New semester, new year, new blog. Welcome (back)!
The first blog of every semester is usually focused on goal-setting for the semester and the school year. I would encourage you to read this, or this, or this, or this if you'd like some specific guidance on how to create meaningful goals. Any of the methods described in those blogs can lead you to success, so it's a good idea to try different ones and see what works best for you.
I learned about a different process this summer when I read Prof. David Eggers's book, Crafting an Intentional Career for the Musical Theatre Performer (Routledge, 2025). I recently reviewed the book for Classical Singer magazine. Here's a section of the review outlining the system that David recommends for "reverse-engineering" your career:
Chapter five, “An Intentional Career,” is notable for its direct ties to the book’s title. One of the journaling exercises presented therein relates to “the reverse-engineered career.” It encourages readers to provide a detailed assessment of the current state of their careers, followed by outlining their aspirations for what they would like their lives to be in the future—five years from now and three years from now. Then the task is to spell out which skills and “qualities of being” will have developed (and in what ways) that will have facilitated that success. Eggers further encourages them to imagine what actions they will have taken and how they will have overcome obstacles during those years. Of course, as he explains, there is no guarantee that events will play out as the exercise projects. “The exact ‘how’ of getting where you want to go is often, if not always, unclear,” he says. “…[but] if you are clear about your compelling future and you’re laying the groundwork for it by taking actions, and by becoming who you must be, the ‘how’ will present itself.”
It seems to me this same approach could work when setting goals, as well.
First, provide a detailed assessment of the current state of your vocal capabilities and then outline what capabilities you would like to have three to five years from now. This could be a list of roles you aspire to perform or maybe just some of the repertoire you'd like to be able to sing.
Second, spell out the skills that will have developed in three to five years that will allow you to sing that repertoire: higher range, improved riffing ability, tone quality development, consistent belt-mix, etc.
The other part of that, which shouldn't be ignored, is to identify the "qualities of being" that will have allowed you to get to that improved place with your capabilities. That could differ from person to person, but some qualities that come to my mind could be fortitude, resilience, curiosity, and desire.
Third, identify what actions you will have taken and what obstacles you will have overcome to get where you wanted to be. For actions, that could be specific exercises used to target particular skills, but it could also mean committing to regular practice every week for a period of years. Then, importantly, you can also anticipate what obstacles you will have overcome, which could be frustration, temptation to focus on other things, or negotiating a busy schedule.
As David says, there's no guarantee it will all play out the way you have outlined. In fact, I would guess that it's unlikely that it will. But the fact that you have clearly developed a plan and a timeline for what you want to be able to do and when makes it all tangible. It turns a dream into a goal.
I also love how David emphasizes that you don't have to be entirely clear about the "how." You may not know all the exercises that you'll need, how many practice sessions it will take, or whether or not three to five years is a realistic timeline for you. Much of that, however, will emerge as you continue to work and study. This plan at least provides yourself a framework to explore and give you some next steps to implement.
As we get started this semester, share a couple of goals you have for your vocal development. That could be related to specific vocal skills, expressive capabilities, or even just consistently sticking to a practice regimen.
I'm excited to be back and looking forward to all the work we'll take on together.
Now go practice.
We talked about this shift of thinking in Senior Showcase class through an assignment doing just this with our career goals! I feel like the big picture of identifying what qualities and actions we should take in order to achieve our goals can be very enlightening. It is really easy to say, "I'd like to mix a D better" and not really acknowledge the things we have to do and grow in ourselves to get there, like being more resilient and diligent with our practice and efforts to get there. For me, I really want to be more consistent with exercise work as opposed to strictly working on technique in songs I'm working on. I find I'm able to achieve things in specific songs as opposed to consistency across sounds which exercises can help with more consistently. Obviously you need both, but this is where I lack I feel. More specifically I'd love to smooth over my transition through my second passagio that I have avoided out of embarrassment for my sound and insecurity as it used to be a strength of mine. As a secondary goal I want to strengthen my mix-belt through C5-E5, at least more consistently finding a balanced sound with a belt quality. Excited for the semester :)
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited about this class as I've been hoping to improve my vocal technique for multiple years! Currently, I can comfortably sing F2-G4#, and my voice starts feeling "squeezy" once I go any higher. My goal is to strengthen my head voice by practicing and doing exercises, specifically singing lower notes with head voice in order to strengthen it. I will do this in my daily practice, and will have to really focus on time management (intentionally setting aside practice time) and self-discipline (using that practice time) in order to achieve my goal.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited about this class! This will be the first "official" singing class I've ever taken. Typically, I only play my voice by ear, to the point where, quite frankly, I have no idea what my highest or lowest note is. I've been told by former teachers that my voice is somewhere between a low tenor and a midrange baritone. Whatever that means, it's probably super impressive/cool/rare/amazing!! In all seriousness, my main goal in this class is to become more musically literate. I want to know exactly what my range is and the basics of how I could improve it. Beyond music, I want to improve my ability as a V.A performer. Over the past couple of months, I've been cast as characters in indie animated projects that are elderly, die horribly, or are giant monsters. When attempting to voice these characters, I've regularly hurt my vocal cords in a way that is not sustainable for a long-lasting career in voice-over. Through this class, I want to learn how to engage my false vocal cords not just in acting but in singing as well. I will achieve this goal by following a strict weekly schedule alternating between voice-over and singing practice, as well as regularly experimenting with different ways to vocalise or create sound without fully engaging my vocal cords.
ReplyDeleteAs someone with very little experience singing, I believe this class will help me immensely on the path to my future.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I do not have the knowledge to accurately describe my vocal range let alone my full vocal capabilities. While I do sing, it is only ever for my own enjoyment and never meant for performance. My best description of my voice would be that I have the capacity and enough control to not damage my voice after singing for about 30 minutes.
In a few years, I would love to be able to confidently sing many musical parts such as Home from Beauty and the Beast. In short, I want to have gained enough knowledge to determine how to sing a specific song and if it is in my abilities or if I need to work on something. I believe in that time I will have learned how to read music better and genuinely understand what it says. As well as expanding my range by at least two notes each direction.
The biggest change and skill I will have gained however, is the confidence to sing in front of others. I will be pushing myself to try new things especially if it means making a mistake and learning from it.
I love music so much that I believe I have sufficient drive to reach these goals within 3 to 5 years.
My goal(s) for this semester are a bit more specific.
I want to discover my vocal range, and learn how to recognize it without seeing sheet music. My plan to accomplish this is to spend time during my weekly practice sessions with a keyboard and finding my highest quality note, lowest quality note, absolute highest note, absolute lowest note. The lowest and highest note I can reach on each vowel sound (E, Ah, etc…). As well as the notes where I am in the transitory phase from my lower register to my higher register.
I want to become confident singing in front of others. Not simply performing but singing just to sing. With friends, family, and anyone around me. This will be achieved from performing in class.
I recognize that as the semester furthers, my schedule will become infinitely more difficult as I am in Hamlet. As such, I anticipate much exhaustion, stress, and a falling (or lower) mental state. To combat this, I plan to have check-ins with members of my family to make sure I am practicing still.
I am excited to learn and look forward to the semester!
First of all, I want to express that I resonate strongly with David’s approach to goal setting. Given that someone is verbalizing a goal of theirs, they usually never talk about the way they want to achieve it and how they plan to stay consistent with whatever actions they take to do so. Before I was in the 2nd-Year ATP Singing Class, I was like this, too. Namely, I lacked any sort of plan for how I would work towards my goals on the daily and what difficulties I would overcome to get there. However, I’ve decided to change that, starting now with this blog post!
ReplyDeleteAt this moment in time, my breathing techniques, vocal stamina, pitch recognition, and ensemble singing skills are all strong. Going off of this, I’m excellent at singing repertoire that falls under the musical theatre umbrella. In three to five years, though, I would like to improve my sightreading and enhance my ability to sing music from other genres, such as classical. By the time I realize these aims, I’ll have developed the skill of quickly recognizing different time/key signatures, rhythmic interpretation, and vocal versatility. Furthermore, while honing in on these skills, I’d maintain a sense of perseverance and curiosity.
Despite how thorough and clear-cut my planning is, I understand that my objectives won’t be reached overnight. In order for them to come to fruition, I’ll have to practice solfege for about 5-10 minutes a day. Also, I’ll need to study different scales, key signatures, and timing notations. Expanding on this, I’ll be calculated about working on a song from a distinct genre every few months. Since I have a habit of doomscrolling on my phone and distracting myself with other mind-numbing activities, I know these habits will be difficult to solidify. It doesn’t help that I get easily overwhelmed, too, meaning that these practices will likely slip my mind at busy times in my life, like during school or rehearsals for a show. While my anxiety and energy-sucking behaviors may rear their ugly heads, I’ll try my best to solely focus on what I want to accomplish. After all, losing my way will turn my goals into mere dreams, and I want them to be more than that. I’m looking forward to working on bettering my skills as a singer this semester and seeing the results that come from doing that!
Another year with Dr. Brian Michael Manternach as my voice teacher! How exciting! I love that you reviewed David's book this summer, it's so cool to have two professors publish books in the same year.
ReplyDeleteI often find that I repeat myself every time we have a goal-setting opportunity. I want a more reliable, consistent mix-belt. I want everything to feel easy. I want my range to grow in both directions. These will be the things I probably strive for until I die. So instead, I'll use one of your other examples, and talk about roles I'd like to be able to sing in one year, 3 years, or 5 years!
It's no secret that I played Elsa this summer, and that I felt like I got the opportunity before I was ready. The songs are challenging, and taxing in succession. They live right in an area of the voice that a female singer must choose and navigate how they will approach singing such big, iconic notes. There's a lot of pressure that comes with being a Disney princess. It was a hard vocal role for me, and I don't think that I did as good with the songs as I could've in a year, or three, or five, which will be true of any role I touch! One of my goals is to get to a place where I have the ample options of full-chest-belt or chest-mix or head-mix at the end of a song like Let It Go, and I actually like the options I'm choosing from. I think this has to do with better technique, maybe a tonal upgrade for my mixes, and of course, overall practice. In a perfect world, I'll have another opportunity to play Elsa in 5 years, and instead of feeling overwhelmed and scared, I'll feel prepared and ready for the challenge.
Similarly to Elsa, I'm starting to work more consistently on Elphaba rep, just to make myself happy. I want to chase the privilege of being able to sing No Good Deed or Defying Gravity and have it feel EASY. I want to get to the place where I feel comfortable with what my voice has to offer that I know how to mold any song into my voice, instead of thinking I have to change my voice to fit a song.
I want to chase more non-MT roles/sounds. We've talked a lot in lessons about the rock influences that have changed the way I think about music, or the Dolly Parton's (RIP) who have influenced how I see storytelling and vocal stylings that involve yodels and some insane mix-belts. In short, I want it all! I'm excited to dig into some new stuff this semester.
Unfortunately, I don’t entirely know how to assess the fullest extent of my voice’s capabilities. I simply don’t have all the tools yet to accurately describe everything I am feeling, or want to feel. I’m not even quite sure what my range is (though I would love to sit down and learn). This is one of the biggest parts of this class that I am looking forward to learning. I want to deepen my understanding of voice as much as possible. However, I can definitely outline the capabilities that I desire. Hadestown is my favorite musical, and I would love to learn how to sing the high falsetto notes that Orpheus performs cleanly (with clear full tone) and healthily, so that it’s not just a once in a while thing. I also want to learn how to belt and sing higher, also healthily. These skills will aid me in my desire to play Orpheus.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to the tangible goal I want to set. There are other goals that I have in mind, but these are easy to achieve in a short period of time (learning my range) or things that I want to do down the line (extending my range in both directions). A goal that I really want to focus on is healthy vocalization, especially in my higher register where I’ve noticed the most strain and tension. This covers a lot of different topics (like screaming, yelling, or other loud sounds that may be made in a high register), not just singing. Though I am hoping to hone it to more specific singing techniques in this class. I will achieve this goal by not only practicing at least 5 days a week, but choosing vocal exercises that prioritize healthy sound-making and proper alignment. Another thing I can do is to not sing or push/strain my voice too hard at the moment, that way I can give it a break before I start to move into healthier high-register singing. This is going to be especially difficult when listening to music (resisting the urge to sing along with Hayley Williams may destroy me). This is also something I’m hoping to pick your brain on more, so that I can begin my healthy journey as soon as possible, and move on to other goals, like belting and extending my range.
Coming into a new studio my senior year is something that I find a little overwhelming, but I am so excited for the work I have ahead. One of the scariest things about having a new voice teacher is letting another person know my voice and my learning processes inside and out, even while I am still trying to figure them out. This leads me to my main difficulty that I have had as a singer: I have had to learn how to not limit myself or base my learning and abilities on someone else's classifications of the voice. This is important to point out, as I feel that it has helped me define my goals as a singer, learner, and performer.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I feel that my voice is very capable in the lower range. I have the ability to have a very rich, deep sound. I also have a pretty strong mix, although the break between my head mix and chest mix is quite abrupt. I hope that in 3 to 5 years from now, I will have gained back more of my higher range, and thus more of my classical range. Although I love what I have been able to accomplish with my lower range, and my chest mix, which my vocal injury a lot of upper range was lost. I am hoping to gain that back, and with that the abilities to sing high musical theatre classical soprano like I used to be able to. I also hope to have a strong belt. That is a vocal quality that I have never had, so although it is completely knew to me, I am hoping that five years from now I will understand that part of my voice just as well as the others. This belt sound would allow me to play a lot of the strong characters that I gravitate towards like Jo March in little women, and Florence in Chess.
Largely I will need to work on range extension, gaining back that higher range. I will need to continue to learn how to do vowel modifications, as that is a huge part of what makes a belt possible. Although I will have to continue working on the amount of muscle I am engaging for each style and sound quality, ultimately vowel modification will be a huge friend of mine. I also want to focus on a consistent sound across my range, I think this will be achieved by continuing to be light in all styles. I would love to also have improved vocal agility, thus riffing, although that is not a main goal.
One of the main things that I need to focus on as a person is following a routine, I need to be more organized. One of the things I love about myself is my ability to prioritize the people in my life no matter how busy or overwhelmed I am. This does not come in the way of my school work, but it does often interfere with my sleep schedule and thus my overall health. I need to focus on limiting the energy I am putting towards other people in order to make sure I have enough energy for me. I think the best way to limit myself is by creating that routine and following it relatively strictly. Another thing I need to continue to be is resilient. Through my experience with my vocal injury, I had to learn to be incredibly resilient. I had to sing and perform through a really difficult situation. Even when I am having a bad day, or feeling bad about my voice, being resilient and doing the exercises and warmups that are good for my voice will ultimately improve my abilities whether or not it is difficult to do so. Even when singing isn't bringing me joy, I need to be resilient and continue fighting for my voice in order to feel joy in it again.
I largely want to focus on exercises that balance out my voice. This would include SOVTs and exercises that allow me to be light. I also need to incorporate exercises that stretch my range, and understand that those exercises do not show short term results. I need to drink at least 3 tumblers full of water each day at minimum, and get ideally 7 hours of sleep at night. Homework is important, but staying healthy is the most important. I need to do vocal exercises at least 30 minutes a day, with focused technique for another 30 minutes.
I love the phrase in this blog “it turns a dream into a goal”. As actors, all of us have a dream to be on broadway, movies, etc. but having clear goals is just as/if not more important than having the dream itself.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to assess my vocal state, the biggest word that comes to mind is capable. I know my voice can do amazing things because I have done it, but keeping it consistent in my muscle memory and healthy is my biggest struggle. In 3-5 years, I want to play characters like Jack Kelly, Quasimodo, tony, and other young tenor roles. I have a tenor voice, but I often force myself to sound older when I sing, and i think it causes me to push. I want to be able to sing in a healthy placement where I don’t need to worry about blowing my voice out during a show because I can trust my placement. I want a smooth passaggio where I can access my head voice without an audible flip. Biggest of all, I want my singing to be second nature, so that I can focus on acting more, and my singing will be an extension of my character.
In order to accomplish some of these goals, I need to block out more time every day for practice, specifically scales around my passaggio and singing lightly and accurately without pushing. Something else that has had a noticeable impact that I will to continue to do it using my Neti pot to clear my sinuses, as well as my steamer.
While in college, it is hard to find the time to practice, but in order for me to accomplish my goals, I need to set aside time for specific, focused, targeted practice free from other distractions. My biggest vocal goal this semester is to be consistent with my planned practice times (at least 30 minutes a day starting with a 10 minute warmup), and to stay vocally healthy by singing within my means and not blowing my voice out.
I am super excited about taking another vocal class. As for the goals I want to work on in this class is adjusting my posture when singing, from what I know about singing having good posture is the baseline to proactive singing. I want to encourage my body to relax in the places it needs too while singing while staying engaged as well. I also want to work on my breath work, specifically having enough breath to sustain a note or phrase for at least 15 seconds. My other goal is to work on my mix belt. right now I am able to hit an A5 in my mix belt on a good day and I would like to bring that up to a B5 if possible! All while supporting my voice and doing what I can to keep it healthy.
ReplyDeleteI am very excited for this singing class! This will be one of the first times I've spent time making specific corrections to my voice personally, which I am eager to do. Some goals I would like to strive for in this class is to sing higher notes comfortably in a performance setting. I realize that I can sing to myself pretty high, but whenever it's in front of or around other people, my body refuses to go that high comfortably. Learning how to naturally belt is another goal of mine. I believe that, with guidance, I can healthily learn how to transition between my lower and higher registers when performing.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "reverse-engineered career" really resonated with me. I used to work as a Personal Banker at Wells Fargo, and when I would set goals, my branch manager frequently challenged me by asking "How can we measure that? What are the actions and steps you're going to take to get there?"
ReplyDeleteI recently read a book called Mastery by Robert Greene, that this blog post brought to mind. I think frequently in life I've looked at certain paths as exclusive only to those who posses certain qualifications, or were born with natural God-given talents. But Mastery challenges this concept by introducing the idea that we achieve Mastery when we immerse ourselves into the corners of the world that we feel the most passionate to exist in. And right along with that, comes goal setting. By first identifying our end goal, we can work backwards to identify the steps that are most likely to lead us towards our desired outcome. For example, if my goal was to have a record label to sign me as an artist, I'd need to book a meeting with them. To get a contact, I may need to network in the music industry and send music to people who could help me get in contact with a decision maker. To do that, I probably need a demo tape. To do that, I'll need to prepare a tape that has at least 3 songs on it. To do that and really find my top 3, I might need to get into a studio and record 10 plus songs so that I can hone in on the 3 that I like. Before I do that, I might want to improve my vocal abilities by booking lessons. Suddenly getting signed to a record label isn't an impossible goal! I have a road map that starts with "book vocal lessons," something absolutely reasonable.
When it comes to setting goals in this class, this is particularly challenging for me. This is the first singing class I've taken since 7th grade. I love my choir classes in 6th and 7th grade, but haven't pursued or studied singing in any capacity at all since then. Because of that, it's hard for me to identify specific goals. My initial reaction is to say "I want to perform a solo on stage for an audience of at least 500 people!" But as I recall from class, this is something that lies outside of my control in some aspects. There's a lot of music terminology that I vaguely remember from 6th & 7th grade, but I hardly remember what they all mean and how they work together: Oral Posture, Tamber, Resonance, Quality, Tone. I'm also concerned that if I happen to be tone deaf, I'm not sure that I would know? For now the closest goal I can form is to identify my range within reason. What range, or between which two notes can I comfortably sing while still stretching slightly outside of my comfort zone, without my voice turning to a shriek or a croak.
Hello, something that has always scared me was singing. Ever since I was just kid in middle school, I was terrified of it. I knew this is a wildly shared fear and being variable in front of people is hard already but add possible voice cracks, forgetting the right notes, not remembering the lyrics, and overall, not sounding "good". The few times I did need to sing for class it always went the same. I would be nervous like a whole week before and then crazy scared on the actual day. I would be dying in my seat and when it was my turn my voice would lock and every time, I would sound so "bad" (meaning my breath was not supported and my jaw was tight). I would also be swaying and moving out of nerves to a very obvious point. I would really like for my goal to be about pitch or maybe about having a better sound by the end of this class, but I really want to set a goal I can reach. So, my goal will be simply to be able to go to class and sing with not a huge number of nerves and while singing to remain grounded and focused on my performance with no swaying or fidgeting.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this opportunity to reflect on my goals as a performer. I think I’ve always viewed singing as holding me back from roles. I think one of my dreams is for this not to be the case. Where I feel like my singing is just as strong as my acting, and the reason why wouldn’t get a part would not be because of my vocal skill. Well, this dream is admirable I recognize that it isn’t quite possible because even Broadway stars aren’t perfect singers and sometimes the reason that they don’t get cast because they can’t sing in particular ways or styles.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny that you bring up goals and roles that you wanna be able to sing. One of my big goals this semester is to prepare my voice to audition for “next to normal” at the grand Theatre. Next to normal is my favorite musical of all time, but I recognize how vocally challenging it is and how my voice is not up to snuff with many of the other male young men who will be auditioning residual for these particular parts. Some of these skills to get my voice ready includes increasing my belt range, being able to belt an F#4, getting a stronger mix, and developing a rock style tone. Right now I’m just working through the basics to solidify that foundation before moving to these higher level skills.
Mitchell Harding