were she unashamedly said ‘Let it Go.’ 

Bear in mind that this particular student had a damaged voice from all of the required belting. 

So this brings me to the modern dilemma of ‘The age of the post-belting world.’  We are easily drawn to what is popular. We form strong emotional attachments to belonging and dominating a certain arena, and the arena as we understand it today is ‘Power is King.’ I see it 100% of the time when students under the age of 30 come to me for coaching. The charts reflect this style of vocalising i.e.. Beyonce, Sia, Rhianna, Pink, Boy bands, Girl bands, modern musical theatre……….the list goes on.

The problem with this is that some of us , as stated in a previous blog, do not excelwith the big power songs and leave our authentic voice at the door. As I write this it reminds me of a student I had back in Australia. She auditioned every year for X-Factor and always got to the same point of the show - top 100 - with the producers saying ‘ we think you're great, however you don’t have an ‘x-factor.’  I believe to this day that if she had stopped trying to be ‘big and powerful’ (she was short) and started to accept the uniqueness of her voice, then she could have tapped into who she was as a person and a singer and found that X- Factor. 

What I’m saying is, don’t let emotional attachments get in the way of you flourishing as a singer and artist.

I’d like to leave you with this video of Celia Pavey, a talented girl from Australia who clearly knows who she is as a singer.