From the Score to the Studio to the Stage and Beyond

For young singers, the path between the first voice lesson and a performing career can be overwhelming. In this step-by-step article, discover tips for taking charge of your learning.

“How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?”  

Well, we all know the answer, of course—but contrary to the popular adage, “practice” is only one of the many elements that are needed for an aspiring singer to find success and to realize their dreams. Every singer who has graced the stage of the Met, La Scala, or any other great opera house or concert venue in the world has one thing in common: they each have the experience of having taken their first voice lesson at the beginning of their journey! 

For some, that experience was terrifying, for others exhilarating, and for still others just confusing. But, as so many of us know, that small, daring step can open up a world that most can only dream about. Whether it was the experience of singing in church or in a choir, or the suggestion from a teacher, parent, or friend, or just your love of singing alone in the car or the shower that made you give that first lesson a try, once you did, you were likely never the same again. 

The Journey

As we progress along the often bumpy road toward becoming a better singer, there are many challenges, seemingly at every turn, but perhaps none more daunting than the process of taking a new song or a role from the score to the studio and then onto the stage. How often does a singer who feels that they have done enough work on a piece to present it end up being disappointed as it is put under the pressure of singing it in class or in performance? 

Although this pattern can be maddening, even disheartening, the good news is that we each have the capacity to change it, tomorrow and forever. It matters not whether your dream is to become the next Renata Tebaldi or a teacher, or to simply be able to sing more beautifully for yourself or your family or your community, you can assemble the tools needed to give your dream wings and let it fly.

Take Responsibility for Teaching Yourself 

We are all indebted to the wonderful teachers that guide us through our singing lives—but it is critical to understand that we must each be our own teacher as well. They are gone now, but I was blessed with two of the most remarkable teachers and mentors that I could have asked for in Carmen Savoca and Peyton Hibbitt, and they would tell you that the most important lesson they ever taught me was what it meant to truly study a piece or a role. 

So many students fall into the trap of going into a lesson or coaching, or even a rehearsal, relying on that process to teach them the piece. This is a trap! The fact is your teachers will graciously accommodate you and teach you the part bit by bit, but you will be cheating yourself every step of the way.  

I learned early on that it did me no good to take an aria or a role into a coaching until I had already studied it to a point of having strong opinions about the music and could execute it accurately and I had a full understanding of the text and language and the ability to recite it proficiently—and, even more, until I could begin to hear the accompaniment or orchestration in my head.  

It was only then that I would take it to Carmen and Peyton to help me put it in my voice and shape it artistically. Had I spent those lessons simply learning the piece, I would have been wasting both their time and my own doing the work that I could have done myself instead of taking advantage of those precious opportunities to take the piece to the next level, and then the next, and then the next. 

Develop Your Own Process of Learning

Although I had taken a bit of piano and a couple of other instruments, I was not a great musician when I began studying. I managed, however, to find my own way of learning pieces, as every singer must do if they are to be successful. The following is a bit of my process. It may seem a bit obvious to some, but worth going through nonetheless. 

We did not have the luxury of YouTube in my day but we did, of course, have access to countless recordings of brilliant performances. I implore you to seek out those great performances when you are studying a piece. But avoid listening to just whatever comes up. 

I recommend that you identify a few singers whose voices and artistry you relate to and listen to those performances first. The goal of listening, however, is not to copy but to begin to get the piece in your ear. Follow along with the score and be inspired by the composer and the artist. Once I had done this adequately, I would then get away from the recordings and move to the score and the nitty gritty work that must be undertaken.  

I would write in my word-for-word translation (yes, we had to use actual dictionaries) and begin to work on the language and diction. I would often have a native speaker make a recording of the text that I could work with. I learned to listen closely to the nuance of the language and would spend whatever time needed for me to speak it as idiomatically as I could. I would study and master the rhythm and begin to speak the text in rhythm. 

Only then would I begin to add the pitches—not in full voice at first but, rather, easily, just to get the music and words flowing naturally. I found that working on a small section repeatedly until it became second nature would achieve better results than trying to work on an entire piece or large sections of a role. It might be one page or as little as a few measures. Be patient. The work that you do in these early stages will serve you forever and inform every other piece you choose to work on. Don’t rush through any of it. 

With an accompaniment track, I’d have a keyboard set up to pound out the notes as needed. I was now ready to practice singing the piece to the recorded accompaniment before finally taking it to my teachers. This is when the fun really begins! You have now enabled your teachers to work with you at a very high level, to put it into your voice and to help you create a performance and artistic interpretation that is truly your own and will only continue to develop.

Always “Know” What Will Happen 

When we are lacking confidence, it is most often because we don’t “know” what will happen. It is a rare occasion when a high note or cadenza that hasn’t really worked consistently in the studio or practice room will magically come together in a performance or class. Yet, over and over again, we see singers hope that it will work out and “go for it” even though their practice has shown them that, at least for now, there may be a better artistic choice that they can master. You certainly want to continue to work on the technical or artistic choice that you believe you will one day achieve, but for today choose to perform the one you “know” that you can execute beautifully. 

Now, to find that certainty, gain that confidence, and send nervousness packing, we must have a level of self-awareness that lets us assess, often with brutal honesty, our performances, our process, our preparation, our understanding of the piece, our choice of repertoire, our vocal and technical strengths and weaknesses and, perhaps as vital as anything, our willingness to share openly and communicate with honesty and vulnerability. 

Most great performers that I have known have a level of confidence bordering on arrogance but, importantly, it is balanced with a sincere humility that informs every aspect of their process and their performance. I am not saying that any of that is easy, but the fantastic reality is that it is all under your control. Believe me, the results are incredibly liberating as doubt is transformed into excitement.  

You Are Your Own Manager

I assure each of you that if you embrace this manner of learning and growing it will carry you from one success to the next, and you will make the most out of every opportunity you are given. You will be impatient to get to the first day of every rehearsal period, every first staging rehearsal, and every opening night. You may just find yourself in a career with choices that you never imagined. If you do, I will only say that just as you managed your own development to get there, you must also manage your own career.  

I am not saying don’t trust your manager, but the choices that you make are yours, not theirs. They will advise you, usually with all good intentions, but you know what is right for you and what is not. You are the one that must get out on that stage. If you are true to who you are, you will never regret it. 

Paying It Forward

Many of you will pursue a career in teaching and from day one will begin sharing all that you have learned with the next generation. My experience is that we learn more from teaching than from studying or even performing. I recommend that every performer carve out opportunities to teach along the way and then, when the time is right, to begin paying it forward by transitioning from the stage back to the studio and the classroom. It has become one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. I am not sure what I expected, but what a wonderful surprise it has turned out to be.

I have often said: “I believe that we can achieve that which we first allow ourselves to dream. As teachers we are given the honor of helping shape those dreams, but our real job is to faithfully provide the tools with which each student might ultimately find success and see them realized.”