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The Dreaded Diva Disease
or
Why “Trained” Voices are so Insufferable
Okay, admit it. You have one in your church choir, too. You know the one. She’s the person everyone hates to sit next to. She’s the one who’s almost impossible to blend to.
Yep, you know her…
She’s…
The Dreaded Diva.
The Pampered Prima Donna.
Yes, she’s the “trained” voice.
Okay, yeah, there was a time when I longed for that training, too. I wanted people to listen to me and ask where I’d gotten my training. That was the ultimate compliment.
But I’ve been in Sweet Adelines for 15 years now, and after all that time I’ve come to realize that I am trained. I’ve gotten so much vocal training in the past 15 years that I’m as skilled and knowledgeable as any of the DD’s (Dreaded Divas) out there.
Fortunately, my training was a little less. . . insufferable.
Two important things I’ve learned in my training is that a) I’m probably not going to spend my life doing solos, and b) I’m definitely NOT going to spend my life limited to one, and ONLY one, style of music.
Which, of course, goes against everything the DD is taught.
Formally trained singers are taught to sing solos in opera style.
And?
And, that’s it. Anything else is beneath them.
And they’re going to by-golly sing solos in opera style whether they’re part of a chorus singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” or not.
And blending. . . what’s that? It sure doesn’t involve that affected, forced tremolo the DD’s cherish so much.
I did a brief stint singing alto with the Augusta Opera Chorus, and that’s where I discovered that there are four parts: bass, tenor, alto. . . and diva. We altos struggled the whole time to latch onto something that resembled a melody line. Meanwhile the sopranos were merrily singing their own little solos, refusing to blend to each other, much less giving us something to blend to. They were the sweetest, nicest people, but they drove me absolutely batty!
It’s really rather sad if you think about it. They’ll never enjoy the wonderful variety of music out there because they’re taught only one style is relevant. They’ll never understand the true thrill of working as a team to create an overtone.
Sigh. . .
Then there is Adeline training. We’re taught that a trained voice is not one with a heavy vibrato, but a voice that can control the amount of vibrato for different styles of singing.
We’re taught to listen and use the voices around us to mellow and blend our own voices.
And above all, we’re taught vocal health, so we’ll be ringing chords for a long time to come.
So the next time some DD puts her nose in the air and asks you if you’re “trained”, smile sweetly and say, “Yes.” But think, “Better than you’ll ever know.”