Bigger is better—or so many of us believe.
Like a plague that infects vocalists, from pop stars and jazzy crooners to operatic divas, over-singing has vocalists bending, stretching, and shattering notes that don’t deserve such a cruel fate.
Youth, inexperience, lack of training, and limited technical knowledge about the voice take the bulk of the blame, but they are not the only source of the problem. The idolized alumni from the school of over-singing include everyone from Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and Celine Dion, to boy bands featuring not one, but several young men over-singing their hearts out beyond the point of distinguishable melody, to the young “popera” voices of Charlotte Church and Josh Groban, who attempt to tackle repertoire well beyond their years.
You can’t throw a stone in a musical without hitting a “Wicked” wannabe. Even classically trained and mature vocalists are guilty of the occasional vocal blast.
“Over-singing is something that is difficult to define,” said John Lease, associate professor of music at Clarke College, in Dubuque, Iowa. “It covers every vocal style—pop, Broadway, opera—the loud note wins, [but] not really.”
Lease, who received his vocal training from the likes of Bernard Taylor, Otto Guth, and Ricardo Moresco at the American Academy of Opera in New York, has trained all vocal types, from high school students to the pros, in nearly every song style for more than 41 years.
“A young singer isn’t supposed to sound like a singer who is 30-45. Their voices aren’t ready, and the technique is not in place yet,” Lease said. “This type of sound production is forced or pushed. Usually singers who over-sing this way are emulating an idea they have about what they are supposed to sound like, or are imitating what they have heard on a recording—but that’s not their voice, and that’s not their own sound. It is important that singers develop their own sense of style through the use of a good, healthy technique. Vocal strength and stamina are not developed overnight. It takes time, patience, and consistent practice.”
Lease said various types of negative vocal habits—which he calls “microwave singing”—are available and tempting to young singers through today’s pop-culture emphasis on singing competitions such as American Idol, as well as the “MTV generation,” film, radio, and television. He added that imitation, as well as the idea of rushed development, can all be attributed to this over-singing epidemic.
“A singer’s voice is like a fingerprint,” Lease said. “It’s individual, and no two voices are the same. You can’t be a singer until you have gained vocal acceptance of your own sound.”
When people over-sing, they force too much air and apply too much tension behind their vocal cords, creating a pressure that affects the function of the cords and keeps the sound constricted in the throat. The sometimes tragic results can include everything from stretching the voice beyond its normal singing capacity to vocal blowouts that can be seriously harmful to the voice. In addition, over-singing is often inappropriate to artistic expression, detracts from a singer’s musicianship, and affects crucial musical elements such as pitch and tone. Physical traits of over-singing include head, neck, and jaw tension—often resulting in shaking—and distended veins in the neck due to shallow breath support.
The results of over-singing can be catastrophic for singers hoping to pursue a professional career, or even those hoping just to maintain even a hint of a usable voice. Many singers who over-sing will have to endure everything from prolonged vocal rest to vocal therapy and in some cases, even surgery.
Long-term results of over-singing can include painful calluses on the vocal cords (vocal nodes), frequent vocal loss, significant loss of vocal range, hoarseness, and vocal hemorrhaging.
Many vocal instructors and coaches say that most over-singers feel a need to over-sing because they want to feel their voice is powerful or they believe that singing more loudly makes a bigger and more emotional musical statement.
Singers also may over-sing in an effort to imitate the sound of professionals they have heard, but without the benefit of the professional technique they need to achieve the projection, volume, musical expression, and emotion.
“I think there is a great tendency for singers to listen to their own voices instead of trusting the internal technique and how it feels,” said Jerad Mosbey, a vocal coach at the Collaborative Works studio in Chicago. “What we hear when we speak or sing is completely different than what an outside person hears.”
Mosbey, along with his Collaborative Works partners, Nicholas Hutchinson and Shannon McGinnis, say a big part of their role in coaching classical singers involves identifying over-singing and emphasizing singing by sensation rather than singers relying solely on their ears.
“I mention younger singers mostly because that’s where I tend to hear it on a daily basis, but some of my more mature and experienced clients tend to over-sing from time to time too,” said McGinnis. “Generally, I’ve found that the more experienced the singer, the more comfortable he or she is in singing by sensation rather than by his or her own concept of sound. As singers mature, they can rely more on what they hear because their technique has stabilized, and they’ve learned to associate a certain desirable sound with a particular feeling. Younger singers tend to be less comfortable with this, naturally. Younger singers especially tend to get caught up in their own sound and wanting to hear themselves a certain way: loud and big,” continued McGinnis. “They try to achieve a result that their ear wants, not a result that is vocally comfortable and that feels healthy and natural, with a forward and appropriately bright sound. Younger singers in particular tend not to be aware that a bigger sound to their ear is often an unfocused, unhealthy sound to ours.”
Other factors to consider include singers’ repertoire selections, as well as something that is at the core of young singers’ urge to imitate: using recordings improperly to master technique or learn music. Illness, fatigue, and lack of preparation are other reasons for over-singing.
“I think the biggest factor is the choice of repertoire by singers and coaches that is too big for a particular voice,” said Hutchinson. “Next would be teachers and coaches who equate loud singing with professional potential and, lacking the knowledge or patience to teach healthy technique, encourage students to over-sing.”
In a contest such as American Idol, over-singing almost seems encouraged. The popular show gives vocalists just a short time to blare their range, show off their best belting capabilities, and be christened an “idol.” This might “sell” to the public’s ear, but trained singers are not as easily fooled or impressed.
“It’s interesting that if you google the term ‘over-singing,’ most of the entries that come up have to do with American Idol,” said Hutchinson. “I’d say that it’s much more common for popular singers to have less well-developed vocal technique, which leads many of them to over-sing to try to compensate. A properly trained classical singer won’t be affected by this, but a young singer who begins classical training with over-singing in their head as an ‘ideal’ vocal sound will probably be more likely to over-sing.
“It’s hard to accept the fact that technique takes years to develop—no one starts off sounding like a professional,” added Hutchinson. “Over-singing becomes an unfortunate attempt to ‘shortcut’ this process.”
To overcome or avoid over-singing, vocalists should seek the guidance of a good, experienced teacher or coach who can provide honest and clear feedback about a singer’s sound and explain how to produce it in a healthy way. This provides a pair of ears to help singers recalibrate their ideas about what constitutes healthy singing, and could help singers reevaluate their repertoire choices—and possibly the teachers and coaches they work with.
Singers also should focus on thorough preparation, added Mosbey.
“Preparation is a huge factor in proper vocal technique,” he said. “When singers are in the early stages of learning something, too often they over-sing. A vocalist can’t practice the same number of hours that an instrumentalist can. However, those extra hours not singing can be used to solidify diction, translation, and interpretation. Only after all of the mechanics are set can a singer expect to incorporate proper, healthy singing.”
Mosbey also recommends that singers select repertoire appropriate for the voice in its current state. “Too often singers want to sing something that might be better for them in a few years.”
Finally, singers should limit their use of recordings as a means of learning the music.
“It’s crucial for singers to listen to many different recordings of a work they’re studying, not so that they can imitate them, but to gain a greater understanding of style and performance practice,” said Hutchinson. “Listening to recordings gives a performer the chance to see how others have answered the question, ‘How do I interpret this score?’ It also helps them come up with their own answers.
“Listening to recordings to develop technique isn’t helpful, in my opinion,” added Hutchinson. “It gives you something to aspire to: ‘This is what my voice should be like when my technique is fully developed.’ The problem is that building technique is a step-by-step process. The next step in your development probably isn’t to sound like the singers you hear on a recording. It’s an intermediate step that will eventually take you to your goal.
“You need a teacher to guide you through this process—no recording can do that.”
