Tell the Story

Over the past couple of years, I have changed my approach to learning music. I used to always play through a piece on the piano and then sang along with more thought to producing a final product than working through the details. I usually found there was a feeling of disconnect between the text and the music. We have always been told to translate foreign language pieces and speak through the text, but I never fully took this to heart. I have a quick ear for languages and am a fast study so I, perhaps unconsciously, decided that I didn’t need to do all the meticulous work. However, I quickly realized that you can only get so far on talent. You must put in the work. Once I accepted this fact, I started to love the process of working through technical issues and creating authentic characters.

What really helped me was when I read “The Naked Voice” by W. Stephen Smith. His wholistic approach to singing is enlightening, and his “text first” method to learning music is amazing. When I purposefully tried this system, I discovered that the musical text setting made so much more sense. For the first time I truly felt I was saying real words, not just syllables and sounds I had memorized. Speaking of memorizing; with this method I can learn songs and arias much faster because I piece them together in a logical order. Also, my tone flows better because I have practiced speaking the text with well-defined vowels and consonants that are free from muscular entanglement. I now use this method all the time for myself as well as my students.