Classical and Opera singing lessons are a little different than non-classical singing lessons in a number of ways. The most obvious is that in classical or opera singing lessons you would be working in classcial or opera music. But also, if you’ve ever heard a pop singer try to sing opera – or an opera singer try to sing pop – you know that it never sounds quite right. That is because opera singing and classical singing use a different resonance strategy than most non-classical styles.
In Opera singing lessons, you’ll learn to “seat” the tone in the mid part of the mouth, whereas in many non-classical singing styles, the resonance is really a lot more forward. Classical and Opera singing still use a front “ping” in the bones of the face, but the tone is a bit further back. Some classical singing teachers think it should be very far back and some (like me) think it should be more in the middle to make it sound more natural. In any case, all classical singing teachers agree – it should not be in the front of the face or nasally in any way and in this way it differs from a lot of non-classical singing approaches.
Opera and classical singing lessons share breathing techniques and breath support with the non-classical styles. Often when people are trying to convert their classical singing to pop (or their pop singing to classical), it is confusing to them what parts of the techniques are going to remain the same and they tend to throw all the technique they learned in the other style out. But breathing and breath support are the same regardless of if you take non-classical or classical singing lessons.
There are a lot of differences between non-classical and classical singing – too many to really go into here – but you can’t just teach classical and then say you can use that to sing other styles, nor can you teach pop and say that all your skills will automatically convert to classical singing.
At Singing Lessons NYC, we’ll give you a great musical foundation in technique and interpretation of classical music including diction in English, French, German, and other languages; breathing and breath support for classical singing; resonance strategies for classical singing; and suggestions for repetoire in classical singing.
Book a first lesson with Ellie as an orientation and to get your breathing started and we’ll get you into classical and Opera singing starting with the fundamentals and working our way up to arias and more!