About Session
What is “crossover” music and how does “cross-training” develop the skill set needed to successfully sing this repertoire? In this interactive workshop we will define the sounds and musical elements of crossover music, and experiment with bel-canto and contemporary commercial music vocal techniques in a series of engaging and exploratory vocal exercises.
Through group singing we will combine ideas about vocal registration and “mix”, resonance, and articulation from bel-canto and CCM perspectives. Interactive exercises which isolate and combine head, chest and mixed voice will provide participants with various modes of exploring the vocal balance needed for authentic storytelling. We will push the boundaries of “correct” singing and experiment with expressive musical devices such as bending pitch, riffing, and straight tone.
In this workshop participants can delve into the power of emotional vowels and descriptive consonants. Taking inspiration from the acting pedagogies of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michael Chekov and Declan Donnellan, I will guide participants toward targeting intention and direction in the arc of the sentence and the larger context of the story. It is my goal to re-direct analytical thinking to the freedom of a text-based approach to crossover music, a key tenet of this genre.
