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It used to be that singing was easy to recognize. Not so much anymore. It used to be that we knew when someone was singing because there were recognizable cues. Not so much anymore. The lines continue to blur.

Why?

I don’t have an answer. All I can say is that it many factors have converged to make the various components in CCM singing looser, freer and less “formalized”.

High rock belters are definitely shrieking, but that’s because rock is often an extreme form now and the capacity to sing this way has evolved along with the style to become, finally, expected. Whether it’s Christina Aquilera or Steven Tyler screaming out some off-the-Richter Scale high note or some other power belter plowing through a gospel song, the sounds no longer shock as they did when we first heard them. Our ears have become used to such shrieking, for better or worse.

This is no different than any of the other extremes our society has come to accept as we drift further away from convention of all kinds and more towards chaos. The backlash from this drift is to become fearful, try to hold on to what is known, go back to what was before, and decide that the old way was better. You can see that in the ideas of the “right wing” conservatives and you can see it in governments. It is stagnant thinking and it is bound to fail.

On the other hand, order isn’t a bad thing and some kinds of structure are necessary in order for us to function in a healthy manner, both in our own lives and in the world at large. Singing only gorgeous, beautiful tones that are always just pleasant and appealing might be nice but it can also be boring and completely inappropriate to some CCM styles.

I tend to think we need all of it, but a measurement has to be there as well and that measurement is vocal health. You can shriek away as long as it doesn’t injure your vocal folds. You can make noise, sound scruffy or breathy, as long as it doesn’t cost you in terms of your ability to continue to sing well. You can avoid sustained tones, vibrato, clear undistorted vowels and have next to no special ideas about breathing and as long as you can still get the job done on a regular basis, you certainly can continue. On the other hand, if you want to invest in your own vocal well being and you have decided to sing for a living (or try to anyway), then you must, whether you like it or not, find a way to make sounds that suit your artistic vision that do not also hurt your voice while you sing. If you can shriek for hours and days on end and have an OK voice after you do, then the choice is yours for the having. If, however, you are like most people and can’t quite get away with such vocal behavior, you must discover what your vocal folds will do and what they won’t and work within that structure.

There are those who think that certain people have voices that are only good in a specific style….sort of a genetic disposition to gospel or rock or country. I don’t believe that at all. There are those who think that any kind of shriek, scream, yell, shout or exclamation is automatically harmful. I don’t believe that either. BUT, I do think that if you constantly shriek you run a high risk of vocal damage, and if you continue to ignore the toll of singing full out, you make that risk even greater.

I never had any desire to sing rock music nor to be a shrieker. I never had any interest in being a gospel belter, but I know many people who did have those desires and some of them were able to see those desires come to pass. I am more personally inclined to like “pretty” singing more than shrieking, but all of these things are just my individual preferences, not “the way it should be”.

If you are going to sing something “shrieky” and you intend to do so repeatedly and for a long period of time, you have to condition your vocal folds to maintain those sounds without injury. If you might also sing something that is warmer and more intimate, you might find that getting that to happen requires you to let go of the shrieking, at least temporarily, and lighten into head. The only way to know is through trial and error. Where does the speaking end and the singing begin? Where does the normal singing end and the exaggerated singing begin? When are you singing and when are you shrieking. Only you can decide.

Some people think they know everything and refuse to learn new information because they strongly believe they already know what they need to know. This idea is deadly but it, sadlly, is not uncommon, in all kinds of areas.

Figuring out that you might have new information to learn would take a sense of humility, particularly if you are someone who has a vested interest in the information you have gathered. Asking questions about what you already know or what you have learned is frightening. What if you discover that something you value highly is wrong? What if something that you have done for decades was never right in the first place? How do you live with that?

Admitting you are wrong or that you don’t know everything seems like a very human thing to do. We were never meant to be perfect and it is folly to think that anyone, no matter how smart, can know all there is to know on any given topic. Life is about discovery, so you have to keep looking in order to keep finding what’s new. If you stay at home and never do anything to shake yourself up, you will rust.

Nevertheless, if you are in a position of power or status, if you are “Dr. Someone Special” and you run a department or program and others look to you as an expert, it can’t be easy to say, I am going to go learn what’s new. I imagine you struggle with thoughts like “What will my colleagues think”? or “What will my students think”? You would have to be very secure as a person to let go of any thoughts that others will judge you negatively, if you live in a world in which that happens as a matter of course, and teachers in schools and universities are judged routinely as part of their jobs.

A private teacher has no such worries. He or she can sit at home in their studio and never be judged by anyone except students, who, after all, are students. If you don’t go to any conferences or belong to any of the professional organizations, you don’t have to confront the evaluations of or comparisons to others who might indeed know more than you and do things you can’t do or have never even thought of doing.

Everybody likes being right. Everyone wants to “look good” and be accepted by others, unless they are a sociopath. Particularly as an artist, it is difficult to do your art alone. We need collaborators most of the time. Being alone a lot is very isolating and not a great environment in which to be creative as a performer. (It’s not impossible, just hard).

We all need to remain open minded and curious, we all need to learn continuously and broadly and we all need to understand that things change as we know more. Keeping your attitude flexible and accepting of new techniques and research ought to be a requisite for any teacher but in a teacher of singing it is vitally important to keep an open mind. New information is brought forth through research every day. You don’t have to be a voice scientist to stay open minded but you do have to be a singing teacher (or singer) who is willing to re-write her beliefs every time new information is proven through research, whether you agree with it or not.

Open-mindedness is the only way to go.