Step 4- Notes and Rhythms

This is where people's image of an opera singer really catches up to my reality. Hours sitting in front of the piano by myself lead to hours with a coach/pianist as we go through the entire score (usually from the end to the front) and hours with my voice teacher, figuring out the nuances of how best to produce the sounds on the correct pitches.

Another common question is: what is the difference between a voice teacher and a coach?

A voice teacher is your guide in your career. They train you to make sounds correctly on every note of your range and work to help you figure out how to make a uniformed, balanced sound from the very low notes to the very high notes. (see figure 1- right)

A coach/pianist is generally a person who, not only plays piano, but many times are opera conductors or music directors. While they are concerned about the sounds that you are making, they are helping you to sing the music with personality. They take the voice training and help you sing opera with style. (see figure 2- below)

Frequently you will work with a coach who has conducted the opera once (or many times) before. They can give you another point of view on characterization, the tempos or speed that the music is sung, how you can best help the conductor of the opera and collaborate well so that you don't cause a crash with the orchestra. For example, if you are holding a high note, you have to somehow- with voice or gesture or look- communicate to the conductor when to bring in the orchestra. If you don't do it right, you might get stuck holding that high note for too long. If you aren't consistent with how you do that, the conductor has to guess and all of the sudden the orchestra might come in while you are in the middle of that (glorious?) high note. It's a collaboration that a coach would guide you through.

Obviously, the images above are figurative, not literal.