What’s vocal function and why study it?
In fact, isn’t all singing training functional? Aren’t all singing teachers the same?
Maybe not. Depends on what you think you functional training is. Most people don’t know but think they do.
If you think all you need to know in order to sing better is “resonance” and “breath support” or versions of “placement” and “breath management, control, or coordination” then any teacher who presents these ideas in some way would seem to you to be just as good as another one. If you have a teacher who doesn’t sing or sings really badly (sounds awful) and tells you that doesn’t matter (and it might not, but it usually does), then you can study with anyone with equal results. If you study with someone who teaches from their own point of view, which is very clear to them, but maybe not clear to others, as long as you finally figure out what that teacher wants, that’s OK, until and unless you study with someone else or become professional. If what the teacher tells you smacks of “this is the new, best way” and only they know those techniques, then that’s OK, too? Not.
If you can’t tell the difference between good singing and bad, and you don’t know a thing about how we make sounds as human beings, and you don’t know any parameters of musical styles, and you think that opera singers are better than every other kind of singer; or, if you think that really good singers don’t ever need lessons and that training will “change” your voice or that you only need a few lessons to “get some tips” then you are ripe for lousy teaching, lousy results and a big load of baloney from the teacher.
If you are NOT in any of these categories, and if you want real, honest information, you can find it but you have to look. You have to know what good singing is and how it works, and that means you have to do some research. If you look online, talk to other singers and read some books, it should help you ask intelligent questions.
And, if you don’t want to go through months of searching, you can come to Shenandoah University in July and learn more in 9 days than many people have reported they have learned in 9 years. Come learn with others of like mind. ccminstitute.com