smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: The singer or the song? |
| Date | Thu, 04 Nov 2004 02:12:05 -0600 |
[Part 1 text/plain (2.3 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 11:03:10 -0400
From: Dave Seaman <seamand@upmc.edu>
To: "audities@smoe.org" <audities@smoe.org>
Subject: The singer or the song?
Message-ID: <BDAE6B6E.1983%seamand@upmc.edu>
Of all the multitudes of songwriters, only a select number are really good
consistent songwriters -- and of all the multitudes of singers, only a
select number are really good singers. In my opinion, excellent songwriters
are harder to come by than excellent singers.
I thoroughly agree, Dave. It never ceases to amaze me just how many good
singers there are out there. I'm someone who has a fair-to-good voice who
enjoys singing, but I'm humbled in almost every public context, whether it
be an open mic night, a do-it-yourself *Messiah*, or a karaoke bar, by the
number of people who can really belt it out and who can sing circles around
me without even trying hard. And I'm not just talking about the laryngeal
gymnastics involved in hitting three octaves or more -- I'm talking about
people who can really emote and who know how to shape a song to make it
theirs.
I think that the key is to step outside the music industry to assess which
is more prevalent, good singers or good songwriters. Churches are good
examples. Church choirs, if they have any size at all, usually have several
pretty remarkable singers. My own rather small church has three singers (all
female) who can bring down the house. Two are operatically trained and have
sung in professional classical choruses, and the third (our music director)
is even better than they are. Colleges and universities are another place to
look for people with fantastic vocal equipment; check out the schools that
have reputable conservatories or music departments, and you'll find some
pretty remarkable talent.
The pop music world strikes me as a pretty truncated and somewhat distorted
field in which to carry out this argument; most great singers don't venture
down that path, while a large percentage of the people who have good
compositional skills do.
I was thinking in terms of the general human population when I said that the
gift of singing is far more common than the gift of songwriting. I still
think that's true in the narrower world of popular music as well, but as a
nod in Matty's direction I'd say that the disparity isn't nearly as great.
Gregory Sager
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.