A singer writes:
I have a question for you. I have heard this comment made by several different people about several different people. The comment is "He/she has a nice voice but there is nothing unique or special about it, it doesn't captivate you." What are your thoughts about this comment? Can this be a valid comment? If it is a valid comment what are they looking for that seems to be missing? Is it something that can be taught or is it something that is just naturally there. If it is not a valid comment then why would someone make it?
This is not a short answer because the questions do not warrant a short answer.
Without hearing the voices the people are commenting about, it's impossible for me to say what the people meant by what they said and what is missing in the voices as is perceived by the commentors. I can make some guesses as to several things but I do know from being around many many working professional singers that nobody is born with it. People never see the huge amount of time singers practice who sound great. Because they don't see it, they assume that the hours and days of consistent hours are not happening.
I had nothing unique about my voice, in my estimation, but I did spend many many many hours singing and emulating and studying and recording on lots of bad to fair to good equipment and sometimes for 3 hours a day. So my voice was unique enough to get me singing in the 2nd biggest showroom at that time in Las Vegas. I did not get fired either. I sang in the show until it closed. BUT Is the comment valid? Again, without hearing the singer, I couldn't say. I have heard non-singers and non-musicians, such as Simon Cowell make statements like that and I usually have not agreed with him. Nothing with singing is natural. Nobody is born singing. Some people pay attention and duplicate the professional things they hear in other singers but they still have to work at it.
If a person sings without any feeling or without any attachment to a song and they sing the words on the correct notes at the correct time, then they might be ok in a chorus but I wouldn't want a chorus to be bland which is filled with that kind of uninvolved voice.
Every voice is as unique as fingerprints are from one individual to another. If a person thinks that they are not unique, then they need to work on style or on dynamics or on emotion or on interpretation. All those things can be and are taught and the results of it are obvious. Part of what is going on with American Idol is that the singers have vocal coaches and the ones with the bad ones don't make much change or or or the coaches are good and the singers are rebellious and don't take correction or they think they know best or they don't work hard enough or don't even know how to practice. The comment is no more or no less valid than a person saying that a person is beautiful--or ugly. It is an opinion. It is not a fact.
Great singers are great because they decided that they would not settle for less than greatness and then they worked at it to make it happen. It isn't innate and it isn't magic and it isn't that God is stopping people from being unique or giving them uniqueness. It takes a decision that leaves no other way out and the decision is followed up with the practice and perseverance to continue until it is achieved. Greatness comes from an unkillable desire and an impeccable work ethic. Then when preparation meets opportunity, great things can happen. But that's just my opinion BUT it's based on experience since 1962. Professional since 1972. Professionals know that professionals practice. We practice much more than the uninitiated could assume.
